Impressions of eTrex touch

Discussion related to the Garmin eTrex Touch 25, 35, 35t GPSr
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Yogazoo
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Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:46 am

Impressions of eTrex touch

Unread post by Yogazoo »

I've been using my eTrex touch for quite a few months now. I feel as though the software is a bit immature but wanted to get a sense for how others felt. Very obvious and annoying icon issues and Current Activity (tracklog) oddities have me wondering how others feel about the unit.
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GPSrChive
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Re: Impressions of eTrex touch

Unread post by GPSrChive »

I have resisted buying one of these to date.....
sussamb
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Re: Impressions of eTrex touch

Unread post by sussamb »

Interesting comment, perhaps you could explain what these 'obvious annoying icon issues and tracklog oddities' actually are??
Yogazoo
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Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:46 am

Re: Impressions of eTrex touch

Unread post by Yogazoo »

I hope to find a bit of time to post screenshots in the coming days but I'll start with a better description.

The Current Activity app icon doesn't scale correctly on multiple pages in "Classic Mode". This app is one of the few I place on the main menu screen but because it is annoying to look at it now goes in the drawer. Something like a screwed up icon should have been caught in pre-release beta.

When Auto Start is turned off in the tracklog setup menu, and you clear the tracklog, the track continues to record and the pause/play button in the Current Track app shows as if it's stopped but a recording is actually taking place. Another beta catch.

I've reported these issues to Garmin but so far a fix hasn't been released. I'll post a few screenshots when I get a chance.
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GPSrChive
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Re: Impressions of eTrex touch

Unread post by GPSrChive »

Here we are, two full years after your initial post, and not much has changed.

The current eTrex Touch firmware level is 3.80 (released October 23, 2018).

The unit still has several outstanding fundamental flaws, many of which, as you state, should have been caught in 'beta', before the GPSr was released to the public in the summer of 2015:

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01. Current Activity Icon improperly scaled (used Oregon 7x0 graphics without proper resize).

02. Current Activity (Classic Mode):

1. Set Activity Auto Start and Auto Pause to Off
2. Open Current Activity page and stop any currently active recording (Press Pause)
3. Clear the current activity recording (Press Trash) and Confirm with 'Clear'
4. Current Activity Icon correctly shows 'Yellow' for 'Paused'
5. Open Current Activity page and start an active recording (Press Play)
6. Current Activity time and distance begin counting
7. Exit Current Activity page
8. Current Activity Icon correctly shows 'Green' for 'Active'
9. Open Current Activity page and Clear the current activity recording (Press Trash) and Confirm with 'Clear'
10. Current Activity Icon incorrectly shows 'Green' for 'Active'
11. Open Current Activity page: Time and Distance are not counting, holding steady at 'zero'

This sequence of events leaves the user with a Current Activity Icon that indicates the current track is being recorded when in fact it is not.Either the icon is wrong, or the track recording behavior is wrong. With Auto Start = Off, I tend to blame the Icon, as I would expect clearing a track would imply stopping the recording process until the user again presses 'play' to start a new track log.

03. When navigating to a geocache as a destination while in the 'Activity Mode', upon arrival at the geocache coordinates, the previously selected 'Active Geocache' is no longer active. This does not occur in 'Classic Mode' (which is correct behavior).

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These are all fundamental flaws in the operation of this GPSr.

It appears Garmin may have abandoned development of this GPSr even before it was released.
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