{"id":165,"date":"2006-03-25T00:17:41","date_gmt":"2006-03-24T15:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-03-25\/165"},"modified":"2013-02-18T12:17:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T03:17:27","slug":"thoughts-on-my-garmin-gpsmap-60cs-gps-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-03-25\/165","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on my Garmin GPSmap 60CS (GPS unit)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nGarmin GPSmap 60CS<\/b><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n\nLast month I bought a GPS<\/a>\nunit (a Garmin GPSmap\n60CS<\/a>) so that I can<\/span> geoencode photos. For example, clicking on the\nphoto in this post<\/a>\nbrings up a page<\/span> with data about the image, including a satellite<\/span> map with\nthe location marked. And the photo<\/span> in this other recent post<\/a> has the\nspeed and bearing shown as well.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe GPSmap 60CS is a nice unit. It has a<\/span> lot of functions (including a\nmagnetic<\/span> compass and a barometric<\/span> altimeter), but after using it for a while<\/span>\nI do<\/span> have some gripes that I'd like to mention, in the hopes that someone\ncan point out how to overcome these negative points.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe first and perhaps foremost gripe is that its manual is atrocious. It glosses<\/span> over many features that seem to be important, so I really<\/span> don't\nknow exactly how to use them. I mentioned<\/span> a few<\/span> specific issues in a post<\/span>\nwhen I first got it<\/a>,\nbut that list has pretty much extended to every function on the thing. A better<\/span> manual may well solve all the grips that follow....\n\n<\/p>\n

Barometric Altimeter<\/h3>\n\n

\n\nIt has a barometer, ostensibly used for calculating your altitude\naccurately (“barometric altimeter”), even when GPS reception is\nbad (and even when it's good, since GPS in this part of the world is\naccurate only down to about 6-10 meters).\n\n<\/p>

\n\nWhen I first read about it, I couldn't<\/span> imagine how it could work, since\nvarious different things affect the air pressure. Besides altitude change,\nother influences include moving quickly (increases pressure on the leading\nside of the unit, decreases on the trailing side), and oh, yes, changing\nweather<\/b>. I must be<\/span> ignorant, I thought,<\/span> because if I'm correct, the\naltimeter would be useless.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nUnfortunately, I seem to<\/span> be correct, as it was<\/b> essentially useless.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nOf course, it was understandably useless in the pressurized airplane, and so the\nwhole time we were at 41,000 feet it said we were at about 7,800 feet. I\ncan't<\/span> blame it for that, but I can<\/span> blame it for not letting me select the\nGPS-calculated altitude rather than the altimeter-calculated one. If I navigated<\/span> to a specific<\/span> menu item on the unit, it tells me the\nGPS-calculated altitude, but if I want<\/span> to see it again, I have to<\/span> navigate\nto that menu item again. It does not<\/span> log the GPS-calculated altitude in the\ntracks, and so it's not available for my photo geoencoding. (The altitude\ndata in the Anthony-sleeping-on-the-flight\npost<\/a> was fixed by hand.)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnyway, we got to a beach (the photo in the first post mentioned\nabove<\/a>), and as you can see, it says we were at 11 meters altitude, when\nwe were actually at about two meters above sea level (one meter at ground\nlevel, but I was<\/span> holding it another three feet above). I went down<\/span> to the\nwater line and calibrated it to “a known<\/span> altitude” (zero\nmeters), but half an hour later back in town, it says that we're 20 meters\nbelow sea level (which we most certainly weren't)!\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnother time, I calibrated<\/span> it on a beach<\/span> and stayed there, but a few<\/span> hours\nlater at that same location it said that we were at 8 meters altitude. Just\nworthless.\n\n<\/p>

\n\n[UPDATE:<\/b> update on the barometer<\/a> ]<\/b>\n\n<\/p>\n\n

Other Issues<\/h3>\n\n

While looking at its built-in map and moving around a little<\/span> pointer,\nthere's apparently no way to say “I want<\/span> to navigate to\nhere<\/i>”. (That is, you can initiate automatic guidance to that\nlocation.) I found<\/span> this extremely frustrating.<\/p>\n\n

While looking at a track map (the map showing where you've been),\nthere's apparently no way to find out when you were at a specific<\/span> point on\nthe route. I want to<\/span> move the little arrow to the little dotted line\nshowing where I've been, and have it tell me when<\/i> I was<\/span> there (and,\nfor that matter, the altitude as best it knows it, my speed, etc.) I wanted<\/span>\nthis feature numerous times while driving around Penang Island, so that I\ncould<\/span> figure out whether the point on the route I think<\/span> I'm looking at\nreally is the place we had dinner last night. Very frustrating.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nWhen I download the track log (the log of all the places I'd been with it)\nto my computer, most points come up twice, once with the timestamp\nassociated with it, and once without. Why? (I think<\/span> it might have something\nto do with the difference between a “saved track” and the\n“track log”, but I really<\/span> don't know -- the manual says nothing\nabout this whatsoever. In any case<\/span>, it really makes no sense to\ndeliberately remove the timestamp from the data.)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThere are plenty more, but these are the ones I can<\/span> remember offhand.\n\n<\/p>\n \n

Other Comments<\/h3>\n

\n\nWhen it's trying to acquire the GPS satellite signals, it displays a very<\/span>\nnice looking page which graphically shows where the satellites are in my\nlocal sky, and what kind of signal is being received from each. It has room<\/span>\nto show the signal strength from up to 12 satellites, but it can calculate\nyour position from as little as three.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe most I ever saw was on the drive from Kuala Lumpur city to its airport. I held the<\/span> unit outside the window of the cab, and it has a strong<\/span> single\nfrom 11 satellites. It said that<\/span> the accuracy of my location was +\/- 6\nmeters. The next day<\/span>, on the drive from Kansai airport to Kyoto, inside the\ncar (up against the window) I had<\/span> reception of a maybe<\/span> four or five\nsatellites, but an accuracy of +\/- 4 meters (the best I've ever seen). Go\nfigure.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nOne feature I think would be cool, although I doubt<\/span> I'd ever find a use<\/span> for\nit, would be a triangulation<\/span> feature. You'd sight a distant<\/span> object (e.g.\nmountain peak) and press a button,<\/span> then move some appreciable distance to\nthe side, then sight again. It would<\/span> then be able to tell you the distance\nto the object. I think<\/span> that'd be cool.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnyway, I like the<\/span> unit, but the worthless altimeter is a serious<\/span> bummer. If anyone<\/span> knows how to turn it off so that the unit uses only the\nGPS-calculated altitude, I'd love to<\/span> hear about it.<\/p>\n\n

[Update:<\/b> it can't be done<\/a> ]<\/b><\/p>\n\n

[Update:<\/b> I've replaced this unit with a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx<\/a> ]<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month I bought a GPS unit (a Garmin GPSmap 60CS) so that I can geoencode photos. For example, clicking on the photo in this post brings up a page with data about the image, including a satellite map with the location marked. And the photo in this other recent post has the speed and bearing shown as well. <\/p>

The GPSmap 60CS is a nice unit. It has a lot of functions (including a magnetic compass and a barometric altimeter), but after using it for a while I do have some gripes that I'd like to mention, in [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}