I've just got a second hand Garmin Etrex, as I was looking through the settings I noticed that the speed and distances were set in matric. As i dont understand matric (that well, age ya know) I changed the settings to statute miles. Is a statute mile British or American? If you understand what I mean!
-- Your help is, as always, greatfully receved. Rory Manton
Isn't a mile a mile ? 1760 yards. I didn't think the yanks had their own version...
A Statute Mile is the British unit, 1760 Statute Yards. The difference between an American and a Statute mile is insignificant - simply in the rounding of the definition of a yard relative to a metre. For practical purposes they are the same, about 1.62km . Not the same is the nautical mile, about 1.852km, which is both a British and metric unit. JD
in article cafmfu$h6i$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, Andy Carpenter at snipped-for-privacy@THEcarps.UPPERco.CASE.uk wrote on 12/6/04 20:45:
No I think the USA mile is different, but by how much I dont know.
- Rory Manton
- Oh gods , why me?
in article snipped-for-privacy@dnews.tpgi.com.au, JD at snipped-for-privacy@SPAMLESS.com.au wrote on
12/6/04 21:27:
Thanks for the info!
- Rory Manton
- Oh gods , why me?
Why not just drive for a straight mile down a straight road and measure it using the speedo and get someone else in another car to follow to compare distance see how accurate it is on each setting and go for the better one simple but effective thats what I would do anyway.
All the best
Paul
In Britain, miles are referred to as 'Statute' miles.
Nick
In news:cafmfu$h6i$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, Andy Carpenter blithered:
Yep, unless its nautical!
Statute mile is British. It's pints and gallons where they get it wrong.
There's several different models of the etrex. That special power/data connector is a bit expensive, though there's a guy somewhere on the 'net who can sell you the bits to assemble your own. A combined power/data lead is the best value choice for the official kit.
Remember to set the Map Datum to Ordnance Survey UK. There are several used, and the wrong mapping settings can through your positions off, because of the different ways they relate the map grid to the shape of the Earth.
Once you have a data lead, you can upload later versions of the firmware, as well as prepare route-info on your computer. A program called Gartrip is worth checking out (free to try, with some limits on quantities of data).
It's better inside a ragtop than a hardtop, though there is some trick which can be used to couple some type of external aerial.
The American mile is the same in distance as the British one, but you might find that when you compare your speedo reading to the GPS unit the GPS will read lower.
Personally I think the GPS is correct and car speedos are set to read higher than actual speed to try to curb speeding :o))
Never heard of Gartrip, I'll have to check that out
Do you have a link to that info? I have an Etrex Legend which works 99% of the time mounted on the dash but loses the signal from time to time. If I could somehow get an external signal that would be great.
On or around 14 Jun 2004 07:40:12 GMT, Simon Barr enlightened us thusly:
gartrip is a nifty thing. you can use map graphics and get it to tie 'em together into a coherent map; each map tile can be scaled to suit as well, and it then displays the best map using a selection of graphics tiles.
Sorry, no specific links to hand, but as I recall all this stuff comes up pretty easily with a Google search.
What I can recall of the aerial hack is that it uses some sort of fixed aerial with a pre-amp, and feeds to an aerial which also cradles the Etrex.
I've looked at the Gartrip site and there is a link to some plans for a re-radiating aerial there. I only glanced over them though.
I'm interested in doing this because on the roof of my 110 is a small saucer sized GPS aerial left there by the AA, they also left a small GPS receiver in the seat box too but I can't find any info on it.
With a bit of luck I'll be able to reuse the GPS aerial for my Etrex Legend somehow and improve it's reception.
In news: snipped-for-privacy@zhochaka.demon.co.uk, "David G. Bell" expelled:
Easy to buy here in NZ - the local electronics shop sells 4 different external antennae for Garmin GPS.
Yes, but the Etrex is different from the other Garmin models; it's supposed to be weatherproof, and uses a special connector for external power and data transfer. There's no aerial connection. (Maybe at the top end of the Etrex line?)
If you're doing serious vehicle-mount use, I couldn't recommend it, but you can walk around with it; it's comparable to a mobile phone.
Punch the search term 'reradiating antenna' into your search engine of choice.
I use the Vortech one, but there are a bunch of brands available. They plug into a standard cigarette lighter socket and work with all GPS units, including the ones without external antenna sockets. I've used mine with the basic yellow Etrex (among others), and it works great.
Ivor.
That throws up lots of hits. One site sells such a thing for 45 quid, not sure how bad I need one though to be honest. I'm still hoping to somehow re-use the aerial on the roof of the 110 if I can.
Have you found the other end of the cable, and if so what's there?
Nick
Yes, I have. It is a very flexible rubbery sort of coax from memory and it ends in a BNC connector I think. There used to be a GPS receiver in the drivers seatbox which I still have too, unfortunatly I can't find any info on it though.
The problem is my GPS (Etrex Legend) doesn't have the external aerial socket :-(
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