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Garmin Colorado Chirp Capatibility

Mike & Jess

By Mike & Jess
in GPS technology and devices

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Mike & Jess

+Mike & Jess

Posted
Posted

Below is the responce from Garmin regarding the support for the Chirp chip for the Colorado GPSs.

Please forward this to anyone you know that has a Garmin Colorado.

 

Thank you Steve from the Northern Ontario Geocachers for forwarding this information.

 

You are quite welcome. If you know of anyone who has a Colorado and

would like to see the chirp compatible with it, then please tell them

to contact us. The more request we have, then the more likely the

engineers are likely to listen.

 

Have a great and safe New Years!

 

With Best Regards,

 

Mark R

Product Support Specialist

Outdoor/Fitness Team

Garmin International

913-397-8200

800-800-1020

913-440-8280 (fax) Att: Mark R, Associate #5886 http://www.garmin.com

 

Additional solutions may be found at

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/support/searchsupport

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Jonovich

+Jonovich

Posted
Posted

Email sent...

 

Hi folks,

 

I wonder if you could consider adding Garmin Chirp support to the Colorado GPSr as a sort of late Chirstmas pressie to all us faithful Garmin Colorado fans? I have bought half a dozen chirps that I am getting a friend to program for me, but would love to be able to be independant of them and program them myself for my caches, and of course be able to check they are functioning.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jon.

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splashy

+splashy

Posted
Posted

The first answer is back,

 

========================================

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin International. Unfortunatley the Colorado units are not compatible with the Chirp. As these units have been discontinued I do not believe that we will be making any changes to this in the future. I do apologize fir this inconvenience.

 

========================================

This is a basic answer and I really wonder are they actually reading the emails, or are they computer processed?

 

This is a pity, because someone in Garmin is willing to try to get Colorado owners an update, the other """""""""""" helpdesk """"""""""""

clerk knows nothing about this and stops where it started.

 

Maybe it helps if you refer in the Email to mr. Mark R, Associate #5886

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flyjazz

flyjazz

Posted
Posted

I sometimes wonder what goes through the heads of those at Garmin. You release the Colorado to great fanfare three years ago this month, only to discontinue the product line two and a half years later,then tell your customers that even though the product is hardware compatible;we are not bothering to do a software update as we are busy focusing on selling our latest product lines. It appears the motive for their position is profit and market manipulation(don't know if that's any different than any other large corporation). The Colorado got off to a rough start and I've consistently believed that Garmin could have had a made it the success they envisioned. Now it seems they will not have the legacy of being able to say,"I told you so". Too bad,as they could have had a moment of redemption instead of a unwanted child that they would rather forget.

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splashy

+splashy

Posted
Posted (edited)

They lost the battle anyway, because any smartphone owner will not buy a new garmin.

2 years ago I wrote an open message to Garmin on this site and even the moderator ordered me to stop because

'I was throwing mud to Garmin en was not supposed to call them names on this site'

Well see the progress they made in the last 2 years, new models discontinued, nuvifone died, countless errors in new models

some not even working and not to mention the software updates that made gps'es crash.

If this is company policy, Garmin you really succeeded.

Edited by splashy
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Jonovich

+Jonovich

Posted
Posted

I got quite a promising response...

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

 

I'll be happy to assist you.

 

Unfortunately, from what I've heard, the chirp will not be supported on the Colorado.

 

I did see some comments on the Garmin Forum that there may be an update to be released for the Colorado to be able to receive data from the chirp, but it would not be able to used to program a chirp.

 

I can't find the forum thread to confirm at the moment, but please keep checking back for updates and I will forward your email to the design team, as they always welcome customer feedback. Many of the comments and suggestions we receive, such as yours, are evaluated for potential implementation in future Garmin products or software releases. While we cannot guarantee that what you have suggested will occur, we do appreciate you passing along your opinions.

 

The highest compliment a customer can give a company is to be concerned enough to offer suggestions for improvement of a product. We appreciate your comments and opinions regarding our products.

 

 

Not the perfect solution, but read only chirp support would still be a great compromise!

 

Jon

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Gushoneybun

+Gushoneybun

Posted
Posted

Garmin UK told me a month or so back that there would be no upgrade to the Colorado to see Chirps after I asked.

 

I personally think that Garmin with their new cache listing site are trying to drive new ideas (like the Chirp) through that site. My though is that they will support the current units, then in another year or two bring something else out and then only allow the then current models to work with it (whatever it is.) By then I guess the Oregon etc will be discontinued, so this way they can try to drive sales by making cachers who want to use their site buy new GPSr's every couple of years.

 

Obviously I may be totally wrong but having bought a Colorado almost three years ago (March 2008) I do feel Garmin have turned their back on it and moved on. I would find this more acceptable if the unit was spot on but issues are still evident with the unit.

 

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PSHAX

+PSHAX

Posted
Posted

They lost the battle anyway, because any smartphone owner will not buy a new garmin.

 

Err.. Not quite true..

I have a HTC Desire (Android).. Fantastic smartfone, good GPS, plenty of geocaching apps and the list goes on and on..

My GPS collection includes a 60CSX, Colorado 300, and now a nice shiny brand new 62ST..

I'd much rather have a rugged, weather resistant GPS for outdoor activities, than use a delicate smartfone, and I am sure I am not alone in thinking this.

 

Oh well, enough of this, Happy New Year 2011 to everyone! :D :D :D :D :D

 

PAUL.

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fegan

+fegan

Posted
Posted

While I carry my smartphone (iPhone) with me when I geocache...I do not use it to locate the cache and would never consider it a replacement for my GPS (a Garmin Colorado 400t).

 

I sent the 'Chirp' request to Garmin via e-mail...haven't received a reply confirming my e-mail was received.

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Mark202

+Mark202

Posted
Posted

Below is the responce from Garmin regarding the support for the Chirp chip for the Colorado GPSs.

Please forward this to anyone you know that has a Garmin Colorado.

 

Thank you Steve from the Northern Ontario Geocachers for forwarding this information.

 

You are quite welcome. If you know of anyone who has a Colorado and

would like to see the chirp compatible with it, then please tell them

to contact us. The more request we have, then the more likely the

engineers are likely to listen.

 

Have a great and safe New Years!

 

With Best Regards,

 

Mark R

Product Support Specialist

Outdoor/Fitness Team

Garmin International

913-397-8200

800-800-1020

913-440-8280 (fax) Att: Mark R, Associate #5886 http://www.garmin.com

 

Additional solutions may be found at

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/support/searchsupport

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Mark202

+Mark202

Posted
Posted

Sorry about the last blank post, not sure what happened. Anyway, Im definitely sending a message to Garmin regarding the Colorado and CHIRP capability. It seems that if my Colorado that was discontinued and now wont be supported for the newest upgrades, Im not sure why I would want to invest in another Garmin product that they might decide to also abandon in two years. Especially since they wont even consider transferring my purchased maps from my Colorado to an Oregon for example. Not a good way to establish a loyal customer base.

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Edison.Starfire

+Edison.Starfire

Posted
Posted

Garmin seems to be slipping. While I own a smartphone - the EVO 4G - and it's great in areas with 3G / 4G coverage for pulling down aerials and topos on a whim I have bought 2 new units since I got the phone. A Garmin Oregon 450t and a Magellan eXplorist 610. The 610 was bought while the 450t was lost but I still had the smartphone so.... As mentioned, the dedicated units are rugged, have better reception and not to mention battery life. iPhone with outlast my EVO on battery no doubt and I've been told has better accuracy which I can't confirm but my smartphone is just handy in some instances. My area has limited 3G even and to pull up even a road map while getting 1xRTT data speeds is annoying.

 

However, there's are a huge number of people who only geocache in urban areas and their phone isn't in much more danger than it would be from normal use. Garmin is losing out to those already in addition to turning a cold shoulder to current owners.

 

Its seems to be normal business practice by almost every company to stick it to your current customers and only cater to new prospects.

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northernpenguin

+northernpenguin

Posted
Posted

Nobody who likes to hike/bike/kayak etc is going to go with a smartphone. Battery life is to short and they are not rugged enough. I used the froggies Android app for some but when i head out it's the oregon for most caching.

 

I've had no issues tracking 40km hikes with my iPhone 4. Actually my frakking Colorado 400t locked up twice on the last hike, costing me about 2km of tracklog when I didn't notice it right away.

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Jonovich

+Jonovich

Posted
Posted

Roll up, Roll up, Colorado owners, to the Dakar4x4 Chirp programming service! :lol:

 

Seriously though, it's a good compromise! Sounds like there are differences between the Colorado and Oregons ANT implementations, hence the possible reduced range. Maybe it was these differences that had something to do with it? That or the horrible data entry for long strings of text on the Colorado!

 

Jon

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Mark202

+Mark202

Posted
Posted

I agree...but if its fair to reference this for Garmin's customer support quality, I think its also fair to add that this customer contacted Garmin and asked that since they werent supporting the Colorado for CHIRP, if they at least would support me in transferring my $400 in NT Navigator, 2 sets of Topo 24k maps, and Great Lakes Fishmaster maps to a new Garmin CHIRP compatible device. My response was a very very clear NO. To me, thats a clear indication of customer loyalty and support. Not only did they expect me to purchase a new device, but also repurchase all the maps I had already bought. Just sayin for the record.

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Mark202

+Mark202

Posted
Posted

I agree...but if its fair to reference this for Garmin's customer support quality, I think its also fair to add that this customer contacted Garmin and asked that since they werent supporting the Colorado for CHIRP, if they at least would support me in transferring my $400 in NT Navigator, 2 sets of Topo 24k maps, and Great Lakes Fishmaster maps to a new Garmin CHIRP compatible device. My response was a very very clear NO. To me, thats a clear indication of customer loyalty and support. Not only did they expect me to purchase a new device, but also repurchase all the maps I had already bought. Just sayin for the record.

 

Sorry, Im not good on quoting in forums. This was in response to the maintaining of this thread next time complaints on Garmin Customer Service arose.

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baloo&bd

+baloo&bd

Posted
Posted

I agree...but if its fair to reference this for Garmin's customer support quality, I think its also fair to add that this customer contacted Garmin and asked that since they werent supporting the Colorado for CHIRP, if they at least would support me in transferring my $400 in NT Navigator, 2 sets of Topo 24k maps, and Great Lakes Fishmaster maps to a new Garmin CHIRP compatible device. My response was a very very clear NO. To me, thats a clear indication of customer loyalty and support. Not only did they expect me to purchase a new device, but also repurchase all the maps I had already bought. Just sayin for the record.

 

Yea, I agree. Same scam with my truck. After owning my Tacoma for a year, Toyota came out with the new Tundra. They refused to give me a full credit for what I paid toward the new truck and wouldn't give me back money I spent a Field Service Manual, accessories, gas, oil or tires. WHAT A RIP! :blink:

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Mark202

+Mark202

Posted
Posted

I agree...but if its fair to reference this for Garmin's customer support quality, I think its also fair to add that this customer contacted Garmin and asked that since they werent supporting the Colorado for CHIRP, if they at least would support me in transferring my $400 in NT Navigator, 2 sets of Topo 24k maps, and Great Lakes Fishmaster maps to a new Garmin CHIRP compatible device. My response was a very very clear NO. To me, thats a clear indication of customer loyalty and support. Not only did they expect me to purchase a new device, but also repurchase all the maps I had already bought. Just sayin for the record.

 

Yea, I agree. Same scam with my truck. After owning my Tacoma for a year, Toyota came out with the new Tundra. They refused to give me a full credit for what I paid toward the new truck and wouldn't give me back money I spent a Field Service Manual, accessories, gas, oil or tires. WHAT A RIP! :blink:

Wow, what a well thought out and totally appropriate analogy. I obviously was being unreasonable. :rolleyes:

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solo63137

+solo63137

Posted
Posted (edited)

Sent them an e-mail over/between the Holidays after seeing Mark202s post to let them know I was a Colorado user and did not want them to stop supporting it and would also like CHiRP support......

 

Here was the reply I got on 01/05/2011...

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin International.

I will be happy to help you with this issue. We still support the all the Colorado devices, we just no longer manufacture them. All the support is still available for your device, is there an issue you need assistance with? We can help you fix the Colorado. The chirp feature is not able to work with the Colorado series at this point, it could be something that comes in a software update but as of right now it is not compatible. I will forward your concerns to management.

Edited by solo63137
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TrailToad

+TrailToad

Posted
Posted

There seems to be many threads here in the Groundspeak Forums about the Colorado upgrades. I'm sure that you know now about the 3.52 software upgrade which has added chirp. What I figured out since I uploaded it, is that you can receive the signal BUT you cannot program the chirp! I have sent a note to Garmin Support today to see what their response to adding another 2.XX upgrade supporting programing the chirp.

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solo63137

+solo63137

Posted
Posted

There seems to be many threads here in the Groundspeak Forums about the Colorado upgrades. I'm sure that you know now about the 3.52 software upgrade which has added chirp. What I figured out since I uploaded it, is that you can receive the signal BUT you cannot program the chirp! I have sent a note to Garmin Support today to see what their response to adding another 2.XX upgrade supporting programing the chirp.

 

Cool, keep us posted...

 

If nothing else, by all of us hitting up Garmin support, we are showing them we are out here, geocaching and supporting our Colorados... So maybe they keep up the development, fixing bugs and adding features...

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TrailToad

+TrailToad

Posted
Posted

I received a quick response!

 

"Thank you for contacting Garmin International. Currently there are no plans that I am aware of to add chirp programming ability to the Colorado unit.

With Best Regards,

Misty Ku.

Product Support Specialist

Garmin International

913-397-8200 800-800-1020

913-440-8280 (fax) Att: Misty Ku., Associate #5903 www.garmin.com

Additional solutions may be found at http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/support/searchsupport

 

Not what I had hoped for! Like you said, we just need to, as a group, keep asking. It seamed to work to get the chirp search on 3.52.

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