Domain Name Com's Electronics Garmin eTrex Vista C Color Handheld GPS

Electronics Garmin eTrex Vista C Color Handheld GPS

Domain Name Com's - Electronics : Garmin eTrex Vista C Color Handheld GPS

- Using E-Trex Vista C on AT Thru-Hike
I am currently carrying the Etrex with me on my 2174.6 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. As of today, I have completed 270 miles (taking a day off in Hot Springs, NC).

So far the Etrex Vista C has been very reliable, only losing satellite reception for short periods of time, and usually that is when I am indoors, or in a shelter. However, sometimes it seems to lose satellite reception at times when it appears I have a clear view of the sky.

The battery life has been very good, especially now that i have started using the energizer lithium batteries. I use the Etrex with the compass turned off, and almost never use the backlight, as per Garmin's reccommendations for increasing battery life.

My main use of the gps unit is to create a track of where i have hiked - I am not using it to program my routes or future destinations - only to mark the locations of where i have been. Therefore I cannot comment on downloading maps, creating routes, etc.

Issues I would like to see addressed are greater memory capacities (I have to download my tracklog every 2 weeks), a removable flash memory card in this regard would be excellent. Also, I have to carry the usb cable driver installer with me everywhere in order to download my gps data from the unit - if this were plug-n-play similar to most card readers, that would also help.

Rating:

- Great unit... when it works
My first VistaC developed a short within two weeks of my getting it. I contacted Garmin and had it replaced with no problem. The refurbished replacement arrived and worked great for about a day. After that, whenever I plugged it into the computer or the car adapter (an official Garmin one) it would freeze. I E-mailed tech support and they sent the cause and workaround for the same issue on a VistaCx, which was not the correct cause and did not solve the problem on the VistaC. When I asked if there were other possible solutions or if not, how to do a hard reset, they only mentioned the mistake from before and the instructions on the reset, which also did not work. Unfortunately E-mail correspondence takes two business days to receive a reply and their phone support business hours are only while I am at work.

I will be pleased if the next replacement they send me resolves my problems permanently, but I would rate their E-mail tech support VERY poorly, and likewise with their telephone hours of operation. When my VistaC is doing what it is supposed to be doing, it is a very good user experience, but I took a star off of my rating due to the reliability issues and the tech support.

Update: The failures of these units were due to a faulty power adapter, not the GPSes themselves.

Rating:

- Great GPS
I use my GPS for Geocaching and setting up orienteering courses for adventure races. This GPS has filled the bill. In WAAS mode it is very acurate, usually within a few feet. The only exception to this is when the batteries start to get low. After 3-4 hours of continuous use, the GPS starts to drift somewhat, but is still generally accurate to within 20 or so feet. The unit us rated at 20 hours life on batteries. I don't agree. The unit is great, but carry fesh double a's with you. I have a friend with a Magellan manufactured in 2002. There is no comparison. He can't keep up with me. He has decided to go back to Garmin.

Highly recommended for a recreational GPS. Lots of features, and the color makes everything much more visible than the B&W GPS's. The 24 MB of memory allows map uploads that are actually useful. The price may seem kinda high compared to other units, but this one is worth the expense.

Rating:

- Nice Upgrade from last etrex
Etrex Vista keeps rulling on GPS units as the most user frendly and best cost benefit in the market! My previous model endured in the harsh tropical forest of Brazil pretty well, and I was even able to sell it before upgrading to this new one, with color screen and other additional nice features such as extended memory and USB communication ports.

Rating:

- Hiking companion, not just a gadget
I'm delighted to have finally tried the Garmin Color Vista C after nearly abandonning the whole GPS endeavor.

I previously purchased a Magellan Meridian Color GPS for hiking after moving to Montana. The outdoor called and my "internal GPS" sense of where I'm going and have been is too weak to rely on for the trails around here. The Garmin Vista C worked much more intuitively than the Magellan. The learning curve was fast even though I'd not used any GPS for over a year.

After working out a couple of glitches, my Vista C has been a delight. I've taken it biking, kayaking and on many trails in Montana. City tours are not my favorite venture, but the Garmin served very well for me both on foot and for tracking where the taxi was transporting me. Now its accompanying my quest to learn cross country skiing. Besides basic directional assistance, I've begun using it even where I'm already confident that I know the trails in order to perform exercise monitoring, to log information on distance, duration, speed, altitude, calculating grade of ascent,landmarking favorite spots where I might want to hide a gift for a friend, and occasionally seeing how much time I have left to doddle before sundown.

The Magellan never became a companion like the Garmin has. It was tantalizing but seemed to fail on practicalities. It devoured batteries -- in fact even if I carefully made sure the device was turned off after less than an hour of use on a new set batteries and put it away, when I returned in a couple of days the new batteries were toast (including Energizer Lithium).

I do like the detail on topo maps for Magellan perhaps a bit better than Garmin's options -- but in practice the Magellan computer interface as well as the handheld interface were quite frustrating and combursome so the Magellan became a neglected "toy" on the shelf. The final kicker happened when I attempted to backtrack a trail and was led so far off course by the Magellan's limited satellite accuracy that I did become seriously lost for about 30 minutes. The Garmin made these frustrations a distant memory and real-time interaction with its maps seems to be helping me develop my internal navigational skills as well.

A FEW ERRATIC GARMIN GLITCHES

It "glitched" once trying to download to my PC which was apparently a corrupted file on the handheld. This has not occured again. The first tech I spoke with at Garmin was rather unhelpful and just told me to delete all of my handheld files (too painful to contemplate since they represented a week of hiking on the Lake Superior Trail). I asked to speak with a supervisor who was professional and gave several good solutions and contingency plans. Ultimately I did not have to use these more remote solutions, just deleted one old trail on the handheld that was a leftover from hiking near my own community.

The other glitch occurred when I was standing on a short hill between taller rock stands and short peaks. The device credited me with a lightening fast 11-mile bounce between these sites. It still downloaded to my PC okay this time and the anomaly easily edited out.

IMPROVEMENTS I'D LIKE TO SEE:

1. A thermometer added.

2. Of course there is always a wish for the WAIS information to be available more of the time in order to get the higher level of accuracy.

3. The software maps at least for this part of the world are outdated and could do more for topo detail. Major trails should be included, like Lake Superior Hiking Trail, the Colorado Trail, Appalachian, etc.

4. The Show Profile feature on the PC software should let you identify trail segments better. It shows the whole trail only and all the AUTOMATIC waypoints -- but not the ones you have landmarked.

Nonetheless I'm hooked. This investment has more than earned its cost in peace of mind, freedom to meander away from the trail and be confident I can get back, finding alternative trails or loops and understanding on the map how they meet up in real time as I am out there scrambling... improving my cardiovascular training ... and much more.

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