EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

I just bought Hogsgonewild's Garmin setup.  I received it in the mail today.  Everything was in good shape just as described.  I did take the time to do the most recent updates found on the Garmin website.  Bruce Conkey who has litterally sold 1000's of the DC-30 told me to do the updates, as he was seeing better results with the latest software.  I upgraded 3 of the 4 collars.  I am going to do some testing tonight to see what the range difference is.  I'll let you all know tomorrow what I find.

Regards,
Josh

I updated 2 Garmin Astros 220's (1 mine, 1 my buddies) to the latest software upgrade. I also updated 3 of the 4 DC-30's to the newest software for the DC-30. I loaded all 4 collars into both ASTRO's. Tonight when I got home, I turned everything on. The 3 upgraded collars triple blinked meaning the had great reception. We drove away from our house at a slow rate of speed. At around 1 mile as the crow flies from the collars, I began loosing reception on the collar that was not updated. The 3 that were updated were loosing and picking back up signal at 1.51 miles. Tara and Emily wanted to get back home, so we stopped our research for the night. I saw enough of a difference to recommend updating your equipment. I will update the last collar tomorrow.

Thanks for the info. We updated ours last night, will test them this weekend for opening weekend!!!!!!!!   :)

i knew you should update the Astro, but how do you update the dc-30's?
 ???

You link your Astro to the USB.  Then on the Astro screen for the collar you want to update, you hit menu.  Choose update collar.  The Astro will update it while linked to the computer (garmin website) via radio waves.  It only takes several minutes.   Well worth the time.

Thanks - Will try it tonight!

well im computer illiterate  how do u link ure garmin to the usb an all that an wuts garmin website

You keep using the Beep Beep system.   :D

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloadsUpdates.jsp?product=010-00596-01&cID=209&pID=8576

You will need the USB cord that came with the Astro 220.  Once you are logged on to the site, refer to your owner's manual.  It will walk you through the steps of upgrading your software.

Regards

thank u

This would probably be a good "sticky" if one of you would take the time to write out an explanation of what you are doing.

I updated mine and it seemed to help on my initial test.

just updated mine  its great

Have you range tested them yet?  If so, what difference did you see?

yea  i used to lose em round 900 yrds   it was over a mile an somethin b4 it started goin in an out of reception  but when i stopped for a min it picked up at 2.6 miles

Awsome   ;D

took it to the woods  wasnt as good as at work but it was way better than it was b4 i upgraded   i recomend upgrading 

thanks for the info... i'll get mine updated before the next hunt...

upgraded 2 handhelds and 6 collars . took the dogs out yesterday ,man theres a serious difference. only dropped signal once but got it right back at a mile and the dog might have been in the creek . wish i new about this sooner  . thanks

i got a new dc 40 an it beat the updated collars by half a mile   got mine for 215 bucks   

You can buy them for $185 at erwin

wuts erwins website

I upgraded my unit and my collars tonight.  Thanks for the info, is deer season out yet???

Hey BugBuster now maybe you can track Zip the whole hunth

I upgraded my unit and collars the other night, the collars are blinking three times. I took it out last night and it won't keep reception on the collars. It will pick up a collar for a minute or so, then lose it for a long time... showing a "?" for that dog. I added one of Mandi's collars and it tracked hers just fine.

Any ideas before I go to Garmin?????

Mike,

Reload the upgraded software. My Astro did have issues 1 time, I reloaded it, and it worked fine. The triple blinks means it has great reception. Let us know what happens.

Should I reload the unit and the collars or just the collars?

unit an collars both 

Definitely update it all Mike, it is free just takes a little time.

Curr dog, you know you can't under estimate those Kemmers.......

where can i get a usb port

It is the flat plug in on your computer.

Me and SC Hog Wild upgraded his collars tonight made a test run picked one collar up at 2.12 miles it was in an F-250 running 60 mph not quite has fast as our dogs can chase them on private porperty but close enough

ok..........updated collars & unit tonight............Off for a days hunting tomorrow morning...Will let ya know if i have improvement!  ;)

I updated my collars and unit again three different times last night... same problem. The collars will pick for a minute or two... then it will drop them. Every now and then they will pop up, then drop again. They worked fine before the upgrade... I contacted Garmin, we'll see what they say. ???

When Curr Dog and I updated my collars it was doing something like that. We were standing close to a metal building we think was causing the problem so we moved away from the building and it seems to be working fine now. I think that was the same collar that we picked up for 2 miles...

hey SC Hog Wild you forget to turn the collar off last night I seen where you went hunting HAHA

i know what it is but do u plug your collars in or what    ??? ???

John

-First you will have to install the webupdater off the Garmin web site onto your pc.
-second you will plug your astro into your computer via. USB
-third you will have to follow the directions on the webupdater, choose astro and download the new software
-Fourth you will have to turn your collars on and choose dc40, dc30 etc. and update them individually while your astro is still plugged in

The collars update through the hand held while it is attached to the computer

erwincomp.com if you have'nt found it by now.  They have the best prices that I know of.  Collars and the hand held.

Mike i was wondering if you heard back  from garmin hunted twice with my updated handheld and collars and tracking is terrible reloaded everything still nothing is thier a way to down grade back to what i had before

They had me send all my collars back to them... hopefully i'll get them back next week. Give them a call or send them an e-mail, looks like a lot of folks are having issues with the collar upgrade.

Mike I have sent several collars back to them and believe it or not it has never taken over 5 days to get it back

Garmin sent me three brand new collars. ;D They have the triple blink... we'll see how they do.

I want to send out a "thank you" to all the guys on this site that posted info on the Garmin updates. I was able to update my unit and collars last week, but I am not that great on computers. Luckily, I have a full-time computer GEEK in my office and he just loves playing with new stuff!!!!!!

We got the unit and 2 -DC30's and even updated an old DC20 in about 15 minutes, but he ran this program like Superman, and half the time I didn't know what he was doing.

Results: This past weekend I used my tracking dog (Jagdterrier) on a deer shot with a question of a miss for a friend. No visible signs of a hit, but we wanted to run the dog to make sure anyway. The dog usually makes cirlces out to 200 - 250 yards when we are "looking" for a deer almost identical to if he was looking for anything else. When he starts taking a line, he is on something and when he stops, he is at the deer 99% of the time. If it is a good hit, and good sign - it usually takes a line and everytime he stops it is a wound bed or a dead deer.

Well, this day, he made several circles and we ended up about 200 yards from the shot, when he rolls out on something. Immediately, I could tell a difference on the unit or the collar. It may be a figure of my imagination, but the unit seemed to be updating faster than usual, and I could track the dog further than ever. He actually came out on another road and we were able to actually see where the deer crossed the road, drove around and located the exact spot where the dog crossed. Sure enough we had a fresh deer track there, but no signs of a wounded deer. We were able to call the dog in and chalked it up to a miss. So far, happy w/ update!