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Garmin Colorado 2.54 Beta Firmware release


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How are your routing options set in each profile. For me

 

Geocaching:

Guidance Method: Off Road

Calculate Routes for: Car/Motorcycle (I'm not sure what this means in off road mode)

Avoid: On (U-turns)

Off Road Transitions: Auto

 

I verified again this morning and my map settings are the same as yours and I can do the goto location in either profile and the type of route will switch as I switch profiles, it always recalculates.

 

GO$Rs

 

Scott,

 

That was the difference - Guidance was 'on road' in my geocaching profile. Not sure how I missed that! :D

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Question about 2.54 and the compass calibration:

 

I have an early 400t unit. Until now I've had my compass turned OFF. I upgraded to 2.54/2.60 and turned on the compass and did a calibration test several times.

 

What is interesting is that the 400t doesn't complain if I don't hold it "level" when doing the calibration. In fact, I can calibrate it in a vertical position and it is happy! Or even at a 45 degree angle. Or at any angle (I haven't tried upside down). Of course, when I use the compass, I need to hold it in whatever position I last calibrated it. So if I calibrated it at a 45 degree angle, and then try to hold the unit flat to use the compass, it complains and says "hold level" until I hold it at a 45 degree angle. Interesting, huh?

 

Is the behavior above new with 2.54, or is my unit faulty? (I sort of like the "variable calibration" feature, though I don't think its expected behavior.)

 

The other thing I notice is that it usually takes a very long time to lock onto Satellites, and sometimes (rarely) it fails entirely to lock onto satellites in an open area unless I power-cycle. However my date/time is always spot-on when turning the unit on. Item B7 on the Wiki seems related due to the "and/or" and indicates that maybe I should RMA the unit.

 

B7.) Sometimes when I turn on my Colorado the time is off and/or I can't get satellite lock. What's going on?

 

This appears to be a hardware issue with some of the early Colorados. Some owners have reported that Garmin has acknowledged the problem and is replacing Colorados with this issue. I would suggest contacting Garmin customer support if you have this problem.

 

Hmmm... any thoughts?

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Is the behavior above new with 2.54, or is my unit faulty? (I sort of like the "variable calibration" feature, though I don't think its expected behavior.)

 

If I calibrate the unit while holding it vertical it doesn't complain (using 2.54, can't say if I tried this using 2.51 or not). However after calibrating it incorrectly when I lay the unit horizontal I get the Hold Level warning. I tried the same thing with my 60csx and it works exactly the same way. The unit will calibrate in just about any position but when you hold it level it will complain if it wasn't calibrated when it was being held level.

 

Item B7 on the Wiki seems related due to the "and/or" and indicates that maybe I should RMA the unit.

 

B7.) Sometimes when I turn on my Colorado the time is off and/or I can't get satellite lock. What's going on?

 

This appears to be a hardware issue with some of the early Colorados. Some owners have reported that Garmin has acknowledged the problem and is replacing Colorados with this issue. I would suggest contacting Garmin customer support if you have this problem.

 

Hmmm... any thoughts?

 

When I wrote this I really intended this to be a warning about the date/time issue. If your date/time is not off and you are experiencing long lock times that might be a different issue.

 

GO$Rs

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What is the status of Colorado's software with respect to recording pressure when powered off? My recently purchased C300 is not able to do recording with any software I have tried (2.50, 2.51 beta, 2.54 beta).

 

Are all Colorados still like this due to a software bug, or is my unit faulty?

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What is the status of Colorado's software with respect to recording pressure when powered off? My recently purchased C300 is not able to do recording with any software I have tried (2.50, 2.51 beta, 2.54 beta).

 

Are all Colorados still like this due to a software bug, or is my unit faulty?

 

My unit is similar although I haven't tried it with 2.54. I'm assuming mine is faulty hardware.

 

GO$Rs

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I have contacted Garmin 3 times about the barometer not working when powered off issue. The first time they set several to test overnight. The second time they told me to hard reset the unit. The third time they told me to check again.

 

I still have the problem with firmware 2.54. I suspect it is a hardware issue with a string of production models since there seem to be a few people who actually receive dynamic data during the power off cycle.

 

I would suggest you call Garmin and request a replacement unit. I'm about to call them right now and I will post the details of today's interraction with Garmin in a few minutes.

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If you guys are talking to Garmin can you also make sure to raise the three issues found thus far in 2.54?

 

- Delete waypoint crash

- Spell... geocache failure

- Crash after current.gpx archive after connection to computer w/o GPS signal (this only seems to affect some units)

 

GO$Rs

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I would suggest you call Garmin and request a replacement unit. I'm about to call them right now and I will post the details of today's interraction with Garmin in a few minutes.

I have e-mailed them already, after trying the 2.54b. I wouldn't want to send my unit for replacement right now, because I'll be off for a holiday and actually need it (!). Later, yes.

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Although it's not listed at Garmins website yet, I found a direct link to the v2.54 firmware for Colorado 300.

http://www.garmin.com/software/Colorado300_254Beta.exe

 

Probably the same file with different file names.

 

Here's the link to the 300 download page...

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3890

 

Probably the same text, but I'll post it anyway...

Changes made from version 2.51 to 2.54:

Added ability to turn elevation shading off, included in user profile settings

Added ability to log a comment with geocaching Field Notes

Added ability to save map selections to user profile settings

Added compass setting to saved user profile settings

Added tracback along current track

Added ability to determine public land survey or USGS Quad name for Topo 24k HD cartography

Added progress bar during software updates

Improved odometer distance calculation

Improved Wherigo engine

Improved backlight behavior

Improved compass / gps heading autoswitch behavior

Improved keyboard behavior in address & intersection searches

Improved behavior in low battery state

Improved behavior of turn-by-turn route recalcuations

Improved map drawing to eliminate redraws when not necessary

Improved map drawing to reduce partial map draws

Improved map drawing to enhance appearance of trails

Improved usability of WGS84 by listing as a datum rather than just a spheroid

Improved automatic track archiving when archiving very lengthy activity segments

Increased maximum number of GPX files processed to 200

Corrected guidance text to not truncate streets when not necessary

Corrected behavior of proximity alarms in custom points of interest

Corrected potential issues that prevented user alarm from sounding

Corrected map drawing above 75 degrees latitude

Corrected potential issue when attempting to delete profiles

Corrected issue that generated extra waypoints at poweron when 'Mark Waypoint' was the first listed shortcut

Corrected potential issue preventing 'Waypoints' from being listed in 'Where to?'

Corrected issue that prevented poor signal strength messages from disappearing if a fix was achieved

Corrected calculated issue that prevented complete display of large numbers

Corrected specified schema path for GPX files

Corrected Dutch keyboard to include 'Z' for address searches

Corrected User Grid to retain settings between power cycles

Corrected User Grid to allow 'E' and 'W' for longitude origin entry

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If you guys are talking to Garmin can you also make sure to raise the three issues found thus far in 2.54?

 

- Delete waypoint crash

- Spell... geocache failure

- Crash after current.gpx archive after connection to computer w/o GPS signal (this only seems to affect some units)

 

GO$Rs

 

I told em' about all of the above. :lol: The tech guys seemed very suprised when they heard about each one. With all of the folks on this forum and elsewhere I'm surprised their lines weren't lit up over the crashing issues.

 

Anyway, a fourth time telling them about the failure to record barometric pressure when powered off and they still had no idea. They said they'd call me back. :D WOW!

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If you guys are talking to Garmin can you also make sure to raise the three issues found thus far in 2.54?

 

- Delete waypoint crash

- Spell... geocache failure

- Crash after current.gpx archive after connection to computer w/o GPS signal (this only seems to affect some units)

 

GO$Rs

 

Wow what a phone call with Garmin, I called in about the three issues so far so they can talk to their tech people and the stupid person on the phone wanted to walk me through resetting my unit and the whole thing. I told them I wasn't n00b and I probably knew more about the unit then their flash cards in front of them. Then the ultimate comment, sir you will probably have to send the unit in for repairs. I was like your kidding. Then the person said this is the best solution to fix your problems, then I said the only problems I have is with idiots like you and hung up. Wow I must have gotten a newbie tech.

Edited by storm180
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That is pretty ridiculous, usually when I call the tech can get access to a unit running the same software. These are easy ones to reproduce -- I'm surprised they weren't more helpful. Where I usually have problems is trying to explain the intermittent bugs like the location error issue.

 

GO$Rs

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Has any of you had problem when connecting GPS to PC with a SD card in the unit.

 

It seems to be a bug that makes the unit shut down when using USB and a SD Card installed.

 

Remove the card and all works ok.

When GPS is upp and running in USB mode you can insert the card without shutdown.

 

This was no problem with 2.51B and did come with 2.54B

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Wow what a phone call with Garmin, I called in about the three issues so far so they can talk to their tech people and the stupid person on the phone wanted to walk me through resetting my unit and the whole thing. I told them I wasn't n00b and I probably knew more about the unit then their flash cards in front of them. Then the ultimate comment, sir you will probably have to send the unit in for repairs. I was like your kidding. Then the person said this is the best solution to fix your problems, then I said the only problems I have is with idiots like you and hung up. Wow I must have gotten a newbie tech.
How rude of you, what makes you so superior?

 

Yes tech's vary, but you could at least shown some respect. That poor guy/gal is just trying to make a living, doing the best they know how.

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Has any of you had problem when connecting GPS to PC with a SD card in the unit.

 

It seems to be a bug that makes the unit shut down when using USB and a SD Card installed.

 

Remove the card and all works ok.

When GPS is upp and running in USB mode you can insert the card without shutdown.

 

This was no problem with 2.51B and did come with 2.54B

 

I've heard about a similar problem prior to 2.54B. Several people along the way have said that certain SD cards when used in their unit caused an issue like this. I don't remember if they replaced the unit or the card to resolve the problem.

 

I have an 8GB SanDisk card in mine and haven't seen the issue before or after the upgrade.

 

Seems like there may have been a change in 2.54 that made things more sensitive during initialization based on your report and reports of failures when connecting to the computer.

 

GO$Rs

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Topo can now appear on a white background:-

 

1484yb9.png..134qq6.png

 

Fantasic Improvement

I would agree.

 

Is this a simple switch of DEM shading on/off?

 

Thanks for the A/B screenshots.

 

Shortcuts-Setup-Map-Options-Advanced-Turn ON/OFF Map Shading

Edited by strumble
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I found another issue: my upgrade didn't work immediately!

First power on after upgrade I was reading "Validation Update xx% Vollständig". After counting to 99 the normal screen came up very fast, but I still had SW 2.51 installed!

I shut down and powered on again, same thing : Validating...

 

I had to repeat the upgrade process and after "Validating..." I got "SOFTWARE LOADING". Now I have 2.54 also.

 

One good thing for users of the old TOPO Germany: The trails in the forests are now grey-white which is much more visible than the brown-green ones... at least something good happend ;-)

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Wow what a phone call with Garmin, I called in about the three issues so far so they can talk to their tech people and the stupid person on the phone wanted to walk me through resetting my unit and the whole thing. I told them I wasn't n00b and I probably knew more about the unit then their flash cards in front of them. Then the ultimate comment, sir you will probably have to send the unit in for repairs. I was like your kidding. Then the person said this is the best solution to fix your problems, then I said the only problems I have is with idiots like you and hung up. Wow I must have gotten a newbie tech.
How rude of you, what makes you so superior?

 

Yes tech's vary, but you could at least shown some respect. That poor guy/gal is just trying to make a living, doing the best they know how.

 

You can only show respect to a certain degree. I explained each error in detail on how it was reproduced and explained the issues were not there until I upgraded to 2.54. When I was done we went through the troubleshooting and I was like we really don't need to do this becuase I know the errors are in the firmware upgrade. Then the person insisted on treating me like I was 5 and never had a gps before and wanted me to return the thing to garmin. This is when I lost it.

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In case you are looking for it:

 

Setup->Map->Options->Advanced->Turn OFF Map Shading.

 

On the topos this not only has the effect of turning off DEM shading it also makes the background off-white instead of green. Much more readable in my opinion, I just hate losing the shading.

 

GO$Rs

 

This looks as it is a profile specific not global!!!

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I don't get any descriptions of the caches and when I try to navigate to them or to exit it shuts down my unit.

 

This was a known issue in the last official firmware release. Most people reported that Beta v2.51 fixed this for them, although I still had a problem occasionally with mine. If you delete all the GPX files off your unit, you will probably find that there are still geocaches listed. If you select any of them, you will still have the same symptoms as you see now. After doing this, you can reset your unit and re-load/re-configure everything. and it should all be fine.

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Wow what a phone call with Garmin, I called in about the three issues so far so they can talk to their tech people and the stupid person on the phone wanted to walk me through resetting my unit and the whole thing. I told them I wasn't n00b and I probably knew more about the unit then their flash cards in front of them. Then the ultimate comment, sir you will probably have to send the unit in for repairs. I was like your kidding. Then the person said this is the best solution to fix your problems, then I said the only problems I have is with idiots like you and hung up. Wow I must have gotten a newbie tech.
How rude of you, what makes you so superior?

 

Yes tech's vary, but you could at least shown some respect. That poor guy/gal is just trying to make a living, doing the best they know how.

 

You can only show respect to a certain degree. I explained each error in detail on how it was reproduced and explained the issues were not there until I upgraded to 2.54. When I was done we went through the troubleshooting and I was like we really don't need to do this becuase I know the errors are in the firmware upgrade. Then the person insisted on treating me like I was 5 and never had a gps before and wanted me to return the thing to garmin. This is when I lost it.

By your own admission, "I lost it"

 

I'll suggest the Rep was not disrespectful, only lacking training. They were in script mode. Imagine the depth and breath of the questions each much get every day.

 

May I suggest an alternative. Say, we're not getting anywhere, goodbye, and politely hang up. Now call in again and play Tech Roulette.

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By your own admission, "I lost it"

 

I'll suggest the Rep was not disrespectful, only lacking training. They were in script mode. Imagine the depth and breath of the questions each much get every day.

 

May I suggest an alternative. Say, we're not getting anywhere, goodbye, and politely hang up. Now call in again and play Tech Roulette.

MtnHermit :

 

Very 'sage', well put!

 

storm180 :

Feel blessed that you got an tech person w/english as a first language, not all are so fortunate.

Perhaps a few 'go 'rounds' w/ Magellan will 'temper' your 'temper'.

"If one wishes to see change in the world, one must 'BE' that change"

 

Norm

 

"" atribute : M Ghandi

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By your own admission, "I lost it"

 

I'll suggest the Rep was not disrespectful, only lacking training. They were in script mode. Imagine the depth and breath of the questions each much get every day.

 

May I suggest an alternative. Say, we're not getting anywhere, goodbye, and politely hang up. Now call in again and play Tech Roulette.

MtnHermit :

 

Very 'sage', well put!

 

storm180 :

Feel blessed that you got an tech person w/english as a first language, not all are so fortunate.

Perhaps a few 'go 'rounds' w/ Magellan will 'temper' your 'temper'.

"If one wishes to see change in the world, one must 'BE' that change"

 

Norm

 

"" atribute : M Ghandi

 

I own a 3 magellans thank you and I have dealt with them on the phone. THey don't understand me and I don't understand them. Life is good. As for garmin I didn't want to have a 2 sided conversation I wanted to report the problems and then get off the phone. Thats it. Short and sweet.

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Did a few caches today and one thing I noticed is that the compass is much better. The 400T handles the slower moving walking much better now in the compass mode.

 

Also the auto routing works much quicker as it re-calculates when you get off route.

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Can you really complain about being a beta tester for Garmin? They state right on the page that it is beta software. They also have in big red letters.

 

Although this software is believed to be reliable, it has not yet been released for production and should be used at your own risk.

 

I would like a stable software but this is progress towards that end.

 

You dang bet we can! At $500-$600, the product should be FINISHED. If there are any issues at all, they should be extremely minor, probably more a matter of opinion than fact. Garmin has really screwed up this time. If they want me to beta test their firmware, they can pay me to do it. We should ALL be standing our ground in this area. We pay ~$0.5 K and HOPE that they MIGHT decide to fix our problems sometime before the unit becomes obsolete?

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Did a few caches today and one thing I noticed is that the compass is much better. The 400T handles the slower moving walking much better now in the compass mode.

 

Also the auto routing works much quicker as it re-calculates when you get off route.

 

I agree. I went out caching after the upgrade yesterday for a few hours. The unit was extremely stable and the compass was very accurate and did not act jittery or funny at all as I approached caches. Before the upgrade I would often have to shut the unit off and then power back on to get an accurate reading because the distance would not be accurate and the compass was iratic. I was very pleased with how the unit acted.

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One minor annoyance: Garmin messed up the formatting of text in the "geocache_visits.txt" file by removing the cr-lf at the end of each line. Previously you could open this file and get a nice list that could be printed. Now you get a long run-on sentence. I imported the file into a spreadsheet using tab and comma delimiters and I get back to what was there before, but it's just the principle of things I'm bitc.... about. If it ain't broke, fix it 'till it is...

 

I was disappointed to not see some new features (like waypoint averaging). Maybe next time? Will we have to wait another 3 months for the next release?

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One minor annoyance: Garmin messed up the formatting of text in the "geocache_visits.txt" file by removing the cr-lf at the end of each line. Previously you could open this file and get a nice list that could be printed. Now you get a long run-on sentence.

...

Looks like it's in Unix file format. I was able to view it no problem with a vi clone, VIM, with no problem.

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One minor annoyance: Garmin messed up the formatting of text in the "geocache_visits.txt" file by removing the cr-lf at the end of each line. Previously you could open this file and get a nice list that could be printed. Now you get a long run-on sentence.

...

Looks like it's in Unix file format. I was able to view it no problem with a vi clone, VIM, with no problem.

 

Maybe they had to change the format for the addition of field notes that you are able to add now for each cache. I haven't had a chance to test it yet.

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Has any of you had problem when connecting GPS to PC with a SD card in the unit.

 

It seems to be a bug that makes the unit shut down when using USB and a SD Card installed.

 

Remove the card and all works ok.

When GPS is upp and running in USB mode you can insert the card without shutdown.

 

This was no problem with 2.51B and did come with 2.54B

 

2.54 wouldn't complete installation on my C300 until after I had removed the Sandisk 2G card.

 

Nice to see the installation progress bar in action.

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Gob-ler :

Does it still seem to take being roughly .25 mi. off course to

effect a re-calc.?

 

Norm

 

I did not make note of the distance before a re-calculation would take place, only that it happens quicker than it did previously. I will be out and about today so I will keep an eye on it.

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  • Improved backlight behavior
  • Corrected specified schema path for GPX files

What does Garmin mean with these features ;)

 

As for the first I can't see what they mean. I haven't got into a low battery situation with the new release, maybe there is something that they changed there?

 

The second has to do with a path that is put at the top of every gpx file (i.e. current.gpx) that indicates the format of that file. This was broken in the previous releases (i.e. it didn't point to a valid location) now it does.

 

The two that changed are:

 

http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/GpxExtens...xtensionsv3.xsd

http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrackPoin...Extensionv1.xsd

 

These paths were missing the version number prior to 2.54.

 

It's interesting that the last one still doesn't point to a valid schema, I wonder if Garmin is finally going to release the format of the CO track logs.

 

All of this matters because it tells application developers what the format of the file is and how to interpret it -- most gpx files have custom extensions and the Colorado is no exception. With this information they will have complete information on how to parse these files.

 

GO$Rs

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I upgraded to 2.54, I notice the following things using the unit yesterday.

 

The unit will shut down if auto-routing is running if you remove the 12 volt plugin. I switch to off road and it would prompt me with the turn off or stay on option if unplugged.

 

The Wherigo with the gps turned off, presented another testing option on locations. The left soft key says go. It would change your current position to that location. The go option only available with use with gps off on the satellite page.

 

Deleting waypoints from map, crashes on mine too.

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One minor annoyance: Garmin messed up the formatting of text in the "geocache_visits.txt" file by removing the cr-lf at the end of each line. Previously you could open this file and get a nice list that could be printed. Now you get a long run-on sentence.

...

Looks like it's in Unix file format. I was able to view it no problem with a vi clone, VIM, with no problem.

 

The file is in utf16 little endian format. If I want to open it in Kate (a KDE text editor), I have to specify this in the program's settings. Same thing with BBEdit on the Mac. I haven't tried it in Vi. I've found that if you edit the file using Windows Notepad or Apple's TextEdit, the website will not read the file.

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I've been looking at a couple of these to try and figure out what they mean:

 

* Corrected behavior of proximity alarms in custom points of interest

 

So far I haven't figured this out. I still can't get a proximity alarm on a custom POI although the CO seems to recognize that a POI has a proximity alarm distance. I see "Alert Information: xx ft" under the POI now.

 

* Corrected potential issues that prevented user alarm from sounding

 

This seems to refer to the fact that the alarm clock didn't go off when tones were disabled. The alarm goes off regardless of the tones setting now. Not quite as good as an independent setting like the 60csx but an improvement.

 

GO$Rs

[/quot

 

Perhaps this last item means they've actually fixed the clock where it keeps the right time for a change! ;)

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