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What I dislike about the Garmin Colorado? It apparently appeals to people who should not be allowed to handle anything more high-tech than a light switch. In the proper hands its currently the best paperless caching tool around -- in other hands its a battery-sucking, wrong-way pointing, device of confusion that can only find its way back to REI.

Frozen, as in cold as the contents of a witch's copper/zinc bustier, or frozen, as in locked up? LCD screens that get cold will appear to be stuck or respond very slowly.

I had a catridge set up to stop a timer, display a couple of messages, end the cartridge and save the game and exit when your reach the final zone -- it died every time you hit the final zone. Found this thread and thought the crash I was seeing might have been related to the save and exit, but no bueno in my case, apparently. I'm running 2.51 beta on a Colorado 300, with a Wherigo cartridge created on the Builder version 2.0.4927.3981.

Something ain't right. I set up the same type of cartridge for a close location, and had what appears to be the same crash, even with no math involved. I simply started a timer, added one to a variable every timer tick, then stopped the timer and displayed the variable contents when the final zone was reached. No conversion math, beeps, etc... Worked fine on the emulator, died horribly on the Colorado 300.

You sure thats not a rubber snake? He looks kinda fake to me.

Will check the raw code as suggested. I did not put a math statement in the author... section as I never found a working example of the statement. The conversion to minutes was lark -- probably should have left it out for now. In any case, the command does stop the timer. But it appears the timer works without the math, I just hate seeing the time in seconds when the cartridge will take minutes or hours. Not sure which line you mean. I hand-coded the math into the .lua file and it worked fine in the emulator, but not on a Colorado 300. Here is the code segment: function zonePub:OnEnter() -- #GroupDescription=At_Pub -- -- #Comment=At_Pub Comment -- Wherigo.MessageBox{Text=[[Ah! Finally here!]],} Wherigo.Command("Alert") ztimerTrip_Timer:Stop() Timer_Count = Timer_Count/60*10 Timer_Count = math.modf(Timer_Count) Timer_Count = Timer_Count / 10 Wherigo.MessageBox{Text=[[it took you ]]..Timer_Count..[[ minutes to get here.]],} ztaskGoTo_Pub.Complete = true cartBullnBush.Complete = true Wherigo.Command("SaveClose") end In case you are wondering, I want to write a Wherigo cartridge to do a pub crawl around Fort Worth.

You start the timer, stop it, then display it: I do this when the cartridge is started: Start ztimerTrip_Timer Each timer tick (1 second) Timer_Count is incremented by one. And when they reach the final zone: Stop ztimerTrip_Timer Set Timer_Count Equal to Timer_Count / 60 * 10 Set Timer_Count Equal to math.modf(Timer_Count) Set Tmer_Count Equal to Timer_Count / 10 This takes the timer, which is in seconds, and rounds it out to minutes and 10ths of minutes. Works fine on the emulator, but blows up on the Colorado as soon as you enter the final zone.

I noticed this today. I used the satellite image map page in the Wherigo builder to set the zones, and when I ran the simulator the zones were out of position probably 100-150 feet. When I use Google Earth to establish coordinates and plug them in, they are dead on, and when I typed in a physical address in the builder the zone was right on. Also noticed if you set the zone with the satellite image and then switch to the topo you will see an offset error as well.

Since I got my RAM mount and remembered where I left the automotive power cord, I decided to try them out on the way home from work. If I recall correctly, with the 2.4 firmware you had to go into the display settings and tell it to leave the backlight on to have a constant display with the automotive power cable. With the 2.51 firmware, when you power the unit on, the backlight stays on no matter what the previous setting. If they would just make the brightness setting stay set between power-ups, all would be good.

Bad weather? OK and AR and east Texas got some tornado activity, and they are getting snow elsewhere.

Mine arrived this morning -- looks good. Will test it out on the ride home.

For geocaching, it could only be better if it would display the graphics, etc... in the cache description. I wish it had the SIRF GPS chipset, but if a frog had wings... Now I carry one gizmo, a few batteries and a cleaning cloth for the screen. Beats the crap out of printing each cache description and carrying a wad of folded papers in a sweaty hip pocket. I can switch to automotive mode and route the roads to the cache, then switch to geocaching mode and find the cache, log the find, then select the next nearest cache. It would only be easier if someone would find the caches for you. The automotive routing is as good as the low-end auto GPSr units. Beeper could be quite a bit louder and a 3-axis compass would allow you to use the compass with the GPSr positioned properly for in-car viewing. Garmin has a few more bugs to work out and a few features to add, but other than that its a solid unit. Hopefully they learned their lesson about releasing a product too soon.

Yup. I've had the same ball on my motorcycle handlebars since '99 and it still works fine. Been all over the country with me and never lost a GPS.

Depending on where the GPS antenna is located within the 810, how you hold it may make a big difference in what it receives. Most GPSr units have a small external antenna, which works best when pointed up. An internal antenna is used on the 810 to keep the package small and rectangular. Might set the 810 out on a non-metallic surface elevated above the ground in an area without trees and see how far the track jumps around. You can play with the position of the unit to see if it has any affect. Even a fancy GPSr will 'wander' when you have it zoomed in really close and it doesn't have a strong signal. Just because the satellite screen shows a large number of satellites in view, it doesn't mean your position is more accurate. I don't recall if Maemo Mapper has an accuracy figure it can display, but if it does, this will tell the tale as far as your real position goes. In any case, the 810 is a neat package. I love my 770, although its slower, has a mish-mash of hardware, and uses an oddball memory card. I'm seriously looking at an 800 as they are down pretty cheap and I have a whole bunch of movies and TV shows formatted for the Nokia units. Not to mention I can enable the speech on Kismet

Yup. Learned to look for an easier way after pushing my way through 100 yards of dense brush, then finding a clear trail from the cache to the main path. Doh!

I haven't played with the 810 -- only the 770 and 800 and a bluetooth GPSr. I assume you are using an included mapping program? Might be some kind of settings to tweak to improve the accuracy or to tell it don't assume the position has changed if the speed is below a certain point or if you don't move a certain distance. Might also look at Maemo Mapper if its available for the 810. If you have a friend with a bluetooth GPSr, you might see how it compares.

I use the pocket queries to filter out found caches, puzzle caches, inactive caches and unknown containers. If you hate micros, you could filter them out instead. You can also specify the terrain and difficulty level, as well as what attributes to include or avoid (although this didn't seem to work for me). Just remember there is a limit to how many caches you can run in a day, so get the settings right the first time. I have several queries I run weekly -- one for stuff around my house, one for around the in-laws house, and one for any towns I may be visiting over the weekend.

Just something more to fail unexpectedly. Its not like it would take three days to loosen the arm and remove the arm, mount and GPS from the ball attached to the vehicle. It probably takes an additional 30 seconds to remove the whole assembly rather than the quick disconnect.

He referenced alot of numbers in the description -- perhaps this is the key?

woo Hoo! Talked to Cycle Gadgets and they are sending out my mount today! Anyone else got theirs yet? Just go an email with the OOPS tracking number -- looks like Friday is my day.

"That water doesn't look that deep." "Go ahead and reach under there, the spiders aren't out yet."

I like the poop bag idea. I usually have the dog and the poop bags, so I'm all set. One day I tracked down a cache that in all likelihood was stuck up under a metal picnic table. I waited patiently for a man and his toddler to leave, but they didn't. I finally went over and struck up a conversation. I explained what geocaching was, what I was doing, and then reached under the table and retrieved the cache. He saw me sign the log and put the cache back. Thought it was a pretty cool hobby and figured he might try it when the kid got older.

There is a cache in a local park which has some apparently bad coordinates, judging by the path going across the creek and back and forth by someone's back fence. Several people have DNFed the cache -- probably the same ones who crossed the creek. Anyway, we found the cache and as I was looking over the log I saw where one of the neighborhood kids found it and signed the log. Thought it was cool he didn't trash it or steal it.

You have to have beta firmware 2.51 to be able to power the GPS off a standard USB cable. Won't work with firmware 2.4 or earlier.

Here is the Screen Magnifier I have. Works well.