60cx Inside A Wal-mart

[+Rotareneg]

Here's a picture showing two visits to a Wal-Mart while carrying my 60Cx. The tracks were both recorded while set to auto with a "most often" interval. I've carried both my Legend and a Legend C in the same building (which has a metal roof with skylights) and the best they ever did was occasionally pick up a single SV when one was directly lined up with one skylights, they couldn't come close to having an actual fix. The 60Cx on the other hand kept a lock the entire time although clearly the accuracy suffered since most of the signals were reflected and/or defracted off/around the interior of the building.

 

The picture resolution is 1 foot/pixel.

 

[+Airmapper]

That is so cool. If your Garmin will pick up in there my Lowrance has a shot, I never take it in there cause I think the roof will knock it out. I've got to try this, I alsways wondered how much walking I've done in Wal-mart.

 

Now, if it will just tell you where the person you came in with is at....Rhino maybe?

 

Hmmm. that big red blob, Sporting Goods? Or electronics?

Edited February 12, 2006 by Airmapper

[+Rotareneg]

Blob on the right is electronics, was looking at DVDs. The mess on the left is groceries.

[TrpD345]

What type program are you using for the ariel shot?

[+Freebee & 007]

Blob on the right is electronics, was looking at DVDs. The mess on the left is groceries.

 

Being familiar with that particular store layout, I couldn't help but notice that you took a stroll through the TOY dept.

 

However I would like to commend you for using the "Enter" door for your entrance and the "Exit" door for your exit!

[+benjamin921]

Looks like you went to the sporting goods and then electronics.

[+ghs]

I'm wondering if you might end up with a very restricted set of geocachers being interested in your cache; not all of us have GPS receivers as robust as yours appears to be. (I like my emap, but I'd never think about using it to find something inside of a building.) I'm also wondering if suspicious store employees might somehow think the geocacher is shoplifting. (But on the other hand, it might be good for the store's business.)

[+scott9282]

I'd like to note for the record that both red and blue tracks seem to agree on one point, you did some off-roading there on the left side of the picture. Was that a muggle charge or what?

[+GOT GPS?]

Now I have a Picture of a 2 mile hike inside Livonia Mall in Livonia Michigan, with about 4 laps around the mall.

 

here is the link below:

[+I.R. Geonut]

Here's a picture showing two visits to a Wal-Mart while carrying my 60Cx. The tracks were both recorded while set to auto with a "most often" interval. I've carried both my Legend and a Legend C in the same building (which has a metal roof with skylights) and the best they ever did was occasionally pick up a single SV when one was directly lined up with one skylights, they couldn't come close to having an actual fix. The 60Cx on the other hand kept a lock the entire time although clearly the accuracy suffered since most of the signals were reflected and/or defracted off/around the interior of the building.

 

The picture resolution is 1 foot/pixel.

 

 

Looks like you missed the driveway on the way in though Were you in a hurry?

[+scott9282]

tsk tsk, stopping at Cinnabon twice like that.

[+Tonylama]

[/url]

 

GPS Art is born.

 

That's one way to keep track of your teenagers.

[+Rotareneg]

I used dlgv32 Pro. The aerial photo is from the Kansas GIS site. As far as the track deviating from the road... I'm using Metroguide v6 (waiting for CN v8 to come out before upgrading) and it didn't have a detailed map of the parking lot. Thus I had a hard time finding my way out and hit a couple curbs.

[+Renegade Knight]

I'm wondering if you might end up with a very restricted set of geocachers being interested in your cache; not all of us have GPS receivers as robust as yours appears to be. (I like my emap, but I'd never think about using it to find something inside of a building.) I'm also wondering if suspicious store employees might somehow think the geocacher is shoplifting. (But on the other hand, it might be good for the store's business.)

 

Reception inside a building can be set up with virtually any GPS. Our mall has a cache near the skylight. It's a very well thought out cache. You won't have reception to and from the skylight but once there, you are home free.

Edited February 14, 2006 by Renegade Knight

[peter]

Here's a picture showing two visits to a Wal-Mart while carrying my 60Cx.

 

Not saying anything against the sensitivity of the new Garmin 60/76 'x' models, but reception inside buildings isn't all that rare with older models either. I finally got around to visiting our nearest Wal-Mart so I could do a comparison using my 6 year old eMap with its allegedly inferior patch antenna. Here's the recorded tracklog:

 

 

Although there's certainly some scatter, the path does show the approximate route we took: first a stop at the Valentine's candy clearance, then a look for some Energizer 2500 mA-hr batteries, and finally a stop in the outdoor section for a telescoping pole for my daughter who twisted her ankle a bit on a hike yesterday. Lock was never lost although there were some moments when it dropped down to 2D.

[+ghs]

I'm wondering if you might end up with a very restricted set of geocachers being interested in your cache; not all of us have GPS receivers as robust as yours appears to be. (I like my emap, but I'd never think about using it to find something inside of a building.) I'm also wondering if suspicious store employees might somehow think the geocacher is shoplifting. (But on the other hand, it might be good for the store's business.)

 

Reception inside a building can be set up with virtually any GPS. Our mall has a cache near the skylight. It's a very well thought out cache. You won't have reception to and from the skylight but once there, you are home free.

 

Okay, now if my GPS isn't working before I get to the skylight, what's going to make me think I should go there, or does your cache description mention that? (But now I actually have a reason to go to a mall; I can't wait to find one with a skylight so I can test my 6 year old gpsr out.)

[peter]

(But now I actually have a reason to go to a mall; I can't wait to find one with a skylight so I can test my 6 year old gpsr out.)

 

You may not need the skylight - see my tracklog in the post just above yours. The results will vary considerably depending on the details of the building construction.

[+Airmapper]

Next time I go to Wal-mart I'll take my AirMap. We'll see how a Lowrance antenna does in there.

Edited February 16, 2006 by Airmapper

[+ghs]

(But now I actually have a reason to go to a mall; I can't wait to find one with a skylight so I can test my 6 year old gpsr out.)

 

You may not need the skylight - see my tracklog in the post just above yours. The results will vary considerably depending on the details of the building construction.

 

Well, my emap hasn't worked in a mall yet, or very many other buildings. I don't think there's a lot of metal in my apartment walls, but it doesn't work there either unless I'm right next to my patio doors. (But then, my cell phone doesn't do much better. There may be more in my walls than I think there is.) But even if tracks *something*, I'd kind of need it to be tracking accurately; I'm not particularly good at this game yet, especially with micros.

[+Renegade Knight]

...Okay, now if my GPS isn't working before I get to the skylight, what's going to make me think I should go there, or does your cache description mention that? (But now I actually have a reason to go to a mall; I can't wait to find one with a skylight so I can test my 6 year old gpsr out.)

 

For me it went like this:

 

Drive to the front of the mall. "Dang it's in back" Drive to the back of the mall "Dang it's in front" Drive to the Front of the Mall "Ok something is up". Drive to the side of the mall "Ohhhh It's inside"

 

From there I took an estmate as to where in the mall and a skylight was handy and I was home free.

 

Unlike Peter I didn't have reception except near the skylight.

 

There was another on in Salt Lake but that one I didn't figure out. The building was downtown with a light well that went several stories down. It could have been on one of several stories and I didn't have that much time.

[+GOT GPS?]

I have a Kroger Grocery store(very large one) near my house, and No AM or FM radio works well in there, also Cellphones don't work in there well, and my 60Cx gets almost no signal anywhere in the building. There is a Fire Alarm system, and a ton other wiring, and that system seems to be generating tons of interference inside the building. I mention the fire alarm system, because there was not much interference inside the store, until they wired it up for the fire alarm system. During the BIG blackout of August 14, 2003, I had amazing reception inside the store, because of no electricity.

 

As you can see, here is a dead zone of a store:

 

-

Geoff

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

I have a Kroger Grocery store(very large one) near my house, and No AM or FM radio works well in there, also Cellphones don't work in there well, and my 60Cx gets almost no signal anywhere in the building. There is a Fire Alarm system, and a ton other wiring, and that system seems to be generating tons of interference inside the building. I mention the fire alarm system, because there was not much interference inside the store, until they wired it up for the fire alarm system. During the BIG blackout of August 14, 2003, I had amazing reception inside the store, because of no electricity.

 

 

Uh, do you have a time machine or work for Garmin's R+D dept? 60Cx's didn't exist in August 2003

[+Dr Bombay and Lulu]

Your 60Cx picks up inside a building, wow.....

 

My Legend won't even work under a tree....

 

Is it just the antenna or does the 60Cx have something else going for it?

[+geognerd]

Is it just the antenna or does the 60Cx have something else going for it?

Not the antenna. That hasn't changed. It's the SiRF receiver and chipset. There are many topics in the forum about this.

[+GOT GPS?]

I have a Kroger Grocery store(very large one) near my house, and No AM or FM radio works well in there, also Cellphones don't work in there well, and my 60Cx gets almost no signal anywhere in the building. There is a Fire Alarm system, and a ton other wiring, and that system seems to be generating tons of interference inside the building. I mention the fire alarm system, because there was not much interference inside the store, until they wired it up for the fire alarm system. During the BIG blackout of August 14, 2003, I had amazing reception inside the store, because of no electricity.

 

 

Uh, do you have a time machine or work for Garmin's R+D dept? 60Cx's didn't exist in August 2003

 

I meant that radio reception was what worked well in that building during the power failure.

[+JDandDD]

Someone here said it has to do with building construction and that's very true. My Magellan Platinum has always been able to get WAAS 3Dfix in my house and a number of other buildings and skylights aren't the issue. Some buildings just block signal however. I'm not an engineer so I can't tell you wha tthe construction differences are but they are real.

 

Anyway, nice to see that Garmin is finally catching up a little to Magellan.

[+Airmapper]

I was in my uncles house and was getting a decent lock. My cousin couldn't get her cellphone to get a signal. What can I say, I rubbed it in a little that my device could pick up satellites in orbit at the dining room table, and her phone couldn't pick up a tower in the same county.

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

I have a Kroger Grocery store(very large one) near my house, and No AM or FM radio works well in there, also Cellphones don't work in there well, and my 60Cx gets almost no signal anywhere in the building. There is a Fire Alarm system, and a ton other wiring, and that system seems to be generating tons of interference inside the building. I mention the fire alarm system, because there was not much interference inside the store, until they wired it up for the fire alarm system. During the BIG blackout of August 14, 2003, I had amazing reception inside the store, because of no electricity.

 

 

Uh, do you have a time machine or work for Garmin's R+D dept? 60Cx's didn't exist in August 2003

 

I meant that radio reception was what worked well in that building during the power failure.

 

Yeah I know I was being tongue-in-cheek.....

 

A few other comments:

 

Even the older SiRF's are amazing! My boss just got a Tom Tom GO 300 for his car which has the old SiRF II and it's amazing how well it works indoors! I even got it to work in the middle of the 1st floor of the 7 story building I live (I can get occasional slight reception on my non-SiRF GPS on the 2nd/top floor of my mom's house, but no dice at my home).

 

Unlike cell phones, satellite signals can be picked up anywhere geographically, they're in space and not depending on ground transmitters which are usually less concentrated in rural areas.

 

Legend will work under a tree with a good external antenna like the Gilsson series....

[+scott9282]

I used to get outstanding GPS reception inside my house, then sort of all of a sudden, extremely poor. I couldn't figure it out, then one day it hit me. I own a one story "L" ranch. Prior to the loss of signal inside, I had central air conditioning installed. So, now I have that big honkin' attic evaporator unit up there, and many feet of both flexible and rigid metal ducting. Seems like that blocks the signal.

 

On the plus side, I already know where all the caches inside my house are hidden, so I don't worry too much about it.

[geocachingbaker]

[/url]

 

GPS Art is born.

 

That's one way to keep track of your teenagers.

 

actually it has already been done check out this site

 

http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/waxwhale.htm

 

this was done on a beach

[+luthur]

Here's a picture showing two visits to a Wal-Mart while carrying my 60Cx. The tracks were both recorded while set to auto with a "most often" interval. I've carried both my Legend and a Legend C in the same building (which has a metal roof with skylights) and the best they ever did was occasionally pick up a single SV when one was directly lined up with one skylights, they couldn't come close to having an actual fix. The 60Cx on the other hand kept a lock the entire time although clearly the accuracy suffered since most of the signals were reflected and/or defracted off/around the interior of the building.

 

The picture resolution is 1 foot/pixel.