Garmin Plotter not reading SD card

[lakelandterrier]

Seeking some help....

I've just updated my Garmin Echomap charts downloading them through Garmin Express to micro SD card as you have to do.

Download appears complete, new SD card plenty of space on it

Turned on the plotter(Garmin 751) and waited for home screen to appear as per update instructions in the manual.

inserted the micro SD card (correct way round!) into one of the 2 slots and waited for the plotter to recognise the card and start the update.....nothing.

Removed the card, turned the plotter off and on again and inserted the SD card into the 2nd card reader slot still nothing.

Tried several times, the plotter is not recognising the card at all.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

LT

[A1an]

what size is the card? ive heard of devices struggle with cards over 32gb

[lakelandterrier]

Hi A1an,

I didn't know that could be a problem, card is 128gb....I'll try one with lower capacity.

Nothing said anything about max card capacity on the instructions on Garmin Express.

Will give an update once tried.

LT

[Nasher]

Yes, I've also heard this with card size.

Card size has moved on so rapidly that if you put a huge capacity card in a plotter which is a few years old it sees the huge capacity as no capacity because at the time the software was written such a huge capacity card wasn't considered.

I have a similar issue running a really old copy of Adobe Illustrator on my Desktop PC, so have to set the hard Drive in Illustrator as a separate 56M HD I have plugged in via USB.

[Fenlander]

Another vote for possible card size problems. I don't know the cut off date but many older Garmin's, as compared to what they consider current models, have a limit of 32GB cards. My older Garmin hand held has this limitation.

[lakelandterrier]

Thanks everyone - great to hear from you Nasher - I hope to see the re-invigorated Nasher's Revenge on the water in the not too distant future if yuo venture back down to Devon

I'll download again (provide Garmin lets me) onto a 32gb card which should be at home tomorrow when I get back from work and see if that works.

Will post update when done, fingers crossed!

LT

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by lakelandterrier

Thanks everyone - great to hear from you Nasher - I hope to see the re-invigorated Nasher's Revenge on the water in the not too distant future if yuo venture back down to Devon

I'll download again (provide Garmin lets me) onto a 32gb card which should be at home tomorrow when I get back from work and see if that works.

Will post update when done, fingers crossed!

LT

Can’t you just copy the update file from one card to another without having to download it again?

[paulbrown22]

I had the same in my old Garmin eTrex years ago. I bought a new chart card for it that shipped on a micro SD of a much larger capacity, and I had to flash the unit firmware before it would recognise the larger card.

[User name]

Try formatting the card in the Garmin first. It's probably a file system issue and that'll also be why older ones didn't support larger cards.

You're probably formatting the card to exFAT and trying to use it in an older device that expects FAT32. You can still use the larger card but you won't have access to it's full capacity. You just need to format it and choose "FAT32" in the options. This should happen automatically if you just format it in the Garmin itself.

[lakelandterrier]

Thanks for all the advice chaps - Ribnet is still such a helpful place!

Update - got a 32gb card, re-downloaded the updates last night, and successfully uploaded upto date charts into the plotter today.

Should go another few years without hitting anything now!

LT

[A1an]

Nice one.

[lakelandterrier]

Thanks for all the advice chaps - Ribnet is still such a helpful place!

Update - got a 32gb card, re-downloaded the updates last night, and successfully uploaded upto date charts into the plotter today.

Should go another few years without hitting anything now!

LT

[paulbrown22]

Great news, congrats on getting it working again for cheap!

[lakelandterrier]

Good to have updated charts every so often.

How frequently do others (leisure not commercial) update their chart maps?

[willk]

Originally Posted by lakelandterrier

How frequently do others (leisure not commercial) update their chart maps?

I've never done so and currently running a Navionics Platinum that must be over ten years old. I feel that if you are referencing buoyage and lights then it's probably well worth doing, less so for those of concerned about rocks. I have no idea how chart companies get updated about dredging and so on, but I suspect it is fairly random, and their products all say Not For Navigation.

I've always regarded charts as something like the Pirate's Code - they're more guidelines than Rules. I'd trust my Mark 1 and the sounder before the chart.

[scrambler]

Originally Posted by lakelandterrier

Good to have updated charts every so often.

How frequently do others (leisure not commercial) update their chart maps?

I bought my Garmin in 2018 and have never updated the charts. Unless the area you cruise in has been resurveyed doesn't seem much point updating.
Found this helpful page though haven't yet found a way of querying the data to establish when a particular area was last surveyed.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-civi...aphy-programme

[willk]

I should have said that my exception would be where 'crowd sourced' data was available - spot soundings and scans from other users. I don't partake but it's solid stuff if you can get it.

[scrambler]

I've now found a page where you can find the last date that an area was surveyed. The area I'm most interested in was last surveyed in 1997!

https://seabed.admiralty.co.uk/?x=-1...0270.16&z=5.00

Edit: Since found that my broader cruising area was surveyed in 2018/19 so maybe I will update my charts.

[lakelandterrier]

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I do update thr paper charts I hold as back up for my normal cruising areas with the official NTMs annually... quite theraputc and keeps up the "old" skills.

Try to update the plotter chart maps every 5 years just in case