Sjlw

I have just tried loading another part of a Garmin map onto my Colorado 300. I have the map for the whole of spain but had only loaded Tenerife where I live. I wanted to add the island of La Gomera, and went to MapInstall and it says it's done, so now I want to check that it is there. How do I do that?

I tried loading a track in La Gomera, going to 'Where to' and choosing it. The map did not appear as the background, there was only what appeared to be the basemap. Is there any way of checking that the map is there, except waiting till you get to the area, and then finding (too late) that you haven't got the map installed?

HumVee

Sjlw, you need to check to make sure that map set has actually been enabled in the Settings. I didn't spot how to do it in the Garmin Colorado 300 Owner's manual, but on my GPSMAP 76CSx, you go to the Map Page on the device. Then press Menu > Setup Map, then press Menu again. Hopefully, the Colorado menu structure isn't all that different.

When I first bought new maps and tried to see if they were loaded, I didn't know to hit that final Menu again, and was looking at a list of hundreds of map tiles and thinking how ridiculous it would be to have to uncheck each one individually. One of the guys here told me about hitting Menu one more time...and when I did that, I saw a list of each of my map sets (basemap, City Navigator North America NT 2010, Topo 24K US - West) and could toggle the entire set on or off with one click.

As to actually "going there" on your map display, how about creating and downloading a waypoint (from Google Maps, MapQuest, MapSource, etc.) or manually creating a waypoint if you happen to know the coordinates, then going to Where To? > Waypoints and selecting it (then selecting Map)? If the Colorado is anything like my 76CSx, then it should show the waypoint centered in my map view, and I can then scroll around.

MTalvola

Well, I'll be hornswaggled... I didn't know about that, either. Thanks for that tidbit! It will come in handy if I ever figure out how to overlay City Navigator and TOPO 2008 together in one map.

Sjlw

Hi,
I looked at my Colorado again and found I had no map on it except the basemap. It seems when I tried to load a few extra tiles of 'Topo Spain' it did not install them, and deleted what I already had! I have now installed all the tiles I want, including the extra ones, and I can see them. When I looked at 'Where to' with a La Gomera track, the map was there in the background.
Thanks for all your help.

HumVee

No problem, MTalvola! I was soooo frustrated trying to toggle between mapsets until I posted a big long tirade here...and someone promptly responded back with the very simple answer!

HumVee

Glad to learn that all is working as expected now, Sjlw!

MTalvola

I guess we should have taken that other guy's advice and played around with our GPS units and pushed some more buttons.

I wonder if any other menu selections have some "extra deep" layers...

HumVee

It would be truly nice if Garmin and other GPS providers had downloadable advanced manuals with in-depth descriptions and screen shots of each feature and setting for a particular device. The manuals that come with the units are so basic as to be pretty unhelpful. I have used the Garmin knowledgebase to some small success, but it's not as intuitive as it could be.

MTalvola

I'd just be happy with a nice paper fold-out in the box with the unit that had a block diagram showing every screen, menu, sub-menu and option under each screen. Like what they do with the buttons in manuals for digital watches. It's not that much stuff, really...