eTrex SE Firmware 4.20

[GPSrChive]

Garmin published eTrex SE Firmware version 4.20 on December 09, 2023:

Changes made to version 4.20:

• Added Nautical and Yard scale to map.
• Added hectares units to area calc.
• Improved boot times.
• Improved activity name formats.
• Fixed activity auto pause feature.
• Fixed Weather Page Temperature off screen when temperature was three digits.
• Fixed issue sometimes not getting a message when arriving at a destination.
• Fixed ‘Find Next Closest’ Geocache feature.
• Fixed possible issue when editing glances list.

Please report your observations about this firmware release, good or bad, here!

[kot7OpHyd]

Thank you for this. I was looking for the changelog to read online.

[gps_techie]

Update went smoothly, maybe it will make Etrex SE usable (compared to continuous reboots with previous FW).

I noticed small bug - in data table (statistics) view, with current speed and max speed enabled, max speed is lagging slightly (maybe half a second or less) from current speed. How to reproduce - reset all stats and start accelerating (in a car or bicycle), so that speed is always climbing. Display will show something like [current speed, kmh; max speed, kmh]:
[0; 1] [3; 1] [6; 3] [10; 6] [15; 10] [15; 15] and decel [10; 15] [0; 15]

That is, max speed is showed correctly, but with small lag. Calculation of max speed is very easy, I see no reason why max speed display should be lagging from current speed.

[kot7OpHyd]

For the max speed value, possibly the device is acquiring/smoothing multiple samples spaced over a small interval before it updates the max speed value to avoid bogus jumps. Or maybe even Kalman filtering.

[gps_techie]

IMO, momentary speed is already "filtered" to show reasonable values and max speed is straightforward application of max(current_speed; max_speed). I haven't seen bogus speed values so far.
It feels like each box with value in stats view acts independently and checks for its data value update, leading to small lag (instead of global update of all values at once).

[gps_techie]

Today I looked at max speed update more carefully. Lag is very small or non existant in most cases, no issue to discuss.

[gps_techie]

Max speed update lag seems to increase with higher and higher speed (at >70km/h it is more noticeable), but lag is very small, not easy to notice.

4.20 FW works fine, I have not experienced any crashes so far (which were very annoying before) or any bugs in my use.

Exported data form *.fit activity files has time stamps and lat/long location, but in bad signal reception areas (inside buildings, etc.) location entries are null (timestamp and null lat/long). Are missing (empty) locations supposed to be logged in activity file?

[gps_techie]

After long tracking session (>10h) eTrex SE experienced significant slow down (pause).
Conditions when bug occured:

• FW 4.20 (latest)
• regular tracking with 1s interval
• screen is always in "Satellite" view
• record activity for ~10h
• press back to go to main screen
• then select "Tracking" with OK - eTrex SE froze for what felt like 10-20s, then went into tracking screen

Not sure if this a bug, but it felt just short losing all that 10h track log.

[gps_techie]

Noticed small bug/annoyance. After saving activity, distance and duration are not reset for half a second.

To reproduce:
1) collect some tracking data
2) go to save track (note that current duration and distance is shown), press save track
3) black screen with text "saving" is shown
4) screen goes back to a state with previous duration and distance numbers for 0.5-1 second, then these numbers go back to 0.
After saving duration and distance should immediately by zeros. Quicker reset is needed.