Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Concord, VA
Posts: 292

I have been using my Garmin for about a year and love it. A couple of things concern me a bit. I hear guys talking about 4 and 5 mile range and I'm not getting near that. Not quite a mile wihtout the truck antennae and just over with it. Could be the terrain here in central va. Any ideas? I have never hooked it up to the computer to download any updates from Garmin either. Should I do this and if so what will it do for me.


Thanks

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Los Angeles, MN
Posts: 4236

I have never done an update either.

Mine works as well as they ones that have done all the updates.

Depending on terrain mine starts loosing signal ocasionaly at over 800 yards, Over 1.5 miles I have to move to get a signal back.

This is with the stock antenna.

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Registered: Sep 2010
Location: New Paris, Indiana
Posts: 7076

I have done all the updates including the collar updates and have never gained any noticeable increase in range from any of them. I have noticed that I get fewer momentary lossed connections since I did the 3.5 collar update.

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Based upon my personal experience I feel a little different about the updates than JiM does. I have to say JiM is one of the best all round information guys on the board and I perhaps can see why he feels the way he does. For a long time I did not recommed the updates because most of the updates were for compatibility when interfacing with your computer. If you have one system and have kept it up you may never notice the differences but take a system suffering then the UPDATES can make a big difference.
With that said I always cringe when I am doing someone elses system which is often. The reason is if there is a glitch once the update starts with the power or computer your collar or handheld will probably have to go back to garmin becasue part of the update erases before it put new data back in.
Here is what I have seen the updates over the past year do for the garmin. The collars will hook up a lot quicker once updated.
I have sent out a lot of 6+ dog systems and I hook all them up before leaving here. It use to take some doing and shutting down and restarting. Now as fast as you can push the buttons the collars will hook up. I have seen over the past 4 months several systems that were down to about 600 yards in range. Updates to the collars and Astro 220 got them performing at a mile. The update that came out about a month ago has been the best one yet. It solved the issues with the DC 40's and everyone I have talked to says side by side they out perform the 30's and sometimes the worst case is equal to the 30's.
Again let me stress you must be careful when doing the updates cause a system glitch will also cause a collar to be useless. I probably have a failure rate of 1 out of 30 that doesn't make it through the update process. With that said it wasn't much good to begin with so repairs are in order.
I have about 20 collars laying here now to update and I better get busy. Hopefully all twenty will be working when I am done. lol

Last edited by on 10-08-2010 at 07:30 PM

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Concord, VA
Posts: 292

So you update the collars and the handheld unit? Didn't realize a collar could be hooked up to the computer. Would you reccomend going thru the updates in order and get them all if I decide to do so?

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Registered: Nov 2005
Location:
Posts: 164

quote:

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Originally posted by JiM
I have done all the updates including the collar updates and have never gained any noticeable increase in range from any of them. I have noticed that I get fewer momentary lossed connections since I did the 3.5 collar update.

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Chester the collars are hooked up through the Astro 220.

Have your collar on next to your astro that is hooked up to the computer by the usb cable.
Select the collar from the DOG page you want to update and hit enter.
That should take you to the page that shows battery life and signal strength.
Press MENU and from the menu select UPGRADE DOG UNIT which is at the bottom of the list on my system.
Run your webupdater and it will see the DC 30 or 40 that is connected.

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Hounded there is probably some truth in what you say about Garmin putting a delay in the latch circuit. It is not that big a deal, common practice in over sensitive circuits and doesn't mask anything unless the delay is long enough to effectively cause you to not be able to track your dog.
A five second delay wouldn't hurt a thing and apparently has made a lot of people happy. Like I said. I agree with you and feel that was part of the update. I can't agree that is all they did. Like I said I have updated many dc 30 collars with the 3.5 update and it is making those collars perform better and the owners happy.
In my business that is what it is all about.

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