Garmin Zumo 550 Memory Limitations

[beemerdons]

Since it's Dog Pile Friday here on our Fine FJR Forum and Fred W with HotRodZilla have already turned this thread into a Zumo 550 versus 660 pissing match: Anyone that does not use Rand McNally maps sucks moist *** cheese. You weak namby-pambies with your Gousha's, AAA's, Continental's and Murray's are just FJR Girlie Men!

 

[Fred W]

Please redirect all Zumo 550 vs. 660 Friday dog piling and piss matching to here

 

[road runner]

Nice writeup Fred. It sounds easy.

 

[TomInPA]

It's interesting that the older Streetpilot 2820 seemed to have more memory and advanced features than the Zumo 550.

 

[squeezer]

Dang. Hate to say something nice on a dogpile Friday, but thanks, Fred, for the write-up. I've been setting aside time to dig through the zumo forum to figure out how to do this and, whammo, here's the answer. I appreciate it.

 

[zom]

I've been setting aside time to dig through the zumo forum to figure out how to do this and, whammo, here's the answer. I appreciate it.

+1

I had not seen this thread before today. Over the weekend, I finally decided to update my 4 yr old Zumo map. I was a little disappointed when I ran into problems with the map install. Figured I'd browse the Zumo forums, but decided to check in here first for something unrelated. Thanks for the very timely writeup.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Bump for an informative thread. I'll be using Fred's recommendations very soon.

 

[dcarver]

Oh good gawd so many Thanks Fred.

I downloaded all of North America to my PC only..

Is it as simple as creating a Garmin folder on the SD card and transferring the downloaded info currently on the PC hard drive to the SD card?

 

[CAJW]

It's interesting that the older Streetpilot 2820 seemed to have more memory and advanced features than the Zumo 550.

A few weeks ago, I updated the maps on my 2820 and got an error that there was not enough memory for the files. I ended up just loading the Western US and Canada option which fit just fine. I may have too many Mp3 files, but guess it proves Fred is correct in that newer maps have larger files than previous versions. Either that or my flux capacitor is royally screwed up. :blink:

 

[TomInPA]

It's interesting that the older Streetpilot 2820 seemed to have more memory and advanced features than the Zumo 550.

A few weeks ago, I updated the maps on my 2820 and got an error that there was not enough memory for the files. I ended up just loading the Western US and Canada option which fit just fine. I may have too many Mp3 files, but guess it proves Fred is correct in that newer maps have larger files than previous versions. Either that or my flux capacitor is royally screwed up. :blink:

I have the full AMCAN North America 2013.1 on the 2820, so there is plenty of capacity. I don't keep a lot of extra language files.

 

[Fred W]

Oh good gawd so many Thanks Fred.

I downloaded all of North America to my PC only..

Is it as simple as creating a Garmin folder on the SD card and transferring the downloaded info currently on the PC hard drive to the SD card?

Not exactly. You still have to use either Mapsource (or Basecamp) or the Garmin MapInstall utility (my preferred method) to transfer the map segments that you want (probably all of them) from where they reside on your PC to your SD card. As I mentioned in my OP, you select all of the maps you want to include and it crunches them all up and puts them into one big file named gmapsupp.img on the SD card. Once you have that file generated on teh SD card you can just copy the file to additional SD cards rather than going through the hour long mapinstall again.

Hope that helps.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Oh good gawd so many Thanks Fred.

I downloaded all of North America to my PC only..

Is it as simple as creating a Garmin folder on the SD card and transferring the downloaded info currently on the PC hard drive to the SD card?

Not exactly. You still have to use either Mapsource (or Basecamp) or the Garmin MapInstall utility (my preferred method) to transfer the map segments that you want (probably all of them) from where they reside on your PC to your SD card. As I mentioned in my OP, you select all of the maps you want to include and it crunches them all up and puts them into one big file named gmapsupp.img on the SD card. Once you have that file generated on teh SD card you can just copy the file to additional SD cards rather than going through the hour long mapinstall again.

This.

I followed Fred's instructions (backed up everything on the GPS onto my desktop, deleted that file from the Garmin directory on the Zumo, and downloaded Garmin's MapInstall application) - MapInstall plopped the file in a Garmin directory on my SD card, and the GPS found it right away. Picking the map segments was interesting - make sure you zoom in to ensure you select some of the metropolitan areas.

Hope that helps.

Sure did. Buy ya a beer at NERDS, big boy. :drinks:

 

[bbdig]

Fred The NECC will gladly sign up for the in home zumo 550 course. All this did was make my head spin. Every time i touch the damn thing I screw it up. :angry2:

 

[BikerGeek99]

Every time i touch the damn thing I screw it up. :angry2:

Wait wait wait wait....

YOU got an electronic GPS?

YOU??

YOU, mister "manual GPS" (AKA paper map) neophyte??

I mean, c'mon her **** sakes... You still use a slide rule!!

 

[beemerdons]

Every time i touch the damn thing I screw it up. :angry2:

Wait wait wait wait....

YOU got an electronic GPS?

YOU??

YOU, mister "manual GPS" (AKA paper map) neophyte??

I mean, c'mon her **** sakes... You still use a slide rule!!

Piss on that pipsqueak Jack, REAL MEN always use paper maps and slide rules!

 

[dcarver]

Yep, worked really well. Gotta say though, Garmin has the worst software programmers in the world. What an unnecessarily complicated process they have inflicted upon the end user.

Thanks again Fred!

 

[Fred W]

Every time i touch the damn thing I screw it up. :angry2:

Wait wait wait wait....

YOU got an electronic GPS?

YOU??

YOU, mister "manual GPS" (AKA paper map) neophyte??

I mean, c'mon her **** sakes... You still use a slide rule!!

Yeah Captain Jack (you did know that he was Captain of the CFR '11, FJR Dual Sport team, right?) abd his good pillion Jane were slated to go cross country to NAFO among other things. That incentive had Jack scrambling to buy (and learn how to use) a GPS. We got him all set up this winter with a zumo 550, then good pillion Jane went and broke her leg skiing at the end of the season.

We'll have to get together for some GPS lessons, Jack. There is a lot to learn to get the most out of these things.

Yep, worked really well. Gotta say though, Garmin has the worst software programmers in the world. What an unnecessarily complicated process they have inflicted upon the end user.

Thanks again Fred!

You are more than welcome. It's the least I can do to help out my brother FJR owners.

 

[bbdig]

Every time i touch the damn thing I screw it up. :angry2:

Wait wait wait wait....

YOU got an electronic GPS?

YOU??

YOU, mister "manual GPS" (AKA paper map) neophyte??

I mean, c'mon her **** sakes... You still use a slide rule!!

Trying to upgrade from the analog GPS. Hard to teach old dogs new tricks.

 

[Fred W]

I just found another really good reason why you should follow my advice and load all of your North America maps onto an SD card rather than installing them to your Zumo 550 (but this would actually apply to any zumo).

I realized the other day that I am two map versions behind (I have the nuMaps lifetime maps for my zumo), so I downloaded and installed the updated maps to my PC. But, we have a group ride going on this weekend in the Adirondacks, so I am (normally) hesitant to update maps to my GPS the day before leaving. Having the maps loaded onto an SD card means that I can put the latest version of maps onto one SD card, and also have the last (known good) version of maps loaded onto another one as a fall back.

If I had any problems following the routes with the newest maps, I could easily go back to the earlier maps just by powering the GPS down and switching SD cards (physically easier on a 550 than a 66x). The waypoints, tracklogs, and routes are all loaded into the GPS's internal memory, so you wouldn't lose any of those when switching.

Kule! :thumbsup:

 

[pmspaul]

Fred,

I just wanted to thank you for putting this how to together for us. I just picked up(stole, really) a 550 from an inmate on the ADV forum. When I registered it to me I discovered it had a free map update available. I had read of the issues of new maps not fitting in their entirety, so I was leery of updating until I found this thread. Being a total Zumo noob, I just followed your excellent step by step and voila, I have all of USA, Canada and a smidge of Mexico all loaded and ready to go.

Picking the map segments was interesting - make sure you zoom in to ensure you select some of the metropolitan areas.

I just clicked on the map and dragged a square that selects everything it touches/encompasses. But, then again, I wanted almost everything (but islands).

Someone mentioned the need to have everything installed at once. Well, if you ride rallies, you never know where you'll wind up. You might leave GA, run into Canada and finish up in CO. Having a way to get all the maps I needed loaded at once was a necessity for me.

Thanks again Fred! :clapping: