The Hungry Caterpillars

This thread and the posts on it are music to my ears. It would seem that Garmin has some very decent competition from DeLorme. Hopefully the competiton will sharpen up Garmins act and boy do they need it after the Colorado. Its great to see DeLorme so commited to its products and obviously very willing to listen to its customers.

I think it is best to tread very carefully and not lose the goodwill that has led to the agreement in the first place. I would hope that that good will wont be lost by irresponsible behaviour on anybodies part. And sometimes when it comes to caches less is really more. Perhaps a 100 is enough?

I have had six diffeent Garmins over the years and up to and including the 60csx had any little real trouble. I unfortunately bought a Colorado and all that changed-dramatically. I will not list the problems I had with the first one and am still having with the second one as they have recieved massive comment elsewhere. I feel to have been treated like a beta tester without any backup at all. Being in Britain the tech guys have been brilliant but unfortunately seemed totally unaware of the problems with the Colorado. Just why they are not informed by Garmin is beyond me. I am really fed up with Garmin and wish there was some decent competiton. No competition no reason to take any notice of the customer. Hopefully at least in the states competiton does seem to be on the rise. Perhaps just the stick needed to persuade Garmin to put its house in order? I will now stick with my trusty 60csx until Garmin gets its act together or another company produces something worthwhile. I have the feeling that this may well be along time. At least as far as the United Kingdom is concerned.

I take it you have a legal Garmin Topo Map version 2 and you have unlocked it? with a code from Garmin?

Did seem to recall that beginning of November -middle of November perhaps? Am not really interested any longer and at that kind of price in that kind of format with so many licence restrictions I wont be buying. Its just one endless rip off. OS rip off + Garmin rip off = one massive rip off too far. Enoughs enough. Both need to get their acts together on the mapping side.

How odd, And I have met two of the people involved!

I am fully aware of the idotic licencing of OS data. What I find really upsetting is the data collection was paid by us as taxpayers before it was privatised. Not only that for some reason they have been granted the digital rights to data for up to fifty years in the past! So no possible competition and we pay for the data and the licence time and again! I sometimes wonder if it is possible with the aid of maps published over fifty years ago and say 10,000 geocachers if it is possible to produce your own map of GB. Somehow Harveys manage it on a small scale I think for various areas such as the Lake district. I also think that there is some free data from somewhere on contours etc? However as far as Garmin is concerned there is more than a licence fee involved with both the setup and the price of these cards. After all I can buy Memory map for the national parks for £30 and for that can print from it, use it in conjunction with my GPS, put it on my PDA and view it on a computer. This card will only work in conjunction with a Garmin GPS (only the Oregon and Colorado), no printing, no viewing on a computer no putting on my PDA. And as for the routing side of it that costs me from Garmin less than £50 per GPS from Topo v2. As I posted earlier a no brainer.

Join the club!! Think I paid under £30 for the Memory map version of all the National parks at 1:50,000 and can have it on both a computer, use it conjunction with all my GPSs as well as load it on my PDA, and print from it!! No brainer!

So too good to be true! Have just spoken with Garmin support who now tell me that there are 35 cards! Each one comes with the vector map but 34 of them come with just one national park or just one national trail on at 1:25000!!!! The last one comes with all the national parks on but only at 1:50000. It makes memory map look a bit of a bargain. I most definitely am not up to buying the same vector map 35 times!!

I believe the map that comes with the 400t Is not fantastic at 1:100,000. I think it has contour lines at 100ft intervals! I very much doubt that there would be much detail about footpaths and streams in there? I do believe it may be a vector map? Actually topo V2 does not show all streams and footpaths as I personally found out the hard way one night whilst on a bat watch.

I have had a goodly number of GPS devices and as a hand held the 60csx is in my view undoubtedly the best. May not offer paperless caching or raster mapping but in every other aspect is superior to later models.

Having fought vainly with two Colorados over an eight month period whilst apparently acting as a beta tester and still seeing no answer in sight to the drift problems I am about to give up on it. It has to be one of the biggest blunders that Garmin has made. At long last Garmin has admitted the problem, has offered no solution and suggests that they are unsure when a solution will be offered. To be honest after eight months this is just not good enough. A gps that for no apparent reason suggests you are several hundred feet from your actual position is worse than no gps at all. It would appear (so far) that the oregon has a lot less problems and is a safer bet. I would point out here that Garmin help has been as good as they are allowed to be. They have been unfortunately let down by a release at least six months too early in my view.

So do I. I think a lot of the cost could be down to the licensing. Memory map can be viewed and used on both a pc and a pda, can be used in conjunction with a gps, can be printed from. With the Garmin cannot be viewed on a computer, cannot be transferred to a pda, cannot be printed from. That may explain the price differential -hopefully. If it were £130 per region dont bother, I most definitely wouldnt. Just to put it into perspective I believe you can obtain memory map standard 1:50,000 for well under £200. That involves a lot more digital data than you willl find on all the national parks 1:25,000 card and the licencing for that card is a lot stricter.

I have personally had a number of Garmins over the last few years including a Colorado 300. Favourite by far is the 60csx. And yes when I bother to take the Colorado out I ALWAYS take the 60csx as insurance espescially at nights when doing bat watches. It may well not allow paperless caching on one unit but has few issues as a gps when compared to the Colorado. As to the Oregon I have no experience with it.

My mistake -should have read "I am unsure how well raster mapping will be handled by them?

I was also somewhat confused Stuey-thats why I put in question marks. We will soon know for certain however.

Hi Treaclefudge we think we may have come across your stamp once or twice- Four Winds? Yellowmeade farm? perhaps?

I actually bought my first Colorado300 in February and have just had one problem after another with both the first and the second. The problem has been aknowledged by Garmin apparently after ducking for some considerable length of time on this. "We have been able to reproduce the issue and are working closely with our vendor to remedy the situation. At this point, customers will see no benefit by returning/exchaging units as the cause does not appear to be hardware related defects. Nearly all units may see this issue under some circumstances. We cannot provide a timeline for when we anticipate resolution but please know we are working very hard to resolve this problem quickly." As far as I am concerned a gps that behaves in such a manner is worse than no gps at all. Having just talked to Garmin support in the UK they have assured me this problem is being worked on and is down to the sensitivity of the reciever?. However after all the ongoing problems over an eight month period I am not too sure that it can be sorted. In another month if this problem is not sorted then this second one will be returned but most definitely not for another California! By the way this is no reflection at all on my interaction with Garmin support who have been very good. They are being let down by a product brought to market at least 6 months earlier than it should have been.

I am on my second Colorado and have a problem that keeps recurring. I live at the bottom of a narrow wooded clough which means that satellite reception is not the best. On a number of ocassions I have noticed a bigger and bigger error appear that can be well over anything I pick up with my 60csx. (I have checked by taking both on the same walk at the same time.) Once the error is present it takes a long time to return to normal and I usually turn off and have even pulled the batteries when everything reverts to normal. Has anybody else experienced this?

Have had a word with Garmin who suggest that there are three cards. I think all have routing capabilities based on a vector map but also have some raster mapping. Card one? - routing + all the national parks at 1:25000. Card two ?- routing + all the National Trails at 1:25000. Card three? - routing? + the whole country at 1:50,000. I think the cost is about £130 per card. The release date is the beginning of November. These cards can only run on Colorados and Oregons unfortunately. I am unsure just how well vector mapping will be handled by them?

I personally think premium membership is good value for money if you do a lot of geocaching and are heavily into gadgets and paperless caching. otherwise perhaps not?

Ooh arent we all touchy! And am I bothered? well actually not one bit.

Ooh arent we all touchy! And am I bothered? well actually not one bit.

"Some moves were immediately controversial. Early on, when geocaching was still smaller than the older hobby of Letterboxing, Irish made an attempt to absorb Letterboxing into the geocaching.com Web site. The move was resisted by other members of the gpsstash mailing list. Eventually, Irish gave up trying to take over Web services for Letterboxing. " Sweeping statement? Think not.

Jeremy I seem to recall that you were very aware of letterboxing. In fact was there not an attempt to take over letterboxing by you?