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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Garmin GPS > December 2007 > Vista HCx questions
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Vista HCx questions
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| I've just got a new Vista HCx to replace my old Venture, and have come
across a couple of slightly annoying differences.
Firstly, my usual 'modus operandi' when starting a hike would be to
switch the unit on, leave it on top of the car roof to get a lock, then
just as I'm about to set off, do a reset from the Trip Computer screen
resetting pretty much everything including the Track Log. Then, when I
finished, I'd go to the Satellite screen and select "Use with GPS off".
I'd leave the unit on, largely so I could scroll through looking at the
stats for the walk, and answering all the questions from my fellow
hikers about how far we'd gone, what the ascent was, average speed etc.
etc.
So, off I went with my new Vista HCx and did the same thing, got home
and downloaded the track to my PC and was initially surprised by the
large number of track points. Further investigation revealed a whole
bunch of track points, after I'd finished the walk, all with the same
position , but varying altitude. It would seem then that the unit was
still recording track points during the drive home, but for altitude
only, regardless of the fact that GPS reception was disabled. To me this
sounds like a bug. I guess I can get around it by going to the Tracks
menu and disabling track logging at the end of each hike instead, but
then I have an extra step to remember at the start of a hike, i.e. to
remember to enable it again.
The other problem concerns the accuracy circle surrounding the pointer
on the map page. On my Venture, at normal zoom levels (300-500m) and
EPE's, I rarely even saw it, but on the Vista HCx it's huge even with a
+/-3m EPE, plus it doesn't seem to change in size significantly as the
EPE changes. The size would correspond to a radius of about 300m at the
chosen map scale. The (dumbed down) manual doesn't even mention it's
existence that I can find, but does anyone know whether it's supposed to
even realistically represent the current EPE at all, or is it merely an
indication?
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| Marinus 2007-12-17, 12:33 pm |
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> I've just got a new Vista HCx to replace my old Venture, and have come
> across a couple of slightly annoying differences.
Might solve nothing, but just to make sure. Are you using the latest
firmware? 2.40 I believe.
I also was quite puzzled by the circle and sometimes it's not there as well.
Marinus
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| Marinus wrote:
>
> Might solve nothing, but just to make sure. Are you using the latest
> firmware? 2.40 I believe.
Yes, it's the latest firmware alright.
> I also was quite puzzled by the circle and sometimes it's not there as well.
That's interesting .. it's always there on mine. I bought my wife a
Venture HC as well, and that exhibits the same behaviour.
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| Klatch 2007-12-17, 3:33 pm |
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"Alun" <notalun@notsaunders.net> wrote in message
news:13mdjdbjqum29d6
@news.supernews.com...
> Marinus wrote:
>
> Yes, it's the latest firmware alright.
>
>
> That's interesting .. it's always there on mine. I bought my wife a
> Venture HC as well, and that exhibits the same behaviour.
The size of the circle is also a function of the precision of the maps. The
basemap will generally produce a large circle, the purchased add-on maps
like City Navigator will produce a very small, almost non-existent circle.
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| My understanding of the accuracy circle is that it includes not only the EPE
but also the potential errors in the map. Even so +/- 300 m seems quite
excessive.
On my 60CSx I have noticed that the circle does not appear when using the
base map, only when using other installed maps.
And I agree that it is deplorable that Garmin doesn't explain these things
in their documentation.
"Alun" <notalun@notsaunders.net> wrote in message
news:13mddir82hu19db
@news.supernews.com...
> I've just got a new Vista HCx to replace my old Venture, and have come
> across a couple of slightly annoying differences.
>
> Firstly, my usual 'modus operandi' when starting a hike would be to switch
> the unit on, leave it on top of the car roof to get a lock, then just as
> I'm about to set off, do a reset from the Trip Computer screen resetting
> pretty much everything including the Track Log. Then, when I finished, I'd
> go to the Satellite screen and select "Use with GPS off". I'd leave the
> unit on, largely so I could scroll through looking at the stats for the
> walk, and answering all the questions from my fellow hikers about how far
> we'd gone, what the ascent was, average speed etc. etc.
>
> So, off I went with my new Vista HCx and did the same thing, got home and
> downloaded the track to my PC and was initially surprised by the large
> number of track points. Further investigation revealed a whole bunch of
> track points, after I'd finished the walk, all with the same position ,
> but varying altitude. It would seem then that the unit was still recording
> track points during the drive home, but for altitude only, regardless of
> the fact that GPS reception was disabled. To me this sounds like a bug. I
> guess I can get around it by going to the Tracks menu and disabling track
> logging at the end of each hike instead, but then I have an extra step to
> remember at the start of a hike, i.e. to remember to enable it again.
>
> The other problem concerns the accuracy circle surrounding the pointer on
> the map page. On my Venture, at normal zoom levels (300-500m) and EPE's, I
> rarely even saw it, but on the Vista HCx it's huge even with a +/-3m EPE,
> plus it doesn't seem to change in size significantly as the EPE changes.
> The size would correspond to a radius of about 300m at the chosen map
> scale. The (dumbed down) manual doesn't even mention it's existence that I
> can find, but does anyone know whether it's supposed to even realistically
> represent the current EPE at all, or is it merely an indication?
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| Klatch wrote:
> "Alun" <notalun@notsaunders.net> wrote in message
> news:13mdjdbjqum29d6
@news.supernews.com...
>
> The size of the circle is also a function of the precision of the maps. The
> basemap will generally produce a large circle, the purchased add-on maps
> like City Navigator will produce a very small, almost non-existent circle.
What possible reason could there be for that behaviour? It doesn't make
any sense to me at all.
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| Bruce wrote:
> On my 60CSx I have noticed that the circle does not appear when using the
> base map, only when using other installed maps.
I've just tried it on mine, not loading the installed maps, and also on
my wife's Venture HC with only the base map, and it appears to make no
difference.
> And I agree that it is deplorable that Garmin doesn't explain these things
> in their documentation.
What's worse is that the documentation is getting worse with each new
model. The manual for the old Vista Cx, which functionally is pretty
much the same, if not identical is much more detailed than what's
delivered with the Vista HCx.
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| dold@16.usenet.us.com 2007-12-17, 3:33 pm |
| Alun <notalun@notsaunders.net> wrote:
> finished, I'd go to the Satellite screen and select "Use with GPS off".
> I'd leave the unit on, largely so I could scroll through looking at the
> stats for the walk, and answering all the questions from my fellow
> hikers about how far we'd gone, what the ascent was, average speed etc.
> etc.
I never thought of doing that. I leave my GPSMAp60cs "on" during those
discussions, and trim track points later, using ExpertGPS or MapSource.
> position , but varying altitude. It would seem then that the unit was
> still recording track points during the drive home, but for altitude
Did your old unit have a barometer?
Turning off the GPS portion wouldn't affect tracking pressure changes on
the barometer. My 60cs even has an option to continue tracking the
pressure with the unit turned off (Save Always).
> The other problem concerns the accuracy circle surrounding the pointer
> on the map page. On my Venture, at normal zoom levels (300-500m) and
The 60cs does mention the Accuracy Circle in the book, relying on both GPS
accuracy and map resolution to adjust the size of the circle. The word
Overzoom will appear instead of the word MapSource at a 200ft zoom for me
at home. The circle is about 200 feet, I would guess, sitting indoors with
+/28 EPE indicated on the sat page. Overzoom appears at about 3 miles with
just the basemap, and the Accuracy Circle looks like .5 miles.
--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5
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| dold@16.usenet.us.com wrote:
> Alun <notalun@notsaunders.net> wrote:
> I never thought of doing that. I leave my GPSMAp60cs "on" during those
> discussions, and trim track points later, using ExpertGPS or MapSource.
Yes, I could do that, I guess. I've also seen that the GPX tracklogs it
records to the memory card are split when I switch the GPS portion off,
so I can also put it into USB Mass Storage mode, and import the GPX
file, and then just select the appropriate sub-track.
> Did your old unit have a barometer?
No.
> Turning off the GPS portion wouldn't affect tracking pressure changes on
> the barometer. My 60cs even has an option to continue tracking the
> pressure with the unit turned off (Save Always).
OK, I can see why it might want to track pressure changes while the GPS
portion is off, but why would it want to record those in the track log?
> The 60cs does mention the Accuracy Circle in the book, relying on both GPS
> accuracy and map resolution to adjust the size of the circle. The word
> Overzoom will appear instead of the word MapSource at a 200ft zoom for me
> at home. The circle is about 200 feet, I would guess, sitting indoors with
> +/28 EPE indicated on the sat page. Overzoom appears at about 3 miles with
> just the basemap, and the Accuracy Circle looks like .5 miles.
The maps I'm using are just transparent contour maps. I'm in Ireland and
there are no official Garmin maps for that area, so I'm stuck with
those. I really couldn't care less what the underlying accuracy of the
basemap is in this case, but it seems I can't escape it.
I suppose, since I'm not actually interested in the basemap at all, and
am only interested in my own waypoints and POI's, I could somehow
obtain, or even create using GPSmapedit and cgsMapper, a blank dummy map
with the required accuracy to make the circle accurately represent the
EPE. Does that make any sense?
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