flyjazz

Where does one find that Topo file that came loaded on the 400t? Just curious as it would be a good option due to it's smaller size.

New OR owners should have full confidence and not hesitate to take the plunge!

I've noticed that the HCX Etrex models,according to another thread,have been suffering accuracy problems as well since the latest firmware upadate. It gets a bit confusing trying to determine if this is a chipset problem in both the Etrex and Colorado's,as it seems the Etrex's were not having accuracy problems prior to the update and have the same chipset. Anyone have a way of explaining this further,considering both models apparently have the same chipset.

Both. Once I notice that my track is starting to wander from known good tracks/waypoints I'll see "GPS Accuracy" start to creep up above 35'-40'. If I see it in the 50-100' range I can almost guarantee I'm seeing the problem. My observed error in these cases is usually in the range of 200'-500' but I've seen it is high as 700' with GPS Accuracy of 100'. I've been watching GPS Accuracy a lot this past week with the backlight off. I haven't seen it above 25' the entire week. Similar results again this morning. I had my 60cs along for the walk and it was losing signal all over the place (not uncommon in this type of cover) but the Colorado with backlight off never got above 20' and held a nice tight track relative to previous tracks and known good waypoints. GO$Rs I have to admit to being surprised that the Colorado was holding it's signal better than the 60cs! We constantly get the impression that the Colorado has location errors and the 60 series is always superior from the many postings that arise on this topic.

I suspect the next update is coming soon,this month hopefully and I've got this feeling that it's going to a spectacular update and exceed expectations. That may explain why Garmin hasn't bothered to make minor Colorado updates available more often. The opproach may be frustrating for users,but Garmin probably knows they are on the hot-seat and has to do something to convince the market that they have the world's premier handheld GPS available.

Care to give us the first few numbers of the serial number and what software version was loaded into the unit when you received it? My particular unit was purchased in late March and had version 2.3 loaded. On a personal note,I will admit that it's taken awhile to figure out all the features of the Colorado. For the most part it seems to be functioning correctly. I just downloaded a pocket query with 500 caches then copied and pasted it into the units GPX folder. I can see why a lot of folks are raving about the paperless benifits of the Colorado. Many owners complain about the battery operating time their units are providing. I can only speak from my own experiences and yes,it does make a significant difference on the batteries used. I went from some ordinary non rated Nimh batteries at 8 hours to a pair of Maha 2700's that will keep the unit going for 16 hours before it shuts off.

Would it be worth while drilling a couple of small holes into the bottom of the back cover to allow for better drainage before removing the back cover? Seems that intrusion likely occurs after immersion from the residual water inside the back cover. Alternatively,one could hold the unit in a manner that would allow the water to drain out of the latch assembly until it was safe to remove the back cover.

I use a Maha C9000 at home. I've had it for maybe 8 months and I think it's great. Before that I used the Maha MH-C401FS and I still use it for traveling. For all around use the C401FS has been my favorite charger (it beats the C9000 because I can easily take it with me). The C401FS is switchable to either slow (AA: 300mA, AAA: 200mA) or fast (1000mA). I always set it to slow unless I'm pressed for time. It's true that the faster you recharge a battery, the harder it is on the battery. I don't think Maha is doing anything wrong by offering fast charges. It's a trade off - do you want a fast charge or do you want the most capacity and life out of your battery? BTW, I really recommend a charger that charges individual batteries instead of pairs. No two batteries are the same, so charging them together will not get the most out of them. That was a very informative reply,thank you! I went out and purchased a set of 4 Maha 2700 batteries and put them in my inexpensive fast charger. Generally it would charge up my 4 non-rated ROV nimh batteries in less than 3 hours as it charges at 500mA. I was a bit concerned about putting a good set of Maha batteries in it,but thought it was worth a try before going out and spending good money on a Maha charger. It took 8 hours to finally get them initially charged,which was a bit worrying as I thought there was something wrong with the charger. I put them in my Colorado last night to see how long they would last compared to the ROV's. With the compass off,map north up,track on and backlight off I would get 7.5 hours out off them before the Colorodo would shut itself off. To my suprise I checked the battery meter a short while ago and it had just changed to two green bars or 50%,not bad after 13 hours?

After reading a number of different threads on this site about Nimh batteries,the consensus seems to be the Maha batteries are an excellent choice. Before I go out and buy a set of X-Power 2700's,I would like an opinion on the Maha chargers,as they do sell a number of different types. Specifically,what do you think of the Maha travel chargers and their ability to fast charge,is that a bad thing? Fast charging can be useful,but then again most posts seem to suggest that it has a negative effect on the preformance of batteries. If that is true,why then would Maha sell them? Lastly,would anyone want to comment on the preformance of the ROV Hybrids,I recall them rated at 2000 or was it 2100?

I haven't read every post in this thread to see if someone has mentioned the idea of having an alternative character entry option other than the current Rock&Roll function of having to spin the wheel back and forth? Would it be a simple software modification to have a screen with all the characters laid out like the Etrex Lengend CX where you would simply use the CO R&R to move around the screen and select the desired character by pushing the center button? I find the ring around the center button easy to use when panning across the screen and cannot see why it would not be possible.

I don't know if it's possible,but perhaps you could find somewhere to download the operating software and simply copy it back into the internal memory. Some members on this forum may be in a position to direct you to a site to find the download.

What type of batteries? It does sound like a bad unit assuming they are decent batteries. They are Ray-O-Vac NIHM batteries,nothing special. I suspect the suggestion I'll get is to call Garmin and advise them of the battery life I'm getting and see what they have to say. Speaking of Garmin,will they likely be upfront and tell me if I have a substandard unit requiring replacement?

As a new owner of a Colorado 300,I've found that at best,I'm getting only 3 hours out of my batteries when the compass is turned on. With the compass off and no backlight,I can get about 7.5 hours. I'm using average quality batteries and I would like someone to give me an idea as to whether or not I may have a bad unit. I've installed the new beta 2.51 software,which improved the the battery life somewhat. The batteries I use are of the same type I had in my stolen Etrex Legend and they lasted for what seemed forever.

There two parts involved in getting maps to your Colorado using Mapsource: 1) Building the files 2) Transferring the data. As qlenfg has already mentioned 2) is made much faster by using a USB2.0 card reader instead of using the Colorado's native USB1.1 interface. 1) Doesn't depend on whether you are using USB 1.1 or 2.0 it is determined by the performance of your computer and the number of map segments you are building. I have noticed that the increase in time is not linear with respect to the number of map segments. In other words the time it takes to build a map set with 1000 map segments is not 2x a mapset with 500 segments it is something more like 4x or 8x (I'm guessing here, just using numbers to illustrate). GO$Rs Your comment about the non-linear results of different sizes of map sets is very interesting. It was driving me crazy,as I'm always looking for explainations for things I don't understand. Do you have a theory on why this is?

It's the,"calm before the storm". Everyone is just waiting for the next software update. All hell should break loose then!

Duplicate Post

Wanted to get a some feedback from more experienced and knowledgable members on the question of loading maps? Why is it,as noted in my previous post,it took me about such a short time to load mapsets up to the limit of my 512 mb SD card using a card reader(10 minutes for mapsets from Metroguide Canada,North America and Europe),yet it takes all day to load 2 gb of those same maps? I just don't get it!

I too have a Colorado 300 and have purchased a 4 gb SD card to load maps. It's been a real struggle to load mapsets up to 2 gb onto the card using the Colorado as a mass storage device. I've all but given up as it takes far too long and the map transfer fails constantly. What I suggest,which is what I'm doing,is purchase an inexpensive SD card reader and load your maps using it instead. It loads the maps faster on my 512 mb card,of which I'm using close to the capacity of the card and it completes the process without failures or errors.

Thank you for all your responses. I had a look at the product infomation for Southern Africa Streetmaps V1.5 on the Garmap website. From what I can see,it indicates this product will auto-route. Do I assume it auto-routes on a PC only,or will it auto-route on compatible Garmin GPS units? Considering I don't own a previous version of this software,it makes it a bit expensive,especially for someone like myself that lives overseas and would only use it on my annual one month visit to South Africa. I could acquire Garmin City Navigator South Africa V6 for R850.00,that's quite a bit less,granted it's not as good as the Southern Africa Streetmaps V1.5.

Wondering if any of you have had an opportunity to test Garmin City Navigator South Africa V6? I'm very interested in opinions,especially those based on first hand experience.

To follow the answer to your original Q, Topo USA does not autoroute. The National Parks 24K products have routable trails. As far as the CDs go, it is designed to work that way, but there are a couple of workarounds. You can copy all the data on the CDs to the hard drive and then edit the computers registry (I would not recommend this method, but the steps are here on the board somewhere). The easiest way is to uninstall the program, copy all the data to a folder on your hard drive and install from there. Coach88 Editing the registry is fairly simple. Just be sure to double check everything before you hit enter. Here's the instructions from the past thread. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...l=edit+registry (original thread) To edit the registry for Using CDs saved on Computer. Close the MapSource program (if it's open) Make a new folder in your C:\Garmin folder and name it "Topo" CD 1 contains a folder named "West" CD 2 contains a folder named "East" CD 3 contains a folder named "Alaska" and a folder named "Hawaii" Copy those folders into your "C:\Garmin\Topo" folder Click your Windows Start button and select "Run" Where it says "Open", type in "REGEDIT" Click the "OK" button Double-Click the folder "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" Click on the following plus signs in sequence" +SOFTWARE +Garmin +MapSource +Products Click on the folder named "6", and then in the right window pane, double-click the "Loc" registry key. "D:\East" is displayed Change that to read as: C:\Garmin\Topo\East Click the "OK" button Click on the folder named "7", and then in the right window pane, double-click the "Loc" registry key. "D:\West" is displayed Change that to read as: C:\Garmin\Topo\West Click the "OK" button Click on the folder named "8", and then in the right window pane, double-click the "Loc" registry key. "D:\Hawaii" is displayed Change that to read as: C:\Garmin\Topo\Hawaii Click the "OK" button Click on the folder named "9", and then in the right window pane, double-click the "Loc" registry key. "D:\Alaska" is displayed Change that to read as: C:\Garmin\Topo\Alaska Click the "OK" button. Close the Registry Editor window Open MapSource. Your Topo maps should now open without the CDs!!! I just tried your suggestion with Worldmap V2 and it worked like a charm. I had to change the "Bmap" registry key as well from D:\Tdb\WorldMap.img to C:\Garmin\WorldMap.img after making a copy of the original file and placing it in the C:\Garmin folder.

After reading through this post,I'm not sure what to make of the need to reset my unit with either a soft or hard reset after downloading the lastest firmware 2.6 for my Legend CX. It would seem easiest to just select new location and leave the unit out in the open for 30 minutes.