+GeoCrazy Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I received my new Colorado 400T yesterday from TigerGPS. I really do love the unit itself! However, the screen is so hard to see it is simply unacceptable. Has anyone else noticed this or found a fix for it? Even with the backlight turned all the way up it is next to impossible to see in shadows outside. You have to angle the unit just right to get anything to show up in sunlight and even inside in a dark room with the backlight on it is not very bright. Forget abouty using it while driving in the car! Is it just me or isd anyone else seeing the same issue? Im affraid it will be going back next week. It is usless if you cant see the display! GeoCrazy www.geocrazy.com Quote Link to comment
+Paul_Aris Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Sounds like you may need to upgrade the firmware to 2.4. My backlighting improved a lot with the upgrade. Also make sure you have good batteries in it. I believe if they they are less than have charge left it goes to dim. See the FAQ on this forum for more answers. Quote Link to comment
+g-o-cashers Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Yes. The screen is dim. Especially for those of us used to the 60cs(x) GPS's. The previous poster's suggestions are about all that can help. If you are using the CO in your car I would also strongly recommend the car kit. The screen is beautiful when it is attached to an external power source, very bright and vivid. GO$Rs Quote Link to comment
+BiT Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 IMHO, when you have the CO outside, the screen doen't seen dim at all. Quote Link to comment
moonpup Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Hi, Well, I just got my 400t on Friday and found the backlighting to be lame as well. One thing I did was go into Setup --> Display and turn the option for Backlight Limiting to OFF. I found that when the batteries get to about half power or less, the display brightness drops tremendously even though you have the backlight level set to full brightness. By selecting this option the display will not dim when the battery power gets lower, so give that a try. On another note, I found my unit battery meter to be very flaky even with the 2.40 update. I have yet to get more than 6 hours out of a set and when the battery meter goes into the red I will shut off the unit and then turn it back on again to find the battery meter at 2 or 3 bars and then it continues to run. I wonder if I should send this one back?? Quote Link to comment
+nicolo Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I received my new Colorado 400T yesterday from TigerGPS. I really do love the unit itself! However, the screen is so hard to see it is simply unacceptable. Has anyone else noticed this or found a fix for it? Even with the backlight turned all the way up it is next to impossible to see in shadows outside. You have to angle the unit just right to get anything to show up in sunlight and even inside in a dark room with the backlight on it is not very bright. Forget abouty using it while driving in the car! Is it just me or isd anyone else seeing the same issue? Im affraid it will be going back next week. It is usless if you cant see the display! GeoCrazy www.geocrazy.com I have found the backlighting to only be any kind of problem when driving and having the unit in the Garmin mounting cradle. It's pretty dim and I often end up holding it in my hand when driving. When out walking for a cache, not a problem at all. Maybe it's your sunglasses, Quote Link to comment
+Paul_Aris Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Hi, Well, I just got my 400t on Friday and found the backlighting to be lame as well. One thing I did was go into Setup --> Display and turn the option for Backlight Limiting to OFF. I found that when the batteries get to about half power or less, the display brightness drops tremendously even though you have the backlight level set to full brightness. By selecting this option the display will not dim when the battery power gets lower, so give that a try. On another note, I found my unit battery meter to be very flaky even with the 2.40 update. I have yet to get more than 6 hours out of a set and when the battery meter goes into the red I will shut off the unit and then turn it back on again to find the battery meter at 2 or 3 bars and then it continues to run. I wonder if I should send this one back?? What serial # you got. Mine is 18XXXX. I am only on my second set of NI MH rechargeables since I got mine on thursday. And I still have 1/2 of the second set. My battery gauge seems to be working fine. I have had the backlight on full most of the time. Mine seems nice and bright with the backlight turned up all the way. When I first got mine and I was on 2.3 I was disappointed. Even with the backlight but since 2.4 and turning backlight limiting off I have not had a problem seeing the screen. Quote Link to comment
moonpup Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 What serial # you got. Mine is 18XXXX. I am only on my second set of NI MH rechargeables since I got mine on thursday. And I still have 1/2 of the second set. My battery gauge seems to be working fine. I have had the backlight on full most of the time. Mine seems nice and bright with the backlight turned up all the way. When I first got mine and I was on 2.3 I was disappointed. Even with the backlight but since 2.4 and turning backlight limiting off I have not had a problem seeing the screen. I got 18Z005xxx and my unit barely made 7 hours with a fresh set of alkaline batteries left on overnight with no compass or backlight. Quote Link to comment
+Timpat Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 To combat the screen darkness, I found yesterday if I turn OFF the WW Autoroute DEM Basemap NR it makes my Topo 2008 and City Select v.7 much better to view. For hiking in Parks areas that have a green color designation I even have loaded my old US Topo to see better. I can toggle between map sets as needed for my purpose at hand. Quote Link to comment
+Paul_Aris Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 What serial # you got. Mine is 18XXXX. I am only on my second set of NI MH rechargeables since I got mine on thursday. And I still have 1/2 of the second set. My battery gauge seems to be working fine. I have had the backlight on full most of the time. Mine seems nice and bright with the backlight turned up all the way. When I first got mine and I was on 2.3 I was disappointed. Even with the backlight but since 2.4 and turning backlight limiting off I have not had a problem seeing the screen. I got 18Z005xxx and my unit barely made 7 hours with a fresh set of alkaline batteries left on overnight with no compass or backlight. Sounds like yours may be pretty close to mine maybe just a couple of digits off. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I did a 25 cache day today. I never felt the need for backlighting. Overall the only difference to viewability to the 60Cx is that the lines are thin and the text is smaller. Neither are problem for me. Certain screens have poor daylight colour choice such as the trip computer, but the 5 caching screens are fine. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 To combat the screen darkness, I found yesterday if I turn OFF the WW Autoroute DEM Basemap NR it makes my Topo 2008 and City Select v.7 much better to view. I agree. This makes the background white and gives better clarity. Quote Link to comment
+twolpert Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 What serial # you got. Mine is 18XXXX. I am only on my second set of NI MH rechargeables since I got mine on thursday. And I still have 1/2 of the second set. My battery gauge seems to be working fine. I have had the backlight on full most of the time. Mine seems nice and bright with the backlight turned up all the way. When I first got mine and I was on 2.3 I was disappointed. Even with the backlight but since 2.4 and turning backlight limiting off I have not had a problem seeing the screen. I got 18Z005xxx and my unit barely made 7 hours with a fresh set of alkaline batteries left on overnight with no compass or backlight. Although I'm having similar issues with 2.40 and alkaline non-rechargeables, my guess is you might want to be a little bit careful about testing this way. Indoors, you've probably got satellite visibility and multi-path issues. Could be pushing the CPU a little harder than normal just to maintain position updates... Tom Quote Link to comment
+stroute Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I am getting to take the plunge. On Wednesday I am getting the Colorado 400T and retiring my 60csx. I've read many blogs on the Colorado and most of the negative comments that I have seen are UNFOUNDED. Here many speak of the dim screen and how you have to live with it. When I was looking at the Colorado 400T today at Sportsmans I saw how dim the screen was. Unable to find any screens for changing the lighting and looking at the manual I found nothing. I then had a thought, is it possible that you can adjust the screen brightness like I do with my 60csc. I pressed the on/off button momentarily and low and behold, a new menu which shows battery strength, GPS signal strength and brightness. You turn the wheel and voila, the screen got brighter. I found the screen brightness to be brighter than the 60csx. So I must say, the ONLY downfall I've found so far the Garmin's poor documentation on changing the screen brightness. I am looking forward to trying out the 400T. I have a 30 day money back guarantee (full refund and no stocking fee). I'm going to try it out for what I have been using the 60csx for. I love to geocache (I just started last November) and use it for auto routing when I drive. When I was in the Grand Canyon and having the National Parks maps loaded into the 60cxs I also discovered that it would autoroutes the trails when hiking out of the Grand Canyon from the Phantom Ranch in January. I hope the 400T will also be able to auto routes the trails. I'll be back after using the 400T for Geoaching and driving for a week. I'm going to look carefully for obvious bugs or problems and the battery life. I enjoy comments and digest carefully the ngegative comments and I plan on refuting them or verifying them. Steve Quote Link to comment
freeday Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 try to read the data-fields: Quote Link to comment
toddm Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 This may not be possible due to hardware/lack of voltage from the 2 AA's but if garmin allowed the user to set the backlight as bright on battery power as it goes when it's plugged into a 12volt adapter in the car no one would be complaining about how dim it is. Of course battery life, which is already not very good would be even worse, but it would take care of the screen darkness issues, even with the 2.4 update and fresh nimh batteries the backlight on the 12v adapter is much brighter. Quote Link to comment
+RRLover Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 This may not be possible due to hardware/lack of voltage from the 2 AA's but if garmin allowed the user to set the backlight as bright on battery power as it goes when it's plugged into a 12volt adapter in the car no one would be complaining about how dim it is. Of course battery life, which is already not very good would be even worse, but it would take care of the screen darkness issues, even with the 2.4 update and fresh nimh batteries the backlight on the 12v adapter is much brighter. Does any one remember the post that quoted the ma draw on the batteries when the Colorado was running full tilt? It would be interesting to compare that to the Colorado's draw while powered externally. I tried to find the post that had the battery draw figures . . . but couldn't. Norm Quote Link to comment
+minnesotabrad Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 try to read the data-fields: Take the plastic of the screen off the Colorado and try again. Quote Link to comment
+g-o-cashers Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Does any one remember the post that quoted the ma draw on the batteries when the Colorado was running full tilt? It would be interesting to compare that to the Colorado's draw while powered externally. I tried to find the post that had the battery draw figures . . . but couldn't. Norm Its in the hardware/power section of the FAQ linked in my signature. GO$Rs Quote Link to comment
zedex Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Can you not change the background color of the CO to white? Im sure if you made the background of the csx dark the screens would be very similar. BTW. Im not sticking up for the CO but the background seems obvious to me. Quote Link to comment
+RRLover Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Its in the hardware/power section of the FAQ linked in my signature. GO$Rs Thanks, your efforts are remarkable, you are an asset to the community! Norm Quote Link to comment
toddm Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 The background helps in some light conditions. I've found that in average light the white background works nice, in direct sunlight the black background actually has more contrast on some screens. However, on either background it still is much more dim than say the 60/76 series or the etrex series. Even in the truck today when it was on battery power with full backlight I could see it, but it was anything but bright, on 12v power it was much brighter and easy to see. That's fine for the truck, hiking it's not bad, usually you can tilt or change the direction of the screen to make it readable under most light conditions. On the bike you don't have that option, and in many light conditions it's just not bright enough to see at a glance compared to the etrex or edge models. Quote Link to comment
gallet Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 Its in the hardware/power section of the FAQ linked in my signature. Just grabbed this off the Wiki... The basemap for the 300 is probably in four parts: * Worldwide map that contains borders of countries and some large cities, also contains some DEM. * Americas, Pacific, and Atlantic basemaps with major highways and interstates and DEM. Is this correct? I thought that there was only a worldwide basemap for the 300 Quote Link to comment
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