contrast on etrex vista

[Euan Uzami]

Is there any way to up the contrast? I find the pastel colours that it chooses fairly hard to see in bright sunlight.
Is any particular colour of glasses lenses better for reading the screen in fairly sunny conditions?

[andygates]

Angling the unit nice and square gives best daytime contrast.  For the operating screens, there are colour schemes to choose from.

The map itself is set by the map makers, so I can't help you there.  My OSM munkymaps are higher contrast because the low contrast of Garmins in daytime annoyed me

[frankly frankie]

Presumably polarised specs might help in some situations.  I don't know why the glass has to be so reflective (it is remarkably tough though).  The Garmin map colour is just daft - if the default 'land' were white instead of khaki it would help a lot ...

[robgul]

Slightly off topic but .... my etrex Legend HCx doesn't "hold" the brightness setting when the machine is switched off - it defaults to the bottom of the slider when switched on again.

Am I missing a setting - or is that just how it is?   If it is it's a PITA

... and have to agree on the Mapsource colours - make it difficult to read

Rob

[tonycollinet]

On my oregon - if I turn OFF the "relief shading" I get a much higher contrast map. That is with AG's munkymaps

[Kim]

Slightly off topic but .... my etrex Legend HCx doesn't "hold" the brightness setting when the machine is switched off - it defaults to the bottom of the slider when switched on again.

Am I missing a setting - or is that just how it is?   If it is it's a PITA

Don't know about the Legend, but on the Vista the backlight comes on at the level defined in the 'Display' settings.  The second press of the power button turns it to 100%, and the third turns it off again.  While the backlight slider is visible you can manually tweak it to taste.

[andygates]

Ditto the Venture.  I'd expect it to be the same. 

[frankly frankie]

But IMO what Rob's saying is correct, and it is indeed a PITA.  When you power up, the backlight 'preset' defaults to 0.   So in situations where the backlight automatically kicks in - it doesn't.   Justified on grounds of battery-saving I suppose, but it is very clunky.

[andygates]

Well, on mine it comes up in the previous-slider level.  If you've turned the backlight off by sliding that down to nil, it will indeed stay dark.

[Euan Uzami]

Angling the unit nice and square gives best daytime contrast.  For the operating screens, there are colour schemes to choose from.

The map itself is set by the map makers, so I can't help you there.  My OSM munkymaps are higher contrast because the low contrast of Garmins in daytime annoyed me

so are you saying that if I transferred your maps onto my garmin then it would render in different colours?
would the route line also render in a different colour to the annoying pastel pink colour that it currently does?

The only way I currently know to transfer maps to the device is using the Garmin MapSource software, i presume there is a similar method for yours? EDIT: oh i see there is a procedure in the readme.txt. might try that, thanks

[Euan Uzami]

But IMO what Rob's saying is correct, and it is indeed a PITA.  When you power up, the backlight 'preset' defaults to 0.   So in situations where the backlight automatically kicks in - it doesn't.   Justified on grounds of battery-saving I suppose, but it is very clunky.

yeah i find that a pita too. it's on a timer anyway, so why can't it just always come on when you press a button...
or just when in night mode? it knows when it's night anyway, as it renders the maps in nighttime colours...

[andygates]

so are you saying that if I transferred your maps onto my garmin then it would render in different colours?
would the route line also render in a different colour to the annoying pastel pink colour that it currently does?

Yes. Though you might hate it just as much. 

No.  That pink seems hardcoded.

[frankly frankie]

Well, on mine it comes up in the previous-slider level.

When you press the backlight button?

I have 3 different generations of Legend C and on all of them, after switch-on the first press of the backlight button just displays the slider at 0, it requires a 2nd press to ramp it to the previous mid-slider level.
So, although it retains the preset level, it doesn't default to that level at switch-on, it defaults to 0.  So turn prompts don't light up, it requires a clumsy 3-click sequence to activate this useful feature, each time you switch on.

[andygates]

Must be an actual difference then.  Mine comes up at the mid-level if one was set, so turn signals do, indeed, light up.  Venture Cx.