Zumo 550: updated the maps, now worse than ever

sennister said:
We were standing there for a while waiting for it to boot up.
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That is all it took for me. I think I broke it up with 100 files per folder. That will take all of what - 10 minutes. I do not go through that start up sequence. Then again, mine is left on most of the time for a weekend event. Many have been concerned about it being on, but have not had a problem in 6 years of operating this way.

Kevin
 
Two things I've found to work on speeding up boot times.
20 mp3's per file seems to be the magic number. Also, the Garmin's don't like titles over 32 characters.
 
JPrieST said:
........ It still routes me 3 miles out of the way to my local Walmart because it refuses to use a well established 2 lane road that has been there as long as I have lived in this area. If I turn on this road it will keep recalculating and directing me to turn around and go back. This continues until I am 1/4 mile from my destination (it telling me to turn around and follow a two mile loop to get back to where I am. This actually happens quite often in areas I know where I'm going. Not a big deal as I know the way, but makes me wonder how much time and miles I'm wasting when I'm using it to route me outside of my area.
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I have a similar problem in my area on a long established road.. it prompts me Off Route, Recalculate in two places while travelling on that road. The national database is populated with data supplied by the local municipalities...... in this case, there were small breaks in the road map where it looks like they provided two or three separate pieces of data, and since the small break means the road it sees is not continuous in GPS speak, you get the Off Route message. You have to zoom in to find these, something you wouldn't normally do.
 
Did everybody buy their updates direct from Garmin? Amazon has a vender selling lifetime maps for like $60. It seems too good to be true but saving $30 would be nice if its legit
 
I bought the Lifetime Map Updates through Amazon; it's legit. What I received is a credit-card-sized card with a unique PIN. Then I went to myGarmin, entered the PIN and updated the maps. It worked very well.
 
Thanks for the info STripper, just ordered them for $53 from amazon. Hope it gets here before I leave for Jacksonville!
 
Just to confirm that I received my map card from amazon and everything works as it should. So it is definitely a good deal to go that route instead of paying full retail from Garmin.
 
I just updated on my 550 and had to retrain myself yet again....worse than a time change! Garmin now wants you to update using Garmin Express but I found v3.2.2 of Mapupdater much easier to use!

http://download.garmin.com/lmu/GarminMapUpdater.exe

Lots of threads about this on the Zumoforums

The North American Maps are now about 1.8 gigs or so I just put the whole thing on the SD card again.
 
MeanST said:
I just updated on my 550 and had to retrain myself yet again....worse than a time change! Garmin now wants you to update using Garmin Express but I found v3.2.2 of Mapupdater much easier to use!

http://download.garmin.com/lmu/GarminMapUpdater.exe

Lots of threads about this on the Zumoforums

The North American Maps are now about 1.8 gigs or so I just put the whole thing on the SD card again.
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I didn't like garmin express at all! I couldn't get it to download my maps I had purchased. This might have been operator error since I'm not the most tech savvy guy. I ended up using Basecamp to do it and that worked out just fine. I put all North America on an SD card that was in the Zumo (couldn't figure out how to do it without the zumo). Now I just need to load some mp3's on there and ill be good to go.

**update**
This actually didn't work for me. I thought it did because I had somehow gotten a newer mapset but not the 2013.40! After much fighting with Garmin Express I, like MeanST, used garmin map updater. I first loaded all US & Canada to my computer using updater so basecamp would have a local copy, then used Garmin map uploader (IIRC) to put the entire thing on an SD card (16g). Now I have all of US & Canada version 2013.40 in my zumo 550! To be fair, if I only wanted to put a portion of the US in my Zumo, Garmin Express would be great. I successfully downloaded the SE lower 48 with it before I discovered the updater program. I really wanted the entire US because first, I paid for it, and last, the SE maps didn't include Louisiana, which some of my upcoming trips might include.
 
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Ken:

I just joined the Zumo 500 world - more advice you can give me!!!!!!!

Ken H said:
Separate but related question. Downloading the entire map is something I have never done because there is not enough room in memory. I have only loaded various regions so presumably the map data I have is loaded to the internal memory on the Zumo. I do have an SD card that I use for music files. I like the idea of having the entire map available if it will all fit on an SD card but I would still like to keep all of my music files on the SD card as well. My question is is there a maximum size SD card that the Zumo 550 will accommodate? And how much space does the entire lower 48 map take up?
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Garmin says max SD card size for the Zumo 550 is 4 GB. However, many people are using up to 16 GB and say that everything works fine. Zumo 550 will not recognize more than 1, 000 MP3 files no matter how big the memory card is. I would recomend the smallest that allows your map files (1.8 GB for all of N.A.) plus whatever else you want on it. Maybe an option is to a 4 GB SD card for the complete mapset and use all of the Zumo internal memory for the MP3 files. I don't load any MP3 files so I have no idea how much room they need.

See attached refeence documents.
 

Attachments

  • SD Card Size.doc
    30 KB · Views: 12
  • Updating Maps Rev E Jul 2011.pdf
    263.4 KB · Views: 14
  • Update Zumo Maps.txt
    1.9 KB · Views: 31
Only had my ST for a yr and starting to get it dialed in for a trip up to new england so I want to get a good GPS system. Sound like overall the Zumo 550 is a good unit and since I am computer challenged I think I will follow your lead Stmike and call garmin and let them do the update lol.
 
Kottbullar said:
Ken:

I just joined the Zumo 500 world - more advice you can give me!!!!!!!
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Murray-
Don't forget to bring the small Allen wrench with you that is required to remove the battery. The Zumo is known to not want to power up at times. Usually removing and replacing the battery alleviates that problem. If you encounter that problem clean the battery contacts while you have the battery out.

Also, if you are using the cradle for the Zumo and you secure the Zumo into the cradle with the security screw dont forget the security screw tool so you can remove the Zumo from the cradle when you need or want to.

Don't forget to bring maps. The Zumo is a great tool but if for some reason you are not able to use it it is a good idea to have maps to fall back on. I learned this the hard way on a trip where I had no maps and was not able to use the Zumo due to the cradle crapping out.

Don't forget the USB interface cable so you can connect the Zumo to a computer if you want to.

If you have a space issue with getting all of the maps stored that you want to store on the Zumo's internal memory and want to load them onto an SD card instead let me know and I can tell you how I did it.

Ken
 
Wrestled with the beast all day - and sorted it out. Maps updated, topos for Ark added. Shut down bug fixed ......
Hadn't thought of the wrench - good advice.

Have the colour printouts of the file you sent me - its my backup.

Are you still workin' next week?
 
Ken H said:
Yes. Monday, Thursday and Sunday.


IIRC the darn thing will shut down all on its own sometimes and removing and replacing the battery is a remedy for when that happens also.
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I had this problem w/ my 450 and it was a corrupted SD card. Replaced with a new card and hasn't had the problem since.
 
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