Looking for a DC40 update

[Buddyw]

1. What update intervol were you using? I only hunt on 30 second updates, Every collar I have goes to 30 second updates. I don't use 5 or 10 second updates, Personally it uses too much battery life and I would rather have 30 hours of tracking then 17 hours. on 5 or 10 seconds the Collar will most likely be dead in the morning.

2. What software are you using in the DC40?
This is the second DC40 collar I've tried, and it was about 1 month old purchased in December, I got it to try out in hte deep snow on my cougar hunt, but just never got a good chance to really give it a good Try in the snow., I'd have to check agin but I think it was the 3.6, might have bee the 3.5 update. My DC30 collars are not updated at all.. I keep meaning to update them since they should be getter also but they've never given me any reason to worry about them yet.

3. What signal was dropping out, the GPS or Comm?
GPS signal every time, It woudl show the GPS bars in Red, I almost took photos and video's of it because I'm sure some people wouldn't have beleived it. But This Unit acted just like the Last one I had.

4. How did you know within 3 minutes?
I made sure the Collar was Tripple Blinking, before I put it on the dog, but as soon as the dog Hit the woods the ? came on and we had to wait 10 minutes for it to pop back up and Show us where the dogs were on the GPS.

Once I hiked down to the Dogs, I also had to Grab the collar on the dog and Point it towards the sky so it up so that my wife knew where we would hit the road below us.

I was hunting the Cascades with Tall timber and lots of Reprod, I don't know if that makes a difference or not compared to your Type of woods. But everyone of my DC30s track awsome compared to the DC40.

Bottom line is I just don t like fiddling around with the DC40, I like to throw collars on dogs and go Hunting, Not check and baby sit the DC40 to make sure I have the right update, the right Tripple blink, and everything ready to turn loose on a Track.

If you like the DC40 send me your name, I have guys call me from time to time who bought the DC40 and will trade them in the price of a DC30. Some of these collars aren't more than a couple weeks old, they just don't want to deal with Returning them. I'm sure It would be a Mutual benifit for them and you.

I wish I could say they worked good, right now I have a pile of customers waiting for DC30's that are backordered and I have acess to a bigger Pile of DC40's that could ship today.. But I just can't honestly tell them that the DC40 is better than the dc30.. And I've had Plenty of People who have bought the DC40's tell me that my review is spot on and they wished they never boght the DC40s.. I've had 2-3 people in the last 6 months actually tell me they loved the DC40, (One of which updated his unit like garmin requested and it stopped working as good and started lossing Signal after the update so he returned it to cabela's and Bought DC30's so I'm not sure which mark to put him under.. I've lost quite a few Orders because I just can't ship them a DC30 the last two weeks, and I don't feel right pushing them to the DC40 even though it would make my life much easier in the short time.

[sheimer]

Buddy, thank you for taking the time to respond. I am just morbidly curious as I don't own a DC40 nor feel the need. I actually use the dinosaur DC20's, which I believe to be very similar to a 40. I have done all the upgrades that are out for the 40 and have great luck with them. I was hunting the other day and I had every bit as good GPS signal as my buddies DC30's and before the 3.6 upgrade I had issues with it. Granted, I don't have the timber you do.

I agree with you whole heartedly, I want to open my collar box, throw them on and let the dogs go, period.

Thanks again,

Scott

[Buddyw]

No problem, That's the General conscious is they work about the same as the DC20's.. I'm going to check that collar and find out if it's the 3.6 version. If I would have had Internet connection at Camp I would have made sure it was fully upgraded with any new releases it out in the woods that morning because I have seen improvements in the first DC40 collar I tested, But it still was not as good as the DC30's. last I heard was Garmin was holding all DC40's to make sure all the new ones had the latest updates so I figure I was good to go, but I should probably double Check it to give it full consderation..

Some of the Problem is I don't hunt with the DC40 mostly because my confidence is completely blown away on them so I probably will never trust them and I don't get overly excited to throw it on a dog and add weight.. I was just surprised in the 5 hours of Actually Races that I did this week with it how badly it was performing.

I need to hunt with someone that doesn't have GPS collars and I can throw it on their dog!! ;D
Buddy

[Steve White]

Scott, Good post. I was going to ask the same stuff, but seen a shiny object.

Buddy, those PHD classes for cats are pretty tough hey!!

[doghunter]

Thanks for the info Buddy really helps me decide. anyone every had a loss of range when they updated the collars?

I updated all my DC 30's and bought a new DC 30 I can track the new one great but the 5 old dc 30s i updated suck with range any ideas.

[Steve White]

DH- There are 2 things to try. First check to make sure you did get the update installed. Indentify the collar and it should say 3.6. Next reset the comm settings. make sure they are set to the interval you normally use. IF this fails. Then try to reset the collar by unplugging the battery. It will clear the cmos of any corrupt data. You could also try re-installing the software.

Lastly check the ID of the new collar. Try setting a few in the same ID range as the new one. In some areas the lower numbers work better, and vice versa in others. Some collars also just work better on different id's. I have one that works great in the 40's, but worth a crap in the 10's.

[joshtee]

So, are most people seeing improvement updating thier dc30's? I do not want to update mine if there is a chance it will be worse.

[Steve White]

Josh, yes most are seeing the improvements that were made. That is why they were made!! Here is a list of the changes.

Change History

Changes made from version 3.50 to 3.60:

* Communication settings retained during software upgrade.

Changes made from version 3.40 to 3.50:

* Improved GPS performance.
* Added triple blink to indicate a high quality GPS fix.

Changes made from version 3.00 to 3.40:

* Added support for DC40.
* Increased battery life.

[Powder River Walker]

I have been hunting with my DC30 3.6 collers (brand new) in some nasty rock canyons that you can't get around anyway but walking. I have found that if I am down in the bottom of a canyon and the dogs blow out the top then yes I loose signal. once you climb out you pick it right back up. But I have never lost signal with my dogs closer then 500 yards out in any canyon. I can't complain about them at all.
PRW

[DeVuono311]

I think one of my main concerns to add to the fact that the dc40 has horrible signal status, but also from my understanding is the dc40 is not even water-proof. Too often can a dog take that plunge to NOT be worried about it. We all hunt in different terrain, ALL types of terrain should be considered. The dc30s are water-proof, why wouldnt they waterproof the 40's? Or was I fed a load of B.S. regarding the dc40's being waterproof?

[sheimer]

I think one of my main concerns to add to the fact that the dc40 has horrible signal status, but also from my understanding is the dc40 is not even water-proof. Too often can a dog take that plunge to NOT be worried about it. We all hunt in different terrain, ALL types of terrain should be considered. The dc30s are water-proof, why wouldnt they waterproof the 40's? Or was I fed a load of B.S. regarding the dc40's being waterproof?

Hope it didn't taste too bad. They are waterproof. They just loose signal when underwater.

Scott

[DeVuono311]

LOL, thanks for clearing that up Scott, I figured it could've been a load but the idea concerned me. Glad it was cleared up! LOL. Thanks again.

[Steve White]

Made to IPX7 standards to be exact.

Seems a lot of this stuff stems from coffee shop discussion. I know a guys that does nothing but bad mouth anything and everything about them. He does not own one, or has ever hunted with one. Just what he hears from a few people so it must be the gospel. No internet, no mags, just what comes from the coffee shop.

They last thing from him was. They are junk because anyone can change your collar channel at any time. When I explained how that was not true, and how it was done. That it would be the same as my putting a magnet in any other collar. It became, well that's what I heard. Just told 2 days ago, by the same guy. That the price on them was going down. You can buy them now for less than $300. I said I would take 100 right now. Shut him up once again!!!

[joshtee]

Josh, yes most are seeing the improvements that were made. That is why they were made!! Here is a list of the changes.

It seems that most of the "updates" have come out after the release of the DC40. So it seems "that's why they were they made!!" would mostly apply to the dc40 instead of the dc30.

[Steve White]

There actually has only been 3 updates since the DC40. Only the changes since the release are shown. Don't let that take away from the importance of doing them. The updates are for all the collars. So all collars will benefit from the updates.

Still 3.6 for collars, and 3.5 for astro's.