I've waited long enough

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I noticed earlier in this thread or in another that someone is able to boot their Colorado in under 40 seconds. That would be nice. It takes approx 2 minutes for mine to go from power on to displaying the map screen. The longest load time is for "loading maps", everything else seems to load in the "normal" amount of time that others have reported. [/color]

 

I just figured out that "loading maps" also seems to include the time to load your geocaches. If you have a large gpx file full of geocaches in E:\garmin\gpx try removing it and booting up. You should get to 40 seconds. I haven't characterized it exactly but the rough rule of thumb seems to be for each 1MB of gpx file you'll add about 10 seconds of startup time over and above the 40 seconds. I had a 6MB file of around 1000 caches w/5 logs each and it added about 1 minute of startup time. My guess is you have about 2000 caches loaded.

 

GO$Rs

No, my GPX file has 5616 caches in it (all of the caches in Colorado that I haven't found yet). It comes out to about 26MB.

 

I tried deleting all caches and waypoints. The unit booted in about 37 seconds. I added one GPX file of about 450 caches and it went up to about 45-50 seconds. I added a second file and it went to 1:10. Obviously the waypoints/caches have some effect on boot times and it isn't the map itself that takes so long. I guess the key is to find some happy medium on how many caches I load into it vs how long it takes to boot.

 

One thing I didn't like about the Magellan eXplorist is that caches had to be in files of no more than 200 and you could only display one file at a time. I hope the Colorado doesn't end up being the same way.

 

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Another question related to waypoints and such...Someone posted a link to the GSAK forums in one of these Colorado threads about custom POIs. How are these handled differently than waypoints? How do I use them in GSAK/Garmin POI loader to get them to my Colorado?

[+apersson850]

I've never used the lock on road feature, even when I was using a Legend. I don't care much to have a "faked" position. If the GPSr is accurate to 3 meters, that should carry through to the maps as well. Maps aren't accurate? Why the heck not?! Garmin's a location company, they should be able to make or get accurate enough maps. Maybe I could get a job there driving around and giving them accurate coords for their maps.

 

I noticed earlier in this thread or in another that someone is able to boot their Colorado in under 40 seconds. That would be nice. It takes approx 2 minutes for mine to go from power on to displaying the map screen. The longest load time is for "loading maps", everything else seems to load in the "normal" amount of time that others have reported.

First I thought you were kidding, but then I realized that probably not, so I'll give you a serious answer.

 

First, the map databases available aren't any more accurate than that.

Second, when making the maps, all objects are located on a grid, with a certain resolution. No objects can be placed elsewhere. Making the grid too fine means the memory required to store all map data grows substantially.

Third, what's the point in having a road placement on the map accurate to a few meters, when it's at least seven, often more than ten meters wide?

 

I just used a stopwatch (not the one in the GPS, obviously!) while starting the Colorado. 41 seconds from pushing the power button until the map screen appeared.

[+Barefoot One & Wench]

I need some help with a few questions, maybe someone can help me.

I was thinking the 400t was going to do it for me, but after considering it comes loaded with the topos I'm not so sure and I know I could also install City Select in the 400t. I have always used City Select North America (V7 now) in my Garmin GPS V and before in my 3+. Since I have a TOPO set (I'm not sure what version) I loaded the Eastern US it into my GPS V. As I expected I didn't like it for a number of reasons one being no street names or road number designations. Also I don't need to know the contours or elevations.

So I'm thinking I might be further ahead with the Colorado 300 and just load my own maps into it, weather it's my City Select NA V7 or V8 if I want to buy it. My question at this point is how many maps of the City Select will the 384 MB memory in the 300 hold? If the 384 MB memory won't hold all the maps I want to put in and I install the SD card will the SD card then hold the overflow that the internal memory won't accept? I'm wondering how big of an SD card will the 300 work with, will it work with say a 4 GB card or do I have to go smaller?

In any case it will probably be awhile till I buy since I think Garmin needs to work out a lot of issues that the Colorado series have IMHO.

Thanks in advance for any answers,

Barefoot One & Wench

[+Marky]

I need some help with a few questions, maybe someone can help me.

I was thinking the 400t was going to do it for me, but after considering it comes loaded with the topos I'm not so sure and I know I could also install City Select in the 400t. I have always used City Select North America (V7 now) in my Garmin GPS V and before in my 3+. Since I have a TOPO set (I'm not sure what version) I loaded the Eastern US it into my GPS V. As I expected I didn't like it for a number of reasons one being no street names or road number designations. Also I don't need to know the contours or elevations.

So I'm thinking I might be further ahead with the Colorado 300 and just load my own maps into it, weather it's my City Select NA V7 or V8 if I want to buy it. My question at this point is how many maps of the City Select will the 384 MB memory in the 300 hold? If the 384 MB memory won't hold all the maps I want to put in and I install the SD card will the SD card then hold the overflow that the internal memory won't accept? I'm wondering how big of an SD card will the 300 work with, will it work with say a 4 GB card or do I have to go smaller?

In any case it will probably be awhile till I buy since I think Garmin needs to work out a lot of issues that the Colorado series have IMHO.

Thanks in advance for any answers,

Barefoot One & Wench

It will work with a 4gig SD, but not a 4gig SDHD (although people have reported using them). Basically, just assume that 4gig is the max storage.

[+Barefoot One & Wench]

I need some help with a few questions, maybe someone can help me.

I was thinking the 400t was going to do it for me, but after considering it comes loaded with the topos I'm not so sure and I know I could also install City Select in the 400t. I have always used City Select North America (V7 now) in my Garmin GPS V and before in my 3+. Since I have a TOPO set (I'm not sure what version) I loaded the Eastern US it into my GPS V. As I expected I didn't like it for a number of reasons one being no street names or road number designations. Also I don't need to know the contours or elevations.

So I'm thinking I might be further ahead with the Colorado 300 and just load my own maps into it, weather it's my City Select NA V7 or V8 if I want to buy it. My question at this point is how many maps of the City Select will the 384 MB memory in the 300 hold? If the 384 MB memory won't hold all the maps I want to put in and I install the SD card will the SD card then hold the overflow that the internal memory won't accept? I'm wondering how big of an SD card will the 300 work with, will it work with say a 4 GB card or do I have to go smaller?

In any case it will probably be awhile till I buy since I think Garmin needs to work out a lot of issues that the Colorado series have IMHO.

Thanks in advance for any answers,

Barefoot One & Wench

It will work with a 4gig SD, but not a 4gig SDHD (although people have reported using them). Basically, just assume that 4gig is the max storage.

 

What about the internal memory will it overflow to the SD card if the internal memory is exhausted?

Marky, thanks for the help.

Barefoot One & Wench

[+Marky]

What about the internal memory will it overflow to the SD card if the internal memory is exhausted?

Marky, thanks for the help.

Barefoot One & Wench

I don't think so, at least not for one map set. I think each map set is stored as an individual file, so you'd have to pick where it was going to reside. I don't have a lot of experience with Garmin maps, so maybe somebody else might have more complete info. Anders?

 

--Marky

[+Team GPSaxophone]

I've never used the lock on road feature, even when I was using a Legend. I don't care much to have a "faked" position. If the GPSr is accurate to 3 meters, that should carry through to the maps as well. Maps aren't accurate? Why the heck not?! Garmin's a location company, they should be able to make or get accurate enough maps. Maybe I could get a job there driving around and giving them accurate coords for their maps.

 

I noticed earlier in this thread or in another that someone is able to boot their Colorado in under 40 seconds. That would be nice. It takes approx 2 minutes for mine to go from power on to displaying the map screen. The longest load time is for "loading maps", everything else seems to load in the "normal" amount of time that others have reported.

First I thought you were kidding, but then I realized that probably not, so I'll give you a serious answer.

 

First, the map databases available aren't any more accurate than that.

Second, when making the maps, all objects are located on a grid, with a certain resolution. No objects can be placed elsewhere. Making the grid too fine means the memory required to store all map data grows substantially.

Third, what's the point in having a road placement on the map accurate to a few meters, when it's at least seven, often more than ten meters wide?

I can understand not having the maps to 3m, but take a look at this screenshot. If I was really following the GPSr to drive, I'd be crashing through houses. You can see the tracklog from when I was going south. The actual road is to the right.

 

 

I just used a stopwatch (not the one in the GPS, obviously!) while starting the Colorado. 41 seconds from pushing the power button until the map screen appeared.

I took the unit outside just now and turned it on. 2:40 from pressing the power button to displaying the map. This is with *only* 2000 caches in a GPX file (9.9MB). I actually had a shorter load time with 4000 caches loaded (20MB).

[yogazoo]

Stopwatch on the startup of my Colorado 300 ----- 29 seconds. This is with 366MB of TOPO2008 and CNV2008 maps loaded.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Today I finally got to "use" the new GPSr for geocaching (the one cache I found before was an obvious lamppost hide and wasn't all that difficult to find).

 

When you select a geocache, it returns you to the map screen and has the basic cache info (name, D/T) over the top half of the map. It also freezes the map from panning, so if you travel off one of the sides you can only zoom out to see where you are. You have some options for the cache though, including reading the description. When I selected goto, it returned me to the map screen and had a pinkish line to where the cache was and the map would pan again. Unfortunately with the pointer being so big, when you zoom in all the way (80ft) you can't tell where the cache pin is anymore. Also, when you have selected goto, there isn't an easy way to get back to the compass screen - I found you have to go back to shortcuts>geocaching and select the cache again to get to the options screen. When I did manage to get the compass going, it was pointing me in a different direction than I was walking. Fortunately I had an idea of where the cache was, so I just worried about getting the "distance to" to go down to a few feet.

 

More later...off to cache some more.

[+g-o-cashers]

When you select a geocache, it returns you to the map screen and has the basic cache info (name, D/T) over the top half of the map. It also freezes the map from panning, so if you travel off one of the sides you can only zoom out to see where you are. You have some options for the cache though, including reading the description. When I selected goto, it returned me to the map screen and had a pinkish line to where the cache was and the map would pan again.

 

Once you are on the geocache summary page you have four options: show description, goto, full screen compass and full screen map. Depending on your preference I think it makes sense select either the map or the compass at this point (vs. goto). If you select full screen map it seems to be similar to a "goto" except you'll notice on the map screen you get a "back" button. This allows you to toggle between the cache summary, by hitting back, and the map (or compass) very quickly. Goto appears to do the same thing as full screen map except you exit geocaching mode and don't have the ease of hitting back to go back to the cache summary.

 

Unfortunately with the pointer being so big, when you zoom in all the way (80ft) you can't tell where the cache pin is anymore.

 

Agreed, I put this on the issues thread: the fact that the cursor is too big and you can't overzoom and "walk" the cursor to the cache.

 

Also, when you have selected goto, there isn't an easy way to get back to the compass screen - I found you have to go back to shortcuts>geocaching and select the cache again to get to the options screen.

 

See above. Instead of a goto select Full Compass Screen and you get a back on the compass screen.

 

When I did manage to get the compass going, it was pointing me in a different direction than I was walking.

 

Is the compass calibrated? Are you holding the GPS level?

 

GO$Rs

[+apersson850]

The current autorouting maps are the City Navigator NT style. A 2 GB card will hold all of City Navigator Europe NT or the corresponding North American product. A 4 GB card will obviously have room for them both, if you think you need that.

 

Installing such a card, there is no benefit from having parts of the map in the internal memory of the 300. Use that instead for cache GPX files, track log archives, temporary maps (maybe you want to install a user-made map for some specific area for some specific purpose), cache related photos and so on.

The 300 will not allocate memory on other disks, when one becomes full. You have to manage that on your own.

 

You may think it's not possible to change the data field contents when accessing the full screen compass or map from the geocaching page. But if you change the setup while accessing these pages in the normal manner, it will carry over to what you see from the geocache page.

 

It seems the 400 models are much slower starters than the 300. Would be interesting if a thread with just startup times and model designation was started.

 

Regarding the map image with the posted track: The track look so straight to me. Is it really sampled while driving, not a connection line from last known position to the first place for position fix on next power on? But the street is fairly straight too, so then maybe not.

Anyway, if it's a sampled track, setting the unit to lock on road would fake the difference between the calculated position and where the road is drawn on the map. As long as you use the map image as a reference to where you are, that's the preferred mode.

Note however, that everything the GPS does in this mode reflects the faked position as being where you are! So if you turn off lock on road, walk ten meters from the road, set a waypoint there, enable lock on road again, drive along the road so it locks in, then move out to the waypoint, it will tell you that you have ten meters left to the waypoint. As far as the GPS is concerned, you are still on the road. Now if you walk further from the road, preferably perpendicular to it, or manually turn off lock on road, then your position will jump out to the place where you actually are.

 

This is important to know if you are looking for a cache close to the road, as then lock on road may not disengage automatically.

[+g-o-cashers]

 

It seems the 400 models are much slower starters than the 300. Would be interesting if a thread with just startup times and model designation was started.

 

I don't think so. I've renamed the gmapprom.img file on my 400t and timed the startup. It takes about 26 seconds to get to the map screen which is comparable to the 300 numbers above (given that it took 29 seconds with 300-400MB of map data).

 

This is important to know if you are looking for a cache close to the road, as then lock on road may not disengage automatically.

 

That is exactly right. After DNF'ing a cache on my 60cs for this very reason I turned it off and never used it again in my handheld. On my 60cs I see similar issues as TeamGPSax sees with the Colorado -- there are just lots of inaccuracies in the road data. There's actually one road in my town which is so bad that my 2610 (which is always set to "lock on road") actually thinks I'm offroute because it thinks the road is several hundred feet away. Every time I drive by I get "off route, recalculating"!

 

GO$Rs

[+Team GPSaxophone]

When I did manage to get the compass going, it was pointing me in a different direction than I was walking.

 

Is the compass calibrated? Are you holding the GPS level?

 

GO$Rs

I was holding the GPSr level, but I didn't calibrate it after putting the batteries in this morning. It's really hard to get the battery cover off too, especially with the carabiner clip attached, but it is getting easier. I'll calibrate it before going out again.

 

What's the point of having goto as an option if you can't get back to the compass, etc?

[+Turtle3863]

 

there are just lots of inaccuracies in the road data. There's actually one road in my town which is so bad that my 2610 (which is always set to "lock on road") actually thinks I'm offroute because it thinks the road is several hundred feet away. Every time I drive by I get "off route, recalculating"!

 

GO$Rs

 

I just turned my 400t on for the entire 45 mile trip home from work and noticed that the base map that is displayed on the Topo is a real old outdated map. It's almost like they used the old maps on the older version of Topo. As I was driving home I passed a travel plaza and ramps off Interstate 65 that have not been there since the road was widened to 6 lanes in 1982. I guess I will be getting City Navigator soon.

[+apersson850]

The Garmin base maps where I live actually show features that were planned in the early 1970's, but were never ever built! It's so lousy from that point of view that it's ridiculous.

 

No wonder you have problems getting the battery cover off, if you still have the carabiner attached! Take it off first!