Sunday, August 8, 2010

eTrex Legend HCx GPS Personal Description

Product Description

Amazon.com Garmin eTrex Legend HCx Personal Navigator Description


     Neither deep foliage nor steep canyons will faze the rugged Garmin eTrex Legend HCx navigator. Equipped with a high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, the unit locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover. The advantage is clear: whether you're traipsing through thick woods or strolling near tall buildings and trees , you can count on the Legend HCx to help you find your way when you need it the most. Adding maps to the Legend HCx is easier than ever thanks to the device's microSD card slot, which accepts cards preloaded with MapSource data for your land and sea excursions. Just insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps, and the Legend HCx will provide turn-by-turn directions to your destination. Plus, the card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment,
so you needn't worry about it getting wet.

     Besides appreciating its small size, users will also be happy with the Legend HCx 's unique button layout, with five buttons located on either side of the unit. The benefits of this design are twofold: First, the Legend HCx is a breeze to operate with just one hand, and, second, with the buttons on both sides of the unit, the bulk of the front is dedicated 
to the 256-color, sunlight-readable TFT display. This makes it easy to distinguish 
map details regardless of the time of day.

     The Legend HCx basemap, meanwhile, contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads, and coastlines--in short, a host of helpful details for your outdoor adventures. Other details include an IPX7 waterproof housing that withstands inclement weather, a speedy USB interface, 1,000 waypoints with names and graphic symbols, a track log with 20 saved tracks, a hunt/fish calendar, a built-in patch antenna, and a geocaching mode. The Legend HCx, which runs for up to 25 hours on a pair of AA batteries (not included), measures 2.2 by 4.2 by 1.2 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by 
a one-year warranty.

What's in the Box

     eTrex Legend HCx, basemap, MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager software, USB cable, wrist strap, quick start guide, user's manual.

Product Description

     GARMIN eTrex Legend HCx Hand Held Receiver w/ Built in GPS Patch Antenna. MicroSD card slot allows for storage of optional MapSource detail /MicroSd card not included. WAAS enabled, 12 parallel channel GPS receiver. Built in GPS patch antenna. Display: 1.3 in W x 1.7 in H, 256 color, high resolution, transflective TFT /176 x 220 pixels. LED backlit display and keypad. Battery life: up to 32 hours typical use using two AA alkaline batteries. Includes a built in Americas autoroute basemap with automatic routing capabilities including highways, exits and tide data /USA only. 500 user waypoints with name and graphic symbol; 20 reversible routes, 50 points per route. Position formats include Lat/Lon, UTM, Loran TDs, Maidenhead, MGRS, user grid, and more. Audible alarms for anchor drag, arrival, off course and clock. Large numbers option for easy viewing, dual position display mode. Trip computer provides odometer, stopped time, moving average, overall average, total time, max speed and more. 10,000 point automatic track log; 20 saved tracks /500 points each/ let you retrace your path in both directions. Built in celestial tables for best time to fish and hunt, plus sun and moon calculations. Fully compatible with MapSource products including BlueChart, City Navigator, U.S. TOPO 24K, U.S. TOPO and US Inland lakes. Waterproof, IEC 60529 IPX7, /Submersible 1 meter at 30 minutes.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

About : Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx

Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx

FEATURES

     Neither deep foliage, nor canyons faze the rugged eTrex Legend HCx. Its high-sensitivity receiver holds a GPS signal in the toughest environments. Similar to the Legend Cx, this handheld navigator also has a bright color screen, microSD™ card slot and automatic routing for wherever adventure takes you.

Enjoy Clear Reception

     With its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver, Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons. The advantage is clear — whether you’re in deep woods or just near tall buildings and trees, you can count on Legend HCx to help you find your way when you need it the most.

Expand Your Memory

     Adding maps is easier than ever with Legend HCx's microSD card slot. Conveniently plug in optional preloaded microSD cards with MapSource® data for your land and sea excursions. Just insert a MapSource card with detailed street maps, and Legend HCx provides turn-by-turn directions to your destination. The card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet.

Take It Anywhere

Like the rest of the eTrex series, Legend HCx is lightweight and compact — the perfect size for all your travels.

Other Legend HCx Features:

    * Waterproof, so it can withstand the elements or an accidental dunk in water.
    * Crisp 256-color, sunlight-readable display makes it easy to distinguish map details — plus, it looks fantastic
    * Fast USB computer connection so you can transfer waypoints and other data to your computer

eTrex Legend HCx: Lock onto the great outdoors.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPECS



credit : https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=8701

Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx reviews

I’ve had a chance to try out the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx  recently. This is my first extended experience with an eTrex model since I purchased my first GPS — an eTrex Venture — many years ago.

One of Garmin’s newer eTrex H-series receivers, the Legend HCx updates the very popular Legend Cx. The “H” stands for high-sensitivity chipset, to ensure great satellite reception under canopy and in other situations where you have a limited view of the sky.

Like its predecessor, the Legend HCx has a bright color screen and a micro-SD card slot for loading topo or highway maps. A great handheld GPS, the Legend HCx also autoroutes, so you can add City Navigator maps and a mount, and use it for turn-by-turn highway navigation in your car. The button layout may make it a little awkward for this purpose though; a better choice for dual use might be the Garmin 60CSx.

Compare prices on the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx

Step up to the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx to add a barometric altimeter and electronic compass. Moving down in the H-series line to the Summit HC or Venture HC, you lose the auto-routing capability and the expandable memory. To see how the Legend HCx stands up against other Garmin models, check out my Garmin handheld GPS comparison chart.

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx performance

The new eTrex H-series uses MediaTek’s MTK chipset, which compared favorably with the 60CSX’s SiRFstar III chipset during my testing.

The Legend HCx also performed well in accuracy tests. In a hike in a local park with relatively dense tree cover, the accuracy was never worse than 23 feet.

The other thing I noticed in comparing this unit to my 60CSx was the significantly brighter screen on the Legend HCx.

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx layout

I doubted that I would like the button layout but, as Garmin usually does, they’ve made it pretty intuitive. So let’s take a closer look at that before we go any further.
These warrant a little further explanation:

    * Power key – In addition to the on/off function, you can press and release to adjust backlighting, and view the time, date and remaining battery charge.
    * Legend_hcx_trip_computerQuit / Page – Press to cycle through pages. This button will also
      terminate the use of any on-screen keyboard or back you out of a menu.
    * Zoom in/out – In addition to zooming the map, on any other screen, use it to scroll through a list or use a slider bar.
    * Menu / Find – Press and hold to see the Find screen. Press and release to display a page’s menu. Press again to get to the main menu.
    * Enter / Rocker – Press down on this “thumbstick” to enter. Move the thumbstick / rocker right-left or up-down to navigate menus or pan the map. You can also mark a waypoint at your current location by pressing and holding.


It may sound complicated, but it becomes second nature very quickly. You can discover most functions in the field. The two press and hold functions (Find and Mark Waypoint) are the only ones you really need to remember. The rest is incredibly intuitive.

Customizing your Legend HCx

One of the great things about Garmin handhelds is that they can be customized to display the information that is most important to you. The hunter, geocacher, cyclist, and hiker will all have different needs.


A great place to start, and a fine example of the degree to which you can customize the Legend HCx, is choosing what pages to display and the order in which they are displayed. To do this, press Menu, then press Menu again. Then press Setup, then Page Sequence. The most useful in my mind are the Map, Compass and Trip Computer screens (shown above at right). Personally, I also add Main Menu, Satellite, Active Route, Find, Recent Finds, Routes and Tracks!

The trip computer screen has lots of options for customization, as you can see. Each field can be changed independently, choosing from a list of 34 options. A “Big numbers” option reduces the number of visible fields to three, providing an easier to read display, a feature that cyclists or the visually impaired may find useful.

Similarly, the compass screen and map screen both allow you to customize display fields.

I also recommend going into the setup menu and exploring each option.

credit : http://gpstracklog.com/2007/07/garmin-etrex-le.html