What do you like or dislike about the colorado

[+Team sixgun]

Ok I know about the short battery life, what is about the colorado that like and what is it you dislike, please tell me both.

[+NJ Admin]

Not ham radio related. Moving to proper forum.

[+qlenfg]

What I dislike about the Garmin Colorado?

 

It apparently appeals to people who should not be allowed to handle anything more high-tech than a light switch. In the proper hands its currently the best paperless caching tool around -- in other hands its a battery-sucking, wrong-way pointing, device of confusion that can only find its way back to REI.

[+phaedrus78]

Now I'm a newb to geocaching, but not electonic/techy goodies

What I like:

-Amazing paperless chaching features

-Profile switching (automotive, geocaching, recreational...)

-Customizable menus

-3D imaging, not sure why, but it's just cool

-Turn by Turn auto routing with 2008 NT

-Great color and clear screen

-large screen

-very functional controls

-1000 wps + 2000 caches

-4gigs of internal memory

-nice trip computer data

 

What I don't like:

-not sure yet, have only had it for a short time.

-I'll try to remember to come back and let you know

-Remembered one, just an anoyence, but backlight setting has to be adjusted after reboot (easily done though, thanks to the nice controls)

 

BTW, after about 7 hours of regular use, I'm still getting 4 green bars on lithium batteries and installed the beta with parellels on my imac.

Edited May 5, 2008 by phaedrus78

[+randyrucker]

This forum is full of likes and dislikes for the Colorado. I recently took mine back to REI for the following reasons:

 

1. Every now and then you get a location problem with the thing. You get close to the cache coords, then it jumps 150+ feet in another direction. I had this happen to me, but it is rare. Still I don't have confidence in it after that. Turn it off then on fixes it? It shouldn't happen. You can read it about it some here:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=184158&hl=

 

2. The secondary roads on the preloaded basic map are not accurately plotted and are not georeferenced to the map, but you can buy CN 2008 to "fix" the problem right? No, the maps it comes with should be accurate period. There is a post about that somewhere on the forum.

 

3. Garmin says its waterproof, but according to many posts its only waterproof if you don't get it wet. How they get away with this is beyond me.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=184669

 

4. There is noway to get a map presentation when entering cache coords manually, only the compass pointer. Not good if you are trying to navigate to a cache.

 

You would like to have this:

 

 

Not this:

 

 

5. The maximum brightness setting is to low. The display is hard to see in direct sunlight.

 

6. The Wherigo mode crashed my unit several times. The third time it locked up and I had to take the batteries out to get it to restart.

 

7. Speaking of batteries....I don't get near what Garmin says this thing should get using NiMh.

 

There is a pretty good list of problems here:

 

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Issues+List

 

 

What I like about the Colorado:

 

1. It is the best paperless device for geocaching out there, however if you don't have the intention of using it for that you will probably not be completely happy with it.

 

If this thing was priced at say $300 I would probably just endure the problems because of the great paperless caching features, but at $600 bucks - not a chance. Fix it Garmin.

Edited May 6, 2008 by randyrucker

[+randyrucker]

Edited May 5, 2008 by randyrucker

[yogazoo]

There is alot to like about the Colorado. Nice screen, decent interface, heart rate monitor, etc.

 

But, I think its worth mentioning some of the big drawbacks IMO.

 

1) No Waypoint Averaging: If you live in a mountainous region you often get weak or bounced signals. The stability of your signal will not be as predictable as it would be in, say, Kansas. If you live in the Rocky Mountain West, averaging is a necessity.

 

2) Barometer does not work when POWER's off: Well, contrary to what the manual clearly states, you cannot record Barometric data when the unit is powered off. It just doesn't work. If you have "save data always" chosen under the altimeter set-up you won't see any dynamic data after having the unit turned off. If you turn it off at night and turn it on in the morning you will only see a straight line between the time you turned the unit off and the time you turned it on. The data will not be dynamic because it doesn't record any.

 

3) Track features limited: You can't change the color. You can't view more than one. Auto naming scheme is set to GMT and not local time.

 

4) Unit is not "Panning" friendly: WHen you pan the map you won't be able to see any data about where your cursor is such as elevation or coordinates. You also can't change maps while panning which comes in really handy especially if you are planning a route and want to see the area under varying mapping data scenarios. Instead you have to hit "DONE", change maps, and then pan to the area you were looking at previously.

 

5) Intermittent water bodies are not drawn: They used to be white with a blue crosshatch, now they are nothing. They apparently forgot to code Intermittent water bodies into the units firmware. Oops! Amateur programming mistake! So FIX IT GARMIN!

 

6) Can't view text data or "notes" in POI files loaded with POI loader : Self explanitory

 

Hey man, you asked.

[yogazoo]

What I dislike about the Garmin Colorado?

 

It apparently appeals to people who should not be allowed to handle anything more high-tech than a light switch. In the proper hands its currently the best paperless caching tool around -- in other hands its a battery-sucking, wrong-way pointing, device of confusion that can only find its way back to REI.

 

Depends entirely on your use. As mentioned above, if all you do is geocache, its great. If your into hardcore hiking, backpacking, data collection, off road navigation, you may be a little dissapointed.

Edited May 5, 2008 by yogazoo

[+GOT GPS?]

My last post > http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...t&p=3459651

 

That post of mine, is about the antenna on my 400t is not as good as was on any of my 60 series GPS units, I had a Map60C(very good gps), then a Map60Cx(Rcvr & power problems), and now a Map60CSx(Just about perfect).

 

My 400t, that is going back, had problems with the trackpoints going way off in different directions, while hiking, and I did not hike at 75 mph, where several trackpoints yesterday had my feet going at highway speeds, and that was not just a few, but lots of random trackpoints, and also my tracklogs always where one continuous unbroken tracklog, even when I powered off then on again, so this GPS had a One Track Mind.

[schmidtbaby]

What I dislike about the Garmin Colorado?

 

It apparently appeals to people who should not be allowed to handle anything more high-tech than a light switch. In the proper hands its currently the best paperless caching tool around -- in other hands its a battery-sucking, wrong-way pointing, device of confusion that can only find its way back to REI.

 

I too am taking mine back to REI. I have experienced the same problems that others have - jumping, speed inaccuracies, etc.

 

It's great that yours works fine - I guess those of us that are having problems are simply uneducated or "in the dark"