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Any Garmin Colorado reviews?


xxgg

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I looked some today and did not see any. I think it may be a little too early. I am interested in the paperless caching function, and I'd like to know its limitations. I was interested in the Triton, but with the promising news of the Colorado and Garmin's much better record of customer support (based here!!) they may have found a convert......

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Groundspeak isn't ready with their data setup for the Colorado yet, so the dedicated geocaching functions in the navigator doesn't work. They require a specially formatted GPX file from Groundspeak's site.

For premium members, you'll get more information (like hints), but for basic members only the basics, so to speak.

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The review is interesting. However it doesn't say if our own homemade topo maps will work for sure. And if so if they will show with the shaded relief by making them transparent and overlaying them onto the dem resident map (hmmm, probably not). Which is all I need to know. :P

 

Mike

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From the review posted earlier:

 

Reliable - never crashed and didn't notice any bugs during testing

 

I have been watching the Magellan Triton roll-out and was planning to buy one a few months ago. But it is clear that Magellan has dropped the ball on the Triton release: good hardware, awful software.

 

I've decided to buy the Garmin Colorado 400t. Not a difficult decision...

Edited by jmedlock
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I like the unit, nice screen and all....I just dont know why they insist putting the main buttons above the screen, Ill wait for another model to come out....this aint the one for me

 

Take a look at the video of someone using the unit on the Garmin website below:

 

http://www8.garmin.com/ces/colorado/index.html

 

The button & roller placement + use of thumb to rotate the 'wheel' makes a lot of sense to me.

 

Justin

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Groundspeak isn't ready with their data setup for the Colorado yet, so the dedicated geocaching functions in the navigator doesn't work. They require a specially formatted GPX file from Groundspeak's site.

For premium members, you'll get more information (like hints), but for basic members only the basics, so to speak.

Source? Are you saying that one could not load a GPX file from GSAK (in which, for instance, I combine various PQs, use corrected coordinates, etc.)? If so, that's a dealbreaker.

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GPX files with the Groundspeak extensions are supposed to be recognized by these things. If "Specially formatted GPX files from Groundspeak sites" essentially means "pocket query or other GPX file with Groundspeak's geocaching extensions that includes things like diff/terr/hint/description" instead of plain old GPX (lat/lon and darned near everything else is optional) I'd agree that's likely a requirement.

 

It's my understanding you can copy a PQ straight to an appropriate folder on these models and get MOST of what you want for caching. If you're expecting it to divine a geocaching hint from an input type that has only lat and long, you're going to be disappointed.

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Groundspeak isn't ready with their data setup for the Colorado yet, so the dedicated geocaching functions in the navigator doesn't work. They require a specially formatted GPX file from Groundspeak's site.

For premium members, you'll get more information (like hints), but for basic members only the basics, so to speak.

Source? Are you saying that one could not load a GPX file from GSAK (in which, for instance, I combine various PQs, use corrected coordinates, etc.)? If so, that's a dealbreaker.

Even if it does require a new format (probably not), you can bet the software tool authors will support that new format quickly. It shouldn't be a "dealbreaker" for you.

 

I wonder if testing for the Colorados had anything to do with the sporadic "send to GPS" problems on geocaching.com recently... Kinda stupid to do testing like that on your production site, though.

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What I meant was that if you just use the "Send to GPS", or go through "Go geocaching" at Garmin's web site, the file you got yesterday didn't support the special geocaching mode of the Colorado. You still get them, but they end up as ordinary waypoints in the unit.

That works, as I logged my first cache with the Colorado today (GC1851Q), but it has less features than the unit has potential to support.

 

In the future, Groundspeak will indeed support the Colorado, so these caches will show up in the special geocaching screen. Premium users will get more data than those that aren't paying.

Edited by apersson850
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What I meant was that if you just use the "Send to GPS", or go through "Go geocaching" at Garmin's web site, the file you got yesterday didn't support the special geocaching mode of the Colorado. You still get them, but they end up as ordinary waypoints in the unit.

That works, as I logged my first cache with the Colorado today (GC1851Q), but it has less features than the unit has potential to support.

 

In the future, Groundspeak will indeed support the Colorado, so these caches will show up in the special geocaching screen. Premium users will get more data than those that aren't paying.

 

So, for now, you cannot get cache descriptions on the Colorado?

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No. I've never seen any good reason before. Maybe now, but I'll at least wait until I can see that Groundspeak's site works with the Colorado, i.e. that you can get some basic geocache description into the Colorado without being a premium member.

Then maybe I'll upgrade. If I don't do it like that, I'll not be able to tell the difference, not without creating a bogus account.

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No. I've been told that it should still show up in the list as geocaches, not ordinary waypoints. Just with less data.

I've also been told that Groundspeak's site wasn't (isn't) 100% ready for this yet, so it all adds up to what I just wrote above.

 

I'm not sure exactly how the Colorado recognizes "Geocaches" but if it follows the same logic as the 60csx etc, then the symbol must be set to "Geocache" (closed treasure chest) or "Geocache Found" (open treasure chest).

 

The free LOC files do not contain any "Symbol" information in them, so this is probably the most likely reason for what you are seeing.

Edited by ClydeE
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No, the Colorado uses a completely different scheme for handling geocaches, compared to the 60 CSx. Forget all you know about how it works on the 60 CSx.

 

As I still don't want to become a premium member, before I know for sure how Groundspeak will handle geocaches for the Colorado, when you are a regular member, another premium member in Calgary generate a PQ, to test in the Colorado.

 

That does indeed work already. They now don't show up in the waypoint listing, so you don't get your regular Finds of waypoints messed up with lots of geocaches. Instead, the geocaches are available through the special geocache menu, where you get them sorted by distance from where you are.

You can also search for a particular name or GC code.

It's possible to view the full description and the last logs, as well as the hint.

 

When viewing the short description (name, difficulty, size and if there are any travel bugs in there), you can also see distance, direction and ETA data fields, as well as the map, on the screen at the same time.

The it's possible to go to compass and full map views, without leaving the geocaching mode. You can also ask the Colorado to compute a route for you, which then can take you to the cache along the roads, provided you have installed City Navigator maps in your Colorado.

 

I haven't yet had time to check what happens when you find a cache.

 

There are some bugs in this implementation, but I'm sure they'll be sorted out before the Colorado reaches the stores.

Edited by apersson850
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When viewing the short description (name, difficulty, size and if there are any travel bugs in there), you can also see distance, direction and ETA data fields, as well as the map, on the screen at the same time.

The it's possible to go to compass and full map views, without leaving the geocaching mode. You can also ask the Colorado to compute a route for you, which then can take you to the cache along the roads, provided you have installed City Navigator maps in your Colorado.

 

Thanks a bunch!!

 

If you have a chance, could you post some screenshots?

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This sounds fantastic!! If you are able to view logs, that would seem to imply that there are no limits for the cache description field. Is it easy to go from screen to screen to view the descriptions and the cache on a map? Also, I read somewhere that the Triton line will not project waypoints for those multicaches that require you to project. Can you tell me if the Colorado has this feature? Again, many thanks! I feel I am almost ready to order one......

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It seems to show the logs you see, when you open the cache page at Groundspeak's web site. If there are many of them, they throttle the information, so you see the most recent. These are what show up on the Colorado screen. But perhaps that's something you set when you generate a pocket query? I've never done that, so I don't know, yet.

 

I have a web album, and that turned out to work well with bitmaps, as the screenshots are, as well.

 

Colorado screenshots

 

There are a few more images, not related to the Colorado, but that should be obvious. Most of the images are related to the geocaching function.

 

Oh, I forgot to say that yes, the Colorado can project a waypoint for you.

Edited by apersson850
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... But perhaps that's something you set when you generate a pocket query? I've never done that, so I don't know, yet.

 

Pocket Queries only show the last five logs. A GPX file downloaded from the geocache's page have the last 20 logs plus your own log(s).

 

Thanks for the screen shots.

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It seems to show the logs you see, when you open the cache page at Groundspeak's web site. If there are many of them, they throttle the information, so you see the most recent. These are what show up on the Colorado screen. But perhaps that's something you set when you generate a pocket query? I've never done that, so I don't know, yet.

 

I have a web album, and that turned out to work well with bitmaps, as the screenshots are, as well.

 

Colorado screenshots

 

There are a few more images, not related to the Colorado, but that should be obvious. Most of the images are related to the geocaching function.

 

Oh, I forgot to say that yes, the Colorado can project a waypoint for you.

 

Thanks for taking the time to offer the screen shots for all of us to see. It seems that the Colorado will be very user friendly and offer everything a cacher really needs in terms of info. I guess this means no more PDA or I-pod out in the field. One final question if you don't mind: can you make a set of caches active so that they are viewable on the map while you drive around town? My Magellan does this and it makes caching on a whim possible. Again, many thanks for allowing us to pick your brain. :laughing:

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As far as I've figured out, you can't see the geocaches on the map, like you can with the waypoints. There's no setting for geocaches to show up at a certain zoom level, or something similar.

You can only go to the geocaching page, in which case it will show all caches near you, sorted by distance. You can also filter by a text string, matched to either the cache name or the GC waypoint name.

 

To me, it seems that they (Garmin) have thought that you should search for a particular geocache with the geocache tool, select the one you want to go to and then use the map screen to get into the vicinity and finally the compass page to reach the cache. I make this assumption from what the datafields and screens look like.

 

The last five logs is what I got into the Colorado, so that's consistent then with what there should be in a pocket query.

Edited by apersson850
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...

Pocket Queries only show the last five logs.

...

I don't think that's true. I dump my PQs into GSAK and from there into my PDA and I get the last 10 and that's because I set GSAK to only send the last 10.

 

Updating GSAK over time with the same PQ's accumulates logs over that same time period. Try loading a PQ into an empty database in GSAK and see how many logs are there.

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