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Warning on buying a Garmin Colorado


Turtle3863

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I know some of you have expressed a desire to buy a Colorado GPS, so I thought you might want to know what I found. This is only my opinion and your results might be better. This is what I found:

 

Well I have had it! I got my 400t a week ago and I gave it a try this weekend. I like Garmin and know they will fix SOME of the problems but after struggling with it this weekend I realize they may never get this unit to do what I need for Geocaching. I am stuck with some great features on my 60C and some great features on my Colorado but I have to use both to geocache making the Colorado one expensive PDA. For what I have spent on the Colorado I can get a new Map60cx and a brand new CN 2008 and still have some money left not counting the money I would have had to spend on a new AC adapter and a car mount. I hope all who have got the Colorado will have your issues fixed in time and I am returning my 400t to Buy.com and buying a good old Map60cx.

 

If you want to ask me what I found, e-mail me through my profile.

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I mean no offense at all...but what is the point of your post??? I do not see anything that would make me not want to buy the Colorado...could you please expand the specifics about what you liked about the unit and what you did not like. I have the 60 CSx and know what it does...but what did the Colorado not do that you wanted and what does it do that you didn't like???

 

A little more information would be helpful...

 

Thanks,

ArcherDragoon

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I mean no offense at all...but what is the point of your post??? I do not see anything that would make me not want to buy the Colorado...could you please expand the specifics about what you liked about the unit and what you did not like. I have the 60 CSx and know what it does...but what did the Colorado not do that you wanted and what does it do that you didn't like???

 

A little more information would be helpful...

 

Thanks,

ArcherDragoon

 

Well if you like the 60 CSX and what it does, Here is a list of what the Colorado does and does not do, the Colorado does not mark a cache as found and log it on a calendar (as an open box), the screen is darker and hard to see, the batteries that used to last a good 8 hours in my 60c, last about 4 in the Colorado, you cannot delete individual caches as you find them. These are but a few problems for a GPS that cost $500. The only thing it did well was to transfer GPX files and display some caches well. Except on some caches when displaying the cache page the unit will lock up requiring you to pull the batteries out and reboot which takes up to 2 minutes if you have more than 500 caches loaded. Of coarse this is all of what I have experienced, and I am sure Garmin will fix some of these problems in the future. As it is now, I have to use one GPS to find and log my finds and the Colorado to look up the cache pages. This for me is unacceptable and I wish someone would have warned me. I will not go in to any more detail in this forum because this is a regional forum and I was simply sending out a warning to other in the Indiana area. If you want more details, please e-mail me or refer to the GPS section of this forum.

Edited by Turtle3863
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Thanks for the info Turtle. I have been interested in the Topo maps on the 400t, but the cost and what seems like an awful lot of bugs to work out, have kept me from seriously doing so. I think I will wait a few years on this one, My 60Cx is doing a great job at the moment.

 

Chris-Team Shydog

 

TSD, if you want Topo Maps, not in 3D, your 60CSx works fine. I have a 60CSx and a eTrex Venture HC, both have Topo maps loaded and my 60CSx has roadmaps. I am quit comfortable not having 3D Topos. One thing I have learned is that the 60CSx will only hold 2000 map files, Street, Topo or a combination. I just have multiple micro SD cards, only $10 a piece for 1GB to have the entire US. I also use Garmin's POI Loader to increase my waypoint numbers because my waypoints are now points of interest. The downside to the POI Loader is similar to what Turtle3863 mentioned, you can't delete the custom POI's on the trail. You can only delete all them and reload. The Colorado looks interesting but you could buy a cheap laptop and 60CSx for the same price.

Edited by t_bird
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I mean no offense at all...but what is the point of your post??? I do not see anything that would make me not want to buy the Colorado...could you please expand the specifics about what you liked about the unit and what you did not like. I have the 60 CSx and know what it does...but what did the Colorado not do that you wanted and what does it do that you didn't like???

 

A little more information would be helpful...

 

Thanks,

ArcherDragoon

 

Well if you like the 60 CSX and what it does, Here is a list of what the Colorado does and does not do, the Colorado does not mark a cache as found and log it on a calendar (as an open box), the screen is darker and hard to see, the batteries that used to last a good 8 hours in my 60c, last about 4 in the Colorado, you cannot delete individual caches as you find them. These are but a few problems for a GPS that cost $500. The only thing it did well was to transfer GPX files and display some caches well. Except on some caches when displaying the cache page the unit will lock up requiring you to pull the batteries out and reboot which takes up to 2 minutes if you have more than 500 caches loaded. Of coarse this is all of what I have experienced, and I am sure Garmin will fix some of these problems in the future. As it is now, I have to use one GPS to find and log my finds and the Colorado to look up the cache pages. This for me is unacceptable and I wish someone would have warned me. I will not go in to any more detail in this forum because this is a regional forum and I was simply sending out a warning to other in the Indiana area. If you want more details, please e-mail me or refer to the GPS section of this forum.

Thank-you for the additional information...it is much appreciated!!!

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Thanks for the info Turtle. I have been interested in the Topo maps on the 400t, but the cost and what seems like an awful lot of bugs to work out, have kept me from seriously doing so. I think I will wait a few years on this one, My 60Cx is doing a great job at the moment.

 

Chris-Team Shydog

 

TSD, if you want Topo Maps, not in 3D, your 60CSx works fine. I have a 60CSx and a eTrex Venture HC, both have Topo maps loaded and my 60CSx has roadmaps. I am quit comfortable not having 3D Topos. One thing I have learned is that the 60CSx will only hold 2000 map files, Street, Topo or a combination. I just have multiple micro SD cards, only $10 a piece for 1GB to have the entire US. I also use Garmin's POI Loader to increase my waypoint numbers because my waypoints are now points of interest. The downside to the POI Loader is similar to what Turtle3863 mentioned, you can't delete the custom POI's on the trail. You can only delete all them and reload. The Colorado looks interesting but you could buy a cheap laptop and 60CSx for the same price.

 

How do you get the full use of a card? I have a 2GB card but I can only load so many maps at a time, city select and TOPO. When I prepare a second set of maps and load them it erases the first set i loaded, I can't get over, as I recall, about 680 MB on the card. Whats the secret to adding more maps without erasing the first ones?

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Thanks for the info Turtle. I have been interested in the Topo maps on the 400t, but the cost and what seems like an awful lot of bugs to work out, have kept me from seriously doing so. I think I will wait a few years on this one, My 60Cx is doing a great job at the moment.

 

Chris-Team Shydog

 

TSD, if you want Topo Maps, not in 3D, your 60CSx works fine. I have a 60CSx and a eTrex Venture HC, both have Topo maps loaded and my 60CSx has roadmaps. I am quit comfortable not having 3D Topos. One thing I have learned is that the 60CSx will only hold 2000 map files, Street, Topo or a combination. I just have multiple micro SD cards, only $10 a piece for 1GB to have the entire US. I also use Garmin's POI Loader to increase my waypoint numbers because my waypoints are now points of interest. The downside to the POI Loader is similar to what Turtle3863 mentioned, you can't delete the custom POI's on the trail. You can only delete all them and reload. The Colorado looks interesting but you could buy a cheap laptop and 60CSx for the same price.

 

How do you get the full use of a card? I have a 2GB card but I can only load so many maps at a time, city select and TOPO. When I prepare a second set of maps and load them it erases the first set i loaded, I can't get over, as I recall, about 680 MB on the card. Whats the secret to adding more maps without erasing the first ones?

 

You are correct, my card is less than 1GB of map memory used. The limitation is the quantity of maps you install which is approx 2000. Example; I have most of the eastern US roadmaps and topo on a single card. The number of maps installed is 2008 but the memory usage 918.9 MB so the rest of the memory is unusable except for Custom POI's which use about 1k per Custom POI. Custom POI's import from a pocket querie GPX file and the software is free from Garmin. My estimation is that I can load about 80,000 Custom POI's into my 60CSx. The 2 downsides are you can't delete Custom POI's on the trail and they slow down the screen updates a little bit but nothing drastic based on my experience (I only load about 2000) at a time. I have never loaded my estimated 80K. Captin BB I recommend if you have a different use for your 2GB MicroSD then move that to your camera or MP3 player and purchase a 1GB for your 60CSx. Here in Cincy Micro Center has 1GB MicroSD's for about $10.

 

If anyone has any questions email me and I will be more then glad to help.

 

Turtle3863, sorry about the thread jack.

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Pardon any mis-spellings and grammar errors as we have just arrived back from the pub...

 

I've had my Colorado 300 for a couple of days, and so far its been interesting. Yes, it has a bunch of cool features. No, its not the be-all, end-all of GPS units. Having used an eMap for the last 9 years, as well as a cheap Lowrance unit and some computer and tablet PC-based packages, I was ready to move into the 21st century.

 

The color screen is pretty cool -- very high-res compared to other color handheld GPS units I have seen.Haven't tried it outdoors in bright sunlight yet, but indoors with the backlight all the way up its almost too dim. Compared a laptop or tablet PC, is pretty dark. The supplied background screens are rather dark as well. The can be changed, but it requires moderate PC knowledge.

 

Haven't loaded any maps yet. Just bought a 4 MB SDHC card this evening and haven't tried it yet. Still waiting on Topo 2008 to arrive, and debating on Mapsouce NT. Had Mapsource (1999 vintage) on the eMap and was very pleased. Bought this unit instead of the 400t because I heard the built-in maps were so-so compared to the ones on DVD.

 

Once you install the Trip and Waypoint Manager software, download and install the Garmin Communicator software add-on. This allows you to download complete cache info straight to your Colorado 300 from geocaching.com with a couple three mouse clicks. This is the whole shebang visible on the geocaching site including the hint, comments, first 10 or so logs, etc... pretty damned cool. Unfortunately, there is no way to mark the caches as found and to delete them you must connect to the PC, treat the GPS as a memory device and delete the individual GPX files manually.

 

As far as the caches, once they are loaded, they are available in a separate category from waypoints -- sorted by distance from your current position and listed by name or GC code (your choice) -- a really cool feature. However, when you select a cache, you get a red compass arrow showing you the direction you need to go to find it, as well as the distance, etc..., but the map below it shows your location and cache -- always north up. You can also select to GOTO the cache -- which treats the navigation like a waypoint which allows the track-up view, etc... Kinda flaky until you figure it out.

 

We tried the Colorado 300 with 7 local caches that I had printed info on, and we were batting .571 in the end. Not sure if the overcast skies contributed to the issues, but the Colorado 300 was way freakin' off. Sad to say, but the old Lowrance I-Go Finder II totally blows it out of the water -- 80% of the time it takes you to spittin' distance. In some cases I have been inches from stepping on a cache -- not bad for a $80 bottom of the barrel unit.

 

I'll need to get the maps loaded and take the Colorado 300 on a motorcycle trip before I can pronounce final judgegement. So far its just so-so.

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The combination palm/GPS thing is cool, but unless they let you mark as found, it's not worth the trouble. My Palm TX doesn't weigh me down that much.

 

The only problem with my 60Csx as it's seen so many darn caches, it's getting pretty beat up!

But you can buy 2 Cx's, who needs the S, for the price of 1 Colorado. Or you could get 6 eTrex H's for the same price.

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