They are definitely different. Their were some upgrades made after the 701 was discontinued so to speak. I wouldn't use a 901 video as a reference for a 701 for all aspects of capabilities.
Garmin Foretrex 901 and the system
- Thread starter Ziloooo
- Start date
I'm also finding the connection between my Kestrel 5700X Elite (WEZ upgraded) and Foretrex 901 (both running latest available firmware as of Oct 5, 2025) unreliable to the point of it being unusable for any serious application. The Kestrel constantly needs to be "soft reset" (battery removal + 30 sec power press) to be rediscovered. It was working okay-ish for a while, but now it's disappeared again and the Foretrex can't find it once more and I can't be bothered anymore to try and figure out the magic dance to make it pair again.
With the Kestrel connected the Foretrex also rebooted more than you'd like to see from a ballistic solver intended to be used on the clock in high pressure situations.
I've reverted to just using an old Garmin Tempe for temperature (which has a dedicated sensor slot on the Foretrex 901) and I'm using a Calypso AB mini for wind data (which at least with the latest AB quantum sourced firmware seems reliable).
The AB sensor slot on the Foretrex 901 toggles between a Vector X LRF and the AB Mini reliably, so that's been a decent enough workflow. Although it would be ideal if the Foretrex 901 would support multiple AB sensor slots like how the Tactix 7 and 8 can handle as well (cc @DocUSMCRetired).
The only thing I'm missing is humidity without the Kestrel, but luckily that's not a real contributor to air density, so I just set it and forget it at 50%. The LRF provide dof/range/inclination, the AB mini provides wind brackets, the Garmin Tempe provides temperature, and the Foretrex itself provides latitude and station pressure.
I have the wind meter mounted on a panning base so I can use the Foretrex compass to point it true north quickly in a new position and I have the AB solver on the Foretrex configured to calculate relative to said true north wind.
With the Kestrel connected the Foretrex also rebooted more than you'd like to see from a ballistic solver intended to be used on the clock in high pressure situations.
I've reverted to just using an old Garmin Tempe for temperature (which has a dedicated sensor slot on the Foretrex 901) and I'm using a Calypso AB mini for wind data (which at least with the latest AB quantum sourced firmware seems reliable).
The AB sensor slot on the Foretrex 901 toggles between a Vector X LRF and the AB Mini reliably, so that's been a decent enough workflow. Although it would be ideal if the Foretrex 901 would support multiple AB sensor slots like how the Tactix 7 and 8 can handle as well (cc @DocUSMCRetired).
The only thing I'm missing is humidity without the Kestrel, but luckily that's not a real contributor to air density, so I just set it and forget it at 50%. The LRF provide dof/range/inclination, the AB mini provides wind brackets, the Garmin Tempe provides temperature, and the Foretrex itself provides latitude and station pressure.
I have the wind meter mounted on a panning base so I can use the Foretrex compass to point it true north quickly in a new position and I have the AB solver on the Foretrex configured to calculate relative to said true north wind.
My recommendation is to reach out to Kestrel: https://kestrelballistics.com/nk/contact/contact-us/ about this. They do all their firmware updates, and programming in house.
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