Garmin 550 Plus and Mini collar

I think I'm going to buy a 200i before next season. Another forum was talking about the watches, somebody linked a watch not targeted to the 'hunting' crowd that was substantially cheaper, that worked just as well with the Garmin devices. Like $120 instead of several hundred dollars.
 
Garmin Vivoactive integrates with the collar transmitters. This link at target shows it as $150, but a month or so ago I was googling and found them for $99 at walmart.

 
Tuesday, open field kansas, transmitter un paired 4 times in one field. Had called garmin previous week, not much help. Called LCS where i purchased the collar. apparently there is a tracking and pairing glitch, need to download an updated garmin express app into transmitter and collar seperately. ok. collar download went fine. busted the usb-mini plug trying to plug into transmitter. then busted the charging harness trying to put the busted usb-mini plug into the harness. Hope to find new cables in town. doesnt look promising. expensive distraction so far.
 
update. i bought the new wiring harnesses that i had busted. next, tried to do the new update. the transmitter wouldn't register. found out you are not supposed to use the charging splitter cable for downloads. got both transmitter and tt mini to update on garmin express. took the collar and dog out to run. i gave it every chance to work. near, far, moving, stopped, laid the collar in yard and walked around it, waited well over the 2-1/2 second update speed. the arrow was always 15-20 degrees off, short distances 10-100 feet off by at least 20 feet. talked to garmin, mailed it across town, they quickly sent me a refurbished unit. same test, arrow never seems to catch up to the dog, even when stopped, with point icon and buzzer, distances suspect. did the yard test again. again, constantly 10 degrees off as i move around the collar ,stop and wait, and usually 20 feet off. if i wait about 30 seconds the arrow and distance catch up to what i think is acceptable accuracy, but still 5 degrees off. i tried holding the transmitter in several positions. i wasted too much time with it last season, and lost track of my setter in tall switchgrass trying to follow the arrow and distance, instead of just watching. is it me, am i expecting too much, or am i just not tech savvy enough for garmins simplest? the good news, he responds instantly to the tone button.
 
What kind of transmitter do you have?
Have you calibrated the compass?
 
garmin pro 550 plus. everytime i test, and it shows to be off distance and direction, i calibrate the transmitter, and i try holding the transmitter in different positions.
 
I have a alpha 100. Calibrating the compass was the first thing that came to mind. I'm not going to be of any help on the 550. Good luck!
 
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