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Garmin Colorado FAQ and Issues List


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Nobody has been able to convince me that this isn't a hardware problem. My 400t always has the right time, even without a sat lock.

 

I noticed last Sunday that my Colorado 300 did not adjust for the daylight savings changes... The wife's 60Cx did, but not the newer CO unit... I need to check up on it again to see if it is still off...

Edited by GeekBoy.from.Illinois
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GCY2ZT will cause reset when entering cache description.

 

Reported by several users in Denmark.

 

BR

Jakob Vels

After working with Jakob Vels and testing this cache now loads if you strip out all
<table></table> <tr></tr> <td></td>

tags.

 

We are testing with the following cache: GCPE5R that is also using tables in the description.

 

/René

 

Edit: GCPE5R also works with the table tags stripped out.

Edited by ProsperoDK
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Ok, I know it is somewhere, but the clock on my 400t does not change until I get Sat lock. Is that what is normal?

 

Just reasking, still looking for an asnwer.

 

Thank you.

My 300 has done this from day one, and after v.2.40, too. Garmin techsupp told me it is a firmware issue and is being worked on for an upcoming update.

Nobody has been able to convince me that this isn't a hardware problem. My 400t always has the right time, even without a sat lock.

 

It could be a hardware problem. It could be a firmware problem, for instance a specific combination of prefrences, or a timing problem. It could be a hardware problem they are trying to resolve with firmware.

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I had to do a couple of caches yesterday where you project the final from the caches coordiantes. I could not figure out a way to do it. First I could not figure out how to project a waypoint from a cache. So I thought I would just save the cache as a waypoint and project it from the waypoint. But I tried and tried but could not figure out how to save the cache as a waypoint. Am I missing something? Has anyone figured out how to project a waypoint from a cache?

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Just create a waypoint where the cache is. Go to your map and click on the waypoint. Then Options>Project Waypoint>Enter Bearing in Degrees>Done>Select Projection Distance Units>Enter Distance>Done>Yes.

 

Thanks

 

The problem is precison is important when doing some of these projects so you need the waypoint at the exact coordiantes. So if you go to the cahce and create a waypoint, it likely will be differnet from the cache which could cause problems if it is a long projection or multiple projects. So what I am looking for a way to do is save a geocache as a waypoint. Is there a way or a way to do that or project a waypoint from the cache? Or does need to be added to the issues list?

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Nobody has been able to convince me that this isn't a hardware problem. My 400t always has the right time, even without a sat lock.

 

I noticed last Sunday that my Colorado 300 did not adjust for the daylight savings changes... The wife's 60Cx did, but not the newer CO unit... I need to check up on it again to see if it is still off...

Mine updated just fine.

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I went for a bike ride today with my Colorado 300 and 60CSx. I come home, try to download the Colorado track into MapSource and it says "the selected device has no tracks on it." So I try using File > Open (selecting .gpx from the drop down menu) and there is no current.gpx file shown on the unit. The only tracks I can see using a file explorer are ones I transferred to the unit before the ride. But I can see the track from my ride on the screen.

 

This is the second time I've had this problem. Solved it the first time with a hard reset but lost all my data.

 

Anybody else having this kind of a problem?

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Redwoods, my 300 has not done this and I've been recording excellent tracklogs as I test it during my hikes, also keeping my 60Cx along as a comparison. Can't explain why yours is acting that way but it couldn't hurt to force a new firmware update in case something got corrupt. Worth a try. This should not effect any track data you just collected.

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I went for a bike ride today with my Colorado 300 and 60CSx. I come home, try to download the Colorado track into MapSource and it says "the selected device has no tracks on it." So I try using File > Open (selecting .gpx from the drop down menu) and there is no current.gpx file shown on the unit. The only tracks I can see using a file explorer are ones I transferred to the unit before the ride. But I can see the track from my ride on the screen.

 

This is the second time I've had this problem. Solved it the first time with a hard reset but lost all my data.

 

Anybody else having this kind of a problem?

 

I haven't seen it. If you plug the unit into your computer do you see the "Saving current tracks/routes/waypoints" message?

 

GO$Rs

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Well, I must say first that I love the Colorado, but today it did get a bit frustrating with the lock ups. I have six caches that locked up the Colorado when I went to view the description, and one actually shut the GPS off. To me this is unacceptable and makes paperless caching impossible half of the time. I looked at the caches on line and did notice each had some sort of table and all but one had graphics on the page.

 

I am also wondering if anyone noticed that when you are using the compass page (after selecting it from shortcuts) to find a cache, then go back to the description, and then back to the compass page that the compass loses the cache? This is not a big deal, and yes I figured you can view everything from cache page, but it is annoying.

 

Finally, on one cache I was over 60 feet off, on another over 30 feet, and on another I was virtually dead on. Could id be that the Colorado is more sensitive than those GPSRs used to place caches?? Yes I did calibrate the compass. I must say I like the Explorist compass much better.

 

Anyway those are my thoughts. I had no problems with the screen and the battery life seems to adequate. My main concern is the lock ups, and if those of you that have dealt with Garmin before think that there is a fix in the works or do I return the CO (please tell me no!!) :rolleyes:

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Timpat, I re-did the firmware update but still don't see the file.

 

GO$Rs, the message flashes by fast, but I do believe that's what it says.

 

Red90, I'm as capable as anyone (maybe more so) of overlooking the obvious, but I don't think so. I have no card in the unit. Also, the first time it happened I went though it with Garmin support and they couldn't figure it out either. They had me do a hard reset.

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GO$Rs, the message flashes by fast, but I do believe that's what it says.

 

Red90, I'm as capable as anyone (maybe more so) of overlooking the obvious, but I don't think so. I have no card in the unit. Also, the first time it happened I went though it with Garmin support and they couldn't figure it out either. They had me do a hard reset.

 

Rich, the only thing I can think of is maybe your internal file system is full and the CO can't write the file, or maybe the directory is read only. I'm really grasping -- this is a new one.

 

You're looking in [drive]:\Garmin\GPX\Current for Current.gpx? Do you see a file in that directory called position.gpx?

 

GO$Rs

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I wanted to ask if anyone had used the Colorado while plugged in in the car. If so, does it seem that the batteries recharge while the it is connected? I am not sure if that is possible, but it seemed to me that I had an extra bar after having it plugged in for bit.

 

Don't think so. Perhaps your batteries refreshed or the meter was off. I was messing around last night and got the low battery message, then checked the battery meter and I was only down one bar. I'm going to try to reproduce the event and see if I can get it to happen again.

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Rich, the only thing I can think of is maybe your internal file system is full and the CO can't write the file, or maybe the directory is read only. I'm really grasping -- this is a new one.

 

You're looking in [drive]:\Garmin\GPX\Current for Current.gpx? Do you see a file in that directory called position.gpx?

 

Yes, that's the folder I'm looking in, but the only thing I see is a track I loaded previously. There is no current.gpx nor position.gpx. Guess I'm on the phone with tech support again tomorrow.

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Rich, the only thing I can think of is maybe your internal file system is full and the CO can't write the file, or maybe the directory is read only. I'm really grasping -- this is a new one.

 

You're looking in [drive]:\Garmin\GPX\Current for Current.gpx? Do you see a file in that directory called position.gpx?

 

Yes, that's the folder I'm looking in, but the only thing I see is a track I loaded previously. There is no current.gpx nor position.gpx. Guess I'm on the phone with tech support again tomorrow.

 

Try moving the gpx file with your track out of that directory up to [drive]:\Garmin\GPX . I can't believe this would make a difference but I normally load all of my gpx files from the gpx directory. Current is for output only, I actually didn't think that the CO would load tracks or data from there.

 

GO$Rs

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Try moving the gpx file with your track out of that directory up to [drive]:\Garmin\GPX . I can't believe this would make a difference but I normally load all of my gpx files from the gpx directory. Current is for output only, I actually didn't think that the CO would load tracks or data from there.

 

Tried it, but I still can't see or get today's track out of it. I think this one's going back.

 

When I first got it I did all sorts of things with the file structure, trying to get geocaches to show on the map. I guess its possible I totally messed it up then, but I would think a hard reset would fix any damage I did.

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I am also wondering if anyone noticed that when you are using the compass page (after selecting it from shortcuts) to find a cache, then go back to the description, and then back to the compass page that the compass loses the cache? This is not a big deal, and yes I figured you can view everything from cache page, but it is annoying.
Are you using the Options->Show Compass to get to the compass screen? There are a few ways to keep this from happening. My fav is to press the down arrow on the roller and get to the compass/map combo screen. That's my fav screen and I rarely use the full compass screen. From that screen you can press the center roller button to get the full compass, and then come back to the compass/map combo screen.

 

--Marky

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I am also wondering if anyone noticed that when you are using the compass page (after selecting it from shortcuts) to find a cache, then go back to the description, and then back to the compass page that the compass loses the cache? This is not a big deal, and yes I figured you can view everything from cache page, but it is annoying.
Are you using the Options->Show Compass to get to the compass screen? There are a few ways to keep this from happening. My fav is to press the down arrow on the roller and get to the compass/map combo screen. That's my fav screen and I rarely use the full compass screen. From that screen you can press the center roller button to get the full compass, and then come back to the compass/map combo screen.

 

--Marky

 

I was using the shortcuts button to get to the compass page. This is just habit derived from being a Magellan owner until lat month. I started doing what you described once I realized it. I guess I should have read the manual, but I have been told I am a little tech savy so why bother :) .

 

Has anyone heard anything on what Garmin intends to do about the caches that freeze or shut off the unit?

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Has anyone heard anything on what Garmin intends to do about the caches that freeze or shut off the unit?

 

I've forwarded the failing cache list to Garmin and asked them to see if they can reproduce the issues and when a fix might be available. This is the second time I've done this. If I don't hear anything back today I'll call customer service. If other people did the same thing and referenced the same thread we might get some attention.

 

GO$Rs

Edited by g-o-cashers
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Try moving the gpx file with your track out of that directory up to [drive]:\Garmin\GPX . I can't believe this would make a difference but I normally load all of my gpx files from the gpx directory. Current is for output only, I actually didn't think that the CO would load tracks or data from there.

 

Tried it, but I still can't see or get today's track out of it. I think this one's going back.

 

When I first got it I did all sorts of things with the file structure, trying to get geocaches to show on the map. I guess its possible I totally messed it up then, but I would think a hard reset would fix any damage I did.

 

I spoke to Garmin support this a.m. and made some progress on this issue of not being able to retrieve tracks and waypoints from my CO 300. I was able to retrieve my track by going to Setup > Tracks > Options > Archive current track and then File > Open (still can't use Receive from device successfully though).

 

The interesting thing is, after doing a hard reset, the Garmin tech reported the same problem on his (not being able to import tracks using Receive from device). So he got my contact info and is going to run it by the engineers to see what's happening.

 

I mentioned above that I may have caused this by messing with the file structure. Another possibility is that I use so many third-party programs with the device, and am frequently sending data files to it, that this could have caused the problem in some way. Last time, a Garmin tech support person told me the problem was likely caused by third-party apps and that .gpx support is different on this unit. Of course, that doesn't explain why their's got messed up today.

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The interesting thing is, after doing a hard reset, the Garmin tech reported the same problem on his (not being able to import tracks using Receive from device). So he got my contact info and is going to run it by the engineers to see what's happening.

 

 

After he did hard reset I'm guessing there was nothing left on the device (i.e. no tracklog) to archive?

 

Do you have a 8266 byte file called GarminDevice.xml in the Garmin directory?

 

I also noticed in explorer that the Garmin directory is marked read-only, is it that way on yours?

 

Now that you've got the data you want from the Colorado have you tried clearing the tracklog to see if that will get it working again?

 

GO$Rs

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I used Navigator NT on the 400t for the first time yesterday and noticed that the beep tones when approacing a turn is not very loud. With the radio on it was barely audible. Is the loudness a user definition or is it a software issue. I needs to be louder.

 

Anniebananie

 

Amen, brother or is it sister! I've been wanting that for a few years now. It is/was like that on the 60CSx however you could change the alert sounds on the 60CSx. I like to "jam out" sometimes in the car and hate that I cannot hear the turn alerts.

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After he did hard reset I'm guessing there was nothing left on the device (i.e. no tracklog) to archive?

Surprisingly, the tracks weren't affected. They were still there.

 

Do you have a 8266 byte file called GarminDevice.xml in the Garmin directory?

Mine shows it being 7.91 KB

 

I also noticed in explorer that the Garmin directory is marked read-only, is it that way on yours?

Yes.

 

Now that you've got the data you want from the Colorado have you tried clearing the tracklog to see if that will get it working again?

Not yet, but it worked before right after the reset. A week later I was back in the same boat though.

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Most, if not all, of my other Garmin units seem to check if daylight saving time is present at midnight at the beginning of the current day. As it's not the day you change to DST, since that usually happens at 2 o'clock in the morning, the GPS will continue on standard time until the next day. The day after that Sunday, you do have DST at midnight, when the day starts, so then it works.

 

The same happens in the fall, although in the other direction, of course.

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Well, I've scanned some of the initial and most recent pages on this thread, and I don't see the issue I have with the 400t, so I apologize if this has already been addressed somewhere in the 13-14 pages of this thread.

 

I can't seem to get rid of caches that I've already found.

 

I've tried stripping every possible file off the Colorado to no avail. I go into the Garmin/GPX directory and delete all the files in there and then reload. The file I reload does not have the found caches, but they are still showing up on the Colorado.

 

I've tried deleting the "Current" directory as well.

 

I've deleted the geocaches.txt file (or whatever the "field notes" file is called).

 

I've tried going to the Waypoint Manager and deleting all geocaches and then reloading, but that doesn't work either.

 

Does anyone have the same problem? It's like these caches are permanently hard-coded into the memory of the device...

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Do you have a Mac or PC?

I have a Mac, but I load the caches from GSAK running under VMware Fusion...

 

I just repeated the whole process again, and now the found caches seem to be gone. Snake suggested that I empty the recycle bin before reloading the caches, and that may have done it. Seems the Colorado may like to do some dumpster diving...

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Do you have a Mac or PC?

I have a Mac, but I load the caches from GSAK running under VMware Fusion...

 

I just repeated the whole process again, and now the found caches seem to be gone. Snake suggested that I empty the recycle bin before reloading the caches, and that may have done it. Seems the Colorado may like to do some dumpster diving...

Make sure you empty the trash when you delete the .GPX files on a Mac. I had the same issue, and I posted about it in one of the 100+ Colorado threads. I can't believe you didn't see it. ;)

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Make sure you empty the trash when you delete the .GPX files on a Mac. I had the same issue, and I posted about it in one of the 100+ Colorado threads. I can't believe you didn't see it. ;)

 

If one of you can give me some more details on the dumpster location, how to clear it, etc. I can add it to the FAQ (it's already there but it isn't easy to find and it doesn't have a lot of information).

 

Is there a way to tell the Mac not to put a dumpster on a specific volume?

 

GO$Rs

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Is there anyway to get TEXT with POI icons on the Colorado?

In the UK we have 13,000 speed cameras.

It's bad enough that I cannot get 'proximity alarms', but not having the text on them is frustrating!

I can get Text with Waypoints.

 

315jf4.png

Edited by strumble
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Make sure you empty the trash when you delete the .GPX files on a Mac. I had the same issue, and I posted about it in one of the 100+ Colorado threads. I can't believe you didn't see it. :D

 

If one of you can give me some more details on the dumpster location, how to clear it, etc. I can add it to the FAQ (it's already there but it isn't easy to find and it doesn't have a lot of information).

 

Is there a way to tell the Mac not to put a dumpster on a specific volume?

 

GO$Rs

The only thing I did was to empty the trash on the desktop of the Mac with the Colorado connected to the USB drive. That seemed to clear any file on the Colorado as well. I tried to find the "hidden" trash file on the Colorado by looking at the drive from My Computer in Windows XP, but I never was able to find it. Supposedly, you are able to "see" the hidden Mac trash file from My Computer in Windows, but I never did find it. It is supposed to be a file with a dot (".") in front of the cache that designates a "hidden" file on the Mac. Anyway, my problem seems to be solved now...

 

This issue is already addressed at D11 in the FAQ under the Data Transfer and Files heading. I came across it when looking through that great reference.

Edited by FlagMan
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The only thing I did was to empty the trash on the desktop of the Mac with the Colorado connected to the USB drive. That seemed to clear any file on the Colorado as well. I tried to find the "hidden" trash file on the Colorado by looking at the drive from My Computer in Windows XP, but I never was able to find it. Supposedly, you are able to "see" the hidden Mac trash file from My Computer in Windows, but I never did find it. It is supposed to be a file with a dot (".") in front of the cache that designates a "hidden" file on the Mac. Anyway, my problem seems to be solved now...

 

This issue is already addressed at D11 in the FAQ under the Data Transfer and Files heading. I came across it when looking through that great reference.

 

If found this which should help Mac users avoid the problem. You'll need to do this on the internal memory volume and on every SD card you use:

 

 

What I found annoying is that deleted files stay on the memory stick in its "Trashes" folder if you move them to the trash. As I never have anything solely on the memory stick, I don't need the "Trash" feature of the Finder, but want files to be immediatelly deleted. So I opened the Terminal, and cd'ed to the memory stick, and replaced the ".Trashes" folder with a ".Trashes" file:

 

% cd /Volumes/<volume_name>/

% rm -r .Trashes

% touch .Trashes

 

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Well I had a first issue with the my Colorado 400t today while caching. While using the red arrow to point to the cache I switched to the description page and when I tried to go back to the map/geocaching page it froze up and there was nothing on the screen. I had to remove the batteries on the unit to reset it. I know that this has been mentioned before but I can't find it. Is there a "fix" for this now or is this something that Garmin is working on.

 

Besides that, I love the Colorado, it is the first time that I have used the arrow to guide me and it worked out great.

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So I was caching with my 400t a few days ago. I found a cache with a CapriSun and some peanut butter cups in it...so I removed them. While handling my GPS, digital camera, and the Capris sun in one hand I heard a beep. So I looked at my GPS and the screen had changed. Instead of the simple red arrow and the distance to destination fields, there was a compass with red arrow and a distance to dest. and time to dest. field. I thought it was much more useful than the standard one. But how did it get there. I had to have pushed something while my hands were full. I found out that it was the down arrow. It only works when you are navigating to a cache (waypoint). When you are on the map screen it obviously scrolls the cursor around the map. Haven't seen mention of this yet...but this thread is getting really long. Figured I'd mention it.

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So I was caching with my 400t a few days ago. I found a cache with a CapriSun and some peanut butter cups in it...so I removed them. While handling my GPS, digital camera, and the Capris sun in one hand I heard a beep. So I looked at my GPS and the screen had changed. Instead of the simple red arrow and the distance to destination fields, there was a compass with red arrow and a distance to dest. and time to dest. field. I thought it was much more useful than the standard one. But how did it get there. I had to have pushed something while my hands were full. I found out that it was the down arrow. It only works when you are navigating to a cache (waypoint). When you are on the map screen it obviously scrolls the cursor around the map. Haven't seen mention of this yet...but this thread is getting really long. Figured I'd mention it.

 

There are actually three geocaching modes like this. I tried to document them here. See GC16.

 

GO$Rs

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So I was caching with my 400t a few days ago. I found a cache with a CapriSun and some peanut butter cups in it...so I removed them. While handling my GPS, digital camera, and the Capris sun in one hand I heard a beep. So I looked at my GPS and the screen had changed. Instead of the simple red arrow and the distance to destination fields, there was a compass with red arrow and a distance to dest. and time to dest. field. I thought it was much more useful than the standard one. But how did it get there. I had to have pushed something while my hands were full. I found out that it was the down arrow. It only works when you are navigating to a cache (waypoint). When you are on the map screen it obviously scrolls the cursor around the map. Haven't seen mention of this yet...but this thread is getting really long. Figured I'd mention it.

 

I do belive that Marky has figured this out awhile ago on this or one of the other 20 theads. I have used that today and it is cool.

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A new (to me) bug and a question:

 

I was out caching today and when I selected geocaches GC1A68N and GC1A68T (as loaded to the Colorado from GSAK), I didn't have any GPS activity. That is, no red arrow, no distance or time to next marked, and when I told the unit to drive to the cache, no calculation of the route either. The other nearby caches in the serie worked fine.

 

The question is: does the Colorado really have a piezo speaker? So far I haven't heard a peep out of it. I'd like it to talk to me when it's telling me about an upcoming road turn. I was led to believe it had a beep function during discussions of the other Wherigo-useful sound stuff which it doesn't have (MP3 playback, etc).

 

Thanks

Nick

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A observation from my cache run today: I had 4 caches that the Colorado would not let me navigate to (description was fine but the arrow would not come up). So I manually create waypoints with the same coordinates as a workaround... When I got home I played around a bit and found a solution that might be of interest for anyone else that had the same issue:

When exporting from GSAK to the Colorado make sure 'Include GSAK extra fields in export' is not checked.

Once I unchecked it I tried every single cache I had problems with again and they where all fine....

Even with the challange above - I really enjoyed not having to carry a palm and GPS (let alone the fact that my Palm broke which prompted me to get the Colorado)....

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1) Yes, probably the same issue as with CN maps. Someone decided to show less data.

 

2) Mine works, so some cards can be handled, obviously.

 

3) The same goes for all Garmin GPS units. They can show a certain number of map tiles simultaneously.

 

First, to me, the 60 CSX is the predecessor of the Colorado, and therefore the Colorado should be able to do at least everything the CSX can do, plus something the CS could do (but not the CSX) plus some new senseful features.
I've of course not seen the project specification for this project, but seeing what they came up with, I'd imagine that they saw it more like something that branches off from the outdoor GPS tree, rather than a direct upgrade successor to the GPSmap 60 CSx and 60 CS.

 

Everybody who expected the same as you are probably equally disappointed, as can be seen in this forum.

 

It's another thing that some of the functions it does support doesn't work as intended.

The Garmin colorado is advertised as:

Equipped with all features of the successful and popular GPSMap 60CSX

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=188092

 

Therefore it's ok that people are looking for the same features.

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The only thing I did was to empty the trash on the desktop of the Mac with the Colorado connected to the USB drive. That seemed to clear any file on the Colorado as well. I tried to find the "hidden" trash file on the Colorado by looking at the drive from My Computer in Windows XP, but I never was able to find it. Supposedly, you are able to "see" the hidden Mac trash file from My Computer in Windows, but I never did find it. It is supposed to be a file with a dot (".") in front of the cache that designates a "hidden" file on the Mac. Anyway, my problem seems to be solved now...

 

This issue is already addressed at D11 in the FAQ under the Data Transfer and Files heading. I came across it when looking through that great reference.

 

If found this which should help Mac users avoid the problem. You'll need to do this on the internal memory volume and on every SD card you use:

 

 

What I found annoying is that deleted files stay on the memory stick in its "Trashes" folder if you move them to the trash. As I never have anything solely on the memory stick, I don't need the "Trash" feature of the Finder, but want files to be immediatelly deleted. So I opened the Terminal, and cd'ed to the memory stick, and replaced the ".Trashes" folder with a ".Trashes" file:

 

% cd /Volumes/<volume_name>/

% rm -r .Trashes

% touch .Trashes

 

 

I think this is a really bad idea. Why would you remove the safeguard that keeps you from accidentally deleting files? It's too easy to hit cmd-shift-delete and then return to completely empty the trash while in the finder. It can't be nearly as great a burden as it would when you accidentally delete files without any confirmation dialog. :(

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