Advice sought which GPS to buy

[Strider]

I have read the manual and other sources of information. None are especially useful. Page 29 of the manual refer to the dashboard. It would have been useful if the manual defined specialist terms. Page 29 gives advice ending in "3 Select the dashboard". There is no advice that I can find about how to put a GR above the map. It seems to be possible but advice on how to set this up is proving hard to find.

Add the data fields to the map screen in settings. Then with the map screen open press the menu button and choose "select data fields", or something to that effect. I'll actually have a look tonight to make sure I'm giving useful advice!

[Lophophaps]

Useful advice is what IBM gave the census department. I've just got advice form Garmin:
"Unfortunately the Etrex 30x does not have the option to have the grid reference at the top of the screen, it may only be set in the settings of the unit."

This explains why I cannot find the instructions.

[Strider]

Useful advice is what IBM gave the census department. I've just got advice form Garmin:
"Unfortunately the Etrex 30x does not have the option to have the grid reference at the top of the screen, it may only be set in the settings of the unit."

This explains why I cannot find the instructions.

This is not correct. I don't think they have properly understood your question.

Page 28 of the user manual. Data Fields.

http://54.92.12.252/files?job=W1siZiIsI ... 4cc9d050ea

[Lophophaps]

This is very frustrating. Page 28 says
map > menu > data fields.
It seems this means
setup > map > data fields.
But it could mean start from a map. The present setting is recreational. The next screen has fields
North up
Guidance when navigating
Data fields

After that it gets murky. I cannot see where to select the various options. However, I now seem to have done it, partially by accident. The map now has just one field at the top with GRs ... damn thing just vanished. Maybe a hammer.

[Strider]

Press the menu button from the map screen

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Strider]

Starting from the map screen...

1. Press Menu button.

2. Select "Setup map" then scroll to "Data Fields" and choose how many fields you would like.

3. Return to map screen and press Menu button again. Select "Change Data Fields"

4. Select which data field you would like to change and press joystick to confirm.

5. Select "Location (selected)"

6. Changed data field will appear with green highlight.

7. Press back key to exit setup. You are now done.

[Lophophaps]

Strider, wonderful, worked a treat. There's a lot of little steps, none hard, but collectively they make progress hard. The next step - literally - is to go on a walk with it. I had no satellite signal and had to hold the GPS near the window. I'm going to dial back the brightness, will save power. All this use has been draining the power, but on a walk the GPS will not be used much, just when i am lost. Comments about 24/7 will not be entertained.

[Strider]

Note that the brightness can be adjusted more finely using the joystick.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[Lophophaps]

Note that the brightness can be adjusted more finely using the joystick.

Noted. I picked this up fairly early.

[Lophophaps]

I'm slowly getting the hang of the GPS, setting are now to my liking and I can decode the GR above the map. One more aspect needs advice, although like me it's probably quite simple. It's possible to set the GPS to leave a track, and this is sought, but not with the flags, waypoints they may be. I've gone into Track log and it seems that record show on map-auto-normal is what I want. Is this the case? TIA.

[GBW]

That's the one LHH. On my Etrex it's in Setup->Tracks with various options to record or not record current track. You can also adjust time/distance intervals between logged points but I've found auto works quite well. It's also good to have the current recorded track a different colour to the track you're following to avoid confusion.

[Murzik]

Actually Garmin eTrex 10 supports maps in OSM format. I've used it successfully for both cycling and hiking and I like it even more than my Garmin GPSMAP 62s as it is lighter, user interface is more ergonomic and battery life is much better. The only disadvantage is its internal memory limitation which is 8 MB, but you can always crop your maps.

[Lophophaps]

The GPS proved quite useful in thickish flat scrub. After using the 30X I am now sold on the model, entirely due to the altitude reading. Sometimes the grid reference was inaccurate, and the altitude allowed me to get a sort of average.

I goofed with the battery setting. I used rechargeable at home and use once and discard on the trip. On the trip I reset the battery type. I had a second set of batteries with the food drop, and my idea was that if the batteries went flat I'd leave them and use the food drop ones. The batteries were going well for about seven days and then suddenly went from three bars to one bar. This was later two bars, but I was careful about use until the food drop.

There was some confusion about saving and archiving. I saved some days with three letters of the destination or an abbreviation, both with the date. For example, KOS date is Kosciuszko. I'll sort out the save-archive distinction later.

I finally found the hidden USB port and went to save the data. Then I had a thought - should I save the software as well? Onto the hard drive or a CD? I can see the GPX files but cannot read them. There's heaps of GPX software, but I don't know if some should be avoided or are recommended. Advice on these two points would be valued.

My fastest speed was 895 kph. This was in a plane, and my walking speed was a fraction slower. However, the average is quite good.

[peregrinator]

Using Garmin's BaseCamp software makes data manipulation easy. (Well, I struggled a bit at the outset but pressed on and now understand what I'm doing -- most of the time.) For example, importing date recorded in the field and backing it up. Also inputing waypoints before you travel.

. . . three bars to one bar. This was later two bars . . .

Confused, eh? Better keep out of those bars!

[north-north-west]

Using Garmin's BaseCamp software makes data manipulation easy. (Well, I struggled a bit at the outset but pressed on and now understand what I'm doing -- most of the time.)

Let's be honest - BaseCamp sucks. It gets used because it's free and for no other reason. And I'm not saying that just because I'm primarily a Magellan user. Even when I use the Oregon, I put all the data into VantagePoint and play with it there.

[peregrinator]

Let's be honest - BaseCamp sucks. It gets used because it's free and for no other reason. And I'm not saying that just because I'm primarily a Magellan user. Even when I use the Oregon, I put all the data into VantagePoint and play with it there.

There is another reason for using it. Ignorance. In my case I didn't know that other software existed! But having put some time into learning how to use it, I have to say it is generally reasonable. Have nothing else to compare it with though, so I'll take your word for it.

[keithy]

The GPS proved quite useful in thickish flat scrub. ...

I goofed with the battery setting. I used rechargeable at home and use once and discard on the trip. On the trip I reset the battery type. I had a second set of batteries with the food drop, and my idea was that if the batteries went flat I'd leave them and use the food drop ones. The batteries were going well for about seven days and then suddenly went from three bars to one bar. This was later two bars, ....

Lophophaps - glad the eTrex is working out for you!

The battery bars can fluctuate a bit depending on the battery type setting you have it on. If you use Rechargeble NiMH and have the Battery Type setting as Alkaline, it will show the lower battery bars sooner as it is based on voltage. Assuming you have it correctly set, I have also noticed on alkalines, it is fairly accurate but as it appears to be still based on the battery voltage it can fluctuate when using higher drain functions. For example, after using it for a while with the screen on, the battery voltage does drop rapidly, which might trigger the lower bar, and after rest it might come back up a bit to the second bar.

For saving and archiving the GPX track logs, you can just copy the GPX files to your computer. There is no need to backup the GPS device software. If at any point you need to reset the device back to factory settings, the ROM will recreate the internal files automatically.

For GPX software, it can depend on what you want to do.

For simple GPX file viewing, there are a few online GPX viewers that work well. For example:

• GPS Visualiser http://www.gpsvisualizer.com
• My GPS Files http://www.mygpsfiles.com/en/ I like My GPS Files as it is quite simple, and there is a basic editor.

Garmin's free Basecamp is more complex but can do more, and is handy if you have Garmin maps you want to display in the background. That said, I found that there was a steep learning curve, and things were not as user friendly as they could be. I had used it's precursor, Garmin's older Mapsource program for almost 10 years and I felt that Mapsource was more intuitive than the newer Basecamp.

I haven't used Magellan's VantagePoint for a long time. Not sure if it can display OSM maps now?

But as you found out, there are a few other GPX software options, both paid and free. Check out http://www.gpstrackeditor.com which I still have on my PC as well, as it is a fairly easy GPX editor.