gallet

My gut reaction is that this is nonsense. If it is only using braking energy then it will weaken your walking muscles, which is er... one of the reasons we walk. Maybe one of those hats with a propeller might be better, or maybe even a sunhat with a large solar array? I'd prefer to carry a spare battery rather than have wasted muscles to save 0.1c of recharging current.

Didjerrydo, are you going to dunk another one? Because if you are not then I do not see how you can sell them with a clear conscience. If you yourself are not sure about the ipx7 claims then how can you recommend it?

I was just checking my UTM datums against a paper topo map before venturing out into the Wild Dog Mountains. My paper maps use the GDA datum (geodetic datum australia) and when I cross checked it against the default datum for DD.DDDDº which is WGS84, I find that the UTM coordinates are *exactly* the same. Why? I tried some other australian datums like ausgeod84 and it was out by a bit. How is it that the GDA out of all the dozens of datums is exactly the same as WGS84? Does this mean that I can safely leave my datum at WGS when using my australian topo maps? (It's a lot easier than scolling the datum list everytime I change from DD.DDDD to UTM) To put my question another way...why is WGS84 the same as GDA?

"My Colorado unit doesn't form a watertight seal either, there is a noticeable gap between the battery cover and unit itself." In that case it would be illegal to advertise it as IXP7

@'kenk' Some say it [compass] draws too much power... And they'd be dead wrong. @'Maingray "However, [the HCx] ...has less intuitive button layout [than the 60CSx]..." Many who know both units well would say the opposite. It's more intuitive when appropriate buttons fall where ones fingers naturally sit. For example to zoom in and out while viewing the map with the 60CSx you need to remember (or read) which button does which and the buttons are in a strange position. However on the HCx the zoom buttons fall right where your thumb is, the closer button zooms closer and the further button zooms out, pretty intuitive.

@'Didjerrydo' This is very serious but not surprising. I've not seen one close up but my gut reaction is that the whole unit including the software was designed for the 'bling' factor rather than usability. I have read the manual in detail and it made my eyes bleed. They've actually gone backwards with regards to entering comments, I mean selecting a letter from a wheel of letters consecutively? this is a moden version of the original eTrex method. Seeing as Garmin will replace it, you have nothing to lose and in fact a lot to gain, by giving another one a 10 second dunk or a couple of minutes seeing as that is well within the 30minute time frame, which in itself must have a safety factor built in. In fact I would say you have a duty to dunk another.

"I can't say I've seen many negatives discussed about it anywhere." I've seen a few. Like this for example, or this where the Media tek chip in the eTrex HCx is better than the Sirfstar, in difficult condition. Not much better but enough to make you consider the smaller lighter brighter Vista HCx. Colorado still seems to be in beta mode.

For gps usage they are the same. Differences are in the way the unit is sealed. The battery cover on the 76CSx is downright weird, it's a flimsy bit of plastic that is connected to a piece of rubber that is used to plug an input socket. Why the plug and cover are not separate is a mystery. So when you undo the cover it hangs by this bit of rubber that is plugged into the gps. The sd card on the 76 sits in a very strange position. But the balance, ergonomics, and overall feel of the 76CSx is far superior to the 60CSx

Theoretically it could, but the algorithms can't handle the pressure/altitude discrepancy (this was the first thing I tried years ago on my old B&W Vista; tried calibrating it to the GPS altitude, but it wouldn't accept it). I see. I installed some topo maps recently and today I was riding around the local hills on my motorbike and checked the altimeter against the 10m contour lines. What I found is that the gps altitude is generally exactly correct but the barometric altitude is less accurate which I find puzzling because it is set to auto calibrate. go figger.

The new CN's produce a file called mapsupp.img which can easily be backed up and copied to another SD card.

Won't the altimeter recalibrate itself to the gps elevation every 15 minutes?

Because you can!

I claim the first public sighting of 'waypoint' used as a verb. I suppose you have the same routing set up?

I thought you could only load 2000 or so map segments.

Did they both have the same firmware and screen brightness settings? Yes, they were both upgraded to 2.50/2.60 When I say that the colours were dull and washed out I meant without any backlighting on, just the base screen. All the colours are muted. This is also the case with the backlight on, at the same screen set up the colours are significantly different. The third separate thing is that the max setting on the 'new' HCx is a bit less bright than the 'old' HCx. I also thought that the max power was wound back to make it more effecient but that does not explain the less saturated colours of the screen when the backlight is not used.

I was doing some tests of a couple of screen protectors and while examining their colour and tranparency I noticed that the difference in the screens was not due to the protectors but rather to a change in the screen itself. The newer HCx had a more washed out screen not unlike the 60CSx but more so and it was not as bright as the usual HCx although it was still brighter than the 60CSx. The only difference I could see in the two HCx was some extra writing in the top right corner of the back rubber. The one on the right is the latest HCx

D means differential correction using WAAS, which is strange because I get it sometimes in Australia even though we don't have WAAS. the .25 refers to the units you are using. Probably .25 miles. It shows up when you are using the compass in 'Course' mode rather than 'Bearing' mode. The .25 notches indicate how far you have strayed from the course line.

Yes, because the red arrow is not a compass, it's a direction pointer and it needs something to point at. The outer ring with NSEW on it is the compass. Hard reset

it's also possible to create routes in maps.google and upload using www.takitwithme.com

After selecting the maps in CN Europe2008NT in Mapsource, the checkbox that says "send routing data" or something like that, is greyed out. Unlike CN AUS which can be turned on or off. I thought perhaps that maybe it was that NT maps can only be used on older units, so it always sends the routing data or I'm missing something.

That was a trick question. If I describe how laborious it is to enter data that way, the riposte is alway "I use two hands". The 60CSx has all these buttons so you think it would be easier but if you want to type in an address or note where you have a fair bit of stuff to enter and you use the eTrex click stick, then you scroll around using the pick stick and enter with the same thumb that is moving the cursor. But on the 60CSx if you use one thumb to do the entering then for ever single letter you scroll to you have to remove you thumb from the rocker and then use it to hit 'enter' then back to the rocker - enter - rocker - etc, back and forward between two buttons. Cumbersome. It's interesting to note that the new Colorado appears to be even worse, from descriptions of how it works, It' stick the non pick stick eTrex where you had to scroll through the alphabet to get to a letter. That's just it, it looks like it should be easier but in real world use it isn't. Go figger.

It's like they have made a pretty gui of the old non click stick eTrex where you had to use the side buttons to enter text by scrolling through the alphabet. Weird.

or is it only for the 60CSx?

It's already been pointed out that even though the 60CSx has dedicated button, that the HCx has a single press for 'find' and also for 'mark waypoint' just like the 60CSx. I don't buy into the 'I've got big hands argument'. If you have big hands then I'd like to know how the hell you are able to use the rocker and the 'enter' button with two fingers seeing as they are too close together and the enter button is on the wrong side (unless you are left handed). The buttons on the HCx are easier for big hands because they are separated and there is more space around them. You can put your thumb on the HCx rocker without bumping into other buttons. Same for the 'find' button, it's by itself on the left, Having buttons fall where your fingers naturally fall when holding the unit in a balanced way is better. I refuse to accept that the 60CSx is easier to see in a car because the size of the image on screen is only 10% larger, that is barely noticable. In other words you can just have the HCx 10% closer, maybe and inch and a half closer and the sceen becomes effectively the same size. In a car you can leave the lights on full time and the much much brighter display of the HCx is obviously more important with regard to legibility. An anecdotal report that "my 60CSx took me straight to the spot and the HCx didn't" is meaningless. They both have the same accuracy why pretend that the HCx is somehow inferior. I present this information not to defend my favouriite but to give the OP some factual info that needs to be considered. Before the HCx came out any comparison only needed to state that the chipset on the 60CSx was so much better and that was the end of the matter because obviously being able to get a signal is more important than anything else. No point in a brighter display if it isn't displaying anything. Now that the 60 has been trumped with the H chip, fake features on the 60 have to be 'beat up'. The only genuine thing going for the 60 now is the serial port and the external antenna, things that very very few people use.

However common sense would dictate that the original company that supplied the maps certainly *are* responsible under law for having a missing disk. I'd go back to them and tell them you want the missing disk replaced or you'll have to go through the normal consumer protection channels.