Simeons parents are both in hospital ( spoke on the phone with him last night) so he wont be on here, separate hospitals as well so he will not be on for quite a while

Thats really bad news, nothing serious I hope.

Simbo has assured me you don't need to replace the gateway if you're getting a Columbus, as the Columbus can be updated to avoid battery drain, whereas the Bolero can't, will see if I can get him to respond to the thread.

Would need to see more info on exactly what he's found, before I comment further.

Hope his personal situation improves as well though. That's clearly a bit more important!

From what I understand there is a modified firmware dvd doing the rounds that uses some code from an older firmware so that the battery drain issues are avoided.

Not having got a columbus I don't know much more about it or where to get them from, but I am sure there are some posts in the ICE section about firmware mods instead of CAN Gateway upgrades to avoid battery drain on a Columbus.

No doubt someone will turn up who knows about it ........

Sounds interesting. Especially if the combination can be found of the older firmware that doesn't cause drain (which I know exists), but coupled with more up-to-date mapping.