Can SD Cards accept Charts/Maps?

[CaptMyCapt]

From the research I've done so far, it appears that the SD card is for expansion for applications that run on the Palm OS. However I was told by a salesman in a boating store that additional Charts and Maps would not be able to load to an SD Card, but must be loaded to the RAM in the iQue only. Seems like this is a major drawback. With my current Garmin, I have to constantly unload and load charts and maps due to the large amount of memory they need. You would think SD Cards would be Garmins planned remedy for this shortcoming. No?

[Moose Man]

At the worst case scenario - the iQue should be able to store charts and maps on the SD card and then move them back and forth from the card into RAM. Also, with the 32MB RAM available from the get go you should be able to nearly load all of California based upon my experience with my Street Pilot III. But, we may not know for certain until the unit ships.

The Garmin web site refers to the SD slot as "flexible memory" and additional programs so as I stated above - it'll store maps and be able to move them back and forth fairly easily.

[CaptMyCapt]

Good point, Moose Man. I could deal with your stated "worst case . . ." since we wouldn't need to carry a laptop around, or run back to a desktop whenever we wanted to drive or ship out to a different geographic location. However, the jury is still out for me. I appreciate you being able to nearly load all of CA (BTW, how much memory is in the SPIII?), but, after I loaded maps and a route from DC to NY, I was not able to load all maps, and there was no room on my GPSmap76s (24 megs of mem) for my Charts and Routes to my favorite sailing areas around Annapolis, Baltimore, and St Michaels. The limited memory on my GPSmap76s notwithstanding, it would still take more that the basic memory in the iQue to house a significant number of Charts/Maps/Routes. Frankly, I would like to have all land Maps and Bay/Ocean Charts loaded, and have a 'forget about it' scenario. A 256 SD Card would do the trick. If all this comes to pass, I'd even be willing to use a 512 SD Card and give up my T|T to some deserving friend - smile.

BTW - Does the SPIII have an expansion slot? If so, CF or SD?

[Moose Man]

The III is about 4 years old and was shipped with about 512k- I can get most of Northern California on it that I wanted but I don't have any experience with Blue Chart so no idea as to how much it uses.

On the III - the routes for most of the major roads are installed as part of the base map. I simply add the desired county detail which will also provide the city detail. It's not the most efficient means because of a serial data cable and no expansion device so it's load and unload what you want.

With a 256MB SD card - I'd have to believe that it will store most of what you want. Once, I have the iQue in my hands - it might be an idea to have more than one 256 MB card but I doubt it for certain regions.

I am taking the family on an Alaskan cruise and was hopeful to have th unit by departure but with a July ship date - I'll get it when I get back, sad.

However, I'll use it for getting around the foothills of California.

[CaptMyCapt]

Thanks Moose Man - Thanks for the info. You'll have to let us know what you think of the iQue after you've had time to play with it. I had planned to get the SPIII, but am now holding off. Have a safe trip.

[CaptMyCapt]

Thank you for contacting Garmin.

The iQue 3600 will have the ability to store maps using the SD RAM.
However, it has not yet been worked out exactly how much of that RAM can be
utilized for this purpose.


With Best Regards,


GARMIN International
Product Support Specialist
sales@garmin.com

[Moose Man]

Hence the reason for the delay? Since Palm Source had overcome the barrier of 16MB RAM after the annoucement of the iQue this is not surprising but I've got to believe that you will still be able to "move" files from SD RAM to actual RAM and then there is no limitation except for the overloading the RAM on the device with too many maps.

I wonder if the delay will also result in OS 5.2.1 instead of just 5.0?

[CaptMyCapt]

Originally posted by Moose Man

I wonder if the delay will also result in OS 5.2.1 instead of just 5.0?

I think you nailed it!

On your 'version' note, although folks 'can't wait' to get this into their hot hands, if the delay is for OS 5.2.1, it may be a worthwhile wait since this is a significant, albeit incremental, upgrade. I think this would position the unit much better in the market if it is, in fact, released with OS 5.2.1.