gaga55

With the newer Garmin units (Colorado, Oregon, Dakota, some nüvis, and I assume the 62 as well) it doesn't make sense to group several maps into 1 single img file anymore. Create one image with City Navigator and name it accordingly (use something like CNNA2011.20.img), the other with Topo Canada (and name it TopoCanadaV4.img, or something you like), move them all to the Garmin folder on the unit or SD card and you can select and unselect individually.

Yes, there is a difference in battery life. I have a Dakota 10 and a Dakota 20. Battery life of the Dakota 10 is always at least 1 hour better. Turning off WAAS improves battery life on both units by another hour. Turning off compass and altimeter on the Dakota 20 also accounts for around an hour. With Eneloop batteries I can get around 16 - 19 hours of battery life on the Dakota 10 and around 14 to 18 hours on the Dakota 20.

The GPS has to determine which direction you're moving before providing an arrow to another point. If the speed limit is set too low, it will take into account every speed and direction calculated from any small position changes (those even happen when standing still) and your arrow will play roulette. I suggest you run or walk faster, then you get the arrows more often

I'd say you have your GPS set up to show the coordinates as degrees, minutes and seconds (dd mm ss) and are trying to enter them as degrees and minutes (dd mm.mmm) ....

Oregon 300 link is here: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloads...5&pID=14903 I just submitted a bug report about the Colorado Beta. Some polygon colours have changed. On the DEM basemap, the lakes are almost white. On Topo Switzerland v2, cities are dark-grey (instead of light-grey) and buildings are brown (instead of dark-grey) which makes the buildings almost invisible. The same maps show fine on the Dakota 10 with the Beta firmware http://picasaweb.google.com/mt.erebus/Scrn...feat=directlink

I just did that for a map that I want to use as an overlay for a topo map (Hawaii's lava flow fields). You're right, you need to create a typ file. Go to http://ati.land.cz/gps/typdecomp/editor.cgi and choose the "Create" tab, then "Create a completely new TYP file from scratch" For each polygon you want to see "transparent", you select "Add new polygon", - select the corresponding type and subtype (which you can find in GPSMapEdit), - Drawing order: 1 - Color mode: 14) day+night: 1 color transparent bitmap, - enter the color you wish in hexadecimal (I use this page to get the hexadecimal code: http://www.allprofitallfree.com/color-wheel2.html - choose the pattern of foreground and background color I chose a chessboard pattern by selecting "Repeat pattern every 2 pixels in x axis" and "Repeat pattern every 2 pixels in y axis" and clicking on the square on the left. The more black (foreground color) pixels you have in the square, the less transparent the polygon will be. When you're done, click on "Save" on the green line of each polygon (which will show you a preview of the transparency of the polygon on different color backgrounds). Finally, download the TYP file by clicking on the corresponding button at the bottom of the page

You could also try the MapSetToolkit (http://cypherman1.googlepages.com/) and then the "Check Registry" button. Then you'll know which map causes problems in the registry

You're right. But until now I didn't have time to go hiking, and driving tracks are better than nothing. At least it showed how the units can re-establish a signal after coming out of a tunnel. And getting a good signal through the roof of a car is (to my experience) similar to walking in a forest.

Backlight is off. Outside, during daylight, it doesn't make a difference.

I ordered it at http://www.thegpsstore.com/ here's a picture of the 3 Garmin units (cloudy sky): Garmins The eneloop batteries in the Dakota lasted for 18 hours. Garmin recommends 2500 MAh batteries, the eneloop are only 2000 MAh.

Like many others, I was waiting for the Dakota 20. As I wanted the GPS for an upcoming trip in 2 weeks, and don't really need the compass and altimeter, I decided to order a Dakota 10 which was shipped to Europe from the US in less than 3 days. So, here's a short hands-on: For me, the biggest disadvantage of the Dakota 10 - compared to the 20, is the missing microSD slot. And, as it turns out after reading the Owner's Manual, the absence of an alarm clock (that always came in handy on the etrex Venture Cx). As the Dakota's have a built-in memory of about 900 MB, the missing card is not too much of a problem. Transferring maps directly to the unit takes a long time though (like all Garmins, I suspect they use a very slow USB). The good thing is that the img files can be named with any name. Like on the latest Colorado firmware (2.95Beta). Compared to the etrex, the Dakota seems slightly smaller, but thicker. The egg shaped unit is very comfortable to hold. Screen readability is worse than the etrex and about the same as the Colorado 300. The basemap has no shading and the size is only about 19 MB. I replaced it with the basemap from the Colorado which works well and like that I have the shading. I did compare the tracks of my 5 GPS units (Triton 200, etrex Venture Cx, Colorado 300, nüvi 255W and Dakota 10) today while driving. All except the nüvi were in a plastic box on the passenger seat. The nüvi was "locked on road", the others not. Driving was mostly motorway, through a few tunnels, onto a shopping center parking, and through a pretty dense forest. The tracks of the nüvi and the Dakota looked best, followed by the Triton. Then came the Colorado and last the etrex. Now I'll start the battery test, all handheld units with freshly charged eneloop batteries. I hope I'll get 20 hours for the Dakota, then my etrex will be retired.

It's not that difficult to convert a gmapsupp.img to MapSource format. Try this GMapTool: http://www.anpo.republika.pl/files/wgmaptool044.zip

That's exactly what I feared as well, until I found this: http://www.garminonline.de/common/pdf/pres..._PMD_Dakota.pdf