Garmin Colorado FAQ and Issues List

[+Red90]

This option no longer works.

It always uploads all Field Notes.

Makes the feature next to useles for now.

 

Just delete the text file after an upload and all is well. The feature is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[+LZ33]

I’ve noticed on the 400t you have to remember what you named your waypoints after you mark a waypoint. In the past you could categorize waypoints by icons. Now the only way to pull up a way point is to look for it by name on a “by closest” list.

 

I would like to request the following 1. Ability to search waypoints by icon type. 2. Display waypoint icons in the list view when searching by distance/name.

 

Thanks,

Dale

[+Machuco]

I've been searching through the forums for any word of the problem I have been having and I cannot find anything so I will mention it here.

 

I just got my Colorado 400t 2 weeks ago and have been out twice with it and it has done this both times. It seems that I can only get about 2 hours of use out of a fresh set of batteries and the darn thing keeps shutting off all by itself without any warning at all.

 

I've updated all the software to the latest/greatest. Is this a bug, or do I have a bad unit?

[+Red90]

This has been discussed to death. You have a bad unit.

[+nicolo]

This has been discussed to death. You have a bad unit.

Yes, if your firmware is up to date, you probably want to replace it.

[+Machuco]

That's what I thought. Thanks folks, I'll get in touch with Garmin.

[+g-o-cashers]

That's what I thought. Thanks folks, I'll get in touch with Garmin.

 

What kind of batteries are you using and what is your battery setting? If you are using 2500mAh-2700mAh NiMH batteries and you have the battery type set to NiMH you have bad hardware.

 

If you don't have the battery type set correctly you can see results like this.

 

If you use lower capacity (<2500mAh) NiMH batteries you can see results like this.

 

If you use alkaline batteries you can see results like this.

 

GO$Rs

[+Machuco]

So I contacted Garmin and they said to try some good rechargable batteries and if it still does the same thing then I might have a bad unit.

 

Where is a good place to get some good quality rechargables?

[+g-o-cashers]

Thomas Distributing.

 

I would recommend 2700mAh PowerEx (Maha) batteries.

 

BTW, I think this whole business of Garmin telling people that their Colorado won't work unless you have high capacity NiMH batteries is bogus. Where does it say that in any of their specs?

 

Either Garmin needs to let people know that this as part of the product specification (so they know they'll have to spend an additional $40-$50 on batteries and a good charger), fix the problem in software if possible or replace the units if they are defective.

 

GO$Rs

[+Machuco]

Thomas Distributing.

 

I would recommend 2700mAh PowerEx (Maha) batteries.

 

BTW, I think this whole business of Garmin telling people that their Colorado won't work unless you have high capacity NiMH batteries is bogus. Where does it say that in any of their specs?

 

Either Garmin needs to let people know that this as part of the product specification (so they know they'll have to spend an additional $40-$50 on batteries and a good charger), fix the problem in software if possible or replace the units if they are defective.

 

GO$Rs

 

I agree 100%

[+qlenfg]

In my experience, the cheap chargers that come bundled with the batteries you buy at Target, Best Buy, etc... don't fully charge the batteries and may ruin them over time. I went through this with a digital camera and switched to a Maha charger on the advice of someone from the scanner email list.

 

Like night and day. The batteries I was ready to toss out came back to life, and the new batteries have consistently performed as they should. I use the low self-discharge batteries in the camera and the 2700 mAh Powerex batteries in the Colorado. More money, but less headaches.

[+GO CACHN]

I heard that might work also for the colorado so you will never have to buy another battery.

[+CacheARRRS]

I heard that might work also for the colorado so you will never have to buy another battery.

Nice.

[+Nashional]

Reproducible Bug Report:

 

View a cache, view the description then view the hints. Now, mark the cache Not Found and view another cache. Go back to view the Not Found cache, view logs and now View Hints is no longer an option.

 

I tried changing the cache to Not Attempted, etc., but the hint never came back.

 

Edit: Using 2.51 Beta

Edited April 21, 2008 by TheNash's

[+g-o-cashers]

I have the hint disappearing captured in the issues list although putting the cache back on the not found list made the hint show up again, I'll give it a try later today to see if this is not the case any longer.

 

GO$Rs

Edited April 21, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[+ryan3295]

Since I have started geocaching with my 300 I have notice that you have to move pretty fast (over 2 mph) to get the Colorado to update your speed and bearing pointer to the cache. I can easily move 20ft at a reasonable walking speed before the Colorado knows that I did. It seems that on my 60csx, legend C, and GPS V, it will update my speed and bearing while moving at a crawl (i.e. less than 1 mph). I would be interested to know if this has anything to do with the different chip sets? Or are other Colorado working better than mine.

 

-Ryan3295

[+Dog Knows]

My 300 works the same way yours does. It makes it hard to zero in on the cache.

[+Marky]

If you use lower capacity (<2500mAh) NiMH batteries you can see results like this.

I use 2000mAh Eneloops and easily get 10+ hours of use out of them. Unless you are using 800mAh NiCads, you shouldn't be seeing usage times of only two hours.

[+MickEMT]

Since I have started geocaching with my 300 I have notice that you have to move pretty fast (over 2 mph) to get the Colorado to update your speed and bearing pointer to the cache. I can easily move 20ft at a reasonable walking speed before the Colorado knows that I did. It seems that on my 60csx, legend C, and GPS V, it will update my speed and bearing while moving at a crawl (i.e. less than 1 mph). I would be interested to know if this has anything to do with the different chip sets? Or are other Colorado working better than mine.

 

-Ryan3295

 

So far mine seems to update the same as my old trustworthy 60CSx. I'm running software vers. 2.4, if you have an older version, update NOW!

[+Red90]

So far mine seems to update the same as my old trustworthy 60CSx. I'm running software vers. 2.4, if you have an older version, update NOW!

 

Get 2.51, it is much more stable than 2.4

[+GO CACHN]

I personally have the Eneloop 2000 MAh Rechargeables that I got at Costco with a charger for like 25.00 I leave it on the alcaline battary setting. as in the Beggining this is where people were recomending. Not so sure anymore but have nto changed it. I went out a couple of weeks ago and Started cashing at 6:30am and had it on all day till about 8pm that night and I went through one set of battaries nad had plenty of juice on the second set. I have had these battaries for almost 2 months now and had not problems with them. when one set goes down I just stick them on in the charger in the case till I have onother set down then I charge both sets at same time. Just my opinion on batterys.

[+Marky]

I leave it on the alcaline battary setting. as in the Beggining this is where people were recomending. Not so sure anymore but have nto changed it.

I think you'll get better performance on the NiMH setting with ver 2.40 or 2.51

 

--Marky

[+MickEMT]

So far mine seems to update the same as my old trustworthy 60CSx. I'm running software vers. 2.4, if you have an older version, update NOW!

 

Get 2.51, it is much more stable than 2.4

 

I don't know, I've seen a couple reports that 2.51 has locked up a couple CO 300's.

[+The4B's]

Is there a place to store some owner contact information like name, address, and phone number? On my Legend C I entered this owner information and it became the start up splash screen. I can't find this in the Colorado 300.

 

I would like this in case I drop or forget the thing somewhere. If someone finds it and turns it on they could find my name and contact information to return it.

 

Cheers.

[+g-o-cashers]

There isn't but some people have created a jpg image with their user information on it and saved it as their background image.

 

GO$Rs

[+Red90]

I don't know, I've seen a couple reports that 2.51 has locked up a couple CO 300's.

 

There are a many times more lock up with 2.40 I have not seen any with 2.51 and the reports are extremely scarse. With 2.40, it would crash anytime there was illegal HTML in a cache description.

[+MickEMT]

I don't know, I've seen a couple reports that 2.51 has locked up a couple CO 300's.

 

There are a many times more lock up with 2.40 I have not seen any with 2.51 and the reports are extremely scarse. With 2.40, it would crash anytime there was illegal HTML in a cache description.

 

OK, SOLD!! I do think the CO's are "Beta" units. 2 software upgrades in less than a week?

[+Red90]

software upgrades in less than a week?

 

?? No.

 

There was one in late February and the second in Early April. Very normal for a Garmin product. It certainly was realeased too early, probably to make it CIS, but these firmware releases removed the main "bugs". Mostly people are now hoping for feature expansion.

[+J10fly]

Not that I know of. Haven't even seen a box for that. Its tough to log them without it since the show gc code feature just shows the name instead and sometimes it is difficult to find through searching by name on gc.com

 

Hmm just a couple small things I noticed tonight:

 

1) When I go to my found caches and click on the See GC Code: it still just tells me the name. So it takes me forever to find the darn cache since it's not anywhere near my home coords.

 

Are you using GSAK to generate your gpx file? If so, you are probably putting the %name in the waypoint name. Change this to %code.

 

2) The file for the found geocaches that you upload to geocaching.com always says nothing in it but if you open it with a txt editor there's info on it. Guessing that's a gc.com issue?

 

darn backlight still needs to be fixed. c'mon how much longer to resolve that, really?

 

Do you have the ignore field notes before some date check box selected when you do the upload? If so, gc.com will ignore field notes before this date. Uncheck the box and reupload, you should get all field notes in the file.

 

GO$Rs

[+The4B's]

Is there a place to store some owner contact information like name, address, and phone number? On my Legend C I entered this owner information and it became the start up splash screen. I can't find this in the Colorado 300.

 

I would like this in case I drop or forget the thing somewhere. If someone finds it and turns it on they could find my name and contact information to return it.

 

There isn't but some people have created a jpg image with their user information on it and saved it as their background image.

 

GO$Rs

 

Thanks for the reply. Can we consider this a feature request then?

[A.B.E.L.]

I would also like to see that feature come to the Colorado. It was a nice feature on my 60CSx that it showed all my info upon start-up...

[+FlagMan]

I would also like to see that feature come to the Colorado. It was a nice feature on my 60CSx that it showed all my info upon start-up...

Ditto...

[+g-o-cashers]

Thanks for the reply. Can we consider this a feature request then?

 

It is already on the Issues List:

 

1/20/08: No way to configure the boot screen with name, email, address, etc. (supported by 60cs) [Garmin recorded 1/21/08] (2.51) [General]

 

I mentioned this to Garmin back in January on my first CO support call. If it is important to you then the more the calls they get about this the better! I would love to see this added too -- this feature saved my 60cs a few years ago.

 

Its also good to leave waypoint called "Home" on your GPS. I found a GPS a few years ago and was able to return it to its owner by driving to "Home".

 

GO$Rs

[+J10fly]

Anyone have an idea about this whole field notes deal? I open it up in a text editor and there are caches in there but when I do the upload on gc.com it simply says no records found. I dont see anywhere on the colorado or on the page to check any boxes for dates. What am i missing?

[+Red90]

Anyone have an idea about this whole field notes deal? I open it up in a text editor and there are caches in there but when I do the upload on gc.com it simply says no records found. I dont see anywhere on the colorado or on the page to check any boxes for dates. What am i missing?

 

How did the caches get onto the unit?

 

It is important that the "name" field be the GC code. If exporting from GSAK, use the "%code" in the name field. This is what gets put into the field note text file and is how Groundspeak knows what cache you are trying to log.

 

Can you copy and paste a line or two from your text file?

[+XopherN71]

Before you upload there is an option to not import prior to X date... kind of sneaky, I missed it the first time.

 

Edit, nevermind - that's after you upload it.

Edited April 24, 2008 by XopherN71

[+J10fly]

Anyone have an idea about this whole field notes deal? I open it up in a text editor and there are caches in there but when I do the upload on gc.com it simply says no records found. I dont see anywhere on the colorado or on the page to check any boxes for dates. What am i missing?

 

How did the caches get onto the unit?

 

It is important that the "name" field be the GC code. If exporting from GSAK, use the "%code" in the name field. This is what gets put into the field note text file and is how Groundspeak knows what cache you are trying to log.

 

Can you copy and paste a line or two from your text file?

 

Hmm now that you point that out I beleive I may have a different code in there with GSAK. I will look at it tomorrow and if not I will paste the info.

 

Thanks!

[+John Stead]

I don't know if this issue has been brought up before. I have noticed on my 300 since I got it that when using the roller function in the shortcut menu (or a sub-menu), sometimes you cannot get it to move just one icon when you turn the roller. It stops and you have to move the roller quite a bit to get it to move and when it does, it jumps past the icon your want. Then when you try to go back it stops just before or after the desired icon. I can use the 4-way pad to move to it unless it's text entry I was just backing out of the particular screen and re-entering before to correct this annoyance but yesterday I was editing coordinates of a way point and could not select the zero. I backed out several times, even soft reset the unit twice to no avail. I can tolerate having to misspell a name but coordinates have to be correct. That has become more then just an annoyance, it needs to be fixed. Anyone ese experiencing this bug?

 

This happened to me the day after I read your query. The answer in my case was to take the batteries out and replace them which set the roller working again. But the unit crashed twice that day so maybe it was on the way to freezing when the roller ceased to have effect.

Does anyone know of a method to do a soft reset without removing the batteries?

[+g-o-cashers]

If you get a freeze as you describe above the more reliable way to get out of the problem is pull the battery. In some cases I have found that pressing and holding the power button down will get it out of this mode but usually it is a battery pull.

 

GO$Rs

[+Evshro & son]

I have had my 300 freeze up a few times while connected in the car. It would power on but just hang on the start up. Holding the power button would not help; my only option was to remove the batteries. Quite annoying.

[+WoodenShoe]

My 300 also froze twice once on startup hang and once when it was on and I walked through a building and it lost the signal...it was still working and I thought it was tracking...but no response from RR wheel or soft buttons, or power button..took batteries out for both to regain control. I 2.51 loaded also.

Edited April 25, 2008 by WoodenShoe

[+yogi and dolphin]

My 400t was frezzing up and I spoke with tech support a few times did the software updates tried the better nimh batteries all to no avail. So I sent it back and they sent me a new unit. I have no trouble now.

[+yogi and dolphin]

My 400t was frezzing up and I spoke with tech support a few times did the software updates tried the better nimh batteries all to no avail. So I sent it back and they sent me a new unit. I have no trouble now.

[RGK]

I would also like to see that feature come to the Colorado. It was a nice feature on my 60CSx that it showed all my info upon start-up...

 

It is yet another 'nice' 60CS feature that didn't quite make it to the colorado

[+Mr_Green]

I'm entirely new to Garmin and GPS. Got my 400T about a week ago and I've installed City Navigator NT. Throughout the week I have been reading this forum and playing with the shortcuts/options on the unit in hopes of trying to figure out how the unit works best for my needs (e.g. auto, hiking, fishing, golf). One thing I agree with everyone on is that the manual is horrible - especially for a new user like myself.

 

A couple of simple questions....

i) How do I find out what software version I'm running (i.e. 2.4, 2.51, etc.) ?

 

ii) What are the "auto", "default" or "normal" values ? I know what the terms mean but, for example, in the automobile profile, shortcuts "setup", "tracks", your "record method" can be "time", "distance" or "auto"; and then the "interval time" can be "normal". How am I supposed to know what the "auto" record with "normal" time is (e.g. every 30 sec or every 20 min) ? Their "auto" value may work fine for stop-and-go city driving but may be overkill for highway driving. I realize I can just pick a setting that's not "auto" but I was just curious if there's any place that shows what the Colorado's auto/default/normal settings are for each of the various options.

 

iii) This is more specific....I have a route planned and I can read the turn-by-turn instructions. If I click on a particular turn-by-turn direction a map displays the road and turn, but without any detail (no road signs or waypoints). I don't even see any road signs when I zoom out to 20-50 miles. On the other hand, if when the same turn-by-turn is displayed, I go into the shortcuts and click the map icon, a map comes up with all the detail (e.g. road signs). I believe I've gone through all the setup options and picked highest detail for maps. So why aren't I seeing any detail on the map displayed when I click the turn-by-turn direction. Is this an 'issue' or have I simply not got some option somewhere set to what it should be.

 

I apologize of for the length of my first post, but I had hoped to resolve these issues before now, but I'm desperate. Thanks for any help.

[+Timpat]

I apologize of for the length of my first post, but I had hoped to resolve these issues before now, but I'm desperate. Thanks for any help.

Good advice is to start here with the FAQ and Issues by g-o-cashers.

[+Vegas Gamblers]

Two quick questions.

 

First, the time and date on my Colorado 400t is never correct when I first turn on the unit. It corrects itself once it gets satelite lock. Is this a problem that I should be concerned about?

 

Second, my accuracy is never better than 25 feet with a clear sky and WAAS enabled. Should it be better than this?

 

I have 2.51 loaded.

 

Thanks for you help.

[+g-o-cashers]

Two quick questions.

 

First, the time and date on my Colorado 400t is never correct when I first turn on the unit. It corrects itself once it gets satelite lock. Is this a problem that I should be concerned about?

 

Maybe. This is a problem that is seen to varying degrees across Colorados. Some units, like yours, exhibit the problem all the time, others, like mine only exhibit the problem one every 20-30 power cycles and some units never seem to have the problem. One thing that does seem to be clear: if your unit freezes when you turn it on at the Garmin banner that is probably related to this problem and the alarm clock and barometer will probably also not work on your unit.

 

Several weeks ago I called tech support with this issue and they agreed to replace mine. This does feel like a hardware issue to me although they keep doing things in software to hide/improve it.

 

GO$Rs

[flyjazz]

I haven't read every post in this thread to see if someone has mentioned the idea of having an alternative character entry option other than the current Rock&Roll function of having to spin the wheel back and forth? Would it be a simple software modification to have a screen with all the characters laid out like the Etrex Lengend CX where you would simply use the CO R&R to move around the screen and select the desired character by pushing the center button? I find the ring around the center button easy to use when panning across the screen and cannot see why it would not be possible.

[+g-o-cashers]

I think the best suggestion I've seen is a "shift" button that would still allow you to scroll using the rotary motion of the RnR but through a much smaller range of characters. Shifting would select the range (at a minimum numbers, upper, lower or symbols like a cell phone) so that the most you had to scroll through would be 26 characters rather than the nearly 60-70 you do now.

 

GO$Rs