Garmin Astro Problems

[DIXIEDOG]

DIXIEDOG I know this may Sound Stupid BUT did you Fully Charge your Collars before setting it up?????

Yes I fully charged the collars and put new Duracell batteries in the handheld. I went back through my instruction manual to make sure I didn't miss something but if I did I missed it twice

I definitely want to get this figured out because about everyone says this system is the best thing since sliced bread and I really like slice bread so I think once I figure out my issues I'll be a happy camper

[Kelly]

I also hear of guys getting 6-8 miles . One of mine plays out at about 600 yds and the other about twice that far, I down loaded the current upgrades from Garmin but don't know what your talking about when you say the collars need upgradeing. Does the long distance antenna make a difference?I love mine for my beagles but need more range for my coyote dog. CVT

[DIXIEDOG]

I also hear of guys getting 6-8 miles . One of mine plays out at about 600 yds and the other about twice that far, I down loaded the current upgrades from Garmin but don't know what your talking about when you say the collars need upgradeing. Does the long distance antenna make a difference?I love mine for my beagles but need more range for my coyote dog. CVT

I did updates to the handheld and to each of the collars.

[TallPaul]

First thing you need to understand GPS and it's capablities
all hand held and collar applications are Point positioning units or navigation solution, their accuracy is only +/- 100 feet, they are not capable of the necessary corrections for anything better. They rely on coded pseudorange measurements, and that signal is affected or interrupted by vegetation 'trees' and it's accuracy is dependant on GPS satelite configuration, which changes through the day from day to day. If you are expecting the unit to tell you, your dog is 50 feet away and look and actually see that the dog is 50 feet away, you would need a unit that does relative postioning, which they don't make for dogs. which if they did, you couldn't afford it.
Don't expect Mercedes performance from your craftsman mower.

[jakemoore]

I can't figure out how to update the collars.... I got the unit updated but i can't figure out the rest... Is there a cable for the collars or do they update through the unit????

[DIXIEDOG]

I can't figure out how to update the collars.... I got the unit updated but i can't figure out the rest... Is there a cable for the collars or do they update through the unit????

They go through the unit. You need to have your unit hooked to your computer and the collar on and close to the unit. I'll try to find a link on how to do it, I saw the info somewhere

[jakemoore]

Hey thanks dixie I tried that but don't really know what I am doing!!!

[DIXIEDOG]

Hey thanks dixie I tried that but don't really know what I am doing!!!

I'm drawing from memory here but I'll tell you what I did

I used the Webupdater just like you use to update your handheld
I hooked up my cable to the handheld
I turned my collar on
Then I went to the dog page and hit enter on the name of the collar I wanted to update
I pressed menu...there was an option of something like "update collar unit" or something similar
I pressed enter on the update collar option
Then the handheld said something along the lines of ready for update .... (bear with me I don't have my unit here)
Then on my computer I clicked find device
When the DC30 popped up I just hit finish or next whichever option pops up
It will go through a few times where it says updating then verifying just let it do it's thing, when it's done it will tell you and you just click finish.

You need to repeat this process for each collar.