rwsmith123

The basemap for the 400t is in two parts: Worldwide map that contains borders of countries and some large cities, also contains some DEM. Americas basemap with major highways and interstates, also contains DEM info. The basemap for the 300 is probably in 4 parts: Worldwide map that contains borders of countries and some large cities, also contains some DEM. Americas, Pacific, and Atlantic basemaps with major highways and interstates and DEM. The 400t contains US Topo 2008 which contains detailed street maps and DEM. The unit will use the most detailed info it can when there is multiple data for the same area (when zoomed in all the way). So a US model 400t used in europe with no additional maps loaded would show no streets, not even highways, and an extremely course DEM. I don't know what the distance is between elevation points in the DEM data but this will give some insight: The total size of the worldwide map is 88k (yes, k as in kilo), the approx size of the DEM data it contains is 19k. The total size of the americas basemap is 47Meg, approx size of the DEM data it contains is 14Meg. The total size of US Topo 2008 is 2.7Gig, approx size of the DEM data it contains is 1.6Gig.

How does high temperatures, say 140 degrees F or more affect battery life for ni-mh and alkalines? This past summer I was out all day with my 60CSx and when I got back to the car the batteries were pretty low, so I put in a set of ni-mh that I had charged up the day before, but there were pretty much dead, they had been in the hot car all day. I put in a set of alkalines that I thought were good but they were dead also. They had been stored in the car for a few months.

Yes, but the overhead for the DVD version seems excessive, all the .img files add up to a little over 3Gig so I'm not sure exactly why it ends up over 4Gig when everything is selected. Maybe mapsource is switching to a larger fat block size for the internal structure of the .img file once some size or segment threshold is reached.

The 300 comes with a worldwide basemap (major highways & interstates) for the americas, pacific, and atlantic (europe) which also includes a medium res DEM of all those areas. The 400t has the americas basemap if bought in the US, so doesn't have as detailed DEM outside North & South America as the 300. In other words if you live in the US and take a vacation to Europe and you buy City Nav Europe maps to use with the Colorado the 300 will have better DEM than the 400t so the City Nav maps will look better in 3d with the 300. You may or may not be able to load the entire US Topo 2008 onto an SD card to use with the 300. The DVD version has over 6600 segments, the 300 may not be able to handle that many. It would take more than 4Gig to hold the DVD version of the maps and no one has confirmed if the Colorado can use SDHC cards larger than 4Gig. When selecting all the segments for US Topo 2008 in mapsource it displays either a warning or error message about the mapset being larger than 4Gig, not having a card larger than 4Gig I can't test if mapsource will even build a mapset larger than 4Gig.

The time it takes mapsource to build a mapset is dependent on the number of map segments selected, and it's not liner (ie. to build a map of 1000 segments takes a lot more than twice the time to build a map with 500, and 2000 takes more than twice the time of 1000, etc.). The algorithm that mapsource uses to estimate the time needed isn't accurate and way off the mark for mapsets with lots of segments. The percentage complete is accurate.

If it's like the 60cs, 60csx, etc. you can't.

No, the MDR.img file contains indexing used for searches, the DEM info is embedded into each individual .img file. All .img files contain 3 sections RGN, TRE, and LBL, if the map has routing it will also have NET and NOD sections, if the map has DEM it will also have a DEM section. If you want to try and reverse engineer the DEM format Garmin uses you should pick a map tile that covers only water (there are several such tiles in the Great Lakes area) since all the points will be at the same altitude it will make decoding the structure easier.

In gpsmapedit open the .mp or .img file and press the keys 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. to change the zoom level, watch the bottom of the screen and it will show what level is being displayed. When you hit the first blank level, or when you reach the last level note what level is being displayed. Now choose File->Map Properties, then click on the levels tab, now you can see the levels and the bits per level. If there is only one blank level then it won't display the blank level when you are pressing the number keys to go through them so the blank level will be the last one listed in the levels section. So for instance if the first blank level was level3 and 17 is the bits for that level, then you would use level0=17 for your preview map.

It depends on how you created the .tdb file. If you used cgpsmapper to generate it and used ProductCode= then you set up the registry for a product. If you used FID= & ID= then you would set it up in the Families section. The id in the registry needs to match the values you used when creating the .tdb.

Bummer. Well, if you make it to the top you could use it on the way down to see how steep it is. If you don't make it to the top then your friends behind you will know it's too steep.

You can configure one of the data fields to show "Glide Ratio" which is the ratio of horizontal distance traveled to vertical distance.

Sold.

Well, if anyone really wants to know the answer, then send me a Colorado and I'll buy an 8Gig SDHC card. I'll test to see if the card is recognized and if so I will load it up and test to see if data past the 4Gig mark can be accessed and I'll post the results. I won't even be upset if the card doesn't work at all with the unit and I'm stuck with a useless card.

....or NT1 or NT2. The Nuvi 8xx series which supports DEM will be shipping with NT2 preinstalled which implies that NT2 will have DEM info embeded in it. If you have a 400t then you wouldn't need it since the DEM from the loaded US Topo 2008 will show on other maps that are loaded. But if you have a 300 then you might want to wait for the NT2 maps to become available (if they become available separately).

I tried a 4gb SDHC card (Dane-Elec class 4) in a 400t at REI and it worked fine.

I never said to do that. The question was if there was a limit to the number of map segments you can load on the Colorado. Some would assume that since: US Topo 2008 from the DVD has 6633 segments and the 400t has US Topo 2008 preloaded that the Colorado can handle at least 6633 segments. My point was that the preloaded version of US Topo 2008 on the 400t is structered differently than the DVD version and it only has 429 segments. So you can only assume that it can handle at least 429.

there is no more a 2025 tile limit - not for the Colorado 300 AFAIK Regards - Anton There is most likely a limit for the Colorado. It would take some experiments to determine what that limit is.

Do this help ? Nope. As far as I know no one has figured out the encoding for the DEM information in a map, so there are no tools to allow creating custom maps with DEM info.

Sale is pending.

All Garmin units to date have had a limit to the number of map segments the unit can handle. The limit is probably due to some type of index that is held in internal memory so the limit would be imposed by the amount of internal memory they have set aside for that purpose. You might think the limit for the Colorado is much higher than previous units since the 400t comes with US Topo 2008 loaded and that map has 6633 segments, however the version of US Topo 2008 that comes preloaded on the 400t is US Topo 2008 v2 and has been restructured, that version has 429 segments. As to what the units limit is, I don't have a unit to test so I can't say.

Are you talking about the blah color scheme used for the maps? If so you can generate a TYP file which defines how you want map features displayed to use with the maps. A new color scheme makes a huge difference.

Kind of silly, but make sure your thumb is just on the wheel and not on the side of the case too. When I was trying out the unit at REI the wheel seemed awful stiff and hard to turn, after a while I realized that the wheel is flush with the side of the case and my thumb was 1/2 on the wheel and 1/2 on the case, once I realized that it worked much better.

Yes.

For sale, a Garmin 60CSx with lots of extras: City Navigator NT v8 maps US Topo 2008 maps 2GB micro SD card windshield auto mount for the gps screen protector Plus the standard accessories: Belt clip Wrist strap USB cable Trip & Waypoint manager Owners manual Quick start quide The gps is 4 months old and has had a screen protector on it from day one, the gps is in new condition. $400 plus actual shipping costs.

Is there a map detail setting? When the map detail is set higher then the higher detail zoom levels show up sooner as you are zooming in. If the Colorado has such a setting you can set it to lower detail. As for the appearance of the contour lines you can make a custom TYP file to change how they look. After generating the TYP file you can transfer the gmapprom.img file from the gps to the computer, make a copy as a backup, use gmaptool to append the TYP file to gmapprom.img and transfer back to the gps.