Streetpilot III..can I update to newer maps?

 

I'm trying to help out a buddy of mine who's mechanically/electronically challenged. He has a Streetpilot III with what appears to be the original maps from 9 years ago.
He's not aware of any data cord that came with it and I don't see a USB plug-in port. It does have a 250mb "Garmin" data card.
Is there any way to update the maps on these, and if so, what are good methods & how expensive is it to do?
Thanks,
J.P.

--
Montgomery Co, MD

Looking at the owners manual

Looking at the owners manual page 23 for Streetpilot I3 http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/917_OwnersManual.pdf you can load maps using a usb cable .

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Updating maps in that GPS III ... maybe, maybe not !

jptl wrote:

I'm trying to help out a buddy of mine who's mechanically/electronically challenged. He has a Streetpilot III with what appears to be the original maps from 9 years ago.
He's not aware of any data cord that came with it and I don't see a USB plug-in port. It does have a 250mb "Garmin" data card.
Is there any way to update the maps on these, and if so, what are good methods & how expensive is it to do?
Thanks,
J.P.

The old StreetPilot III doesn't have a USB port. It had a cable with a serial port connector in one end and the 4 pin GPS connector on the other as you can see in the followin picture.

http://gpsinformation.net/spiii/sp3photos.htm

You can also use a USB to serial interface to hook it to a PC as most modern PC's don't even have a serial port connector. All the detail maps are saved on that little proprietary garmin card which can be loaded over the serial port while installed in the GPS or alternately you can use the Garmin USB data card programmer (the domed looking device also in the picture). You need Garmins mapsource program and the maps that you can transfer to the data card using mapsource.

If memory serves me correctly, the only way to get detailed maps into that GPS is on one of the Data Cards. The GPS contains only a built in "Basemap" with no street level detail. So if you have no data card(s) game is over. They are proprietary Garmin cards and very expensive, even today. You can read all about that GPS here:

http://gpsinformation.net/spiii/sp3review.htm

Unfortunarely, that Street Pilot III is incompatable with all of the new NT formatted maps so the latest (and last) maps that GPS can possibly use (if you are in the USA) is named "City Navigator North America 2009". These are the last Non-NT maps produced for North America and there have been 7 map updates since their release in 2008 so by todays standards they are still very old.

To be honest with you, that unit is an old dog and I wouldn't put any money into it. You can buy a new Nuvi for what the maps will probably cost if you can find them. The possible good news is that I own those 2009 maps and will never use them again so if you feel ambitious and want to play with that unit I'd be happy to simply give the maps to you.

Get back to me if you are interested. All is not rosey though. Those 2009 maps will "theoretically" work in that unit. The caveat is that the map tiles (smallest map segments you can get from those maps) that can be selected for loading onto the data card might be to large to even fit on the data card (cards came in multiple sizes). Over the years, Garmin made a lot of changes to the sizes of the map segments as the different GPS models came out with more internal memory.

--
Frank, MA.

I still have a StreetPilot III

And the above comments pretty much cover it. You would have to purchase City Navigator Version 8 dated 2006 and get an unlock code that would permit the map segments to be copied to the proprietary data card used in that particular GPSr. The unlock code will tie it to the device SN, very similar to the way the nüMaps are tied to a particular nüvi. I have a 128MB card and can copy the equivalent of about 4 mid-west states on it. If making a cross country trip, you would have to selectively copy segments that cover your intended route; hopefully all the segments needed will fit on that data card. When I went to myGarmin, it says there are no updates past CN V8 for the StreetPilot III.

The map segments are copied from MapSource to the data card either through the serial cable and this is an incredibly slow process, or via the USB data card programmer; faster, but let's not say fast.

Agreed: Buy a low end nüvi for about the same cost of City Navigator. I had no idea what I was missing until my wife bought me a nüvi a couple of years ago. The StreetPilot III was great in its day, but so was a lot other things we no longer use.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

SPIII

The SPIII is a dinosaur. The proprietary 128 Meg stick mine had didn't hold much for maps. On a trip from Wisconsin to Washington and from there to Tulsa and back to Wisconsin I had to take my laptop so I could reload the maps when we got to Washington for the trip home.

--
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

SPIII and NMEA

I have a friend outside of Toronto who still has one. He would love to upgrade to a newer unit but the SPIII supports NMEA output which he uses for Amateur Radio APRS. None of the current auto GPS's support NMEA directly. There are some adapter cables available that allow conversion from Garmin's proprietary Fleet Management Protocol to NMEA but support is limited.

It is another case of Garmin removing features from newer units. NMEA is a useful standard protocol and I am surprised they do not support it in any of the auto based units.

--
I support the right to keep and arm bears.

NEMA

Aardvark wrote:

... the SPIII supports NMEA output which he uses for Amateur Radio APRS ... NMEA is a useful standard protocol and I am surprised they do not support it in any of the auto based units.

Perhaps this was a trade-off to design a trim package without additional wires in the umbilical cable as the average user wouldn't have a use for the NEMA protocol over a serial port. At least the current series of handheld GPSrs such as the GPSMAP 60Cx and eTrex Legend Cx retains NEMA support. The GPSMAP 60Cx could be used as an automotive GPSr in a pinch, but the nuvi is arguably a better design for automotive use.

--
"There's no substitute for local knowledge" nüvi 750, nüvi 3597

Thanks for the useful

Thanks for the useful replies. I'm a nice guy, but being that this is a buddy's GPS, I don't want to get in deeper than I would if it were mine.
I'm going to suggest that he get with the 21st century & retrofit a Nuvi to the mount (BMW K1200LT).
It's a shame to see such a state-of-the-art, undoubtedly pricey piece of electronic equipment fall to the wayside, but that's the price of technology, I guess...particularly when it comes to GPS and memory.
An interesting sidenote: this SPIII has a Garmin brand 256mb datacard. From all I can see, the most it can use is 128mb.
Thanks again....

--
Montgomery Co, MD

Frank, I appreciate your

Frank,
I appreciate your generous offer. Since I don't have the cable to interface with my PC, it appears that getting any update onto this unit is a 2 step process, and even with your offer, the cost of the cable probably isn't worth the effort.

--
Montgomery Co, MD

.

The SP3 can use the 256 meg card (and will fully utilise it) if you felt like buying it - and it uses it completely.

The SP3 can fit all of the maps necessary for a complete route from New York to Los Angeles WITH the city of LA into a single 128 meg card - the trick is to use Mapsource's 'select maps around route' feature to get only what you need.

And for those of us who may not like pastels, the simple fact is that being high contrast, the display on the SP3 is EXTREMELY readable. And, it may not be the fastest thing out there, but you certainly can't out-drive it - and it NEVER crashes.

2006 mapping wouldn't be a hardship for most - they don;t exactly build roads all THAT fast.

On occasion I take out the old box and use it as a loaner for people who may not know where we are headed, yet don't have navigators of their own.

--
Currently have: SP3, GPSMAP 276c, Nuvi 760T, Nuvi 3790LMT, Zumo 660T

SP III

bramfrank wrote:

The SP3 can use the 256 meg card (and will fully utilise it) if you felt like buying it - and it uses it completely.

The SP3 can fit all of the maps necessary for a complete route from New York to Los Angeles WITH the city of LA into a single 128 meg card - the trick is to use Mapsource's 'select maps around route' feature to get only what you need.

I always liked to load the complete route because it was annoying just running on the base maps, that's why I always took my laptop.

I never bought the optional 256 meg card because if I remember right Garmin wanted over a hundred dollars for it.

--
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

I still use my SPIII almost

I still use my SPIII almost every week. CN 2009 is the newest and final map for it. I figure I paid $899 for it, I might as well get as much use out of it as I possibly can. I have a 128MB datacard; pray it doesn't die or the GPS is finished.. cheaper to buy a new unit

I too have an SPIII

Very interesting to read all these comments. I'm still sticking to my SPIII because I like it very much, and I've hardwired it and don't want to remove the permanent dash mount! Seriously, you have to be quite committed and enthusiastic to justify this unit these days. Garmin have made it hard in no longer offering mapping updates. However, as a previous poster has said, roads don't get built that quickly. Also, how many of you buy a new road atlas every year?

I live in the UK, and I'm lucky enough to have two 256MB cards. I got one quite cheaply from eBay a few years ago, and another from a spare SPIII I bought recently for spares and accessories. However, there don't seem to be many around now (one on eBay for GBP 113 - ouch!) This card is big enough to cover the whole of the British Isles and a fair bit of the near continent (parts of France, Belgium and the Netherlands).

This unit is popular with motorcyclists for its rugged waterproof case, and the fact that it's very stable and reliable. However, much as I love it, I'd have to concede that for the average automotive user, a new unit (I've heard the Nuvis are good) would be a much better choice.

Oh, and one more thing Garmin has done (or rather hasn't done) to make it difficult: they don't offer support for the card reader device with 64 bit operating systems. This means that what would take 40 minutes to download a 256MB map set takes over 9 hours via the serial/usb cable!

Greetings from England!
John:smile: