Garmin Oregon Beta 2.98 Available
May.16, 2009 in
Garmin Oregon
Garmin posted a new beta software for the Oregon yesterday which claims to address the following issues:
* Fixed not acquiring signal from all satellites in view
* Changed EPE to be more dynamic in changing conditions
The software does include a new GPS software version (3.4) which confirms that Garmin has been working in area of the GPS receiver.
I’ve loaded the software and done some basic tests to verify basic sanity but have not been able to test GPS accuracy yet. Unfortunately WAAS does not show any improvement with this drop.
The first issue is by far the most common complaint I hear from Oregon owners running 2.95-2.97.
As usual let us know your experiences here on GPSFix or on the 2.98 Oregon wiki thread.
Related posts:
May 16th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I was off geocaching in the UK this morning – so loaded it up to have a go. It installed fine and after the normal longer time to get a signal after an update worked OK.
I had unfortunately picked a circuit of geocaches that had no clues – so the accuracy of the GPS is much more important. Unfortunately this particular beta appears to have some accuracy issues. It no longer claims to be accurate to 2 meters most the time (in fact 6m is about as good as it gets walking along) but also shows rapid variations of a few meters. A track of you walking down a straight path could not have a noticeable chink in the middle. Returning down a path I had covered earlier in the day showed a 15+ meter difference. At no point in the day did I get a WAAS “D” shown. Most worryingly when walking in a straight line towards a waypoint the indicator arrow can swing up to 20 degrees ether way when say 50m to 100m away.
In balance I think there is some more turning to do now the GPS code has changed and I would not recommend this over the earlier 2.97 release. This is the first beta that I have installed that I am tempted to remove.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:26 am
One positive that I failed to mention is it did maintain a weak signal while in a pub for a quick beer on route – on the earlier releases I would not have expected that to occur however had never been to that particular location before.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:39 am
[...] Es gibt mal wieder eine neue Firmware für´s Oregon, da ist Garmin gerade richtig fleissig. Diesmal wurde sogar die eigentliche GPS-Empfangssoftware aktualisiert – auf die Version 3.4. Die Info kam über GPSFIX. [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 4:48 am
With me there was no problem obtaining the “D”-s but the accuracy reported by the GPS was lower (before it was 2-3 meters most of the time, and now 5-6 meters, 3 meters was really rare).
A serious problem for me was when I tried to create a waypoint from a point on the map with the pin. Every time I tried to do it the device froze and I had to shut it down and start up again. Finally I was forced to use other ways to navigate to that point.
May 17th, 2009 at 6:14 am
No problems here creating a waypoint from the map.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Waypoint creation from map OK for me 2.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Changed EPE to be more dynamic in changing conditions.
Would anyone please explain what EPE is? I noticed the elevation gain inforamtion in my Oregon 200 is very inaccurate. For example, it reports 1,500 ft of vertical up but actually only 600 ft. Will this be improved in GPS software v3.4?
May 18th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
EPE is “Estimated Position Error”, which on the Oregon is visible through the “GPS Accuracy” field. This is the unit’s own estimation of the positional error based on satellite conditions and other factors.
As for elevation it depends how you have the Altimeter configured. Can you share your settings under Setup>Altimeter?
May 18th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Scott,
Thanks for the explanation. Oregon 200 doesn’t have built-in altimeter so it completely relies on GPS to provide elevation information. Still the elevation information is so inaccurate and unstable on Oregon 200 even compared with my other Forerunner 301 and GPSMAP 60C which don’t have built-in altimeter as well.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
With the new version of GPS software 3.4, I will need to do some more tests to see if the elevation data has been improved or not.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Good point on the 200, I forget it doesn’t have the barometric altimeter so yes the elevation is based on GPS elevation and it is dependent heavily on GPS accuracy. I do see a lot of inaccuracy in the elevation data on the Oregon when relying on just the GPS as compared to my 60csx. 2.98 may improve certain situations related to not being able to lock onto visible satellites but I’m guessing you aren’t going to see huge differences between it and 2.97.
It is worth a try because this beta seems to be better than 2.97 with no new issues introduced.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Hello,
contraty to above my OR400 lost it’s virginity – I finally SAW “D’s” over satellite intensity bars. These jumped in and out pretty quickly (~minutes) when I drove on highway thru flat areas / walleys.
I did factory reset after I installed PREVIOUS beta release (in order to quickly get the 3 extra buttons – too lazy to set them manually up
MP
May 19th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Hmmm, so far this release works great but for some reason I cannot get the logs to show up for geocaches. I load them using pocket queries and using easy gps or gsak… and the logs will not show up under “show logs”.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:59 am
I haven’t noticed any issues with logs — used 2.98 this past weekend to find a few caches and I did review logs. When you select a geocache from the unfound list and hit the status bar at the top (before hitting Go) can you see the logs there?
May 19th, 2009 at 10:52 am
No, for some reason the logs are not making it to the gps. They show up in easygps. The logs used to load in the past. Frustrating….oh well… it still works great.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Exactly how to create the gpx file which goes to the GPS? Is using GSAK gpx export, do you use the export macro, do you bring the file in from easyGPS?
May 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Using geocaching.com I create a pocket query. Then open the gpx file with easy gps and send it to the Oregon. I’ve tried it with gsak too and same problem.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Ok…. I reloaded them using GSAK and seems like it’s working now…. any way to use easyGPS and the logs show up? Don’t know what I was doing wrong before! I tried loading the geocaches several times and the logs just wouldn’t show up. Thanks for the help.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I believe EasyGPS strips out the logs (and other cache related data). You need to either use GeoBuddy or just do the import directly from the PQ or GSAK.
-Scott
May 20th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Jason: Yes EasyGps produces slightly different XML than the original coming from the pocket query and logs do disappear and in older versions too.
Easiest is just to copy your unzipped XML file into Garmin/GPX folder.
May 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am
Anyone knows where the Oregon saves the number of found geocaches ?
I have looked in the xml files but it does not seem to be saved there.
My intention is to write a macro/program to reset the counter when I load new GPX files.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I checked at one point in the gpf files and didn’t see it there. It may not be visible externally.
May 24th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I just made 2 tests today on 6-mile and 5-mile hikings. I found the new firmware (2.98) has improved on both horizontal and vertical accuracy. The tracks don’t jump around anymore and more consistent reading on the length of trip compared to other gps devices. The elevation reading while standing is accurate. However, the vertical accuracy is still an issue on the movement. As a result, the elevation gain on the trip is still inaccurate as previous versions.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I agree; 2.98 is sooo much better, good stability, no track wandering and better fix under cover, all in all a great improvement.
May 31st, 2009 at 11:22 am
I rechecked the problem with adding a waypoint from the map. I reproduce it 100% when the point I select with the pin is from the background area of the city (my home city is Sofia, so after the text “This location was successfully saved as waypoint SOFIA” appears I click “OK” and that’s the moment when the screen is freezing. The interesting part is that the backlight continues to be on as if everything is OK and shuts down after 15 secs (the system backlight timeout) and goes on if I press the power button once.
It appears so far that nobody else is having this issue so can somebody give advice how to trace the problem or eliminate it altogether.
May 31st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Kalin,
What maps are you using for Bulgaria? I tried the same in New York City with CN NA NT 2009 and it works fine. Might have something to do with the maps you are using.
-Scott
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 am
Hey Scott,
You are right, it may be a map problem. I’m using a map of Bulgaria that is developed by a Bulgarian company. They claim that the map is created using official Garmin software but I can’t be sure if everything is fully compatible. I’ll contact them to see if they can do something about the case.
Cheers