Garmin 62S, hardware from Heaven software from Hell

[sthughes]

Perhaps you are correct sthughes,I do however remember a occasion when 5 GPS devices used by others overruled my admittedly limited local knowledge of an area which resulted in a long *&%$#! bush bash in the snow
corvus

No, 3 people with 2 GPS's, a map and 2 compasses overruled you. I agreed with you Corvus, as did Ent and Speculator as I recall. Apart from the snow conditions were good, it was more a case of not being able to find a known track, as opposed to being lost. There's no better navigational aid than local knowledge.

[Ent]

Hi

Yeap I agreed with the choice you favored Corvus but did not know the area to disagree with the navigation department on that walk. Golden rule is stick together and if the navigation department is confident I will not over rule them and break-off.

Worse walks I have been on is when various people know better and break-off. The reason why I lost enthusiasm for a bushwalking club. When you have a leader/organizer with a map and a GPS confirming position but a bunch of "experts" breaking off on their own I will exit stage right from such a group when safely back home. Read at least one report on this forum where individual ego was more important than group cohesion. Would link to it but it got pulled by moderation.

That is why I enjoy the Strollers, if "misplaced" it still will be an enjoyable experience.

A propetly used GPS is an excellent tool and on a recent walk where one of our number was struggling it was great to know the distance and location of a few campsites.

Cheers

[Ent]

At the risk of been pilloried and have hot burning lead poured over me back to the Garmin 62S. It runs brilliantly on rechargeables and lithium batteries but I have not had much luck with alkaline batteries. Basically when the batteries gets down to 70% the unit sends out enough warning message to drive you back to alternative battery chemistry. This suggests that the unit must have some pretty impressive peak wattage demands at times or the designers just do not like alkaline batteries. The temperature was not that extreme when I was testing the unit.

Cheers

[dancier]

A propetly used GPS is an excellent tool and on a recent walk where one of our number was struggling it was great to know the distance and location of a few campsites.

Cheers

I'm often the only person carrying a GPS in the group even though some are catching on slowly. I often hear people yelling out to the leader, how far until the end and the reply last week was 6k but I had 3.8k on the GPS.

I've learnt more about GPS technique by walking in a group than by myself. I sometimes make mistakes and lose credibility only to make good sometime down the track but these mistakes allow me to solve the problems for next time. My GPS doesn't have a fancy compass so when I stop walking the map often shows the wrong direction and I've been caught out a few times pointing the wrong way only to look stupid, now I use the manual compass and GPS when I stop to get a bearing.

[Ent]

Hi Dacier

I often wonder how an interface can be improved and the issue you describe of being stopped and losing ready reference to direction of travel or north is one I strike a few times. The Garmin 62s has supposedly an impressive compass but when I played with declination the direction it pointed did not change.

On our recent walk we stumbled across a feature of MemoryMap on the iPhone that resulted in everything being one eighty degrees reversed. Now as fate would have it a similar lake was on the other-side of the ridge line and we had been clouded in. Weird feeling knowing you have not climbed back over the ridge line but having an electronic device saying so. On a clear day no issue but on that particular day it took a little bit of head scratching until we dropped to the "feature" of MemoryMap.

I am rather wary of electronic compasses as my Sunnto watch is allegedly world class but at times has found North at any point of the compass. Also discovered an issue with the altimeter in it. Normally is is remarkable and after two days can be as little as 10 meters out when set on the automatic setting. But in heavy rain it is useless as it can give any reading. I think it is when a water drop blocks the sensor but not sure.

Commonsense and a willingness to think about location is always needed but I do believe that interface designers of GPS are too familiar with their creations or do not use them so fail to understand the average user. One thing I found with MemoryMap is strong arrogance and belief that they are perfect.

Garmin's support on the compass issue was the same so when I rang after a period time it become clear that they did not know what declination was. And yes I got asked why would I want to use a compass. Err, maybe because I paid extra for the three axis compass. They were useless. On Garmin forums you often see a poster requesting advice and then being kicked to death by "experts" on why they are wanting to do what they are seeking to do. More often than not the original poster finds the answer and the "expert trolls" make their usual remarks but other people with the same issue post their thanks.

As time goes on GPS will be brought based on ease of use and that is where iPhone apps will start to take over. Garmin and their ilk will need to start to think more about ease of use.

Cheers

[north-north-west]

And why can't I use Shonky and Contours with the Magellan?
.

Well, I have some news for you, you can!

There is a person who goes by the name of OliverK who has done a Magellan version of Shonky. He's on gpsaustralia.net and you can get them with Festy's maps and others on DVD for $15 here: http://octapc.com.au/prod186.htm

Festy's are OSM Maps for Triton: http://maps.festy.org/downloads/magellan/triton/

Don't ask me how to load maps on a Magellan!

Which open source mapping are you trying to run on your Mac? I must be trying the wrong stuff, because it all works for me

Until now it hasn't been available for the Magellan, though. And neither Garmin nor Magellan will work with the Mac (unless I do the Virtual Box thing which is just too much messing about).

That must be pretty recent. Last time I checked (OK, about a year ago) there wasn't anything available that I could get to work.

And thank you. It's good to know someone cares.

[photohiker]

Garmin has had a Mac software program for some years. They're basically Mac compatible now, although some maps need converting to .gmapi in windows before you can use them on a Mac.

[gayet]

A question from a GPS luddite......

I have a 60Csx, and have Shonky maps as well as the Garmin Topo's. I have found a GPS track of where I want to go (track not shown on either map) and have added/overlaid the track to the Shonky map, and added some waypoints in at suitable points along the track. Now, how do I get all of that onto the GPS? All of this was done in BaseCamp by the way....

I have read something somewhere of how to transfer the track to the GPS so is it a 2 step process? No real problem if it is, just 1 more step I can get wrong.
There is still a week to get it right in though.

Many thanks

[tastrax]

From the help files (and typically with Garmin - not really intuitive)
Transferring Data

You can transfer data to and from your compatible GPS device.

Connect your GPS device to your computer using a USB cable. Your device name appears in the Library and Devices area. Click All Data below your device name to view items on your device.

To transfer data from BaseCamp to your GPS device:

Click an item in the Library. To select multiple items, hold Ctrl on your keyboard, and click the items.
Click Edit > Send To, and click the device to which you want to transfer the item.

To transfer data from your GPS device to BaseCamp:

Click your device name in the Library and Devices area.
Click an item on your device. To select multiple items, hold Ctrl on your keyboard, and click the items.
Click Edit > Send To, and click the list to which you want to transfer the item.

[RSD]

The way it was explained to me today in a store

Magellan GPS's - designed with the input of regular hikers
Garmin GPS's - designed despite the input of regular hikers

[Ent]

Hi Tastax

That is one way the other is to connect the device and select the data in Basecamp then control + c to copy the data and then select the device and paste it by Control + v.

Depending if you have a micro SD card or not the Garmin will come up with one or two locations.

If the user is still stuck post again and I will put up screen dumps. Actually it is not that hard once you grasps the concepts. Now I agree Garmin makes understanding concepts way too hard.

Cheers