2 Qstions about Colorado 300

[+Off the Edge]

Hello all. I am thinking of trading in my Vista C and buying The Colorado 300 when its released in Canada.

 

2 Questions.

 

1) is it compatible with most or all Mapscource maps?

I have city select NA v6, Topo Canada v2, Metroguide Europe v8, City Navigator Australia 2008.

 

2) how is it for use as a CASUAL Auto navigation aid (turn by turn directions, etc.)

 

I am also a casual Geocacher (obviously) and with eyed not what they used to be, looking for a bigger screen, as well as expandable memory.

 

Thanks.

 

OTE

[+Manatee87]

Hello all. I am thinking of trading in my Vista C and buying The Colorado 300 when its released in Canada.

 

2 Questions.

 

1) is it compatible with most or all Mapscource maps?

I have city select NA v6, Topo Canada v2, Metroguide Europe v8, City Navigator Australia 2008.

It will work fine with all those maps.

 

2) how is it for use as a CASUAL Auto navigation aid (turn by turn directions, etc.)

 

I am also a casual Geocacher (obviously) and with eyed not what they used to be, looking for a bigger screen, as well as expandable memory.

 

Thanks.

 

OTE

It does a good job of turn-by-turn navigation. It gives you a thick pink line, like the nuvis, for the route. It will beep for upcoming turns, and it displays them clearly on the screen. As long as the Colorado is close enough that you can see it clearly, it works very well.

[+Marky]

It does a good job of turn-by-turn navigation. It gives you a thick pink line, like the nuvis, for the route. It will beep for upcoming turns, and it displays them clearly on the screen. As long as the Colorado is close enough that you can see it clearly, it works very well.

Since I don't have any maps other than what came on the 400t, I was wondering if you can view a turn-by-turn route in 3D mode and will it display "similar" to auto units when you are driving along the route?

 

--Marky

Edited January 23, 2008 by Marky

[+Manatee87]

Since I don't have any maps other than what came on the 400t, I was wondering if you can view a turn-by-turn route in 3D mode and will it display "similar" to auto units when you are driving along the route?

 

--Marky

As far as I can tell, it doesn't do the "3-D look" while giving navigation prompts. You can put it in 3-D mode (from the "Others" menu) while navigating, and it will still show your navigation line and continue navigation, but the prompts do not appear. I may be overlooking some combination of settings, though.

[+nicolo]

Since I don't have any maps other than what came on the 400t, I was wondering if you can view a turn-by-turn route in 3D mode and will it display "similar" to auto units when you are driving along the route?

 

--Marky

As far as I can tell, it doesn't do the "3-D look" while giving navigation prompts. You can put it in 3-D mode (from the "Others" menu) while navigating, and it will still show your navigation line and continue navigation, but the prompts do not appear. I may be overlooking some combination of settings, though.

That's what I found as well.

 

Also, when in non-3D mode, in the Automobile profile ( or whatever it's call, no GPSR in hand right now ) I am unable to see the nice screen that you get when routing ( 60 series ) that shows you all the turns/distances to the final destination. Is there something that I'm missing on this?

[+Off the Edge]

Thanks to all. I was looking at the Vista HCX because of the expandable memory and high reception sensitivity when I saw the Colorado. There seems to be some initial discontent but overall a good upgrade????

 

OTE

[+Manatee87]

That's what I found as well.

 

Also, when in non-3D mode, in the Automobile profile ( or whatever it's call, no GPSR in hand right now ) I am unable to see the nice screen that you get when routing ( 60 series ) that shows you all the turns/distances to the final destination. Is there something that I'm missing on this?

I have not found that screen either. As a bicyclist, I call that the "cue sheet" screen. It lists all the turns in order -- distance to the turn, which direction to turn, and what street to turn onto. It must be there somewhere... both the 60-series and the nuvi have it. I'm going to be shedding tears of laughter if this turns out to be yet another left-out feature. I hope they deliver the "other half" of the software soon.

[+Manatee87]

Thanks to all. I was looking at the Vista HCX because of the expandable memory and high reception sensitivity when I saw the Colorado. There seems to be some initial discontent but overall a good upgrade????

 

OTE

So far, the Colorado is proving to be a downgrade in some respects -- features missing that have been present in every Garmin mapping unit I've ever owned (I've had a lot of them!). I don't know if we're just missing the secret key presses to make these features appear, or if the software running on the Colorado came out of the oven too soon. I love the hi-res screen on the Colorado, and I'm hoping for a happy ending.

 

Peter

[+g-o-cashers]

That's what I found as well.

 

Also, when in non-3D mode, in the Automobile profile ( or whatever it's call, no GPSR in hand right now ) I am unable to see the nice screen that you get when routing ( 60 series ) that shows you all the turns/distances to the final destination. Is there something that I'm missing on this?

I have not found that screen either. As a bicyclist, I call that the "cue sheet" screen. It lists all the turns in order -- distance to the turn, which direction to turn, and what street to turn onto. It must be there somewhere... both the 60-series and the nuvi have it. I'm going to be shedding tears of laughter if this turns out to be yet another left-out feature. I hope they deliver the "other half" of the software soon.

 

Do you get the turn by turn cue sheet if you go to Shortcuts->Other->Active Route?

 

GO$Rs

[+apersson850]

That's where it is. The icon is a bent yellow arrow.

[+g-o-cashers]

That's where it is. The icon is a bent yellow arrow.

 

Yeah, I just tried with simple direct path route and it seems to do a similar thing. The only thing I don't like is you can't see all of the distances/bearings for each of the intermediate points at the same time -- you have to select each one. However, you can configure the data fields so you can do a lot more than the static 60cs display. I'll be curious to see what this looks like with City Nav.

 

GO$Rs

[+apersson850]

Look in my web album. There's a list of turns, as it looks when routed to a cache. That's from City Navigator Europe NT.