boboso

Sounds like you have a corrupted download. Not much I can recommend except to redownload (or get someone else to download, and burn it.) Thanks for the quick response, I was able to download this morning and load however in Bobcat (the Mac OS Mapsource tool) I see the following screen shots (County lines only), no topo or streets. The following is a zoomed in view at 3 miles

Newb here... was excited to see this and did the download for Mac. It ran for approx. 16 hours, left an file, to which I tried to open/extract and all that was there was a txt file. When downloading I noticed it was a fairly large file, but checking the downloaded file it was 0kb

You will find that CN is more accurate with regard to placement of roads. The fact that you are using the automotive profile suggests another possibility. I know that the topo is not routable. I don't know about the 300 basemap (I have a 400t and the basemap is integrated with the topo). If you have lock on road set in your profile without a routable map, I'm not sure what you get. If it does try to lock on raods in the topo, then you will suffer from the fact that the roads in topo are not accurately placed. In this mode, the GPSr assumes you are actually on any road you are close to. It will adjust the map display (and, possibly, the displayed coordinates) to match the map. Try turning lock on road off. Or use the recreational profile which has it off by default. On the other hand, the fact that it only happens in your neighborhood does suggest localized errors in the map. Thanks, though it is not just automotive... we went on a geocache hunt tonight and I had the Topo map loaded in the GC profile. It got us to the cache exactly per the on-screen waypoint which was in the middle of a parking lot next to a light pole. However though the waypoint was spot on, according the screen we were also standing in the middle of a 6 land roadway that has an island and is approx 800 feet away... I wish in the topo map I could remove the roadways... again, I hope that it works for hiking which will be it's primary use. If not, a 60csx is in order... Gotta be the map...

Update - had the Colorado on (Auto Profile) for the drive to and from work. Noticed that in my neighborhood it is off the mark as far as the streets are concerned on the unit as noted. Once on "major" roads the unit seemed to track on the road just fine with a few areas being off during the drive (probably due to construction in recent months). At work it was spot on as well as the way home. Within approx. 2 miles from home, the unit was off the map (road) and placed me at the same point in the screen shot above. Must be the map... I am hoping that for hiking, this is not an issue (I will check by elevation, paper and compass) and that the City Navigator NT for Mac is a bit more accurate than the Topo 2008. Thanks to all for the pointers and information... always learning.

Thanks as well... it seems the waypoints (Home and the GeoCaches entered via Geocaching.com) are in the "right" place (compared to one another i.e. the distance and deflection are in order). I say some of the waypoints as it relates to the topo map, not their actual position. Apologies for the lack of knowledge here as I am new to the real GPS (not just my car unit) and am learing day to day. My hope as a Naturalist is that my tracking, waypoints and mapping are accurate. If I used last nights reference (my location to my actual location) on the GPS, I could be falling off the side of a hillside rather than on the trail or etc.

Thanks for the information and link (I may have read that thread already). As to the waypoints these were taken well into the unit power up and being on (at least 30 minutes) as the Home waypoint was the only one added (local Geocaches were loaded via GeoCaching.com). The screen shot however shows my current position well off the mark ( I am more actually located near the "e" in Deerwood.

I just received my Topo maps for Mac and my Colorado 300. Before I go too crazy, I was wondering if I have an issue with something I did before contacting Garmin. I selected my Topo area (California) in Map Manager and uploaded to my SD card. All seemed to go very well, and soon I was looking at Topo on my unit. The first thing I noticed was that my location (Home) was approx. 1000 to 1200 ft off the actual location on the Topo map view. As I moved around, my location was moving as I was, but was well off from where I actually was. Satellite states it was withing 24ft when checked. Here is the Base Map view (Topo not selected) and it is spot on with my location Here is the Topo view, and my location is shown way on the other side of our neighborhood This seems to be the case with some saved waypoints/geocaches as well. Did I upload the Topo wrong? I can understand being a little off, but its a 5-10 minute walk off... Help?

Bought mine from Buydig.com, no issues and price was $376 (Colorado 300)

Thanks... I deleted the waypoints via the waypoint manager (had to do it for each of the profiles) and deleted the file described. I emptied the trash and no more caches or waypoints! From this point on I will load one at a time, but being a premium member I thought I could do more than one at a time. More reading! A note on the Mac and trash, I will try a test install and delete without emptying the trash as this could cause some issues (i.e. an item in trash by mistake that I would want to keep). PS - the wiki site is my companion! Found it prior to purchasing the Colorado, read it, read it again. Now I can use it as a reference as well. Thanks!

Recieved my new Colorado 300 today, and other than the confusion of having to use a PC first before hooking up to my Mac, and the Trip and Waypoint Manager not Mac compatible, and the lack of Mac info (Bobcat etc) and where to go... it is a pretty cool unit! Easy to use and I was "navigating" around the block very well. My questions are on geocaching with this particular unit and may be more technical... As I think this is going to be a new hobby for me as I love the hunt and the outdoors, plus my boy digs the "treasure" aspect, I want to ensure I am doing this correctly. 1) I downloaded one local geocache and it showed up fine under the geocache section of the Colorado with the cache name etc. 2) I then downloaded (via Garmin's site to here) 5-6 others, but they did not show under the geocache section, but show as "waypoints" on the map view and under the waypoint section. Q1) Why did the one show up under Geocache just fine, and the others under waypoints? Q2) Can I delete them once I have found them or wish to remove them..?

Thanks! I have pretty much read everything on the internet regarding the Colorado and decided it was a good unit after a hands on at REI. The bugs, and other hang ups don't bother me, yet... we will see. Not too much on map use, loading of maps etc. Mainly gripes (and some accolades) on the unit, rather than use etc. So I assume the gripes come from early units, those experienced and used to other units and not familiar with interface (I found it, as a total newb) to be very intuitive. I wanted a GPS for my hiking and docent work (we often see animals and of course features in the same areas) and found this geocaching activity which looks like a blast!

Test only

Need to get some battery and charger recommendations... I have a Colorado 300 on the way (happy fathers day to me!) and plan on using it mainly for hiking, waypointing/mapping, geocaching... I am thinking of getting 2700 rechargeable NiHM batteries and a charger for this unit. Powerex and Maha from Thomas Distributing have been recommended. As I am hiking I plan on carrying spare AA batteries as well as a backup and in the truck will have the power unit. Thanks for any information!

Since I have no idea... I have a couple of questions regarding maps... I have ordered a Garmin Colorado 300 as well as City Navitgator NT and Topo DVDs for Mac. My intent for this unit was hiking, waypointing/mapping, and geocaching. Figured the City Nav to be a good thing as well... Questions: 1) Is there any on-line instructions available regarding using the DVDs and related maps? I love to research beforehand (yes I am the one who reads instructions... ) 2) Once I have the "use" down... is it recommended that I load the maps to internal memory or to the SD card? After I use this unit for a while I am sure to have many more questions... Love the site, best I have found so far and it has got me hooked on geocaching. In my area alone I have noted quite a few caches, and plan on doing many myself for others. Being a docent and avid hiker and mountain biker, I am sure to leave a few "challenges" out there...!