This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Compass Help

Former Member over 15 years ago

I have a Dakota 20 GPS which has a 3-axis compass.
Not sure this is the correct forum, but here it goes.
2 primary issues I am having:

1. I can't get the compass information out in the GPX file. Can it somehow be recorded in a track and dowloaded to the PC ? EG even when sitting still I would like to have the track show my heading.

2. I don't understand something about what the compass is telling me. As an example I tried the following:
- Stand Still
- Display the compass screen
- Face North
- Face the "top" of the GPS device west.
- Compass reads West while standing still. That makes sense to me.
- Start walking North. When get above about 1-2 miles/hour, the compass
now reads North even though it is still facing west.
E.G. the compass appears to be showing a course versus the compass heading.

Is this a setup problem ?

0 Former Member over 15 years ago

Unfortunately, the Dakota 20 compass doesn't really work

I have a similar problem with the Dakota 20. The compass is supposed to function like a simple magnetic compass: the arrow should point the same direction regardless of how you orient the gps unit. My compass however, has no clue which direction it's pointing. If you rotate the unit 180 degrees, the compass arrow usually rotates with it.

Supposedly there was a firmware update that dealt with this, but I found that it made little difference. Sometimes, after I try calibrating the compass, it will be almost usable for about 5 minutes, but then it's back to being totally worthless.

Let us know if you get it to work.

-Dan