Etrex 30 - no joy using micro-SD card

[stat]

I have now tried to get to grips with GPS. I have once again loaded the OSM on to the card but am unable to view the map. I changed name to GMAPSUPP.IMG

On the card I have a folder named Garmin in which I have
Enabled-Worldwide Basemap.NR or enable digital globe demo.JNX.

No sign of the OSM.

I have read the posts on here but am none the wiser. Any help gratefully received.

Thanks.

[henshaw11]

I had a bit of trouble - see post 6 and 18 - mainly the 'safely remove hardware' step, but there is something a bit funny with trying to have all threee of the talkytoaster osm (uk with/without countours plus separate contours) on the card or the unit itself

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=54370.0

[stat]

Sorry, don't know what you mean by the 'safely remove hardware step'. I have an AppleMac.
I downloaded the map, reduced the name and lifted it on to the SD card. Is there something I am missing out?

[stat]

Have done further reading and found 'put file in Garmin Directory'. Is that different from Garmin folder and if so how do I make a directory? Thanks

[Biggsy]

No, "directory" and "folder" means the same thing here.

I don't know if there's an equivalent for the Mac, but it can be dodgy just to pull out a USB-connected device from a PC if caching isn't disabled for the device, therefore there's a "Safely Remove Hardware" facility.

Anyway, try again.  Put the file on the card.  Don't unplug immediately.  Turn the computer off (I don't know if this is necessary, but just do it anyway unless someone else soon says otherwise).  Only then remove the SD card.  Put it in your GPS.  Turn GPS off and on again.  Turn it off and on again again!  Attempt to navigate around the map to enough make the screen refresh.

[Kim]

It's been a while since I used a mac, but IIRC the mac equivalent of "safely remove hardware" would be to unmount the volume by dragging it to the trashcan, or selecting 'eject' from the context menu, or something.

If in doubt, shutting down would work.

[stat]

Thanks for replies. Still no joy. To install card in Etrex 30 you have to remove the batteries anyway. Removing Card in Mac is straightforward.

[Feanor]

2 things spring to mind:

1) is the card too big for the Etrex to recognise?   What size card is it?  Does the Etrex have the most recent firmware on it to enable it to see bigger cards?

2) Is the filesystem on the card something wierd and mac-ish? ( I'm not a mac user, so I don't know what filesystems it uses ).

[plum]

I would have thought that shutting the computer down would cause exactly the same delayed write fail that pulling the card out would do. If write caching has been left to its default then writing a massive map file will have a delay of forever so much safer to to use srh or whatever the mac equivalent is.

[Biggsy]

I would have thought that shutting the computer down would cause exactly the same delayed write fail that pulling the card out would do.

Not normally, because the computer will write whatever's left to write to all drives before it shuts down - flushing its buffers, in other words.  This is certainly the case for a PC (normally), and I would hope for a Mac too.  I don't expect a shutdown is necessary, but it's gonna be safer than just pulling the card out when you don't know the proper procedure.

It's just a quick suggestion from me before the Mac experts come along, in case stat wants to try yet again right now.

(Personally I have write caching disabled for my card reader).

[henshaw11]

2 things spring to mind:

1) is the card too big for the Etrex to recognise?   What size card is it?  Does the Etrex have the most recent firmware on it to enable it to see bigger cards?

2) Is the filesystem on the card something wierd and mac-ish? ( I'm not a mac user, so I don't know what filesystems it uses ).

32G is the largest recommended (ie SDHC).

Good point  re filesystem - I think the card needs to be formatted as FAT32. Going by this:
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/19/mac-101-format-choices-for-usb-flash-drives/
the default may be  Mac OS Extended, if it's running OS X.

[Feanor]

1) is the card too big for the Etrex to recognise?   What size card is it?  Does the Etrex have the most recent firmware on it to enable it to see bigger cards?

32G is the largest recommended (ie SDHC).

Yes, but many Garmin units could not support SDHC on their original firmware, and required firmware updated to support this.   I don't know if the Etrex falls into this situation.   It would be wise to let the webupdater look at it, just in case.

[stat]

Thanks but still no joy. Size is only 2GB and is FAT formatted or whatever! Just as well as I don't know how to format! Will resort to purchasing  loaded card and see what happens. 

However, I have just tried downloading the map on to the GPS itself and still can't see  the map so will have to try downloading another one.

[Feanor]

What was the name of the original map file you downloaded, before re-naming it to gmapsupp.img?

[rwa.martin]

I tried to load their contours only file recently onto my etrex 20 and it too couldn't see it. I tried renaming it; rebuilding via mkgmap etc. and no joy. An email asking if talkytoaster had any issues had a negative response.

[rwa.martin]

Just a thought, but I assume you are trying to load a genuine gsmapsupp.img file, not just a .img tile or raw osm data? The orginal post doesn't make it clear.

[Feanor]

Just a thought, but I assume you are trying to load a genuine gsmapsupp.img file, not just a .img tile or raw osm data? The orginal post doesn't make it clear.

That's what I wondered, too.
That was why I asked what the original file was that he re-named to gmapsupp.img.
That was ringing some alarm bells.

[stat]

Yes, I think the problem lies in downloading the map in the first place. Have been playing around with Map Manager and Map Installer so I will persevere! Thanks for all help.
PS I am female so may be able to use that as an excuse!!

[Biggsy]

Don't buy anything else purely to solve this problem.  The last resort would be one of us sending you a card that should work.  But we won't accept being female as an excuse for you not perservering some more first - because at least one brilliant electroncs expert on this forum is female! 

[andrewc]

I'm using an Etrex Legend with a Mac, no expert but this works for me.
I downloaded Andy Gates customised version of OSM from http://ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps/OSM-Garmin-Munky-UKIE.zip

This unzips to give you a gsmapsupp.img file.    Connect your GPS to the Mac and put it into USB Mass Storage mode (Setup > System > USB Mode > Mass Storage).  The GPS should now show as a drive on your desktop.  Open this and there should be a file called Garmin.

Drag the gsmapsupp.img file to the Garmin folder, it may take a while to copy, when it's done, eject the drive.   Reboot the GPS and you should be able to use your map.  If not, go into Main menu, setup,map,information and ensure that OSM map is visible and has a tick against it.

[henshaw11]

Yes, but many Garmin units could not support SDHC on their original firmware, and required firmware updated to support this.   I don't know if the Etrex falls into this situation.   It would be wise to let the webupdater look at it, just in case.

Dunno which ones you're referring to, but the new Etrexes came out last sept/oct - mine's still running v2.1 as they were initially shipped with when I bought it - late november - and I'm using a 16G Kingston SDHC.
(Not sure I'd trust the webupdater either without knowing exactly what's in the update and whether they've broken anything.)

The map just has to have a .img extension, it doesn't need the default name as on the older Etrex.

I tried to load their contours only file recently onto my etrex 20 and it too couldn't see it. I tried renaming it; rebuilding via mkgmap etc. and no joy. An email asking if talkytoaster had any issues had a negative response.

Again, see the link I posted earlier in the thread - there's some weirdness going on with using the talkytoaster maps with/without contours on the E30 (and presumably 20). IME you won't see just the contour file on it's own.

[frankly frankie]

What was the name of the original map file you downloaded, before re-naming it to gmapsupp.img?

According to the OP, it wasn't named gmapsupp.img, it was named GMAPSUPP.IMG

Actually in the E30 you can call it anything-you-like.img
And it does support SDHC out of the box
[sorry - x-post]

To establish if the card is OK - has the GPS archived any track fragments onto the card?  In [card]\Garmin\GPX\
Or if you copy a GPX track or route into that card location, can the E30 see it? (After rebooting it that is)

[Phil]

I'm having an issue that sounds very similar with my new Etrex 20. 

What I've done:
 - Downloaded andygates' awesome OSM image (OSM-Garmin-Munky-UKIE.zip)
 - unzipped and copied GMAPSUPP.IMG file to the /Garmin directory on my device (internal memory not microSD)
 - run checksums to verify copy on device
 - rebooted device
 - maps not available - not shown on map view, no new, only the two that came with the device (Worldwide Digital Basemap/Digital Globe) shown in Setup->Map->Select Map
 - renamed file to osm-ie.img
 - maps still not available
 - move map to /Garmin/CustomMaps
 - maps still not available
 - panic

Any help much appreciated!

[frankly frankie]

FWIW I've found that for loading files generally (GPX in particular) in my E30 the card works better than the internal memory.  I know it shouldn't be that way, but that's just how it seems to me. 
Are you sure the map file isn't too big for the memory (so the file getting corrupted on upload but without an error message)?
Are we sure (repeating myself) this isn't a simple matter of case-sensitivity?  I've always used lowercase filenames myself.

[Phil]

The internal memory is formatted with some flavour of FAT so is not case-sensitive, but I did try switching the case in case of VOODOO.  It didn't work.  I don't know whether the file is too big for memory, but Andy's readme suggests that it's fine on etrex models and I know other people have successfully used it. 

I'll try a microsd card and report in a few minutes.