Messages

I was a very happy user of Maptech's Terrain Navigator and was upset when support was discontinued.

I see that Trimble/Mytopo says that reasonably priced upgrades to Terrain Navigator Pro are available. Where can I find out the cost of the upgrade?

Bob M

I recently purchased an ETREX 20 on EBAY.

The unit seems to be new.

However, I am having problems using the thumbstick. It it is not clear to me whether there is something the matter with the thumbstick or if it is just clumsy me.

When I use the thumbstick, the display does not always move the way want it to go.

I have spoken to Garmin and the Garmin rep told me to practice and I would figure it all out.
The more I practice the worse it gets!

Does any other ETREX user find it difficukt to use the thumbstick?

Bob M

Consider trying to make your aerial photos as a TOPOFUSION USER MAP. If you can do that, I believe that you should get the detail you want.

Thanks for the replies.

I agree with you: "Someone is confused". I am sending these comments to my friend.

I have a friend who has a Garmin Colorado. Someone gave him a kmz file I had created and told him to copy it to the Garmin Custom Map folder on the microsd card.

My friend did this and was amazed that the custom map did not show up on his GPS!

After several conversations with Garmin and me, finally sent the file to Garmin. He was told that there was no problem with the file. However, you cannot load the file to the microSD card by writing it there. The only way to do it was to use BASECAMP to load it to the unit.

My friend followed GARMIN's instructions and the Custom Map is now working on his GPS.

The Garmin employee admitted that with an Etrex you could write it. I know from experience that you can write the file to a Dakota and to a 62st.

I do not understand the difference between these other units and the Oregon,Colorado units. Why does the technique work on them and not the others?

Does what I am saying make any sense to any of you? or is it possible my friend is somehow confused with both sides of the instructions (mine and Garmin's)?

D

Well, I just looked here and noticed that my original post of a year ago has risen from the dead.

I want to let you all know that I am very happy with my DAKOTA 20, with EBAY ,with the seller from whom I purchased the unit and with this forum.

Over the years I have purchased a few things through Ebay and have always been satisfied.

Look at:

        http://www.trackprofiler.com/

The application is in development. It does allow you to load a GPX file and make corrections (semiautomatically, I believe).

Otherwise, I guess you have to edit the track manually.

Bob M

I  realized this morning that I had deleted the Garmin track from my computer but probably still had it on the GPS itself. I checked and there it was.

Attached is Spider Plot 2.jpg which shows both the Triton and Dakota spider plot for roughly the same time period (155 points for the Triton, 163 for the Dakota. Clearly the Dakota is superior. It probably makes little practical difference. The Triton will  overstate walking time, distance and elevation gain and understate waiting time by some small amount. Practically this makes little difference.

Some history, my first GPS was a Magellan 315 about 15 years ago, along the way I then upgraded to a SPORTRAK Map and then to a SPORTRAK Color. When the Triton series came out, I considered upgrading. Luckily, I did not and I avoided all the initial Triton problems. About 2 or 3 years ago when I heard the it was easy to install custom raster maps on the Triton, I bought the 500. I then built custom maps for hiking trails in the NYC metropolitan area. I was happy with them and impressed other hikers with them. I then bought a Triton 1100 primarily to run OZICE on it. Frankly, i was not happy with OZICE. I then used both. I did prefer the 500 over the 1100 because I did not like the hybrid touch/button system.  By this time, Garmin came out with their custom map system. I then made kmz files for Garmin units. Several people bought new Garmin units and loaded my files.Not owning a Garmin, I was unable to help them with their problems. I finally picked up the Dakota on e-bay and sold my Triton 1100.

My impressions of the Dakota are positive. it is much more intuitive than the Triton line. The 100% touch screen system makes more sense than the hybrid Triton system. However, the Magellan system for custom maps beats the Garmin system hands down. As you know there is no limit on custom maps for the Magellan line  and individual maps can be enabled separately. If or when Garmin will do something like that is questionable.

Bob M

The previous messages got me thinking.

Wednesday I was hiking. From a few minutes to noon until about 12:25 we stopped for lunch.  I had 2 gps's attached to my pack, a Magellan Triton 500 and a Garmin Dakota 20. Both were picking up track points every 10 seconds.

I decided to look closely at the trackpoints. I then realized I no longer had the track from the Garmin(I had deleted the file because the battery went dead (my fault) before the hike was completed).

In any case, I did plot the trackpoints for the Triton. They are shown in the attachment Spider Plot 1.jpg.  This shows the track with a UTM grid.

Honestly, I was surprised there was so much false movement in the 25 minutes. Total measured distance moved was about 0.12 miles. total elevation change was about 50 feet!

The next time I am out, I will capture the points from both the Dakota and the Triton  so that I can compare them.

Bob M

Thanks for the replies.

I never thought of changing the measurement to metric. I just did and I was able to enter 0.01 km (about 33 feet as Boyd mentioned).

I have been using every 10 seconds on both the Dakota and my Magellan when I hike. I pick up a track point somewhere between  15 to 25 feet with the 10 second interval. I wanted to set one of the machines to a fixed interval of about 20 feet so that I could compare the tracks based on a fixed time and a fixed distance. Unfortunately neither the Magellan nor the Dakota go below 50 feet.

I do believe that some older Garmin units could go down to about 5 feet. The Dakota is the first Garmin I have owned. with my older Magellan I could only go down to 50 feet and could not select by time. My track length was consistently about 10% shorter than a friend using a Garmin. When I obtained a copies of his tracks, the big difference  between them was my interval of 50 feet and his of 5 feet. Whether the 10% longer track from the Garmin is real or due to the spider track phenomena is a good question.     

   

There are 3 choices on how to record track logs on my Dakota 20:
        -Distance
        -Time
        -Auto

If I select distance, the shortest distance I can input is 0.01 miles or about 53 feet. Is there any way of entering a smaller amount say something like 0.003 miles? The input screen has enough places but I cannot enter anything beyond the hundredths place.

All help is appreciated.

Bob M 

Thanks for the response. It worked fine.

Bob M

I have lost something again!

I know I read somewhere how to place your own text on the opening screen of my Dakota 20. Now when I want to do it, I can't find it!

As I recall, there is a way to put your own text so that it will appear when the unit boots. I want to put my name, address, phone number, etc so that if I mislay/lose the unit whoever may find it will at least have a chance to get in touch with me.

Once again, all help is appreciated.

Bob M

Once more thanks for the help and advice.

I went ahead and deleted the "Catskill" file and the "NYC METRO" file. I then uploaded the total NYC TOPO file downloaded from here. I then changed the name of the GMAPSUPP.IMG to NEW YORK TOPO.img.

The results are that I have only the New Jersey Topo and the New York Topo (named mti_ny on the GPSr) on the GPS as well as the GARMIN CUSTOM MAPS and the worldwide base map.

Somehow I managed to get rid of the BLUE CHART maps.

Everything looks OK.

Bob M

Thanks for the replies.

I am sorry for confusing you.

Regarding the Bluechart maps, I bought this unit on e-bay and those maps were probably loaded on the unit by the previous unit. He did send me the BLUECHART disc with the unit.

Regarding the NY TOPO, I will delete the CATSKILL and NYC METRO TOPO maps and then reinstall either all of New York below the Mohawk Valley or maybe the whole state.

Does this make sense?

Bob M