First time user.

Hi, I have been fortunate enough to get a free Nav 5 with my 1200gs. I have seen from this forum many frustrated readers struggle with base camp etc. I have been thinking wow is it really this hard to plan a route.

I sifted through some of the posts and came upon one recommending motogoloco as an alternative to basecamp. So I thought I would give it a go.

So here's my experience as a complete newbie till last night.

I connected my nav 5 to my PC and of course there was a update of software and maps available, I installed a 16gb SD card and did the updates. However when I look at the contents on the nav 5 I see that the updates must have been put into its internal memory. I thought that SD card would have been the preferred storage point or is there a way of changing that ? please let me know.

I down loaded the motogoloco site and did a couple of very simple routes. My attempts to transfer the file to the nav 5 failed despite downloading the latest plug in from Garmin. So I transferred the files from the computer hard drive direct to the Nav 5 and it works just fine.


I did down load base camp and briefly had a bash at doing the same route. I think that bit of software is designed for frequent users and was not suitable for my use. ( read, it was to complicated. )

This morning I did the same but used my mac air book and that allowed instant export from motogoloco to the nav 5, so even smoother.

Again cheers to you regular posters who have given me the courage to have a go at this task.

So let me know should my import maps be on my SD card because that has the space and internal memory sits at 99% full. The only thing on the SD card is the routes I have transferred.

Steve (ex GPS newbie )

Thanks Steve - I'm gonna give this a go...

Hi Steve - to get your memory back follow the instruction in the Nav 5 Sticky at the top of this forum section titled 'Nav 5 map update', although there is a lot of posts in it I just followed post #2, but before deleting anything I followed post #3 (most important) and finally #8. If you have already updated the maps to you pc as well as the Nav 5 you don't need to download them again you will be able to use the map updater program to 'reload' the map from your pc to the Nav 5, it should also give you the option to install it onto the SD card (it can take an hour or so to upload) and when finished you should have lots more free space in your internal memory and hopefully a fully working updated Nav 5

Ross (someone who just went through all this last weekend)

I have two Nav V's.

On one, all the map updates have loaded onto the device, not the card.

On the other, the map updates loaded onto the card, not the device.

Make what you will of that.

PS Whether the maps end up on the device or the card it makes no real odds. The device needs a card as, at some stage in the updating process, data is taken from the device and put onto the card. It is then moved back again at some later point. No card = nowhere to move data to.

Why do Garmin do this? No idea.

Why don't Garmin put bigger memory capacity into the device in the first place? Easy. Bods woukd only fill it with music, pictures of cats and other tat.

useful information

Thanks to Wapping and Rossyb for their posts.

Rossyb I will have a go at the sequence you recommended for the transfer of data, I have been bitten in the past by totally lost data so it will be a belt and braces job for me. But having the info on a SD card makes sense to me.

Wapping, prior to my down load the system said there was not enough memory space for the down load I selected. That's when I put the SD card in. However when all the updates were done I checked the internal memory (99%) and the SD card, one folder and only about (1%) full.

So that suggests the unit was may have been holding data on the card and then transferring it to the internal memory.

A couple of months ago I took my ipad into the apple store to have the battery condition checked out. There had been a update for the OS sitting there on the screen for months but there was not enough internal memory. Apple did it for me in the store in a manner similar to using the SD card for temporary data storage. They just used a laptop instead and now the ipad has its new OS and still space in the memory ( but not a lot ).

So Wapping sounds like your post makes sense to me.

Steve

I found the same. There isnt a fat lot of spare space on the Nav-V after map updates

Stick everything you can on the card

I have 32gb one with all my routes and stuff and a load of music