I've just noticed that the latest 2017.3 maps load onto the Nav V's SD card in two parts, splitting Europe into north and south.
Make what you will of that.
Make what you will of that.
Map CN Europe NTU 2017.3
- Thread starter Wapping
- Start date
More shit to go wrong!
I think they are preparing them so they can easily be split for when the internal memory is too small for the whole map set (which is pretty close to happening on the Nav V), so one set of maps can be loaded to internal memory, and the other to an SD card.
Bob
Bob
iand46
Registered user
Possibly?
max single file size on any size SD card formatted as FAT32 is only 4gb so maybe they've split it into 2 files due to the file becoming too large.It is to do with the file size limits of the FAT32 format I believe. That limits downloads to 4mB and the 'Full Europe' is more than that.
Initially there was a problem with garmin Express only downloading Europe North, which covers the UK, to your device. Although the whole of Europe still got downloaded to Basecamp if you ticked the option of 'Download to device and computer'. However, the good people at Garmin soon sorted it out and the result is that you get Europe North and Europe South downloaded to your GPS, and the full Europe maps to your computer.
So, well done Garmin
Initially there was a problem with garmin Express only downloading Europe North, which covers the UK, to your device. Although the whole of Europe still got downloaded to Basecamp if you ticked the option of 'Download to device and computer'. However, the good people at Garmin soon sorted it out and the result is that you get Europe North and Europe South downloaded to your GPS, and the full Europe maps to your computer.
So, well done Garmin
That makes perfect sense Paul and Ian, thank you. It matches up with what I read about when formatting a 1TB external drive, which needed to take some big files in.
On the contrary, less to go wrong if bods are sticking to their FAT32 formatted SD cards. Though they'll be confused for sure if they have unticked Europe South in their device's installed maps options and will moan like buggery when they get to say, Italy. That'll be Garmin's fault too, naturally.
That wouldn't seem to serve any real useful purpose, not least as a route that crossed the dividing line between the maps held on the device's internal drive and those held on the card, would always need both maps to be read simultaneously.
Installation time might be a bit quicker, I guess? But would probably still be well over two hours for a full map download and instillation, I assume.
Maps held on the internal memory versus a card are read no faster (or not that I've ever noticed) so splitting them wouldn't seem to improve speed, either.
Of course Garmin could always up the internal memory from day one, giving it enough headroom for future likely - and much larger - map updates....but to what size would bods demand and for what purpose? I can only assume music or, at an extreme, video films. Given that Garmin are following bods' requests to do all sorts of things, turning GPS devices into some sort of entertainment centre for bikers, as simply riding a motorcycle is no longer exciting enough or in some cases downright boring, I guess that more and more memory and faster speeds will be demanded. It's time to go back to maps, a sheet of paper and a pencil, perhaps?
On the contrary, less to go wrong if bods are sticking to their FAT32 formatted SD cards. Though they'll be confused for sure if they have unticked Europe South in their device's installed maps options and will moan like buggery when they get to say, Italy. That'll be Garmin's fault too, naturally.
That wouldn't seem to serve any real useful purpose, not least as a route that crossed the dividing line between the maps held on the device's internal drive and those held on the card, would always need both maps to be read simultaneously.
Installation time might be a bit quicker, I guess? But would probably still be well over two hours for a full map download and instillation, I assume.
Maps held on the internal memory versus a card are read no faster (or not that I've ever noticed) so splitting them wouldn't seem to improve speed, either.
Of course Garmin could always up the internal memory from day one, giving it enough headroom for future likely - and much larger - map updates....but to what size would bods demand and for what purpose? I can only assume music or, at an extreme, video films. Given that Garmin are following bods' requests to do all sorts of things, turning GPS devices into some sort of entertainment centre for bikers, as simply riding a motorcycle is no longer exciting enough or in some cases downright boring, I guess that more and more memory and faster speeds will be demanded. It's time to go back to maps, a sheet of paper and a pencil, perhaps?
The 4Gb limit mentioned by Paul and Ian does make more sense, I'd forgotten about the file size limit when I put forward my suggestion of why they'd been split.
Whilst it may not be too noticeable the internal memory will always read faster than the SD card. One thing that worries me about having all my maps on the SD card are that there is more chance of the card failing than the internal memory. That is why, on my 550, I place the maps I use the most in internal memory, and the rest on the SD card. (This happened to me recently on a Smart Phone I was using for mapping, the SD card failed and I lost all the maps).
With the old NT maps, as used on the earlier devices such as the 550, it is a real pain to select all the different areas to choose which goes in which memory. If Garmin were to split those into North and South as they've done with the NTU maps it would make life a lot easier.
I have never understood, with memory having been so cheap in recent years, why Garmin always insist on designing their SatNavs with only just enough memory to take their current map sets, leaving only just enough spares for a couple of years of updates before you have to resort to using an SD card. They're are probably protecting their market and encouraging users to upgrade early!
Bob
Tomcat
Registered user
FWIW, here's what I did to successfully update my Nav V on my Win 7 laptop, step by step;
1. Download and install the latest version of Garmin Express (my first attempt to update failed, but everything worked after I'd updated Garmin Express) . You don't need to remove the old version, just install the latest version 'on top'.
2. Make sure you have a FAT32 format micro SD card in the Nav V, at least 8GB. (see elsewhere for a discussion about the largest card that works - I'd stick to 32GB max). Plug the Nav V into the laptop USB port and wait patiently whilst Windows recognises it. My Nav V is set to work in USB mass storage mode (google how to do it) because I like to access it through Windows Explorer. When connected and recognised the Nav V appears as two drives - one for the internal memory, and the other for the card.
3. Fire up Garmin Express (GE) and wait whilst it connects to the Nav V.
4. Now get GE to check for updates. It may well find minor software updates in addition to the maps.
5. Go to the 'advanced' option and set the updates for device and computer (assuming you want to install the latest maps on the computer - and why would you not want this?).
6. Set the update process underway. The time to update will probably rapidly mount up to several hours and then quite quickly start to drop back. At this point you know that your PC is talking to the Garmin servers and you can walk away. Resist the urge to do anything else on the PC whilst the update is going ahead!
7. GE will copy the maps (North and South sections) to internal memory and the SD card. It will over write the old map on the Nav V, but it will leave a copy of the old map on the PC. There's no need to delete files to free up space, or to select map sections. With the SD card in place in the Nav V, GE will handle everything automatically.
8. If you want to clear out old versions of maps from the PC, try using the JaVaWa GMTK program (freeware) which makes it easy and foolproof. GMTK is also very useful for copying a map to another computer. First, use GMTK to make a backup of the selected map on the 1st computer to USB stick. Install GMTK on the 2nd computer and then use it to restore the backed up map from the USB stick.
HTH
1. Download and install the latest version of Garmin Express (my first attempt to update failed, but everything worked after I'd updated Garmin Express) . You don't need to remove the old version, just install the latest version 'on top'.
2. Make sure you have a FAT32 format micro SD card in the Nav V, at least 8GB. (see elsewhere for a discussion about the largest card that works - I'd stick to 32GB max). Plug the Nav V into the laptop USB port and wait patiently whilst Windows recognises it. My Nav V is set to work in USB mass storage mode (google how to do it) because I like to access it through Windows Explorer. When connected and recognised the Nav V appears as two drives - one for the internal memory, and the other for the card.
3. Fire up Garmin Express (GE) and wait whilst it connects to the Nav V.
4. Now get GE to check for updates. It may well find minor software updates in addition to the maps.
5. Go to the 'advanced' option and set the updates for device and computer (assuming you want to install the latest maps on the computer - and why would you not want this?).
6. Set the update process underway. The time to update will probably rapidly mount up to several hours and then quite quickly start to drop back. At this point you know that your PC is talking to the Garmin servers and you can walk away. Resist the urge to do anything else on the PC whilst the update is going ahead!
7. GE will copy the maps (North and South sections) to internal memory and the SD card. It will over write the old map on the Nav V, but it will leave a copy of the old map on the PC. There's no need to delete files to free up space, or to select map sections. With the SD card in place in the Nav V, GE will handle everything automatically.
8. If you want to clear out old versions of maps from the PC, try using the JaVaWa GMTK program (freeware) which makes it easy and foolproof. GMTK is also very useful for copying a map to another computer. First, use GMTK to make a backup of the selected map on the 1st computer to USB stick. Install GMTK on the 2nd computer and then use it to restore the backed up map from the USB stick.
HTH
The 4Gb limit mentioned by Paul and Ian does make more sense, I'd forgotten about the file size limit when I put forward my suggestion of why they'd been split.
Whilst it may not be too noticeable the internal memory will always read faster than the SD card....They're are probably protecting their market and encouraging users to upgrade early!
Bob
Good points and well made
: 
I have three Nav V's, one I bought, one given to me free by BMW and another I picked up at a bargain basement price on this site. I always wanted two when running my Wanders, either as some bods forgot to load their routes or had trouble running them or, as did happen just once, my only device failed completely.
The third I just use for buggering about, experimenting might be the word, adding third party maps, seeing how music (I don't use it) works and the like. I also use it to see if I can replicate some faults people seem to encounter and give them some help. If I almost brick it, I can always take it back to its factory settings.... or so I hope.
Tomcat's post is helpful and is near enough identical to the process on a Mac, just some of the terminology is different.
It's the basis I'd use if I ever went back to a PC or if I had to help a friend update his maps on a PC.
If nothing else, it shows that it can be done, done easily and reasonably reliably, which is good news.
It's the basis I'd use if I ever went back to a PC or if I had to help a friend update his maps on a PC.
If nothing else, it shows that it can be done, done easily and reasonably reliably, which is good news.
I'm not having a lot of luck updating my Nav 5. It gets to 25 minutes left to go and then gives up. It just stays there, not going any further along. No matter how long you leave it.
No sign of these maps when I connect my 550 to GE. Only 2017.2. Do they offer different maps depending on the device?
iand46
Registered user
Yes, the NTU maps are for later devices post 660. Older devices only use NT. Your maps are up to date.
Aha! Ta for that.
I've just downloaded 2017.3 to both a Nuvi and Nav5. Updated Garmin Express to 5.1.1.0 (Windows 10). No signs of any split Europe maps, but more importantly as far as I'm concerned no longer any option to install the maps to computer as well as device. What gives?
My apologies, the North and South splits show up on the Nav5. However I do not have "Advanced Options" - the available map options are either "change map" or "reinstall map". Reinstall map only does just that. Up to 2017.2 I had the option to install to both PC and device, but that now seems to have disappeared.
iand46
Registered user
Try uninstalling & reinstalling GE.
As others have said, the option Tomcat describes at step 5 is no longer there.
GE version 5.1.0.0 on a macbook
GE version 5.1.0.0 on a macbook
It was there a week ago with 5.0.0.0.
I must check with the 5.1.0.0 update that came up this morning
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