SD Cards

 

Can someone tell me why I should use an SD card in my Nuvi 350. I can't seem to find anything in the instructions saying it can read from the card while it is running, such as POI it always asks if I want to copy the info the unit's memory.

Thanks for your input

See also

It can read from the card while running

I have my MP3s on my SD card...they play fine/

And when the unit asks about copying to the unit, you can say no, and the POIs are available just fine.

--
*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Thanks for the info, Garmin

Thanks for the info, Garmin not so good when it comes to instructions....

May be slower

There has been some discussion here that the SD cards are slower than the internal memory. A couple links are http://www.poi-factory.com/node/3579 and http://www.poi-factory.com/node/880.

RT

--
"Internet: As Yogi Berra would say, "Don't believe 90% of what you read, and verify the other half."

i dont know about the nuvi

i dont know about the nuvi butthe streetpilot 330 and 340 the sd slot is pretty useless

--
nuvi 755t

Extra's

I put all my pictures and MP3's on the SD card and it works great. This way it's on the card and not the GPS its self. I also put some POI files that I am constantly updating on the SD card so I can put the card in the card reader and don't have to always plug my GPS in to my PC.

--
35.528475, -113.230839 nuvi 650, 260W

SD Cards

I bought a 2 GB SanDisk and it works great for storing MP3's and POI's.

--
Garmin Nuvi 350, v6.2, City Navigator North America NT 2012, City Navigator Europe NT v9

Using SD card for custom POI's

So let me get this straight. I can put some custom POI's on my SD card, plug it into my 680, tell it not to copy to 680, and the custom POI's will still be available to select as a goto spot? You are right, the Garmin documentation leaves much to be desired.

Custom POIs

Custom POIs show on the My Locations screen as a separate item like Favourites or Recent Selections. If you loaded several POI files using POI Loader, then each file has it's own selection or a combined "All Categories" selection button. When one of these categories is selected then the Nuvi lists them in order of closest to farthest just as selecting "Food," for example, would do after selecting Go to?

--
Garmin Nuvi 350, v6.2, City Navigator North America NT 2012, City Navigator Europe NT v9

Yes, also....

zrxh14 wrote:

So let me get this straight. I can put some custom POI's on my SD card, plug it into my 680, tell it not to copy to 680, and the custom POI's will still be available to select as a goto spot? You are right, the Garmin documentation leaves much to be desired.

That is correct. With my c530, every time I would start it up it would ask me if I wanted to load the POIs from the sd card into my Garmin. That became anoying. Then I learned that if you answer yes to the question and then on the following screen say you don't want to be alerted again and also check that you don't want to load the pois, it will stop the anoying screen until you either 1. Change the POIs on your sd card or 2. Update software.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

I guess my issue is if you

I guess my issue is if you put it on the SD card from what I have learned in my whole week of having this you don't have to put them on the internal memory....the issue is it seems a lot slower in pulling the info from the SD card and there is only so much memory internally.... so can I store the car types or the lang...and voice that i am not using on the sd and move the POI's to the internal hard drive?

thoughts...

Internal memory vs SD Cards

I've used a 4GB SD card in my previous 350 (that I gave to my sister when upgraded) and now in my 660 - and I don't notice any difference in speed between SD Cards vs internal memory (Nuvis are flash memory - no hard drive).

And yes, you can free up space on the unit's memory by deleting voice files you will never, ever use (I nuked everything but the versions of English on my 660...)

--
*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Lots of music

I use a 4GB SD card in my nuvi 670 and can store around 800 mp3's. It's kind of like using an ipod through my car stereo and the music pauses when the nuvi talks to me (I hear voices). The only drawback that I have noticed is from a cold start it takes a few moments for the maps to load but then its fine.

--
nüvi 660 & 670 - Hello I'm a Mac :))

Routes on 680

OK, I created a route from a distant location to another but you can't save it, right? So, if you can't save it what is the value of being able to create it? I guess I just don't understand. We used to use a laptop with Streets and Trips but last month in Louisiana it kept losing the USB port that the GPS was plugged in and my wife said 'we need to get one of those that are just a GPS' so that was all the OK I needed and went to Best Buy and got the 680. We love it and would have been totally lost for 16 days there without it. The only downfall is the inability to really create and save routes. We have the beanbag mount and it works great.

Anybody?

POI's on SD Card

I just recently purchased a 680 and am in the process of learning how to use it with POI Loader. When I hook the 680 to my PC with the USB cable I see the Nuvi with the SD card listed.

The POI folder shows on the Nuvi. From your statement, you can load POI files on the SD card. I'm assuming that the Nuvi doesn't care whether the POI files are located in the Nuvi memory or on the SD card - but how do you direct POI Loader to load the GPI files onto the SD card?

Loading to SD Card

tjablons wrote:

The POI folder shows on the Nuvi. From your statement, you can load POI files on the SD card. I'm assuming that the Nuvi doesn't care whether the POI files are located in the Nuvi memory or on the SD card - but how do you direct POI Loader to load the GPI files onto the SD card?

The first screen in POI Loader shows where the files will go. You can select either your Nuvi or the SD card.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

SD vs internal memory

kch50428 wrote:

I've used a 4GB SD card in my previous 350 (that I gave to my sister when upgraded) and now in my 660 - and I don't notice any difference in speed between SD Cards vs internal memory (Nuvis are flash memory - no hard drive).

On a c530, I notice the difference in speed when I use alerts with the redlight files. The alert seems to come up quicker when the file is in internal memory.

--
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

Speed Wise...

I did a little test with my nuvi 650 yesterday and today. I have a few camera lights around where I live in CA and I loaded my POI's on to my internal memory to see where I would be when it alerted me. Then today I put them only on my SD card and my GPS notified me at the same locations each time. So to me it makes no difference if its on the card or internal. Test this yourself to see if it makes a difference.

--
35.528475, -113.230839 nuvi 650, 260W

I belive you are correct

GPSCHAD wrote:

I did a little test with my nuvi 650 yesterday and today. I have a few camera lights around where I live in CA and I loaded my POI's on to my internal memory to see where I would be when it alerted me. Then today I put them only on my SD card and my GPS notified me at the same locations each time. So to me it makes no difference if its on the card or internal. Test this yourself to see if it makes a difference.

I think you are correct. Once the maps have loaded it's the same, I think. I do see a difference as to how long it takes for my maps to show up from a cold start but since I never turn my Nuvi off it make no difference to me.

--
nüvi 660 & 670 - Hello I'm a Mac :))

SD card

SD card good only for extra storage.

my observation

My c550 doesn't seem to care if the info is on the sd card or internal memory. Alerts seem to be given at the same location, if there is a difference it must be micro-seconds.

Depending on the model of GPSr you have the SD card is a valuable option. Example c320, 330, 340 it may be only good as a map holder.

Other units can read custom poi's, mp3's, tourguide files etc from the SD card.

If one wants to delete voices/languages from the unit to free up memory, do it. Perhaps copy them to your computer first, in case you ever want to restore the unit.

--
........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........