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Tracks and Trip odometer problems on the Garmin Oregon 450

Started by bearspa, May 17, 2014, 08:31:42 PM

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bearspa

I've been trying to use my GPS to determine how a hike is.  I drive from my home to where the hike starts.  There, I turn on the unit, go to Setup, Reset, Reset trip data, and also Clear Current Track.  In addition, I also Clear the current track in Track Manager.  When I look at the Odometer, it shows that everything has been zeroed out.  My profile has been set to recreational.

At the end of the hike, I save the track, and also look at the Odometer to check how many miles it says the hike has been, and turn off the unit. When I get home, I download the track into Basecamp.

What I find is that the unit consistently adds the distance from my home to where the hike started to both the Track saved, as well as the Odometer, despite my having reset everything, and the Odometer showing zeros at the start of the hike.  Plus the Odometer and the Track mileage do not match each other by a mile or so.

What am I doing wrong?


TIA

Seldom

Save the track at the end of your hike and load the saved track to BaseCamp. If you just load the current track to BaseCamp after you go home, you will have added a straight line distance from your trailhead to home.  (You can edit this distance out with BaseCamp track editing tools.)  But when you compare the trip odometer with the listed track distance they will never agree anyway.  5 to 10 percent error is the norm.

bearspa

Hi Seldom:
I am using the saved track, and, you are right that I can edit out the distance from home in Basecamp, but it should not be there, given that I had reset the track after I had parked the car, and saved it when I got back to the car.  Also, the weird part is that the distance from home is the first item on the track--not the last which is what I would expect if your hypothesis were true.
Finally, the distance hiked in the odometer also  includes the distance from home, and that is when I return to the car before I head home.

Seldom

Not sure what you mean by "reset the track".   I don't have your problem, and I clear the current track at the start of my hike then save the current track at the end of my hike and clear it again.  Resetting the trip computer odometer doesn't clear the current track.  The only way I can imagine the unit would add a home to trailhead leg would be if it recorded some positional data while you were transferring the previous tracklog to your computer and then you didn't "clear" the tracklog at the start of your next hike. 

bearspa

Thanks, Seldom, for responding again.

I do everything that you are saying you do, i.e. "I clear the current track at the start of my hike then save the current track at the end of my hike and clear it again." 

That's what I meant when I said I "reset the track".

I think that what I will do is to reset defaults just in case I've inadvertently set something wrong, and try what you do again this weekend.

Thanks again.

Seldom

You are using the Track Manager to clear the current track aren't you?  I have an old OR300, and the Track Manager's a few pages to the right of the Start screen.

bearspa

Yes I am, Seldom.  I could be accused of overkill--used the Track manager and the Setup menu.  I wasn't sure of how the track links with the trip odometer, so I had zeroed that out also through Setup.

Seldom

Well, I'm baffled.  Sounds like a case for Garmin tech support.

bearspa

I will give it one last attempt this weekend on two hikes.  If it still gives me problems, I'll call Garmin tech support.

In any case, thanks for your help--I appreciate your suggestions.

JohnCNA

This might be affected by your Tracks archiving setting. By design, my Garmins have combined before and after tracks with a power down or battery change in between. I do exactly what the OP does, and have only once had a stray 'at home' point added to the track. Are you sure you're loading the saved track file and not the Current track file when you get home? The saved track file on both my eTrex 30 and 64s defaults to something like '2014-06-25 15:30'.

bearspa

Hi JohnCNA:
I do use the saved track. 

It has been working fine now, most of the time.  Hopefully, it will work on my next hike, as it is abroad, and if it adds the distance from home, it will be really messy! ;D 

However, I don't know what the function of the odometer is--I would have thought that it would be a summary of the track, but that is definitely not the case. 

Thanks for the suggestion re the Tracks archiving setting--I will take a look at them.

bearspa

Hi JohnCNA:

You'd said:  By design, my Garmins have combined before and after tracks with a power down or battery change in between

When I looked at my Garmin, this was not an option that they allowed the user to change, but a specific design issue--which makes sense, and which would also explain why I am having this problem.  So, what I will do in the future is to set the tracks to not record twice consecutively, and see if that gets around this default setting, as the before track would be a zero.

Thanks for pointing this out to me.

pjwilliamsna

I have the same problem of distance from home being added on my GPSmap 62stc. There is a straight line on the map screen even after reset of trip data. The last current track segment in track manager does have the correct distance since reset but the Trip Odometer adds the home distance (crowflies). Thanks for the info re auto joining of two track segments across a power down. I have been grateful that the machine copes with an emergency battery change in mid march but had not worked out that it would apply to all power off/on cycles. That insight helps a lot.  I am going to try reset 'Track and trip data' next time - maybe that is what is needed. I Will report the result unless someone already knows what will happen?

pjwilliamsna

Since my post saying I would try  'clear track and trip data' I have found a post by Garmin entitled: Why am I experiencing a difference in distance between the Trip Computer and Track Log? Which advises ◦' When you have arrived at the place you will be recording:
1.Acquire a GPS satellite lock
2.Clear Track Log
3.Clear Trip Computer
Note they  say clear both Track and Trip
I think also that item 1. has been part of my problem because my unit has been slow to find the new location and I suspect it still has my previous location and is using it as the previous point in the current track - even if I use reset (only) trip data.
I will try this and report another day.

pjwilliamsna

Tested the sequence 1) Get new satellite fix 2) Clear Track AND Trip data (2 is a single combined option on 62stc).
The result is what I wanted to see. - no line back to previous end of track on map and the trip odometer value is now only the new distance.