Sig Kilo 8K and BaseMap

[randycw]

I recently acquired a Sig Kilo 8k and am learning to make use of its feature set. I am stumped on getting it to properly work with BaseMap! It is very likely some bonehead item I am missing.

When I range a known target (in this case from out of my office window to the local community college gym) the Sig shows 3,088 yards at 4N, while the Remote Marker shown on BaseMap is at 3,560 at 42N -- nowhere near the college gym on the map (indeed there is 0.8 of a mile difference)! I have recalibrated the compasses on both the Kilo and my phone with no real change in the result. I could sure use some troubleshooting help!

 

[randycw]

Just an update in case anyone else runs into the same, or similar, issue.

Sig's tech support was not very helpful at all. Acted like I was bothering them with the call. Suggested I pull the battery from the Kilo and then re-calibrate the compass, even though the Sig compass and Basemap compass were in agreement. We tried this -- no improvement. Sig then said it would be best to contact Basemap support. Spent maybe 3 minutes talking to someone.

So far Basemap support has been outstanding. They had me try several remote markers and send them bug reports from the app with each attempt. They stayed on the phone the entire time of doing this -- roughly a 30 minute call. They are combing those bug reports now to see what they can sort out. They have contacted me, via email, each of the last 2 days to give me a status update on what they've worked out -- which is not much to report yet, but there does seem to be a bug in the data. They have escalated the issue to the programmers.

I am not even a BaseMap customer -- I am running the free version of their app -- and they are treating me like this! I am very likely to upgrade to their Pro (paid) version for the year and see if I can get the functionality out of it that I have enjoyed with onX.

I attached a couple of screenshots to demonstrate the issue. The yellow pins are what Basemap interprets from the Sig data. The green pin I manually added to show what the Sig was actually ranging.

 

[Tucker65]

Thanks for the update. I'm having the same problem with my new Kilo 8K. I have the paid version of Basemap also and my remote waypoints seem to be about 40* off from the actual ranged object. I've tried calibrating my phone, the Basemap app itself, and the range finder mulitiple times and it seems to have the same outcome.

I'll try and contact Sig or Basemap support at some point to try and get it ironed out. Hopefully what they find with your issue will help everyone that has the same problem

 

[randycw]

Similar here. Most of the time the Basemap pin is roughly 40 degrees off of the actual, but not always. It seems to range from 10 to 90 degrees, but most land in that 40 area. Also the Basemap distance is nearly always exaggerated (i.e. When I range a water tower from my house the Sig shows it to be 3,088 yards -- incidentally using the county digitized map and ruler tool shows 3,087 yards -- but the point on Basemap using the draw line tool shows the distance from that point to my house at 3,463 yards.

 

[stiff neck]

Same problem here with my Kilo5K and remote marking. The marker is always off by 15-20 degrees. I calibrated the compass, pulled the battery, uninstalled the app and re-installed, etc etc to no avail. BaseMap support is responsive via email, but they act like it's my unique problem and say it's an issue with MY phone's compass (newer Samsung android). NOPE. I'm not the only one with this problem. At this point, remote marker is a useless gimmick.

There's exactly zero online reviews of it working correctly. The only real world "review" I saw was a bear hunting video where they shot a bear at 500-600 yards and dropped a pin with their Sig rangefinder, but then couldn't find the bear until the next day. Maybe because the marker was off!

 

[randycw]

BaseMap support is responsive via email, but they act like it's my unique problem and say it's an issue with MY phone's compass (newer Samsung android). NOPE. I'm not the only one with this problem. At this point, remote marker is a useless gimmick.

Well, I am disappointed to report that Basemap tech support has gone silent on me -- no response in the last 12 days to two follow up emails and a voicemail. So for the time being, there is no solution being offered either from Sig nor Basemap; therefore I'd suggest that the remote marker function advertised by Sig is strictly a gimmick and should not be considered at all in your buying decision! (Fortunately, the remote marker function was not part of my purchase choice.)

 

[Mike D Texas]

Well, I am disappointed to report that Basemap tech support has gone silent on me -- no response in the last 12 days to two follow up emails and a voicemail. So for the time being, there is no solution being offered either from Sig nor Basemap; therefore I'd suggest that the remote marker function advertised by Sig is strictly a gimmick and should not be considered at all in your buying decision! (Fortunately, the remote marker function was not part of my purchase choice.)

That's disappointing. This is the direction I was planning to go instead of the Revic strictly because of the tagging feature.

 

[stiff neck]

Yep. Remote marker via laser is purely a gimmick. Prove me wrong. Shame on you Sig and Basemap.

 

[Barbourcreek]

I will check in the next few days the magnetic compass was the problem I believe. Let me see of it was fixed. I was told they were working on it by the folks who program it. They have been to my shooting school training and we discussed this.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I will check in the next few days the magnetic compass was the problem I believe. Let me see of it was fixed. I was told they were working on it by the folks who program it. They have been to my shooting school training and we discussed this.

I'll be interested in what you find. My Kilo 2k is officially dead after 8 years so I'm looking. I like the features of the Kilo 8k over the Revic and The Vortex Fury 5000.

 

[Barbourcreek]

I'll be interested in what you find. My Kilo 2k is officially dead after 8 years so I'm looking. I like the features of the Kilo 8k over the Revic and The Vortex Fury 5000.

8k is the better of the 2 in my opinion
Vortex is slow. It will annoy you.

 

[Mike D Texas]

8k is the better of the 2 in my opinion
Vortex is slow. It will annoy you.

Good to know. I've watched your video review on both.

 

[pupdistress]

Same issue with 8k. I was hoping it was going to work last week but sadly…

Have you guys verified the inclinometer is accurate. I've done a little comparing so far with iPhone apps and other peoples devices and it looks to be a couple degrees different. I think -13 on sig will be -14 to -15 on others. I don't notice discrepancies as much on single digit inclines or declines. Could the basemap issue be tied to inclinometer and azimuth not in agreement?

 

[pupdistress]

I'll post my firmware when I get to it later today. In the mean time could anyone post the firmware they are currently using? I'm not convinced my firmware is correctly updated