Vista HCx drift problems

[+A.T.Hiker]

There has been extenstive debate on this topic in this forum. I understand there is a recent update which I plan to try. I have experienced the drift problem three times, and it was the worst while hiking / biking in Acadia National Park. Off by several hundered feet which was only corrected by a power cycle.

 

Suprisingly, no one has mentioned the altimeter. I leave mine in autocalibrate mode. Theoretically, that should be great and most of the time is. However, when I was having the inaccuracy problems, the reported GPS elevation was also off by several hundred feet (at one point, hiking around 400 feet - report GPS elevation 1145 feet). That never corrected, and continued to read consistnently 750 feet too high. So, the altimeter starts to recalibrate toward this erroneous value and the elevation data also becomes useless.

 

I should mention that the same power cycle that corrected the drift also got the GPS elevation back around 400 feet. This drift problem occured twice, so I gave up and no longer use autocalibrate for the altimeter.

 

Maybe just coincidence, but the GPS elevation was off by about the same amount that the unit was drifting off track.

 

Just my two cents, since I've noticed this and no one else has mentioned it (that I have seen).

[TransFXB]

Good point!

I have also experienced this. Just plot trace in Mapsource AND have a look at corresponding altitude record in trace properties.

When a drift occurs, altitude is messed-up too...

 

In a way, this is coherent.