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Here is a good contact at Garmin. He usually responds pretty quick and has been very helpful!

 

<email deleted>

 

Is it just me or posting the address like that is not cool? Hope your contact doesn't get tons of email. On the other hand, it's good of Garmin to be so accessible to users.

Edited by verdugan
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I noticed a few quirks today with my Oregon 400t:

1st, while in "GeoCaching" profile, when navigating to a cache, then switching to "off road", the arrow doesn't move AND the "Feet to Destination" shows "0" and never updates!

If I switch to "Automotive" profile and tell it to go to "offroad" it works FINE!

 

2nd, I was at another cache and switched to "off road" mode and the unit just shut off!

I started it back up again and tried it again with the same results. This happened 3 or 4 times!

 

3rd, I was in a client's office, in the basement with NO windows or doors (except the one that goes back upstairs!) and I turned my Oregon on and fot FULL SATELITES! And I KNOW it was for the right area because when it was on last, it was approx. 45 miles away! When the satelites locked on, it showed that I was in the right place! How'd it get satelite lock without ANY windows or openings to the sky???

:D

The Geocaching profile functionality seems a little buggy. After logging a find and choosing 'find next Geocache' (or whatever the menu item is called) I just get a blank screen. Perhaps the QA guys weren't cachers.

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The Geocaching profile functionality seems a little buggy. After logging a find and choosing 'find next Geocache' (or whatever the menu item is called) I just get a blank screen. Perhaps the QA guys weren't cachers.

 

I've found about 100 caches using the OR geocaching mode and haven't seen any issues. When you look under Geocaches do you see more geocaches? Maybe you only had one unfound cache loaded?

 

GO$Rs

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I may have found a new bug. I prepped for an out and back hike the other day, creating a route with some waypoints at anticipated trail junctions (locations taken from USGS quads).

 

In the field, as often happens, the trail junction locations weren't where I had them marked. I used Reposition Waypoint to change them to the correct location. So far, so good.

 

But the original route waypoints still showed on the map, along with the new ones with the same name. I should have looked in Waypoint Manager to see if both showed up there but I didn't think to.

 

On the return trip, the distance to next was calculated on the basis of the original waypoints. I don't remember this behavior on my 60CSX or other units.

 

When I got home, the repositioned waypoints were on the unit, but not the old ones.

 

Anyone care to try and replicate this?

 

Rich, I tried this today and I didn't see an issue but I realized one difference. I created the route and waypoints on the unit and I'm guessing you did it in Mapsource or a third party tool. After I created the routes and waypoints I walked to various locations and repositioned the waypoints. When I was done I reversed the route and followed it back. No problems observed, I never saw any duplicate waypoints or routes and as I repositioned the waypoints the route changed dynamically.

 

GO$Rs

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Rich, I tried this today and I didn't see an issue but I realized one difference. I created the route and waypoints on the unit and I'm guessing you did it in Mapsource or a third party tool. After I created the routes and waypoints I walked to various locations and repositioned the waypoints. When I was done I reversed the route and followed it back. No problems observed, I never saw any duplicate waypoints or routes and as I repositioned the waypoints the route changed dynamically.

 

You're right. I created the route in MapSource and transferred it to the Oregon.

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hiya all!

 

Could anyone of you Oregon users comment on compatibility with various

Mac software? I'm thinking RouteBuddy, TrailRunner etc. ? What will

the workflow be like on Mac, if I want to pick waypoints and/or design

a route on my computer and transfer that to Oregon?

 

How's Bobcat coming along? Does Garmin show any signs of activity on

OS X software front? (not exactly holding my breath here)

 

(Northern) Europeans: how do you like the basemap around your 'hood?

 

Contemplating Oregon purchase here, so your input is very much appreciated.

 

--bronx

Edited by br0nx
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I just got off the chat window from a GPS company that also likes frosted flakes. Here is what was said:

 

Me: Hello, I am wondering if there is a new ship/release date for the Garmin Oregon 300? Thanks in advance!

 

Dude: release date is 11/03/08

 

Me: As in November, no longer in the beginning of August like the description states?

Brandon: that is correct

 

Dude: If you were to purchase now your wait time would extend into November

 

Me: Is that because you guys have a crazy back order on them, but the unit will be released by Garmin before hand. As is people who ordered them in July may get them in a couple of weeks or no one will get them until November? I hear there are some people in Europe who have them in hand already.

 

Dude: nope, this is across the board, Garmin has been having trouble filling orders so now they do it in batches, those who purchase in jury and onward will be on the list for Nov. batches

 

Thanks brings me to my next Question:

There is some one selling the Oregon 400T for ~$520 on Amazon ("This Item Ships same Day!! Brand New Full Factory Warranty") is that deal to good to be true?

 

I decided to gamble and go for the OR 400T for $20 more. I got my OR on Friday and am quite happy with it. I spent all Saturday country caching (60% PNG and the rest were short hikes in the woods). Out of the 26 caches, I only busted out the 60csx twice, but it didn't help in either case, one I DNFed one and the other was just evil. In both of those cases the OR and 60csx were telling almost the same story, they were only off my a couple of feet. There were a couple of caches I found that the OR said was still about 40 feet away and one it said was 50 feet away. There were a few caches that the OR took me on top of.

 

I did notice, if I did not hold the OR in proper way (like lying flat in the hand as one would do to see where it is pointing you) it would start drifting off like mad. That might have something to do with the patch antenna.

 

I did not see any "D"s with WAAS mode turned on, but I only checked twice.

 

I used an alkaline battery (Duracell Ultra) and only had battery life go down by one bar after the unit being on during my day of caching.

 

The only other thing I noted was a random shut off once the first night when I selected to see the accuracy page from the main menu. It has not done that again since then.

 

I like the OR and I LOVE the field notes! Now, I just with the nearest Wherigo cache was not a 3.5 hour drive away.

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Hey,

 

Can anyone else reproduce a crash on their Oregon by following these steps:

  1. Go to "Where To?"
  2. Go to "Geographic Points" (or "All POI" or I think any area that lets you spell out a name)
  3. Click the "A B C" to spell a name
  4. Spell a place that will take some time to complete the search for all instances (e.g. "Dallas")
  5. While the unit is still searching for all instances, click on one of the already listed locations
  6. On the map screen, select the top location bar to get to the coordinates, etc; does your unit crash where you have to pull the batteries to recover?

I get a crash at Step #6 if the Oregon was still busily searching for a list of locations that matched my query string. If I wait until the Oregon has stopped searching, then I don't seem to get a crash.

 

Regards

J

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Hey,

 

Can anyone else reproduce a crash on their Oregon by following these steps:

  1. Go to "Where To?"
  2. Go to "Geographic Points" (or "All POI" or I think any area that lets you spell out a name)
  3. Click the "A B C" to spell a name
  4. Spell a place that will take some time to complete the search for all instances (e.g. "Dallas")
  5. While the unit is still searching for all instances, click on one of the already listed locations
  6. On the map screen, select the top location bar to get to the coordinates, etc; does your unit crash where you have to pull the batteries to recover?

I get a crash at Step #6 if the Oregon was still busily searching for a list of locations that matched my query string. If I wait until the Oregon has stopped searching, then I don't seem to get a crash.

 

Regards

J

 

My memory is a little foggy but this either still is or was an issue with the Colorado so it would make sense that the OR would have the same problem. I think the CO fixed this in 2.6 but I'll double check on both units.

 

GO$Rs

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Both the OR (2.2) and CO (2.6) still have this issue:

 

From the CO Issues List:

 

7/5/08: Search for a Geographic POI by selecting WhereTo?->Geographic Points->Options->Spell... Spell out the name of a POI until a narrowed list is visible and hit "Done". Note that this does not stop the search process immediately as the hourglass is still spinning, however a POI can be selected from the list. If a POI is selected from the list the unit will appear to freeze for a period of 1-2 minutes. If a POI is not selected the hourglass will spin for about the same period of time. (2.6) [POI]

 

Note that the unit is not actually frozen, if you wait a minute or two it will get out of this state. The OR behaves exactly the same way if you select the POI and hit the button atop the map page that gives the POI details.

 

GO$Rs

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First let me say i'm new to geocaching and gps's. Only in the sense of civilian. My military gps and mapping skills are pretty old and rusty so they probably don't even count :-)

 

I was introduced to geotracking by a co-worked (thanks! :0) and after hearing of how to get the data for caches into the unit it came down to. Hey...I want plug and play. I don't like converting this, transfer there, do this do that, then get it into your system (or carry yet another device)

 

so that pretty much sealed it for me....Checked out the nuvi, eh...they aren't ready yet for car to trail, just not advanced enough. Give it time few years, who knows.

 

Colorado...lol...after reading all the problems here? nope...i'll pass.

 

Hmm...that left me with the tried and true i head people discussing the 60's and 70's. but then that defeats my plug and play now doesn't it. So that left me to the Oregon and of course might as well go to the 400T when you look at the options and costs.

 

So here are my first impressions.

 

Use: extremely easy, intuitive controls, with a few key presses you can figure out what you don't know.

 

Geocaching info: wow...plug it in, download the GPX or build the query (pay users) and have it send you the entire list, grab the larger file drop it on your device folder under GPX and your done. Counts are easy to setup. It's just 'easy' I think there's even an 'easy button' built in somewhere. :-)

 

Accuracy - well this is very important, but in my search for the device for me someone said give 10 people the same device no matter how good they'll all end up standing in different spots. So it seems to me 30ft is the basis. Too many variables are there, who placed the cache, how accurate were they, weather, your skills, reception that day, etc.

So i look at my house on the map, hmmm looks like it has me positioned 1 street over. Wow...that's a long way off. Not sure why, maybe the map is not accurate, who knows)

Ok well what about caches. We'll several population type caches i've been within a few feet of, if not right on top of it.

 

So the real test began this weekend.

Went out to a local park going for 4 multi caches, none are easy and it's alot of main trails with unmarked trails and then the make your own trail (i like to follow the compass personally...shortest distance (sometimes)) :-) more on this later.

So i hit my caches. 1st one I'm off by 8 ft of where it ended up being at. It was a hard find and i made so many b tracks it's just one big black blotch on that area :-)

Next cache, pretty easy, put me within 16 ft of it.

3rd cache - 3 legs, part 1 was within 22 ft, part two ironicly said 1ft, i was about to give up, mumbled under my breath about what the heck there's nothing here and looked up. wham...1 ft in front of me a tag on a tree (wow...) 3rd leg, put me 9 ft off.

onto my 4th cache - very tricky cache, i went compass route crossing the trails, was in heavy brush, dense coverage, no issues. Right to all my points each time being within about 20 ft of the actual location of the object.

So back to my 1st cache...took me awhile and i finally found it after getting the other 3 caches done. This one took me all over the place, places i'd already been. luckily I zoomed out and avoided my 'like to go by compass' otherwise i would have been crossing the river in two places. Having zoomed out it was a little more of a walk but it put my back on nice trails without having to go chest deep through the river :-) and...untamed areas :-0

 

My tracks where i know i walked paths overlay each other perfectly even on zoom, i was able to pinpoint my way back to a spot by tracking back following these tracks, dropped the unit once about 10 foot down to the river, thank god it hit only the rocks and stayed on a rock :-) picked it up and i saw what looked like the screen had been burned in like when you leave a tv on a still picture too long. All i had to do was recycle the power, that's the only impact of the drop and it hit gravel screen first. no damage anywhere. Durability A+

 

Wet sweaty hands and sweat dripping all into the touchpad, no problems, still worked was able to nav through the screens. the brightness. well if your used to the 60 i suppose it is a big difference, but i didn't see it being of any problem at all in the canopy or in the wide open with sun above me.

 

Now it's weird but my GPS accuracy was always showing 32-36 ft. Garmin told me to reset it (hold upper left while powering on) then leave out for 20 minutes. So i did that leaving gps at normal 20 minutes, no change, reset again changing it immeadiately to WAAS, 20 minutes later down to 28ft.

Garmin seems to think it should show somethign like 8-15 ft. I haven't seen that yet. Tried both of the same resets above again but leaving it out for 1 hour each time. down to about 22-24ft accuracy now. Weird i have 10 sats and most all are D. anyhow about 4 hours of battery use on saturday and from 9am - 6pm over 15.6 miles of walking and my batteries died probably about 4pm. Not too shabby considering i maxed out the detail and brightness. Kept it on the entire time.

 

So my review is it's a go it's easy to use/learn, tracks and downloads your geocaches very easily for you, excellent battery life for a device, heavy duty design, took a nice beating and came out like new still, put me within the 30ft envelope consistently even in some places where it was almost dark due to overhead cover and most of the time it put me pretty spot on.

 

I like it...my only bug is if garmin thinks it should show 8-15 ft do i have a dude (my weekend adventure doesn't point to it) and then why does it show me living on another street (bad topo map?) it's definately like 200ft away so it's nothing to do with the gps accuracy number.

 

i'll update you on any other caches i do, i'm trying to keep logs and will try to get more detailed in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rich Owings (GPSTracklog) has posted a very good review of the Oregon 400t today.

 

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

 

I have to say, it's very helpful to have you doing so much early testing, giving me a place to check against and refer people to. I know there are a lot of other people here who are very appreciative as well. Keep up the good work.

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Maybe this has been mentioned and I just missed it...

 

To calibrate the compass from the compass screen, simply press and hold the compass for a few seconds.

 

Thanks to Miraslav for posting a comment about this on my review today.

 

EDITED to clarify that you press the compass.

 

Cool I haven't seen that one yet. I only wish that press and hold on the compass once turned on would disable the compass.

 

Too bad you couldn't do the same thing with the altimeter.

 

GO$Rs

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I noticed tonight that Garmin has changed the settings for the Compass auto mode to something more reasonable (as compared to the CO). It looks like the compass turns on/off around 1-2mph which means if you are moving it is probably off -- the settings work much better than the defaults on the Colorado which are way too high (~10mph).

 

I almost considered leaving it on after using it tonight but the hold level warning on the map page (or some sort of compass on indicator) is still missing.

 

GO$Rs

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funny, but the garmin site does not list the city nav or nt version as being compatible with the Oregon, it's not even listed. I do see a message that says something about not being compatabile with my preloaded device. is that generic i don't know.

 

...why does it show me living on another street (bad topo map?) ...

 

All garmin (others also) topo maps have the streets off depending on your area. If you want accurate street maps you need to get city navigator.

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I just got my Colorado 400t about six months ago. And it seems like it still has quiat a few bugs. So with the Oregon 400T coming out. Does that mean Garmin will stop fixing the bugs and updating the Colorado 400T? :D

 

No, According to Garmin, there are 2 different design teams working on the Colorado and the Oregon (which would explain why the GeoCaching screen looks different).

 

They even still update firmware for the 60CSx!

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Rich, I tried this today and I didn't see an issue but I realized one difference. I created the route and waypoints on the unit and I'm guessing you did it in Mapsource or a third party tool. After I created the routes and waypoints I walked to various locations and repositioned the waypoints. When I was done I reversed the route and followed it back. No problems observed, I never saw any duplicate waypoints or routes and as I repositioned the waypoints the route changed dynamically.

 

You're right. I created the route in MapSource and transferred it to the Oregon.

 

I was able to reproduce this situation today. I haven't figured it all out yet but my guess is the OR (and probably the CO) understand the concept of routepoints. If a route built along a set of waypoints gets imported via Mapsource the OR builds the route along routepoints which have the same name as the waypoints that were used. When the waypoints are repositioned on the unit the routepoints with the same name don't move. You can see this by going into the route planner and selecting one of the routepoints after the waypoint with the same name has been moved. You'll see that the routepoint is still at the original location. These points don't show up in the waypoint manager. Furthermore when you open up current.gpx the route has rtepts with the same name as the repositioned waypoints -- Mapsource seems to do some renaming (adding a "1" to the end of the routepoints) when you import. Hovering over one of the points that hasn't been repositioned reveals two points at the same location, a waypoint called "Way1" and the other, a "map point", called "Way11".

 

I'm not sure I like this feature -- I think it should work like the routes created on the unit, when the waypoints are moved the route that use the waypoints should move with it. I'm guessing Garmin has to do this because they can probably import a route from Mapsource without the corresponding waypoints so they need something to base the route on w/o creating waypoints, hence the routepoint.

 

GO$Rs

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Yeah I've noticed some of the streets in my Oregon 400T are off also, very disappointing for a $600 device.

 

I received an email back from garmin today stating

 

"I talked to another supervisor about this. Evidently, this has happened on a few other Oregons too. There should be an update available soon to take care of this issue."

 

my next question was 'when to expect this next update' and their response

 

"I actually don’t know. With the brand new units, we usually see quite a few updates within the first few months."

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I wonder when Garmin is going to release a new update for the Oregon?

 

Another thing I wish they would add/fix:

When routing somewhere, I wish it would ask if you want to route using "Quicker Time", "Shorter Distance" or "Off Road" like the 60CSx did/does.

 

The OR does have these features they are just implemented differently. Under Setup>Routing>Guidance method you can select one of the above, which will determine your routing method. In addition if you are routing on road or off road you can toggle the mode by going to WhereTo?>Recalculate Off Road (or On Road).

 

Now that they've added the toggle feature (not currently implemented on the CO) it is as good as the 60csx I think.

 

GO$Rs

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Yeah I've noticed some of the streets in my Oregon 400T are off also, very disappointing for a $600 device.

 

I received an email back from garmin today stating

 

"I talked to another supervisor about this. Evidently, this has happened on a few other Oregons too. There should be an update available soon to take care of this issue."

 

my next question was 'when to expect this next update' and their response

 

"I actually don’t know. With the brand new units, we usually see quite a few updates within the first few months."

 

The issue is with the maps not the device. There are several lengthy threads around here that discuss the inaccuracy of road data in Topo2008, regardless of the GPS you using to view the maps. Garmin's standard response is usually, "Go buy City Navigator if you want accurate road data". I know in my area many of the roads are off by about 300' and this is true whether I use the 60csx, 60cs, Colorado or Oregon.

 

GO$Rs

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One of the things that is driving me crazy on the OR (and to a lesser extent on the CO) is the amount of time it takes the unit archive the current tracklog when it is plugged into the computer. I never manually delete the track, I just let it auto archive but I'm seeing this process take 2-4 minutes on the OR, the CO seems to be generally faster but I'm guessing it still takes 1-2 minutes depending on how full the tracklog is.

 

Anyone else seeing connection times like these on their OR assuming you don't delete your tracklogs (this does make it much faster).

 

GO$Rs

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Tried a Wherigo today, it kept crashing and turning off at the first zone. Tried a hard reset but kept getting the same shut down at the same point. The demo Wherigo worked fine. Anyone else have trouble with Wherigo, or might it be the cartridge? Ideas?

 

We did a long Wherigo cartridge with it a week or so ago, and no crashes, it must be the cartridge.

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Tried a Wherigo today, it kept crashing and turning off at the first zone. Tried a hard reset but kept getting the same shut down at the same point. The demo Wherigo worked fine. Anyone else have trouble with Wherigo, or might it be the cartridge? Ideas?

 

We did a long Wherigo cartridge with it a week or so ago, and no crashes, it must be the cartridge.

 

The builder tested it and uses a PDA to do the Wherigo caches. Is the software that different where it could make the garmin CO and OR crash but not the PDA? I use a Mac, so I have not checked out the builder yet, so I have no idea.

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Does the Oregon have a Track Back feature? Like my old GPSmap 76. I really miss it in my Colorado.

 

It has a track manager which allows you to reverse a track which you can then use as a navigation destination. It works pretty well: distance to next is your distance remaining along the track, the pointer will guide you along the track and distance off course will tell you how far you are away from the track.

 

In 2.6 the CO added trackback support for the current tracklog which probably works in a similar way although I haven't played with it very much.

 

GO$Rs

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Maybe this has been mentioned and I just missed it...

 

To calibrate the compass from the compass screen, simply press and hold the compass for a few seconds.

 

Thanks to Miraslav for posting a comment about this on my review today.

 

EDITED to clarify that you press the compass.

 

After reading the above post I went looking for any hidden shortcuts Garmin might have put in and while I didn't find anything really exciting I did find out a couple of things. One, when your on the Backlight/Lock page down at the bottom is the time, press it once and the date shows up. Two, when your on the Geocache Description page and you've scrolled all the way to the bottom ( some description and logs are quite lengthy ) hit the on button once to bring up the Backlight/lock page and hit it again and you will return to the top on the Geocache Description page with out all that scrolling with your finger.

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Has anyone found an upper limit on the maximum number of tracks that you can add to the unit? Garmin says 20 (same limit on other units), but I've added more than 40 without an apparent problem.

 

I haven't tried adding more than 50 routes, but I guess I will try just to see.

 

Regards

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Has anyone found an upper limit on the maximum number of tracks that you can add to the unit? Garmin says 20 (same limit on other units), but I've added more than 40 without an apparent problem.

 

I haven't tried adding more than 50 routes, but I guess I will try just to see.

 

Regards

 

Not on the OR but on the CO (which is similar) I ran a test where I loaded 180 tracks and they all seemed to show up. It's pretty large whatever the limit is.

 

GO$Rs

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I like my new Oregon very much, but twice now I've hit goto for a waypoint I've entered by hand and the distance shown on the compass screen was off by about a mile. When I hit "stop navigation" and then hit goto again to the same waypoint, the compass screen showed the correct distance to the waypoint. Anyone else experience this?

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So, I turned 40 a few months ago and never could find a "big" present ... husband got a fancy $600 multimeter for his 40th.

 

I checked out the Garmin site a while back and saw the Colorado and LOVED the concept. I called Garmin to ask about the mapping software and what will fit my needs and the guy I talked to said the Colorado is neat, but the Oregon is awesome.

 

Some background: I got an eTrex Legend (the basic kind) four years ago. I discovered geocaching and have done "some" ... mainly when we travel. I use MetroGuide v7. I would love to use a handheld with in-unit routing.

 

I use my Legend about 75% as a road navigator (not the best, I know) and 25% for geocaching. I don't want a nuvi (in-laws have one) because I can't use it as well for geocaching. Normally I navigate and hubby drives ... cuts down on arguing. :)

 

So, I announced I wanted an Oregon 400t and the CityNavigator NA.

 

THEN I started to wonder if the touch screen would work with gloves and if it would "lock" if the unit was in my pocket. I found this forum and now I'm re-thinking.

 

As far as accuracy ... I know my Legend will sometimes have an accuracy down to 7-8 ft ...now I'm in Kansas, no mountains, no trees. But, 30ft on the Oregon????

 

Then there's the WAAS stuff and the brightness of the screen ....

 

I'm thinking that it will be such an upgrade for me that most stuff won't matter....

 

So, should I jump in, considering I'm way amateur compared to you guys?

 

Thanks!

 

Susie in Olathe (yes, THAT Olathe :) )

Edited by catluvr
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So, I turned 40 a few months ago and never could find a "big" present ... husband got a fancy $600 multimeter for his 40th.

 

I checked out the Garmin site a while back and saw the Colorado and LOVED the concept. I called Garmin to ask about the mapping software and what will fit my needs and the guy I talked to said the Colorado is neat, but the Oregon is awesome.

 

Some background: I got an eTrex Legend (the basic kind) four years ago. I discovered geocaching and have done "some" ... mainly when we travel. I use MetroGuide v7. I would love to use a handheld with in-unit routing.

 

I use my Legend about 75% as a road navigator (not the best, I know) and 25% for geocaching. I don't want a nuvi (in-laws have one) because I can't use it as well for geocaching. Normally I navigate and hubby drives ... cuts down on arguing. :)

 

So, I announced I wanted an Oregon 400t and the CityNavigator NA.

 

THEN I started to wonder if the touch screen would work with gloves and if it would "lock" if the unit was in my pocket. I found this forum and now I'm re-thinking.

 

As far as accuracy ... I know my Legend will sometimes have an accuracy down to 7-8 ft ...now I'm in Kansas, no mountains, no trees. But, 30ft on the Oregon????

 

Then there's the WAAS stuff and the brightness of the screen ....

 

I'm thinking that it will be such an upgrade for me that most stuff won't matter....

 

So, should I jump in, considering I'm way amateur compared to you guys?

 

Thanks!

 

Susie in Olathe (yes, THAT Olathe :) )

 

Absolutely! I've used the Colorado (I have the Colorado 300) and I have the Oregon 400t with Nav2009 NT installed. To me, the Oregon wins HANDS DOWN! I get MUCH better than 30 feet! I have found quite a few Geocaches with it and have routed to many locations without issue! I also have a StreetPilot 2820 on my dash for routing to my client's offices and general travel. If I had the Oregon, I never would've bought the StreetPilot 2820! The touch screen is AWESOME!

 

Jim a.k.a BetaMan

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One of the things that is driving me crazy on the OR (and to a lesser extent on the CO) is the amount of time it takes the unit archive the current tracklog when it is plugged into the computer. I never manually delete the track, I just let it auto archive but I'm seeing this process take 2-4 minutes on the OR, the CO seems to be generally faster but I'm guessing it still takes 1-2 minutes depending on how full the tracklog is.

 

Anyone else seeing connection times like these on their OR assuming you don't delete your tracklogs (this does make it much faster).

 

GO$Rs

 

Yep! I noticed this too! My Colorado didn't seem to have this issue (maybe it did and I just didn't pay attention because it didn't take too long)

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I wonder when Garmin is going to release a new update for the Oregon?

 

Another thing I wish they would add/fix:

When routing somewhere, I wish it would ask if you want to route using "Quicker Time", "Shorter Distance" or "Off Road" like the 60CSx did/does.

 

The OR does have these features they are just implemented differently. Under Setup>Routing>Guidance method you can select one of the above, which will determine your routing method. In addition if you are routing on road or off road you can toggle the mode by going to WhereTo?>Recalculate Off Road (or On Road).

 

Now that they've added the toggle feature (not currently implemented on the CO) it is as good as the 60csx I think.

 

GO$Rs

 

Yes, I've seen this setting, but you have to go to the main menu and run setup and go through several screens to change between "Route for Time" and "Route for Distance". So much easier on the 60CSx to switch between on the fly.

 

At least you can switch to "Off Road" quick. The Colorado doesn't do that.

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Well, we had a Colorado since March, bought from REI, we had asked at the Garmin event whether touch screen handhelds were in the near future, the answer was no. :)

 

When we heard about the Oregon, the Colorado went back in the box and was returned. The Oregon is sweet! The touchscreen is so much nicer then the rocker roller (IMO), the menu's are nice, and I like that you can personalize each menu the way you like it (in profiles). Our accuracy hasn't been a problem yet, but we've only went for a couple caches with it.

 

Oh and at REI the Co and Or are both the same exact price.

 

when i bought the colorado a couple months ago, after reading on here

the fits and starts people were having with them, and the spotty quality,

i bought from REI after assurances that if i didn't like it, i could return it,

no questions asked, no time limit, within reason, whatever that means.

 

6 weeks later, the oregon is released. hmm. well, they did say....

back in the box it went, back i went, and REI didn't blink an eye,

it took 2 days for the refund to be credited to my account. the oregon

seems to work pretty well in it's place.

 

something unrelated to the Oregon, but related to consumer electronics

purchased on the web, is the proliferation of "brooklyn camera scams"

in the discount camera category, and many of these stores sell

all manner of electronics.

 

for an eyeful, google "brooklyn camera scams" or "brooklyn camera scam

photos" and see what's on the other end of some of those web sites....

none of the gps vendors whose names i've seen here fall in this category,

but most of these "brooklyn scams" can be found on the comparison

shopping web sites....

 

as the saying goes, let the buyer beware.....

 

FulThrotl

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Tried a Wherigo today, it kept crashing and turning off at the first zone. Tried a hard reset but kept getting the same shut down at the same point. The demo Wherigo worked fine. Anyone else have trouble with Wherigo, or might it be the cartridge? Ideas?

 

We did a long Wherigo cartridge with it a week or so ago, and no crashes, it must be the cartridge.

 

The builder tested it and uses a PDA to do the Wherigo caches. Is the software that different where it could make the garmin CO and OR crash but not the PDA? I use a Mac, so I have not checked out the builder yet, so I have no idea.

Yes, the engine is that different. I can't speak to the Oregon, but there are a number of things that can cause a particular cartridge to crash on the Colorado -- even though it plays fine on a pocket PC or on the emulator which is part of the cartridge builder. Unfortunately, a cartridge crash on the Colorado frequently takes the unit down with it.

 

Also, bug fixes don't get distributed to the Garmin hardware until Garmin feels like distributing a firmware upgrade. Bugs in the PPC version are fixed promptly and immediately available for general download.

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So, I turned 40 a few months ago and never could find a "big" present ... husband got a fancy $600 multimeter for his 40th.

 

I checked out the Garmin site a while back and saw the Colorado and LOVED the concept. I called Garmin to ask about the mapping software and what will fit my needs and the guy I talked to said the Colorado is neat, but the Oregon is awesome.

 

Some background: I got an eTrex Legend (the basic kind) four years ago. I discovered geocaching and have done "some" ... mainly when we travel. I use MetroGuide v7. I would love to use a handheld with in-unit routing.

 

I use my Legend about 75% as a road navigator (not the best, I know) and 25% for geocaching. I don't want a nuvi (in-laws have one) because I can't use it as well for geocaching. Normally I navigate and hubby drives ... cuts down on arguing. ;)

 

So, I announced I wanted an Oregon 400t and the CityNavigator NA.

 

THEN I started to wonder if the touch screen would work with gloves and if it would "lock" if the unit was in my pocket. I found this forum and now I'm re-thinking.

 

As far as accuracy ... I know my Legend will sometimes have an accuracy down to 7-8 ft ...now I'm in Kansas, no mountains, no trees. But, 30ft on the Oregon????

 

Then there's the WAAS stuff and the brightness of the screen ....

 

I'm thinking that it will be such an upgrade for me that most stuff won't matter....

 

So, should I jump in, considering I'm way amateur compared to you guys?

 

Thanks!

 

Susie in Olathe (yes, THAT Olathe :P )

 

Go for the Oregon, definately, you won't regret it. You mentioned the 30ft. Keep in mind this is just what's showing on the 'gps accuracy' screen, i've seen mine get in the low 20's, but i really think it might be some type of bug in the firmware as i've been pretty spot on with majority of my caches (under 10 ft) Besides i think everyone agrees due to all the variances there are you pretty much have a 30ft search radius for cache no matter what gps you use. (unless you have the military version AND the person setting the cache had the military version) which we don't. so 30ft is good.

 

Go get the Ore' you won't regret it, especially when it comes to grabbing a list of caches and the info all on a single unit! (thus you can save your blackberry charge for better things like phoning 911 when you mess up really bad in the woods but still have cell signal)

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