Colorado 400t Newbie question

[+california-jones]

Today I purchased a Garmin Colorado 400t and took it for an afternoon walk and geocaching. First, it refused to "Track Up" no matter how many times I change the settings or whichever profile I choose or how many times I calibrate the compass. I am not a complete newbie to these things as I own a 60csx and have had ique-3600, GMXT, Nuvi-370. I loved the geocaching features, but not being able to track up flumoxed me.

 

Finally, when I turned off the compass, I was able to track up! Is that the way it is supposed to work? I had downloaded 2.51 beta as soon as I purchased the GPS. And I had copied one pocket query .gpx file into the GPS with 50 caches. Nothing else.

 

After that I have enabled the compass many times, but I never see it active in the "compass" page. I must be doing something incredibly stupid or this product has been released way ahead of thorough testing. I had similar experience with GMXT few years back.

 

I poured over Scot's wiki site (Excellent site) to find a solution to my problem as well this forum, but I couldn't find a reference to this or maybe I missed it.

 

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

[+twolpert]

Today I purchased a Garmin Colorado 400t and took it for an afternoon walk and geocaching. First, it refused to "Track Up" no matter how many times I change the settings or whichever profile I choose or how many times I calibrate the compass. I am not a complete newbie to these things as I own a 60csx and have had ique-3600, GMXT, Nuvi-370. I loved the geocaching features, but not being able to track up flumoxed me.

 

Finally, when I turned off the compass, I was able to track up! Is that the way it is supposed to work? I had downloaded 2.51 beta as soon as I purchased the GPS. And I had copied one pocket query .gpx file into the GPS with 50 caches. Nothing else.

 

After that I have enabled the compass many times, but I never see it active in the "compass" page. I must be doing something incredibly stupid or this product has been released way ahead of thorough testing. I had similar experience with GMXT few years back.

 

I poured over Scot's wiki site (Excellent site) to find a solution to my problem as well this forum, but I couldn't find a reference to this or maybe I missed it.

 

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Can't speak to the issue regarding compass use and track up. Earlier versions of the firmware had various issues with track up -- although I don't remember seeing this particular one.

 

In general, though, keep the following in mind. First, make sure you calibrate the compass every time you remove the batteries -- and at any other time when it appears to be misbehaving. Second, make sure you hold the unit level when attempting to use the compass. Third, remember that even when the compass is on, the unit does not always use it to determine direction of travel. When you are moving fast enough, the unit determines direction of travel from the GPS readings, not from the compass. The compass is only used when you are standing still or moving very, very slowly.

[+california-jones]

In general, though, keep the following in mind. First, make sure you calibrate the compass every time you remove the batteries -- and at any other time when it appears to be misbehaving. Second, make sure you hold the unit level when attempting to use the compass. Third, remember that even when the compass is on, the unit does not always use it to determine direction of travel. When you are moving fast enough, the unit determines direction of travel from the GPS readings, not from the compass. The compass is only used when you are standing still or moving very, very slowly.

 

I read about the conditions that you mentioned and did precisely all of them - horizontal, recalibrated and was actually standing still as I know the unit will switch to using satellites when you exceed a specific speed. I was using it while walking.

[+randyrucker]

I don't have a compass needle on mine with compass enabled, but the luber line works. In general I think the compass functions very poor on this unit. I try not to use it.

[+g-o-cashers]

Saibal, when you see this issue and you look at Settings->Map->Orientation do you see the configuration setting change to North Up or is the unit working like it is in North Up mode but the setting is still set to Track Up?

 

GO$Rs