g-o-cashers

After I upgraded to version 2.3 I noted that on the second push of the power button that the backlight goes on to a default low level. Trying that today I notice that this doesn't seem to work any longer. I'm wondering if this is somehow is related to battery power. Any one else seeing this? GO$Rs

Is your battery dead or close to it? The backlight (and I think the audio beeps) will be turned off below a certain battery level. GO$Rs

FWIW I'm keeping a consolidated Colorado issues list here since it is hard to see that when you view a single thread. It isn't the nicest format but when I get some time I'll try to clean it up to make it easier to follow. If there is stuff missing or wrong let me know and I'll update it. GO$Rs

Yes. No. This works the same as before, geocaches don't show up on the map page in 2.3. The blue stick pin appears when you are navigating to a location, it could be a waypoint, a geocache, POI, etc. Once you stop navigation the pin goes away. GO$Rs

No changes. Geocaches still don't show up on the map screen. Geocaches loaded as waypoints do as long as the map settings support showing user waypoints at the zoom level selected on the map page. GO$Rs

Got it. Or at least I understand what they fixed. The intent is to have the unit go into North up when panning however when you quit panning they fixed a bug in 2.2 that caused the North up setting to be sticky. As of 2.2 the unit returns to Track up once you quit panning if that is the way you have the maps set up. That said I'm not sure I agree with Anders or not. It might just take getting used to it. I guess when I'm standing in the woods Track Up and I want to pan I now have to start the pan, wait for the unit to jump to North Up (which BTW takes some time) and then start my scrolling. Before I would just scroll in the direction I wanted to relative to my track. In other words if there is something to my left I want to see I scroll left, now I have to look at the map and figure out what direction that is in. I'm not sure that is a good thing, but it probably is a minor thing. I would put this in the class of "it would be nice to have a configuration option" because I think it is a personal preference. GO$Rs

Still looks broken to me too. GO$Rs

Version 2.30 Yep, it looks like the same file either way. I've upgraded and verified a few things: Shortcuts->Settings->Heading->Compass -> Off. A good start but still no Auto setting. The backlight seems to come on to some default level on the second press of the power button. We'll have to see if the NiMH performance is any better and if the shutdown with partially discharged alkalines fixes any issues. Those seem to be the big four improvements against what has been reported here thus far. GO$Rs Edit: Added Version

Interesting. This is posted as a 300 update but doesn't show up on the 400t page. I wonder if they are the same firmware loads? Anyone tried it yet? I notice the release notes mention the 400i and c, maybe this is a common firmware. I'm tempted to try. GO$Rs

400T is roughly equivalent to a 300 with all of Topo2008 loaded on it. Not sure how Topo2008 would compare to roads and rec data -- certainly I would think it would be as good or better from the point of view of rivers and creeks. If you want to check out certain areas include road names you can look here .

I don't think so. I've renamed the gmapprom.img file on my 400t and timed the startup. It takes about 26 seconds to get to the map screen which is comparable to the 300 numbers above (given that it took 29 seconds with 300-400MB of map data). That is exactly right. After DNF'ing a cache on my 60cs for this very reason I turned it off and never used it again in my handheld. On my 60cs I see similar issues as TeamGPSax sees with the Colorado -- there are just lots of inaccuracies in the road data. There's actually one road in my town which is so bad that my 2610 (which is always set to "lock on road") actually thinks I'm offroute because it thinks the road is several hundred feet away. Every time I drive by I get "off route, recalculating"! GO$Rs

Found my first 300-400 caches with a GPS 12 and I still keep it for a backup. It doesn't have the maps but it'll do a pretty go job getting you to the cache. It doesn't do distances in feet only in 1/100ths of a mile so you only get within about 53' of a cache before you start to search. GO$Rs

Yeah, I just tried with simple direct path route and it seems to do a similar thing. The only thing I don't like is you can't see all of the distances/bearings for each of the intermediate points at the same time -- you have to select each one. However, you can configure the data fields so you can do a lot more than the static 60cs display. I'll be curious to see what this looks like with City Nav. GO$Rs

I have not found that screen either. As a bicyclist, I call that the "cue sheet" screen. It lists all the turns in order -- distance to the turn, which direction to turn, and what street to turn onto. It must be there somewhere... both the 60-series and the nuvi have it. I'm going to be shedding tears of laughter if this turns out to be yet another left-out feature. I hope they deliver the "other half" of the software soon. Do you get the turn by turn cue sheet if you go to Shortcuts->Other->Active Route? GO$Rs

Once you are on the geocache summary page you have four options: show description, goto, full screen compass and full screen map. Depending on your preference I think it makes sense select either the map or the compass at this point (vs. goto). If you select full screen map it seems to be similar to a "goto" except you'll notice on the map screen you get a "back" button. This allows you to toggle between the cache summary, by hitting back, and the map (or compass) very quickly. Goto appears to do the same thing as full screen map except you exit geocaching mode and don't have the ease of hitting back to go back to the cache summary. Agreed, I put this on the issues thread: the fact that the cursor is too big and you can't overzoom and "walk" the cursor to the cache. See above. Instead of a goto select Full Compass Screen and you get a back on the compass screen. Is the compass calibrated? Are you holding the GPS level? GO$Rs

I didn't even need to use a screwdriver/knife. Just pull away gently with your fingernail. Here's a shots, the black thing is the rock'n roller button upside down: And one more, the blue is the inside seal, it is a pretty clever design: GO$Rs

A little more data from Garmin tech support

Garmin has fixed this issue and support tells me it will be in the next software update. Between now and then the workaround is as follows (from tech support): So it seems like the issue is with certain characters in cache descriptions or in my case logs. I guess if I really cared about this then I would spend 10 minutes and write a script to strip them out, but I'll probably live with it for now. GO$Rs edit: fix quote

As I was playing with mine this weekend I was wondering how left handed people will like the roller. As a righty it works great for me, one of the main reasons I would buy a Colorado, but as a lefty doesn't the antenna get in your way? GO$Rs

Good idea, but I can't find "declutter" on the Colorado. That makes the road names appear and disappear on the older units, but I don't see it on the new one. Thanks. Have you tried changing Setup->Maps->Detail->Most ? Have you tried changing Setup->Maps->Options->Advanced->Text Size->Street Label->Large ? I'm grasping but wondering if these might help. GO$Rs

Can create new profiles but they can't be renamed on the Colorado. They end up with a default name like "Profile 6". This thread discusses the issue and a workaround.

Street names from City Nav don't appear on the map display and map declutter on/off is not supported on the Colorado. Discussed in this thread .

But you can create your own custom graphic and put text in it! Ha! Good idea!

Not that I can see. You can create a new profile but it gets a default name like "Profile 6". I can't see any way to edit the name other than the workaround I suggested above. If you know of a way please share! GO$Rs

Yes That's not true. The map file on a Colorado 400t is called gmaprom.img, located in e:\garmin. Presumably this file contains the DEM, World Base Map and the Topo 2008 for the US. It is about 2.7GB in size. If you don't want any maps on your Colorado 400t you can change the name (I archived mine on my PC first!). Similarly, Garmin could provide an upgrade to Topo 2009 by selling a new gmaprom.img which is then copied over to the Colorado replacing the original file and map set. My biggest complaint with the Colorado 400t is that you can't break the map image up. At a minimum it would nice to have the DEM and World Base Map broken out (i.e. like a 300) so you could remove the Topo maps. I would still like to have some control over how much Topo map data is loaded as well -- loading these big map files takes about 15 seconds during system startup which adds to an already long start up time (around 40sec total w/o geocache data loaded). GO$Rs