Garmin Colorado 300 Problems-Help Please...

[+antigocache]

Hi there folks, I am hoping that some of you in this forum might have the answers to my questions, as I could not solve them through either trial and error, reading the manual, reading some online FAQ's, and doing the latest Garmin update for my gpsr. I have recently upgraded from my old E-trex Legend to a Garmin Colorado 300 (chose it over the 60 CSX due to it's paperless caching abilities). Anyways, I have been out with the unit about 5-6 times so far and have done upwards of 40 geocaches with it. Here are the issues I am having:

 

1. When I click on "geocaches" and then select the cache I am searching for, my red directional arrow seems to never point me in the correct direction (I have tried all three views available while in geocaching search mode). The "distance to destination" is almost always accurate, but almost always, my directional arrow is nowhere near on target. Sometimes it has me pointing to go in the complete opposite direction of where the geocache is acutally located, yet as I walk towards the "actual" direction, my distance decreases, thus letting me know I am getting closer to gz. Yes I am keeping my gps flat in my hand, yes I have done the latest Garmin updates. GPS is set to WAAS and the compass I did calibrate. Anybody know what is going on here... Very frustrating while out geocaching! What can I do to rectify this issue?

 

2. Is there any way to "delete" geocaches that you have found while using the Colorado 300? The only thing I have seen is to log the cache as "found" and then it shows up on my map page, can I prevent that from happening?

 

3. Whenever I go to upload geocaches into my Colorado 300 using the usb cable, the screen turns black on my gps (geocaches can be loaded into the unit during this though) and when I finish loading all the caches that I want, I cannot figure out a way to keep my gps on, it seems to turn off once I unplug the cable from it, forcing me to restart the unit, is this normal?

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from anybody who can answer my questions, particularly number one!

Antigocache

[+Butano]

Not sure if you found web page or not, but there is a ton of information there about the Colorados. http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/.

 

My answer to the first one was going to be to calibrate your compass. Guess you did that. I often turn my compass off and rely on my movements to get the direction. Since the compass has to be recalibrated so often, it is just easier (shouldn't be that way, but there it is).

 

It sounds like you have figured out how to put caches on the Colorado - by uploading a GPX file to it. The only way to delete a cache is to delete (or modify) that file. You will need to connect it to a computer to do that. Unfortunately there is no on-the-fly way to delete the cache.

 

My screen does not turn black, but there is an image of the GPSr hooked to a computer when I do that. Couldn't guess why yours would not show that. But it seems to still be working. And yes, it is normal for the GPSr to shut off when it is disconnected from the computer, at least mine does that as well. The way that it recognizes a new geocache file is during the bootup process. So it needs to go through that when a new file is loaded.

 

Hope that helps!

[+antigocache]

Well thanks for the reply, I am not sure that it helps me out however... I will go ahead and try re-calibrating the compass, but I would welcome any other suggestions anybody else may have out there. FYI, I did go to the site you hyperlinked and did not see anything there (although I skimmed) that resembled the problem I am having with regards to the directional arrow being off during location of a waypoint.

Antigocache

[+g-o-cashers]

1. When I click on "geocaches" and then select the cache I am searching for, my red directional arrow seems to never point me in the correct direction (I have tried all three views available while in geocaching search mode). The "distance to destination" is almost always accurate, but almost always, my directional arrow is nowhere near on target. Sometimes it has me pointing to go in the complete opposite direction of where the geocache is acutally located, yet as I walk towards the "actual" direction, my distance decreases, thus letting me know I am getting closer to gz. Yes I am keeping my gps flat in my hand, yes I have done the latest Garmin updates. GPS is set to WAAS and the compass I did calibrate. Anybody know what is going on here... Very frustrating while out geocaching! What can I do to rectify this issue?

 

2. Is there any way to "delete" geocaches that you have found while using the Colorado 300? The only thing I have seen is to log the cache as "found" and then it shows up on my map page, can I prevent that from happening?

 

3. Whenever I go to upload geocaches into my Colorado 300 using the usb cable, the screen turns black on my gps (geocaches can be loaded into the unit during this though) and when I finish loading all the caches that I want, I cannot figure out a way to keep my gps on, it seems to turn off once I unplug the cable from it, forcing me to restart the unit, is this normal?

 

1) Try disabling your compass (Setup>Heading>Compass>Off) and see if that helps. It will at least help narrow down the issue.

 

2) No. http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/Geocaching#toc10

 

3) This is normal. The Colorado needs to do this in order to load new data you have just uploaded into the file system.

[+StarBrand]

I had nothing but trouble with my compass on the Colorado. After I re-calibrated it, it would work for no more than 30 minutes or 1 or 2 short trips in the Jeep before going wonky. It needs to be held perfectly level to work at all and requires frequent calibration.

 

I just turned off the magnetic electronic one.

[+antigocache]

Well now, hate to hear that a user of the same machine had "nothing but trouble" with his!! I will go ahead and try those latest suggestions, much appreciated to you folks who have offered suggestions. Anyone else who wants to chime in , appreciated hearing from you...

Just for clarification, are you suggesting that if I were to disable the electronic compass on the gps that will solve the issue???

Antigocache

Edited June 9, 2010 by antigocache

[+g-o-cashers]

If the problem is with your electronic compass (which many users have reported problems with) then, yes, disabling the compass can avoid the issue. If nothing else it helps to determine where the problem might be (compass vs. GPS).

 

GO$Rs

[+Red90]

Turn off the compass, permanently...

 

The Colorado uses a quad helix antenna. The antenna works best when vertical. When you hold it level to get the (poor) compass working, the GPS signal degrades making things worse...

 

Turn off the compass and hold the unit vertical and high to avoid signal blockage from your body when you are nearing a cache. It will then point in the correct directions and zero out very accurately and quickly.

[+StarBrand]

Turn off the compass, permanently...

 

The Colorado uses a quad helix antenna. The antenna works best when vertical. When you hold it level to get the (poor) compass working, the GPS signal degrades making things worse...

 

Turn off the compass and hold the unit vertical and high to avoid signal blockage from your body when you are nearing a cache. It will then point in the correct directions and zero out very accurately and quickly.

yup - agreed.

[+antigocache]

Well now, I went out tonight with a couple of caching buddies and a few preloaded geocaches in the Colorado 300 on a test run, after disabling the electronic compass on the gpsr as per a couple of folks recommendations. Low and behold, the directional arrow has settled down and pointed me in the correct direction each time while searching. I also tried the other suggestion of holding the gpsr vertically rather than flat and did not really notice a big difference. I sure hope that the disabling of the compass offers a permanent solution to this issue, as my next step will be to upgrade to a premium membership, so as to begin the paperless caching era (which was half the reason I chose this unit over anything else in the first place)!!! I will try it out this coming weekend hopefully on a full day of caching and see if things are ok, if not, may be taking this unit back in exchange for a 60 CSX.

Antigocache

[+stevensonwnuks]

I received a colorado 300 for fathers day, and I am feeling your pain.

I am on the verge of returning it. We went caching, and one minute it indicated to go 18 feet north, we travelled maybe 5 feet, and low and behold it told us to go 13 feet south...

very frustrating for new cachers.......especially with little ones

i hope this isn't seen as highjacking the thread, just wanted to express my own frustration....

 

I can get the 60CSX or the Dakota 20 for a little more

[+StarBrand]

I received a colorado 300 for fathers day, and I am feeling your pain.

I am on the verge of returning it. We went caching, and one minute it indicated to go 18 feet north, we travelled maybe 5 feet, and low and behold it told us to go 13 feet south...

very frustrating for new cachers.......especially with little ones

i hope this isn't seen as highjacking the thread, just wanted to express my own frustration....

 

I can get the 60CSX or the Dakota 20 for a little more

 

You will find that almost all consumer grade GPS units are going to do exactly the same thing. The general accuracy of these units is in the 15 to 25 foot range depending on conditions. As soon as you are inside that radius, the readings are going to vary quite a bit. Don't expect the unit to lead you directly to ground zero. Instead, put the unit away and start looking for the cache when you are within 20 feet or so. Remember you may have to add your potential error to any error the hider had - thus you could find yourself looking as much as 50 foot away from where your unit says the cache is suppose to be.

 

See this recent thread about a 60CSx: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=252918

[+ecanderson]

I received a colorado 300 for fathers day, and I am feeling your pain.

I am on the verge of returning it. We went caching, and one minute it indicated to go 18 feet north, we travelled maybe 5 feet, and low and behold it told us to go 13 feet south...

very frustrating for new cachers.......especially with little ones

It could be a matter of your expectations there. Depending upon conditions, any GPS will have you wandering in circles (called by some "The Drunken Bee Dance") if you try to use it to approach zero distance - chasing the arrow. If you had brought up the "accuracy" number on your display (or depending on how you've configured your display, it might already be there and you didn't notice it), it might well have said 13 feet, a very acceptable number. It's technical acronym is EPE. It refers to the odds that your target is within a specific radius.

 

Think about this, too. Using your original position where it said you should go 18' N, you went 5'N. You're now at relative position -13N. Then it told you from that position to go 13'S. That fits within a radius of 13' - a perfectly normal situation out in the real world. Under heavy tree cover or up against walls, buildings, cliffs and bridges, you'll be lucky to get a number that good.

 

FWIW, be sure your CO 300 has the most recent firmware installed. That can make a difference.

Edited June 22, 2010 by ecanderson

[taxiAndBrass]

First-time poster here and medium-experienced GPS user.

 

I have a problem with the Colorado 300 basemap being misregistered against my Tracks and Waypoints. I successfully export those as point or line KMLs and they register fine in Google Earth. The problem is the misregister when I'm out in the field, using the basemap to see my waypoints and tracks. By default my Map Datum is set to None (screenshot) and Map Spheroid is WGS 84. But the basemap is off, perhaps by 800 mE and 1000 mN. This is a screenshot of the misregister. In this screenshot, the track between the orange points should be up on the red road. I know this by ground truthing using topo maps.

 

I'm referring to the factory-set basemap gmapbmap.img.

 

If it's a Map Datum issue I have further challenges. I can only set WGS 84 after restoring to factory settings. That's because WGS 84 is not an option in the Map Datum menu. Nor for that matter is NAD83. Lots of questions about this device!

 

I'm thinking I need to upgrade the firmware. Can any readers offer insight to this major issue?

[savant9]

Not sure what fimware version you are running, but you should definitely run webupdater and get the newest (actually the newest beta is stable and even better than the current ver avail from webupdater). The issue you describe is related to that fact that you have no datum set. Hopefully after the update you will have wgs84 available to choose from.

[taxiAndBrass]

I updated the firmware to version 3.40. After that the basemap color and DEM/hillshade did not load. In the field you would see a black track on a white screen.

 

Under Map Datum and Map Spheroid I could select WGS 84. I use my GPS data mainly in KML format, and since the map datum of Google Earth is WGS 84, I set both to that. But the basemap did not register. I rebooted the device twice after the firmware update, each time allwoing the device to rebuild its almanac. The basemap register still failed, and I didn't feel confident adding more detailed maps to the memory.

 

The unit was becoming more and more compromised. I started shopping around again. I've used units ranging from the Garmin eTrex to Trimble Nomad.

 

I found a deal for the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx Hike and drive bundle. The more detailed CNav N. America NT2009 maps are in the box on an SD card. They loaded up and registered fine. I used it over the weekend and so far so good. The OS is well-developed.

 

Broadly speaking, my take is that the Colorado 300 is a device whose design is strongly influenced by the iPod and whose OS is embryonic.

 

*

 

Happy caching/hunting/fishing.

[+splashy]

"Broadly speaking, my take is that the Colorado 300 is a device whose design is strongly influenced by the iPod "

 

It's in fact totally different and the one has nothing to do with the other.