OK, so I think I hear you get accuracy of 100m at 5% confidence...and still find gold. If you can send some as proof I'm happy to accept anything :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnetron [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]
Interesting app, it will even advise you verbally if you start driving over "Walgoo monzogranite" (not to be confused with "Proterozoic low grade metamorphics") but I'm not sure how that's going to help on the way to the pub....
I too do not pay much attentions to how Accuracy the GPS unit I use is.
For one I have hiked all over Europe and the maps have always show me the paths to hike on.
They have always been spot on. I for one will not walk in a tree or fall info a river because of + or - Accuracy with in 4 meters.
Even if I track my movement with my 66s and later look at it.
The thing it show is 80% of the time it tracks along the path in comparison to the the map on my Laptop that is the same map on the 66s.
Even the tracks I download from many sites to use so the path with 80% Accuracy. But have never gotten lost or wound up in the wrong place.
Like Magnetron said Accuracy in Geology is not guaranteed so hey who cares. The same with hiking and Geocaching.
GPS units are for recreational use for the average person so I do not know what the big deal with Accuracy is.
I am sure if you are in the armed forces over sea you will have a completely different GPS unit altogether where Accuracy is of the most important for you.
Here is an example of the 66s tracking my hike.
Spoiler: GPSMAP 66s tracking.
I stayed on the path the whole time. As you can see the Red Track is some places are not on the path.
If I where to give this track to someone else to use they too would stay on the path and not walk into the bushes even if the track showed the path was some place else which it was not.
You would get the same errors using the tracks you download from website like "Wikiloc" and others. This info comes from many different GPS units and smartphones tracks.
So if it is + or - 4 meters no big deal when it comes to Accuracy.
All my units Old and New have best Acc of 4mtrs, the Geo maps are Mosaics of 100K and 250k the Topo is a full 250K of WA or whole Australia and is from Geoscience Aus and is more acc for the Main Roads in OZ which I use to get me there, I have also been using the app TT NDS Mod from here.
Spoiler: Pic
As you can see the track matches the main road enough but tracks off road change all the time due to weather.
I think we are all in agreement that whatever Garmin actually mean by their accuracy on their receivers, it is certainly sufficient for our needs for navigating or gold prospecting. Of course we have to look out for terrain features in the mountains that lead to worse accuracy from multipath effects and understand these as they occasionally can be very pronounced.
@Magnetron - your post regarding your experience with Etrex Hs is interesting and got me thinking. The 2003 user manual for my old Geko 201 and the 2007 manual for the Etrex H, both having GPS + WAAS state: DGPS (WAAS) Accuracy: 3 meters (10 ft) 95% typical with DGPS corrections. So we are still operating with the same sort of accuracy a decade or more later.
The app in my post is my new phone running Trilobite app and I use that alot too, my Etrex is a backup if my phone dies or i drop it on a Rock from my pocket, I have been working with the developer to include all sorts of Maps that I use when bush and the Western Australia available resources is far better than the Eastern states.
After eight weeks, I finally received this response from Garmin UK Product Support:
In regards to your enquiry:
We typically quote the 2-sigma (95th percentile) accuracy value.
So when we say your accuracy is 3.65m, we are saying that 95 percent of the time, you would be within 3.65m of the true location.
Hello,
I had a 65s that I sold quite quickly because it had a fault the Galileo satellites (multi-band or not) were still flashing, it really took several hours of operation for them to be taken into account, then I bought a 66sr but had exactly the same problem, what was my disappointment.
Today Garmin released a new firmware 4.90 for the 66sr (for the 65s too) which completely corrects this defect that I had reported to Garmin-France (they don't care) and to Garmin USA which gave me answers but not convincing.
Now the multiband satellites are all taken into account and the fix is done quickly. Problem solved therefore.