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Bought an Etrex 20 after having a Legend HCX


imnagrek

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Hi all,

 

A month ago I bought a new Etrex 20 after having 3 older Etrex's (the yellow one, Legend C and Legend HCX). Especially the last one (Legend HCX) I have used for 5 years, very intensively. Had to buy a new one because the thumb stick was totally worn out. Very nice instrument, only responsiveness in 'map mode' could be better.

 

Thinking the Etrex 20 is the new Legend I bought one without playing with it first. Quite a deception. OK, there are some nice improvements: paperless geocaching actually works, and maps can be sent separately. But the unit software (updated to 3.90) is far from robust. It freezes, current position on the map does not move, panning and moving in the map seems even slower, BaseCamp is a pain, moving time when walking is far too low, etc. Does anyone recognize these problems? Do you think the Legend was (far) better the the 20? I don't think my unit has faulty hardware. I think I'll have to buy a new one: Does anyone know what the fastest GPS from Garmin is, esp. updating the map screen.

 

Thanks for your opinions!

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The eTrex 10/20/30 models are Garmin's introductory models. Panning and updating the map screen is slow; that's just the nature of the slower CPU in the device.

 

I purchased an eTrex 20 as my very first GPS shortly after they were introduced. The firmware now is much more robust than when it first came out in 2011.

I have had it lock up on occasion with older firmware, but had no issues with the last few firmware releases with regards to the map screen not updating.

 

Having said all that, I don't use the 20 for Geocaching that much anymore since I bought a GPSMAP 62s, but it does get some use on occasion.

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Hi all,

 

A month ago I bought a new Etrex 20 after having 3 older Etrex's (the yellow one, Legend C and Legend HCX). Especially the last one (Legend HCX) I have used for 5 years, very intensively. Had to buy a new one because the thumb stick was totally worn out. Very nice instrument, only responsiveness in 'map mode' could be better.

 

Thinking the Etrex 20 is the new Legend I bought one without playing with it first. Quite a deception. OK, there are some nice improvements: paperless geocaching actually works, and maps can be sent separately. But the unit software (updated to 3.90) is far from robust. It freezes, current position on the map does not move, panning and moving in the map seems even slower, BaseCamp is a pain, moving time when walking is far too low, etc. Does anyone recognize these problems? Do you think the Legend was (far) better the the 20? I don't think my unit has faulty hardware. I think I'll have to buy a new one: Does anyone know what the fastest GPS from Garmin is, esp. updating the map screen.

 

Thanks for your opinions!

 

I have an Etrex 30 with 3.90, and it does not freeze. Overall I like it.

Pluses:

+ Multiple maps

+ Very fast satellite lock

+ Very good track quality if set on "more often"

+ Very sensitive

+ Little wandering around

+ Very light

 

Minuses (compared with 62s):

- Veeeerrryyy sloooooww with USB 1 (takes 3 minutes to synch to BaseCamp!)

- Veery sloow map redraw

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Hi all,

 

A month ago I bought a new Etrex 20 after having 3 older Etrex's (the yellow one, Legend C and Legend HCX). Especially the last one (Legend HCX) I have used for 5 years, very intensively. Had to buy a new one because the thumb stick was totally worn out. Very nice instrument, only responsiveness in 'map mode' could be better.

 

Thinking the Etrex 20 is the new Legend I bought one without playing with it first. Quite a deception. OK, there are some nice improvements: paperless geocaching actually works, and maps can be sent separately. But the unit software (updated to 3.90) is far from robust. It freezes, current position on the map does not move, panning and moving in the map seems even slower, BaseCamp is a pain, moving time when walking is far too low, etc. Does anyone recognize these problems? Do you think the Legend was (far) better the the 20? I don't think my unit has faulty hardware. I think I'll have to buy a new one: Does anyone know what the fastest GPS from Garmin is, esp. updating the map screen.

 

Thanks for your opinions!

 

Oh, if the location seems stuck, go to

Setup > Routing >

and check that you have "Road Lock" OFF.

 

It might be trying to lock to the nearest road.

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Minuses (compared with 62s):

- Veeeerrryyy sloooooww with USB 1 (takes 3 minutes to synch to BaseCamp!)

 

No such problem with mine. May be an issue with your USB port/PC.

 

Or perhaps it's because I store a lot of tracks on the GPS?

I like to store there all my hikes, so I can use it in the field to follow a hike I have previously done.

I must have a hundred or more tracks...

 

The laptop is a new superfast top of the line Macbook, but perhaps it's not optimized for USB 1...

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Or perhaps it's because I store a lot of tracks on the GPS?

I like to store there all my hikes, so I can use it in the field to follow a hike I have previously done.

I must have a hundred or more tracks...

 

More likely BaseCamp is trying to read maps from your unit to display on the Mac. If you have a bunch of third party maps on there it will do that.

I tend to pull the MicroSD card out and put it in an SD Card adapter for loading Maps. Basecamp is a beast on Mac anyway, not my first choice for managing tracks and geocaches.

 

You will want to remove the tracks from the device when you can as the eTrex can get a little stressed with a lot on it. I've had corrupted tracks occur when I do that for too long.

 

Remember the speed of the device has more to do with battery life than it does with quality control. This is a unit that is meant for longetivity - as in people like me take it on a week long camping trip with four AA batteries instead of 16 AA batteries. That sort of thing matters on a 3.5 km portage over a mountain. There are times I would love to have the beautiful screen of the Oregon 650 but I love that I can navigate for three days on a single set of AA batteries (6-8 hours of paddling a day). This is physics - by putting a lower resolution display and slower CPU in there less energy is used overall and thus less energy needs to be provided.

The laptop is a new superfast top of the line Macbook, but perhaps it's not optimized for USB 1...

 

My Early 2014 MacBook Pro Retina i7/2.3 has no problems talking to the device. My Early 2011 MBP is also fine with it under Mac OS Yosemite.

Technically, the eTrex is using USB 1.1 not 1.0 as well.

 

 

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Or perhaps it's because I store a lot of tracks on the GPS?

I like to store there all my hikes, so I can use it in the field to follow a hike I have previously done.

I must have a hundred or more tracks...

 

More likely BaseCamp is trying to read maps from your unit to display on the Mac. If you have a bunch of third party maps on there it will do that.

I tend to pull the MicroSD card out and put it in an SD Card adapter for loading Maps. Basecamp is a beast on Mac anyway, not my first choice for managing tracks and geocaches.

 

You will want to remove the tracks from the device when you can as the eTrex can get a little stressed with a lot on it. I've had corrupted tracks occur when I do that for too long.

 

Remember the speed of the device has more to do with battery life than it does with quality control. This is a unit that is meant for longetivity - as in people like me take it on a week long camping trip with four AA batteries instead of 16 AA batteries. That sort of thing matters on a 3.5 km portage over a mountain. There are times I would love to have the beautiful screen of the Oregon 650 but I love that I can navigate for three days on a single set of AA batteries (6-8 hours of paddling a day). This is physics - by putting a lower resolution display and slower CPU in there less energy is used overall and thus less energy needs to be provided.

The laptop is a new superfast top of the line Macbook, but perhaps it's not optimized for USB 1...

 

My Early 2014 MacBook Pro Retina i7/2.3 has no problems talking to the device. My Early 2011 MBP is also fine with it under Mac OS Yosemite.

Technically, the eTrex is using USB 1.1 not 1.0 as well.

 

What NO said. I love my Legend for in compactness and long battery life. I can navigate as well as with any other unit I have owned. It scares me that one day it will break and I will need to replace it.

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I have an Etrex 20 and I am satisfied with it except...a number of times I have downloaded caches and when I get to the location, the caches are gone. Just last weekend I had to use my IPhone to hunt for the caches because the map was showing nothing. Very, very frustrating! If anyone has a solution to this, I would appreciate hearing it. Also, on the same day, there were some caches appearing on my gps but when I switched the screen from the compass to information about the cache, the screen went totally blank. I tried switching batteries but that didn't solve the problem. About an hour later, the gps worked fine. What was that all about? I love the paperless caching. That is the feature I love the best on the Etrex 20. I don't need much more. But I do want it to be reliable, which it is not.

gameoftheirlives

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I have an Etrex 20 and I am satisfied with it except...a number of times I have downloaded caches and when I get to the location, the caches are gone. Just last weekend I had to use my IPhone to hunt for the caches because the map was showing nothing. Very, very frustrating! If anyone has a solution to this, I would appreciate hearing it. Also, on the same day, there were some caches appearing on my gps but when I switched the screen from the compass to information about the cache, the screen went totally blank. I tried switching batteries but that didn't solve the problem. About an hour later, the gps worked fine. What was that all about? I love the paperless caching. That is the feature I love the best on the Etrex 20. I don't need much more. But I do want it to be reliable, which it is not.

gameoftheirlives

 

This is a known idiosyncrasy of some of the newer Garmins, most often seen on the eTrex line. There is no known way to prevent it, but by putting all the caches on a micro SD card, a fix while in the field is easy. Simply remove the card and reboot without the card which will clear out the cache database in the unit. Then reinsert the card and reboot again. The unit will take several minutes to rebuild the cache database, but you will be able to continue without needing to go home to fix the problem. Should you decide to do this, you ill first need to create a x:/garmin/GPX folder to hold the caches where x is the drive letter of the card assigned by the OS.

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Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I'm not sure I know what the SD card is though. I have a Topographic GPS map card in my gps. Is that it? I'll reread your directions and will try it. Thank you again.

One more question. My friend just invested in an Oregon 650. Is it worth buying that model to avoid the problem I've been having with the Etrex or, as you have said, can it happen with the newer models of the Garmins?

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