Garmin Etrex Vista HCX

luckdogscrew · Post by **luckdogscrew** » 06 August 07 4:28 pm

Well Its not available in Australia yet, But when has that ever stopped me.

Picked up the new Etrex Vista HCx on Saturday, Purchased from the US, And while I have only used it for a couple of caches so far it really is a great unit. Its replacing my very old Garmin GPS12 (About 10 years old).

Did a couple of tests with it so the following is what we discovered. We had a Garmin GPS12, Garmin Etrex, Garmin 60CSx and the new Garmin Etrex Vista HCX

Lock on Still -
Garmin Vista HCX (Quickest), Garmin 60Csx (Just slower), Garmin GPS 12 (A little slower), Garmin Etrex (Much Slower)

Lock on Moving -
Garmin Vista HCX (Quickest), Garmin 60Csx (a little slower), Garmin GPS 12 (Almost the same as the 60CSX), Garmin Etrex (Much Much Slower)

No Satellites Outside
Garmin Vista HCX (Most), Garmin 60Csx (Same as Hcx)), Garmin GPS 12 (1-2 Less), Garmin Etrex (2-3 Less)

No Satellites Inside (Single Story Tile Roof Middle of Room)
Garmin Vista HCX (8 Sats), Garmin 60Csx (6 Sats)), Garmin GPS 12 (none), Garmin Etrex (none)

No Satellites Heavy Tree Coverage
Garmin Vista HCX (Most), Garmin 60Csx (Equal to 1 Less), Garmin GPS 12 (About Half the Vista No.), Garmin Etrex (Same as GPS 12)

So that was all the tests we did as we had to give the 60csx and yellow etrex back to their Owners.

A couple of other notes, The Position bouncing you get in city streets is much better in the HCx than the GPS 12. I had position data everywhere in the city streets today (Walked most of the melbourne CBD lower Roads, and Laneways).

Shonky Maps worked well on it, The User Interface seems good, You can configure the screens to show the data you need, the default was not what I wanted but I quickly changed the screens it scolled through and the data fields on the screens.

The screen is clear and seems large enougth, The unit itself is very small and easily disguised in your hand (Something we were looking for as I do a lot of city cacheing around the world).

Will give it some serious workout over the next few weeks. But at present am very happy with it.

mtrax · Post by **mtrax** » 06 August 07 6:43 pm

Thanks for the review...
I'm looking at the slightly cheaper HCX Legend, I'm assuming fairly similar interface, any chance of some screenshots ?

luckdogscrew · Post by **luckdogscrew** » 06 August 07 10:58 pm

More Later

mtrax · Post by **mtrax** » 06 August 07 11:15 pm

<del>I'm not seeing those links are you sure you have .bmp ? files </del>
<br>
scratch that my work proxy is blocking those links..

penguin · Post by **penguin** » 10 September 07 9:20 pm

Just got my new Vista HCx from the US this morning. Currently loading up the shonky maps. Am so far very happy.

mtrax · Post by **mtrax** » 10 September 07 10:23 pm

does it come with any "base maps"?

penguin · Post by **penguin** » 10 September 07 10:56 pm

Hey mtrax.

Yep, the Vista HCx came with a basemap. It is however, the Americas Recreational basemap, as I had to order it from the US.

I was after the version that had the Pacific basemap. Unfortunately this version, despite having a serial number on the Garmin website, does not appear to exist (at least at present).

I had originally contacted Johnny Appleseed here in Brisbane to see when the Vista HCx wouldbe available in Australia, as I was after the one with the Pacific basemap. They informed me that they had not heard anything about the Vista HCx being released in Australia. I then rang GME to see if they knew when it would be available. GME letme know that it was not available, and that there were no plans to bring these to Australia. WTF?!?

Anyway, I then rang a couple of US distributors, only to be told that they only had access to the America basemap. Next call was to Garmin in the UK. Guess what, they only had the Atlantic basemap. And where could I get a Vista HCx with a Pacific basemap...? Well... I would have to contact a distributor in the Pacific region for this. Mmmm.... Australia was out, so on to our very good friends in Taiwan. Now a word of warning here... if you plan on calling Garmin Taiwan, make sure that you can speak a little Mandarin first: "Please press one for Garmin customer service in English" put me through a lady who kep on speaking Chinese. My efforts in English seemed fruitless, and it was only after I had asked "Nin hui shuo Yingyu ma?" that she finally said, "Yes, I can speak English". Now, here is where I though that I was getting somewhere

"I am calling from Australia. I would like to buy a Garmin Vista HCx. Do you have the Vista HCx with the Pacific basemap?", I ask.

"Yes".

Excellent. "Now how can I buy one of these?"

"You need to purchase from an authorised Garmin dealer in Australia." She says. To cut a long and very frustrating story a little shorter, after explaining to her that they weren't available in Australia, she was adamant that I could not buy one from Taiwan. I ended up asking if I got on a plane and went to Taiwan, if I could buy one then. This confused the Taiwanese customer service lady greatly. Only after I explained it in Mandarin, did she finally say that I could buy one, but only if I came to Taiwan.

I thanked her, said goodbye, checked the Garmin Taiwan website, and despite my poor ability to read Chinese, discovered that the Vista HCx is, in fact, not available in Taiwan.

So, I guess after all of that, the bottom line is that I got a Vista HCx with an Americas basemap (Pacific does not appear to exist). I got it of eBay for under AUD$320 including postage.

Have loaded Shonky maps on which thus far appear to be an effective basemap. Am still tossing up whether to invest in the Mapsource Australia CD and/or the Sunmap Raser Mozaic 1:25 000 maps of Queensland.

I'llhave to play more before deciding.

3BlindEyes · Post by **3BlindEyes** » 11 September 07 5:36 am

Thanks for the great story Penguin.....I enjoyed reading that!

mtrax · Post by **mtrax** » 11 September 07 8:31 am

yes thanks for that , I'm sure theres a lesson here for all of us, not sure what it is though..
I'm assuming the base map is "burned" into the ROM or do you think it can be updated?
Still on the fence if I should upgrade... as I still have a working GPS

TeamJEKL · Post by **TeamJEKL** » 11 September 07 9:23 am

how does it compare to the magellan explorist 500?

penguin · Post by **penguin** » 11 September 07 6:34 pm

mtrax wrote:yes thanks for that , I'm sure theres a lesson here for all of us, not sure what it is though..

The lesson is that I can get a rambly rant on when I have had a couple of beers on board

mtrax wrote: I'm assuming the base map is "burned" into the ROM or do you think it can be updated?

It is my understanding that the basemap cannot be changed. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Dooghan · Post by **Dooghan** » 11 September 07 7:07 pm

I think you went to a lot of trouble for nothing penguin. The Pacific base map is crap and not very accurate anyway. It only shows major highways, capital cities and a few (I mean few) major cities. The highways are mostly out by 4oom. Shonky's maps makes a better base map then the one that's on Garmin GPS's. The base map can only be changed by Garmin.

Dooghan

luckdogscrew · Post by **luckdogscrew** » 12 September 07 2:14 pm

Dooghan has a very good point, I was happy to have the US base map, as its atleast a little more usable than the Asia one. The Asia one is poor and nowhere near as good as Shonky Maps. You can also get good free basemaps for Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong, and probably other asia places as well.

I have been using Shonky Maps with my HCX and am very happy with them

Dooghan · Post by **Dooghan** » 12 September 07 3:51 pm

luckdogscrew wrote:Dooghan has a very good point, I was happy to have the US base map, as its atleast a little more usable than the Asia one.

It wouldn't matter what version base map that's on the GPS. They are all crap and not accurate. Garmin's in it for money. Put a crap base map on the GPS and if the public wants better city road maps they can buy them. It's the same story with Magellan

Dooghan

kiwitonita · Post by **kiwitonita** » 14 September 07 8:43 pm

Agreed, the base map is handy for telling which country you're in but is as much use as a chocolate fireguard for anything else.

The new Media Tek chip in the eTrex H series is much better than the SiRF type from observing the screens of the Legend HCX, 60CSx and 76CSx side by side - there's some screen shots here: http://forums.gps.org.nz/viewtopic.php?p=25338 demonstrating the much reduced track point wander.

Only things missing are a serial data output (for 3rd party devices and locater beacons), direct MOB function, simple 12V input (needs USB 5 volts) and external antenna socket.

Geocaching Australia

Garmin Etrex Vista HCX

Garmin Etrex Vista HCX

SOme Screen Shots