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Garmin Colorado BETA update 2.92.


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Changes made from version 2.90 to 2.92:

  • Report problems with beta software to ColoradoBeta@garmin.com
  • Added customizable text to unit power-on screen (see \Garmin\startup.txt)
  • Improved power on reliability
  • Improved connection reliability with Spanner
  • Improved appearance of depth data field when using big numbers
  • Fixed some scan points not working properly with Garmin GB Discoverer maps
  • Fixed issue with Garmin GB Discover maps not showing at some zoom levels with detail set to least
  • Fixed errors in user grid entry
  • Fixed the time label of the graph in Elevation Plot
  • Fixed selection of Leap Day on Calendar, Hunt & Fish and Sun & Moon pages

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Is this now confirmation that Garmin has given up on the Colorado? So now we have BETA 2.92,would that mean we are going to see 2.93,2.94,2.95,etc,before we get the final release 3.0 like the Oregon?

 

Added customizable text to unit power-on screen (see \Garmin\startup.txt)

Simply connect the Colorado to your computer and find the text file called "startup " You can change how long you want it to display by changing the 0 seconds to whatever rocks your boat. The message you want to display is simply typed in underneath the last line. Works great.

Edited by flyjazz
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Can you post the content of the file.

 

I added the startup.txt file before I did the upgrade, and it only has what I added to the file. It does not show on boot.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

<!-- Edit this file to display a message while your unit is powering on -->

<!-- Allow one full power cycle after editing for your message to be updated -->

 

<!-- Set the display number to the minimum number of seconds your message is displayed -->

<display = 6>

 

<!-- Type your message on the next line -->

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It does not show until the second or third boot.

Edited by baloo&bd
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On the Oregon it's on the top in the dark screen while booting, then it disappears.

In my view, totally useless.

Its the same on the Colorado. Also it is restricted to four lines!

My CO 300 is showing the 5 lines I typed in, and I have it set to display for 30 sec. This is a nice little feature, but what I see that is encouraging is what Tequila said, "Glad to see Garmin has not forgotten the CO."

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This doesn't seem to be much of an update. If the startup screen is as invisible as people are saying, then it may not be worth it. It also takes long enough to boot, I don't want to slow it down any more (or does the startup screen not really add any time to the boot time unless you put a big number in). The power up stability sounds good, but generally don't have a problem with mine (won't say never though).

 

I do like my Colorado though. Just a few bugs in it still. My biggest issue being when I get out of the car it seems to take it a while to move into walking mode and get out of car mode. I really like the paperless part of it. And it seems to be pretty accurate once it settles down.

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Depending on what is addressed by the power up fix, it may be very good news, mine is starting to take fitss, shutting down, refusing torestart for several cycles, it is to the point where i can't trust it to get me from point A to point B.

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This doesn't seem to be much of an update. If the startup screen is as invisible as people are saying, then it may not be worth it. It also takes long enough to boot, I don't want to slow it down any more (or does the startup screen not really add any time to the boot time unless you put a big number in).

 

It is displayed on top of the normal loading screen when it shows the map copywrite etc, so it does not add any additional loading time.

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Too bad mine is on route to Garmin to be fixed... maybe this firmware version couldve saved it with the booting problem...

I have had problems where the Colorado would lock up while booting, hopefully it is fixed now.

I dont see anything about improving accuracy, does it mean that the Colorado is as good as it can get as far accuracy is concerned?

What kind of errors were there in the User grid entry? (what is User grid entry anyway?)

 

Very thin list but its something. Lets give some kudos to Garmin to not forget us Colorado users.

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Too bad mine is on route to Garmin to be fixed... maybe this firmware version couldve saved it with the booting problem...

I have had problems where the Colorado would lock up while booting, hopefully it is fixed now.

I dont see anything about improving accuracy, does it mean that the Colorado is as good as it can get as far accuracy is concerned?

What kind of errors were there in the User grid entry? (what is User grid entry anyway?)

 

Very thin list but its something. Lets give some kudos to Garmin to not forget us Colorado users.

For a unit that has been out for over two years it still has problems that are unacceptable. I have had five 400t's and my latest one just crapped out. Only 20 minutes of battery life to the red line. Can't adjust the elevation. It just tells me to read the manual, which by the way says nothing. I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

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Dang! I'm on a Mac and can't run the update. Of course it's not released on the Garmin Webupdater either. So much for supporting this platform, like they stated a couple of summers ago. If I could type in text on my CO it would say: "If found call ......." lol

You can update with the Mac.

I have an Oregon, but it should work the same with the Colorado.

Download The Unarchiver, drop the "Colorado_292Beta.exe" on it, when it's extracted look for the file "GUPDATE.GCD", and copy it to the Garmin folder on your Colorado (not the SD card).

Now eject the Colorado, turn it off and on again and it should install the update.

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Too bad mine is on route to Garmin to be fixed... maybe this firmware version couldve saved it with the booting problem...

I have had problems where the Colorado would lock up while booting, hopefully it is fixed now.

I dont see anything about improving accuracy, does it mean that the Colorado is as good as it can get as far accuracy is concerned?

What kind of errors were there in the User grid entry? (what is User grid entry anyway?)

 

Very thin list but its something. Lets give some kudos to Garmin to not forget us Colorado users.

For a unit that has been out for over two years it still has problems that are unacceptable. I have had five 400t's and my latest one just crapped out. Only 20 minutes of battery life to the red line. Can't adjust the elevation. It just tells me to read the manual, which by the way says nothing. I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

 

Had mine for over a year. Never had a problem. I must be the exception or am I just lucky?

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Too bad mine is on route to Garmin to be fixed... maybe this firmware version couldve saved it with the booting problem...

I have had problems where the Colorado would lock up while booting, hopefully it is fixed now.

I dont see anything about improving accuracy, does it mean that the Colorado is as good as it can get as far accuracy is concerned?

What kind of errors were there in the User grid entry? (what is User grid entry anyway?)

 

Very thin list but its something. Lets give some kudos to Garmin to not forget us Colorado users.

For a unit that has been out for over two years it still has problems that are unacceptable. I have had five 400t's and my latest one just crapped out. Only 20 minutes of battery life to the red line. Can't adjust the elevation. It just tells me to read the manual, which by the way says nothing. I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

 

Make that two. Never had a lick of trouble from the unit. Use it for hiking, driving, flying and caching.

 

Has a couple of "wants" but the unit performs flawlessly

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Mine too has worked without any problem for more than one year.

 

In response to the startup.txt and Norwegian character, Garmin did answer this:

 

The Colorado assumes the file is saved in UTF-8 encoding. If you are using Notepad in Windows to edit the startup.txt, make sure to set the Encoding to UTF-8 in the Save As dialogue.

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For a unit that has been out for over two years it still has problems that are unacceptable.
Only 18 months, they started shipping Jan 2008.

 

I have had five 400t's and my latest one just crapped out. Only 20 minutes of battery life to the red line. Can't adjust the elevation. It just tells me to read the manual, which by the way says nothing. I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

I'm one, sorry you've been so disappointed. I entered the Matrix at v2.90 last December, except for an occasional boot lock with a 1GB SD (never had a boot lock with the 4GB SDHC) I've never had a problem. I own 2 other Garmin's, the CO 300 is my go to GPS. Took it on a 3-day backpack last month with no paper maps, flawless!!! My batteries lasted 2 of the three days, then inserted the spares for the last day.

 

Sure I'd like some missing features, but for it's primary purpose as a map reader/position me on the map . . . awesome!!!

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...I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

Ok, I guess I'll step to the plate here. My CO 300 is extremely dependable. The accuracy is comparable to my trusty 60Cx. I do not experience any wandering tracklogs. None. I change profiles to go from autonav to caching smoothly and quickly. I've learned how to manage the terrain shading to optimize screen viewing in varying conditions. I dragged it behind my kayak on its tether thru rapids (not planned) and it is waterproof. And lastly, my 60Cx has been relegated to backup status in my geopack because my 300 has gained my complete confidence. Do I wish it had some added features that the OR has? Yes, of course.

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Dang! I'm on a Mac and can't run the update. Of course it's not released on the Garmin Webupdater either. So much for supporting this platform, like they stated a couple of summers ago. If I could type in text on my CO it would say: "If found call ......." lol

You can update with the Mac.

I have an Oregon, but it should work the same with the Colorado.

Download The Unarchiver, drop the "Colorado_292Beta.exe" on it, when it's extracted look for the file "GUPDATE.GCD", and copy it to the Garmin folder on your Colorado (not the SD card).

Now eject the Colorado, turn it off and on again and it should install the update.

 

Awesome. I had that program already and your directions were perfect. Thanks for the help!

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...I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

Ok, I guess I'll step to the plate here. My CO 300 is extremely dependable. The accuracy is comparable to my trusty 60Cx. I do not experience any wandering tracklogs. None. I change profiles to go from autonav to caching smoothly and quickly. I've learned how to manage the terrain shading to optimize screen viewing in varying conditions. I dragged it behind my kayak on its tether thru rapids (not planned) and it is waterproof. And lastly, my 60Cx has been relegated to backup status in my geopack because my 300 has gained my complete confidence. Do I wish it had some added features that the OR has? Yes, of course.

 

I'll agree with Timpat here (Sans the kayak thing). I have the 400t. To be honest, I don't see any features on the OR that are not on the CO that I would want. The one that seems to attract people is the touchscreen which I view as a negative rather than a positive.

 

While I had a problem with the arrow going about 180 off when I first got it, I realized it was an issue of having to calibrate the compass once in a while and from many I know who have the OR, it some of them suffer from the same issue. I am sure that it will be addressed in future firmware. The screen can also tend to be somewhat dim for my taste, again in both OR and CO, but very usable.

 

The welcome screen is more than adequate. Come on guys, what are you putting on there that needs more than 5 lines. I have name, address and phone as well as the line "reward if found". How far does someone need to go to find that on your cell phone or MP3 player? The new firmware has greatly reduced, at least in my experience, the start-up time and I can't address the lock-ups since it has never been a problem for me.

 

The accuracy is right there, memory more than I can ever see needing and if I needed to purchase maps (I currently use ibyusa maps) they are readily available. I too have relegated my 60cs to the glove compartment as a back-up, replacing the 60 that was there before and the GPS V that was there before that.

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Dang! I'm on a Mac and can't run the update. Of course it's not released on the Garmin Webupdater either. So much for supporting this platform, like they stated a couple of summers ago. If I could type in text on my CO it would say: "If found call ......." lol

 

Open the beta software .exe file in tool which can unarchive zip files, extract the gupdate.gcd file, and follow the gcd update instructions here:

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Versions#toc6

 

It is displayed on top of the normal loading screen when it shows the map copywrite etc, so it does not add any additional loading time.

 

If you change the <display = 0> in the startup.txt file to something more than 2-3 you impact the boot time.

 

I dont see anything about improving accuracy, does it mean that the Colorado is as good as it can get as far accuracy is concerned?

 

No change in the GPS firmware (still at 2.8) which I think is a good thing. The Colorado accuracy is pretty good right now.

 

I'm still seeing the power on crash if you power the unit down with an active autoroute.

 

-Scott

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I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

 

I also need to chime in here. People on these forums really drag the CO through the dirt, but my 300 has been VERY good to me. Sure, it doesn't have a touchscreen or a track manager, but that's not why I bought it (I keep all my tracks on my computer). I bought it for paperless geocaching and with that, I have no complaints at all. The accuracy of this thing is bang on and I've never had it wander off-course. I can't say that I've dragged mine by a tether through rapids, but I did forget it on the roof on my truck once :D It flew off as I drove away, hit the pavement, rolled a few times and every detachable piece flew off (the back cover, batteries and memory card). Needless to say, I put it all back together and she still works flawlessy, albeit with a few scars. I am a VERY satisfied customer.

Edited by Teddy2k
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For a unit that has been out for over two years it still has problems that are unacceptable. I have had five 400t's and my latest one just crapped out. Only 20 minutes of battery life to the red line. Can't adjust the elevation. It just tells me to read the manual, which by the way says nothing. I'd like to hear from one person that feels that the Colorado is a dependable device. Come on, just one...

I see a few others have already responded...so add me to the list of happy Colorado owners.

 

Bought a 400t shortly after release last year and been using it ever since. The original firmware had a lot of issues for geocaching, but almost all of my concerns have been fixed and it work great...I've found over 2,000 geocaches with it. Used it while traveling the country for a few months last year (although it sucks that you have to pay $100 for City Navigator to do that, when my $200 Nuvi includes that functionality).

 

Five units you say...amazing that you could get that many duds in a row. Sorry to hear that.

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I'm thinking the replacements must be refurbs which may explain the high incidence of repeat duds, I'm on my second and I cannot trust it, it crashes on route calculation, then does the power on crash after that. I've had it do the hard reset automatically as a result of those power on crashes, not as much impact as doing a reset on the 60 series but still not a good thing to have happen when your in the woods trying to get back to the car. disappearing maps, ie topo no longer available but in the map list yet city navigator still there. Cache file erasing themselves. All in all not a pleasant experience for $500 unit. Oh yea, no longer covered under warranty.

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Can we get back to the topic please?

 

Has anyone notice a change in accuracy or speed of the unit with this version?

What have you reported so far to ColoradoBeta email?

 

I haven't had my 400t long enough to compare versions. I had it all of 12 hours before I upgraded the firmware to 2.92beta.

 

What I have noticed, however, is that the battery meter isn't reliable at all.

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Can we get back to the topic please?

 

Has anyone notice a change in accuracy or speed of the unit with this version?

What have you reported so far to ColoradoBeta email?

 

No new issues, although I re-reported the power on crash which occurs after powering down with an active autoroute.

 

Did not notice any change in accuracy, GPS firmware hasn't changed in this release so I would be surprised if there was any difference between 2.92 and 2.9

 

As for battery meter issue, does the battery type setting match the installed battery?

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I haven't noticed any differences good or bad, except for the addition of the start-up text (obviously as I created it :0 )

 

Heres hoping they will add the feature that the 2.99 Oregon beta has of being able to load any named .img file, in the next release.

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I've been really happy with my Colorado 400 t... I think I might wait till the new code goes ""General Release"" and not mess with a Beta as I don't see any of the issues people have menntioned...

 

Being from the Internet/Networking industry, I don't like to upgrade code, just because its there...

 

If I am experiencing an Issue or Bug and the new code addresses it AND doesn't break anything new or make anything worse, I say move, if not stay on current working code....

Edited by solo63137
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Dang! I'm on a Mac and can't run the update. Of course it's not released on the Garmin Webupdater either. So much for supporting this platform, like they stated a couple of summers ago. If I could type in text on my CO it would say: "If found call ......." lol

You can update with the Mac.

I have an Oregon, but it should work the same with the Colorado.

Download The Unarchiver, drop the "Colorado_292Beta.exe" on it, when it's extracted look for the file "GUPDATE.GCD", and copy it to the Garmin folder on your Colorado (not the SD card).

Now eject the Colorado, turn it off and on again and it should install the update.

 

Hey thanks! This worked great. One glitch I see is that there is no startup.txt file on the Garmin. Any ideas?

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Can someone confirm if the backlight @ startup has been fixed as well?

Its not in the list but it doesnt hurt checking.

I know that on the Oregon it is fixed because it memorizes the backlight setting between usages while with the Colorado it always defaults to the dimmed setting. Very annoying having to set it up everytime.

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Can someone confirm if the backlight @ startup has been fixed as well?

Its not in the list but it doesnt hurt checking.

I know that on the Oregon it is fixed because it memorizes the backlight setting between usages while with the Colorado it always defaults to the dimmed setting. Very annoying having to set it up everytime.

 

It is not fixed. They still don't want the users to have control over the backlight.

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Why is that?

It works fine on the Oregon, why is it so hard to implement?

I can only speculate that the draw from the light going further than it does would impede other performance functions.

For instance, if the light were to draw more power then maybe the maps wouldn't redraw.

Other than that, I would guess that the light would dramatially draw down the batteries and people would complain that the Colorado sucks batteries and that would be bad publicity.

 

Just speculation, of course.

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I have read reports that the difference in consumption is minimum between full backlit and the dimmest setting.

The map redraws fine when using full backlit so I dont think is the issue.

When driving it is slow refreshing either way anyway. LOL

 

Maybe booting requires extra power but that could be easily solved by booting in dim mode and then revert to the saved setting after it is complete.

Imo it was a decision to have it work this way and for some reason they refuse to change it.

People should send this to the coloradobeta email. I know it doesnt pertain to this version, but the more people use the email maybe Garmin will realize that theres alot of Colorado owners out there to justify more development.

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People should send this to the coloradobeta email. I know it doesnt pertain to this version, but the more people use the email maybe Garmin will realize that theres alot of Colorado owners out there to justify more development.

 

I sent one...

 

Telling them that a few friends and I have Colorados and are glad to see that thay are still working on improving and maturing the code...

 

Also mentioned that I'd like to be able to Enter a ""New" waypoint and its cords, vs create waypoint (with current cords your standing) then edit them. Thats makes no sense...

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