Team Chinook

Thanks! That does look pretty nifty! -Team Chinook

Will any heart rate belt work with the Garmin units? I have a Suunto unit that would be great if it worked w/ the colorado, or any of those other Garmin arm units. Can you do anything with the data that comes out of your workout today? - Team Chinook

Call or write Garmin and ask for the specifications. What are the specifications on the Garmin charger? Some of those units ouput 5.x volts and some less. Depends on the unit and it's input range. I have a charger for a usb gps that won't work with my blackberry, and a solar gps that will work with my blackberry, but not my motorola cell.

www.garmin.com/manuals/eTrexVista_QuickReferenceGuide.pdf From Garmin - no conjecture, opinion, nor wild-a** presumptions. Good enough? Googled, "garmin compass calibration" and it was the fourth item to show up. Try it some time g-o-o-g-l-e

Whilst fiddling with the Colorado 400T at REI this past week I calibrated the compass per the on screen instructions - hold flat in your hand and rotate twice in one direction. Ciao! I really don't think it makes any difference as long as it turns at least 720 degrees in one direction while being held level. Thanks, but I guess I should have stated that I'm looking for factual information, not speculation. I know we've got some people here with in-depth knowledge of how these things work... that's the sort of answer that I'm looking for.

gsak is geocaching swiss army knife. It is a program that allows you to work with .gpx files and sort them and manage them and transfer them to your gps receiver. You should likely download it and try it. It is free for a limited time and then a nag screen comes up, but it is worth the small amount of money. You should click on your member name and go to member features and setup some pocket caches, which will download large numbers of caches a single time in a specific area, along a route, etc. You can then get them into your gps via gsak or likely through the garmin web interface that I think works with etrex. good luck. -Team chinook

What are peoples opinions on using city Nav or CN NT on the Colorado? You don't get voice directions but does it work well otherwise? I don't want a third or fourth device to carry along on business trips - cell phone, future colorado, pc, pda, Nuvi...if I can have the colorado provide turn by turn directions and only lack the voice prompt that sounds pretty good. Experiences? Thanks! -cjd

Don't buy the Oregon! Wait for the Mississippi and Pennsylvania models I've heard they are way cool and don't have half the bugs of the Colorado or Oregon, just more letters!

Do these updates make the Colorado useable now? It looks like the 2.54 update came out on July 1st. Wanting to buy this but the negative feedback seems overwhelming to date. Thanks! Change History Changes made from version 2.51 to 2.54: Added ability to turn elevation shading off, included in user profile settings Added ability to log a comment with geocaching Field Notes Added ability to save map selections to user profile settings Added compass setting to saved user profile settings Added tracback along current track Added ability to determine public land survey or USGS Quad name for Topo 24k HD cartography Added progress bar during software updates Improved odometer distance calculation Improved Wherigo engine Improved backlight behavior Improved compass / gps heading autoswitch behavior Improved keyboard behavior in address & intersection searches Improved behavior in low battery state Improved behavior of turn-by-turn route recalcuations Improved map drawing to eliminate redraws when not necessary Improved map drawing to reduce partial map draws Improved map drawing to enhance appearance of trails Improved usability of WGS84 by listing as a datum rather than just a spheroid Improved automatic track archiving when archiving very lengthy activity segments Increased maximum number of GPX files processed to 200 Corrected guidance text to not truncate streets when not necessary Corrected behavior of proximity alarms in custom points of interest Corrected potential issues that prevented user alarm from sounding Corrected map drawing above 75 degrees latitude Corrected potential issue when attempting to delete profiles Corrected issue that generated extra waypoints at poweron when 'Mark Waypoint' was the first listed shortcut Corrected potential issue preventing 'Waypoints' from being listed in 'Where to?' Corrected issue that prevented poor signal strength messages from disappearing if a fix was achieved Corrected calculated issue that prevented complete display of large numbers Corrected specified schema path for GPX files Corrected Dutch keyboard to include 'Z' for address searches Corrected User Grid to retain settings between power cycles Corrected User Grid to allow 'E' and 'W' for longitude origin entry Changes made from version 2.40 to 2.51: Added ability to reposition waypoint to current location Added support for language-specific keyboards Added support for editing location in all position formats Added Spanner support Improved drawing of BlueChart tidal areas Improved performance when exiting mass storage mode Improved paperless goecaching (various) Improved Wherigo player (various) Corrected potential shutdown when selecting maps with a large variety of maps loaded Corrected potential shutdown when profiling a long route Corrected avoiding highways Corrected display of found geocaches Corrected issue preventing name of lakes and rivers from showing when highlighted Corrected display of bridge heights Changes made from version 2.30 to 2.40: Improved acquisition time in certain circumstances. Improved power on time. Improved backlight support. Improved support for NiMH batteries. Improved Wherigo player. Added ability to show and review geocaches on the map. Added ability to log geocaches as found. Increased maximum geocache count to 2000. Added support for BlueChart currents. Added ability to view extended information for custom POI's. Added ability for turn preview beep to reset the backlight timeout. Corrected map to display road labels. Corrected map to display small towns. Corrected map to not change orientation when beginning pan mode. Corrected metric nautical setting to display appropriate map scale. Support for Colorado Field Notes, at geocaching.com. Changes made from version 2.20 to 2.30: Added setting to turn off the compass. Alarm clock will not change your backlight if it is already on. Low battery warning shows on powerup when appropriate. Improved DEM shading with supplemental maps. Fixed marine colors for depth soundings and active track. Added ability to view extended chart information and chart notes. Improve share wirelessly connection. Changes made from version 2.10 to 2.20: Fixed potential shutdown when using partially discharged alkaline batteries and significant amounts of backlight. Improved backlight usability. Corrected potential memory leak on altimeter page. Corrected issue that changed map setting to north up if reviewing a point on the map. Changed the automotive view angle to match automotive products. Added ability to exit compass calibration if calibration fails. Improved performance and error handling of Share Wirelessly application. Corrected tone of route turn warnings. Added height and depth information on review pages if the information is available (related to marine maps). Corrected drawing of spot soundings. Improved drawing of satellite imagery in 400i and 400c.

Paved and wide enough to comfortably allow for mixed use then I don't see a problem with it. Dirt, rutty, gravel, etc. Then I'd say no. Not wide enough to support multiple bikes, peds, etc. Then no. -cjd

Which solar charger did you choose? -cjd

YOUR FAVORITE: 1. GPS - Currently on hunt for new GPSr; been using Dell Axim X50v with Backcountry Navigator gps software and it has worked really well; external blue tooth GPSr w/ sirf chip. BCN gives you all the cache points, hints, notes, closest waypoints, has tracks, etc. 2. Paperless Device and Software - Backcountry Navigator has it all integrated. 3. Software for downloading Waypoints - GSAK rocks! 4. Maps - integrated into BCN, terraserver. Downside is only us based.

So what is the difference between these two units? eTrex is 2oz lighter and lists 25hr battery life (vs 18 for 60CSx) eTrex resolution looks marginally better unit dimensions are clearly different, screen sizes appear to be nearly same. How's one choose one over the other? Im planning on hiking, geocaching. Thanks for the recommendations. Team Chinook

How do I log this type of benchmark? My first and I can't seem to log it, but don't know what I'm doing... pain in the a** to upload it. tried via panaramio, but it isn't allowed. The benchmark states the following: National Geodetic Survey Horizontal Control Mark Middle USGS 1934 1972 The Director Triangle w/ point in the middle I believe I shot it at the Grand Canyon near Yaki Point. Thanks! -Team Chinook

Ah - so then I'd suggest Mobipocket / Mobibook. It reads the .prc file you can get along w/ your pocket queries. I downloaded it from here: http://mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp Looks like a neat program if you're using your PPC to navigate, I'm just using my PPC for paperless caching, and using the 60CSx for navigating, I did bookmark the program in case I ever decide to use my PPC for navigating. Thanks for posting Jim W

Take a look at back country navigator. pretty slick! http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/ -cjd Walnut Creek