bdejong

I did contact the owner before I left and they were ok with it. the goal was to travel so I thought this was a good way to go.

I have a few new ones that I wouldnt mind giving a head start. Thats an awful lot of distance to cover in a short time. Are you planning on a lot of caching while you are out there? How do I get them to you?

I took a travel bug that I found in the US with on an overseas trip. I did manage to find time to hunt a few local caches down but from the logs they are not visited that often. I dont want to drop the bug here since I fear it will not move as quickly as if it is brought back to the states, but I do want to show that it was over here and I took pictures of its journey to share with the owner. I want to just dip it here and bring it back to the US. I have read that this is ok practice but want to verify that fact and get opinions about it while I am still here. I also have another tip in a few weeks, would it be wrong to take it back to the US and bring it on another trip just to take it back to the US fom a final drop in a local cache. I will find a cache in each location. I do think it would be wrong to just log it into a cache without finding the cache.

QuigleyJones. Saw the post you linked to but it turned into a flame fest on Garmin locking the maps to a GPS, And that Metroguide would only route with a hack. My question is what is the difference? I cant see why they would sell two things that are the same. What can City Navigator do that Metroguide can not? What does metro guide do that CityNavigator can not? The only thing that I can see is that Garmin states that Metroguide is not compatible with the Colorado while CN is. The only other thing is tha CN is locked (not really but thats another topic) and Metrogiude is not. I am sorry if this is common knowledge but I am new to this. I have access to both and want to know which is the best to load. Is it as simple as Metroguide is the same just for less capable units?

For reference. USB Pinout

A standard USB cable has two wires for data and two wires for power, I have in the past just cut the data lines leaving the power lines. I did however find that the car adapter we bought for my sons PSP (Playstation Portable) cable has already done this for me so I use it. the benefit is that it is a two piece deal. One piece is the cigarette adapter with a USB connector on it. The second is the cable. This way I can just plug it into my laptop if necessary and power it from there, or my home computer while playing around with it. So, yes, you can cut the data lines just be sure they are not shorted!!!

SDHC will work. I bought a 4g micro SDHC witha n SD adapter at best buy because I didnt want to wait and the 300 found it and uses it with no trouble. As far as the limit, I dont know. I have mine loaded with city navigator and topo for my home state with no problems. I started to load the whole US, but I dont travel coast to coast all the time so why bother. I keep my loaded maps clean and lean. Oh, and I have a 300 as well. I opted for it since the memory cards are cheap and having the whole united states in the unit was not important to me.

Can some one here explain the real differences between City Navigator and Metro Guide? Do you need both? Is one better than the other?

OK, some may know this but I thought I would share anyways, With the Colorado powered off Press and hold the center button on the Rock-N-Roll wheel Power up the device. Keep it held for about 5 seconds and release. It will boot into a white status screen. Here each time you press the power button the backlight gets brighter. Pressing up on the rock and roll d-pad will raise and lower the back light Take a look and have fun Once here pressing the left soft key will cycle display tests. All red, green, blue and other patterns. Then into a rock and roll diag screen Now with it off, press and hold BOTH of the softkeys while powering up. This will prompt if you want to erase all user data.

*Removed post, already one here on the new software..*

I loaded that one up on my Colorado 300 and viewed it with no trouble. the HTML formatting is in plain text so the description is a little mangled but no shutdown or crash. 2.3/2.6 revisions.

Here is the best charger I have found: http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh...ery-charger.php I'm also using the AccuLoop batteries in my cameras -- they are much better at keeping a charge when stored and last alot longer than the store brand NiMH batteries Great, I was looking at that one the other night and was going to ask about them. Our local Batteries Plus carries them with the charger. Now I know, and will pick one up. On another note, I found that Sanyo has issued a 2700a AA NiMH cell. Cant find them locally but I may order them and give them a try.

Here is a little data on battery life. I went out Saturday with my kids and started the day with a fresh pair of good old Duracell's. yes you read it right, plain old Duracell's, not anything special, just plain old alkaline batteries. We started out at about 10:30am and didn't stop until 6:00pm. I never turned the unit off and had the back light set to max the whole time. We finished the day two bars out of four. We got in a few more hours the next day before the back light dimmed automatically. Now, a unit with a screen the size of this with a bright back light will pull some power. To combat that I am trying to locate a good rechargeable set. From past experience the Eveready rechargeable are not very good. The charger they sell with them is crap. Sorry to use blunt language, but it is what it is. It is a dump charger, one that will just pump energy into the battery if it needs it or not. By the way, this is bad for the batteries.... I have tested the Eveready rechargeable using the provided charger and a good high end peak charger and the difference is an almost 2 fold increase in capacity. Lets put the battery life issue to the test by using a good set of batteries that have been properly charged. Anyone else got one? How about it?

I used my Colorado the other night to do a night time cache hunt with my daughter and the screen was super bright. So bright in fact I had to dim it down. We also used it this weekend in varying conditions from 100% daylight to overcast to dusk (We were out all night long). I had no trouble reading the display at all. I actually found the display to be very readable in the sunlight with no back lighting on at all. later in the evening I had to turn up the back lighting to help it out under full cover and the reduced daylight. Now, I am new to this and this is my first GPS unit (Car or handheld) but I have not had a time where it was unreadable. I used it tonight in the car as a routing GPS and it was brilliant. I found that the backlight would turn off after the set time but would pop on before any turns or direction changes. This was a handy feature so hat it was not glaring at me the whole way home. Now, I do know of a person who has a 60CSx, maybe I can talk him into bringing it in an measuring it on some light measurement gear we have at my work place.

Yes, and what is the question???

Got mine at GPSCity, they had them in stock and shipped quickly. I think they were within 10.00 or so from everyone else.

I thought I would post my impressions having never owned a GPS unit before. I heard about Geocaching a few months ago and finally decided to purchase a GPS unit and start hunting. I went with the Colorado after comparing features and price with the most popular GPS unit the 60HCX. While there is no doubt that people love their 60s and it is a fine unit with a good field repuation I ended up with the Colorado for the following: 1. Paperless caching. I like the idea of being able to bring with me the description and the log entries in case I need a little more help. It is nice to not to have to print or carry anything else with me and to have it all on the GPS. 2. Price - Found a good price on the Colorado 300 that put it only 100.00 over the 60. Yup, its still a hundred dollars more, but I felt it would be worth it in the end. (Hope I am right) 3. Technology - Its the latest offering from Garmin and I am a techno-geek at heat and I like to have the latest OK, now that I have had it for a while and been able to use it on a few cache hunts I would like to share my impressions. So far I like it. I found it very easy to put the cache information in it from this web site. How easy could it be. - Plug it into the computer - Log in and enter my zip code - Find a cache I like and click write to GPS. - BOOM, its there. everything, location, description, stats, and log entries. - All available at the flick of the funky wheel on the top of the unit Battery - Life has been ok. I put in a fresh set of standard Duracell batteries this morning and turned it on. left it on all day while we went from cache to cache and it worked great. After about 7 hours of being on with intermittent use of the back light the battery indicator finally went to a single bar. I have used a set of Eveready NiMH as well and they last quite a bit longer. I hope to try a set of Lipos if I can find a good set with a good charger. But for now I feel it is acceptable given the display and power requirements of the unit. Display - I love it. Easy to read in the daytime and with a click of the power button I can blast the backlight to make it easily readable in cover or at night (First cache hunt was at night). I chose to modify the caching profile to turn off the back light after 1 Min. This worked ok for me as I dont mind bumping the power button to get it back on when I need it. Accuracy - So far so good, on the first cache we wee right on top of it when it reported about 1 foot. Now this may just be good luck and great placement by the cache owner. For all others we were right in the area when the GPS read that we were under 10 feet away. Paperless - This is the best part. Cache loading is easy and it is all there to read without having to print anything. the list updates itself with the distance to each one from your current location. this was cool, at first I thought the distance was from my home location, but as we traveled I found the distance changed and was in reference to my current location. Here is why this is cool. I can load up a bunch of them for various locations and where ever I am I can browse the list and hit the ones that are showing closest to where I am at that time. this may be standard on other units, if so the great. I thought it was noteworthy. The only thing I dont like is that I can mark it found and cant remove it (at least I dont see any way to remove it from the GPS itself) Trip Computer - Another cool feature, we cleared it before we left and checked it out when we came back home. Wow, we covered quite a bit of area. My son loved reporting my speed and distance as we traveled. Rock and Roll wheel - At first I wasnt sure but now I think this is a cool idea. Very easy to manipulate with a single hand. Did not take long to get used to using it and I think it makes the learning curve shorter since you dont have to remember a bunch of keys. Its all on the wheel and the two soft keys. the flyout menus from the softkeys are easy to read and plenty big. I am glad they did not make them smaller. Misc - I like that I can change the shown data fields on about every screen. For instance when viewing the compass I can change each of the four individual areas that report data. In stock form it displays Speed, eta at dest, dist to next, and time to next. With a click of the softkey I can change each of them to anything I want from the large list of options. I set mine to report air temperature, elevation and GPS strength. I can do this on most every screen. I like this, I can configure it to show what is important to me, I am not stuck with what they want me to see. very cool.... Another thing I like is that I can customize the shortcut menus. I removed most of them on the geocaching profile, since I dont care for most of the default menus. I can make it look and work like I want it. I am very self centered you know.... So far I like it. These are my opinions and come from my vast one week(s) of GPS experience.

I have had no trouble with mine, even in the house I get at least 5 satellites. I do know that when I first got mine it thought it was in texas somewhere. The first lock was the longest but now that it knows where it is it has worked great.

It would be nice if we could buy the citymaps state by state. I dont really want to pay 140.00 for the citymaps to add routing to my colorado when I rarely drive out of state, I can buy a cheap in car for a little more than that.....

United States Marines 1987-1993, Worked as an aviation tech for CH46 helicopters (6322), served in Gulf War 1 , both desert storm and shield. Semper Fi. Brian DeJong

OK, I put the microSD into the SD converter and put it in the 300 and guess what... It appears to work!!! I loaded all the maps from topo 2008 from my home state and they loaded just fine. It appears to see the whole drive. It was a good deal, 50.00 for the micro, converter and a cool little usb drive to plug it into your computer.

I have to agree as well. I am new to this and looked at others and decided on the Colorado for the following reasons. 1. Paperless - I like this idea, its cool to have it all available without printing. 2. Nice form factor. I like the shape and feel. 3. Was only 100.00 more than the second choice (60xxx) 4. Appears to be very unpalatable, and I am sure they will do so. The last update was on the 22nd of Jan.. I read all the FAQ's here as well as many other reviews that while agreeing that some of the things listed here are missing, most are just different, and were outside expectations. I am sure they will do more, and I am sure they will add new features as they go along. It is in their best interest to make their new flagship the best it can be. AS long as it gets me to where I want to go Iw ill be more than happy to wait for some of the mentioned enhancements. I would rather wait a few months while they take the time to do it right and test it well. I am a software engineer by trade and I am very sensitive to the need and benefit of proper testing.

I did do a search but I did not get a good answer to this. For some reason I thought the colorado used a MicroSD card so I bought a 4gig SanDisk MicroSDHC card that comes with an SD adapter today. Can someone please verify that this will work??? Here is the part number and the description. Sandisk SDSDQ-4096-A11M 4GB Micro Secure Digital High Capacity Card SanDisk is proud to announce our newest format and capacity to the SD card family, microSD High Capacity (microSDHC) 4 GB flash card. Included as bonus is our new MicroMate SD/SDHC compatible, high-speed USB 2.0 Reader. This will help and ensure your transition from the microSD format to the microSDHC format for our card and for compatible host devices. Also comes with a full size SD adapter to fit into devices with an SD slot.