How big of a card for TomTom 6 and USA Maps

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Sep 24, 2006
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Hi, I have a Dell Axim X30 312Mhz which I would like to use with TomTom 6 Navigator. I was just curious how big of an SD card I would need for the installation. I understand that bigger is better, so this is more of "how small can I get away with, assuming that Navigator is all I have on the card."

Also, is there a way to split the maps so that I can have, for example, only the maps of a section of the US at any given time? I already have Streets and Trips and Street Atlas for my laptop, so I only want to have the PDA for small trips.

Thanks!
 
Obviously price is your major factor. Meaning, if you could get a 4GB SD card for only $12, you most likely would want the bigger card, right? That's what I'm assuming with this response.

So, given that theory, I think what's most important here is for you to know that you do not need a "fast" SD card for this application. All SD cards read at the same speed -- the "fast" cards (advertised as 20X, 50X, etc.) only write at faster speeds, and the cost of such "fast" cards is associated with the speed. Once you copy TomTom to a slow (normal) SD card, 99.9% of the time all you will be doing is reading from it anyway. So don't waste money on a "fast" card for use with TomTom. If you're planning on using it for other things (digital still or video camera, etc.), then you may want to invest in something faster.

I'm emphasizing the slow cards because they are rather inexpensive now. I just purchased a couple of 1GB Kingston SD cards at Buy.com for only $12 each after rebate. Kingston rebates tend to be very fast and after about 1/2 dozen rebate purchases of Kingston products, I have yet to have problems with a single rebate. A 1GB card should be enough for TomTom Navigator 6, and should be able to store the entire North American map on it.

As for breaking up the single big map into smaller ones, I don't think you can do that with Nav 6. You were able to do that with Nav 5, but that strategy resulted in the disappointing limitation that you could not do cross continent navigation (like plan a trip from Florida to California). You were limited to navigating within regions of the USA (SE, NE, SW, NW, etc.). Although this may not be a problem for you if you're only navigating within your state, it can be a problem if you want to go from North Carolina to Virginia, because that's where the region division is. You can also download state-only maps from TomTom, but that will cost you extra money. I think your best bet is to buy an inexpensive 1GB card, store the entire North American map on it, and just go from there.

Here are some links to current sales:

Kingston Pro Elite 2GB SD Card $29 free shipping

OCZ 1GB SD Card $11.99 with $5 shipping

Kingston 1GB SD Card $16.99 with $5 shipping

To get the same deal I got at Buy.com, you'll have to watch for their rebates/sales almost daily because their rebates usually only cover a 3-5 day purchase period.
 
Wow this is good information Chris. When I was looking for a navigation unit, I was thinking of going through PDA. Now I'm glad I made my choice for All in one.
 
Yeah, the lack of cross-continent navigation in TomTom Nav 5 for the Palm was a HUGE disappointment for me. They offered a partial solution that was basically a major roads map (a USA map of nothing but interstate and major highway roads), but that was a poor solution at best due to you still couldn't do door-to-door cross continent navigation with loading about three different maps and regenerating your route during the trip. I am very pleased to hear that Nav 6 eliminated that issue by having one big map file instead of regional maps.

Like you, though, I'm glad I switched from TomTom on my Palm device to the GO700. I'm really liking it, even if it does mean carrying yet another electronic device around with me.
 
Yeah, it was a huge dissappointment for everyone I think.. but the problem wasn't that they couldn't do it, just that they probably didn't think it was wise because of PDA's limitations in memory and processing power.

You're probably going to see a lot PDA's that were compatible with Navigator 5 that are no longer compatible with Navigator 6.
 
How fast is fast enough

Hello all,

I have a Dell X51V w/ Tom Tom 6.
Currently using a 2Gig card which is running out of room.
I want to upgrade to a 4Gig card.
I read an earlier post on speed. Since TOM TOM does more reading,
What speed should I get where increasing would not make a difference.
Would be interested in any 4Gig cards that should be considered.

thanks
KenK
 
Apprecaite the info

I also did more reading and found several people using the 150X Transend card.
I use 256Meg in my camera and had good luck so I just ordered
their 4GB 150X SD card and a 4GB CF card. Total with shipping
came to $93 from Newegg. I can use the CF card for backups.

thanks
KenK

I communicated with battom about the 4GB card awhile back and he uses this model.

I would wait though for battom to tell you what he thinks of it.
 
I also did more reading and found several people using the 150X Transend card.
I use 256Meg in my camera and had good luck so I just ordered
their 4GB 150X SD card and a 4GB CF card. Total with shipping
came to $93 from Newegg. I can use the CF card for backups.

thanks
KenK

That sounds like a very good price for the two cards.
 
I paid 36 total for 2 2gig cards on ebay made by sandisk I havent had trouble with that coumpany I got a total of 4 cards so I had some for my camera
 
Greetings! Just got TomTom for the first time, and posting here for the first time ...

I noticed, using TomTom Home, that it would appear you CAN install regional maps as opposed to all of USA and Canada - but I also noticed that while the USA and Canada is just under 1 Gb, all the regional maps added up are much, much larger than that. So I wondered why that might be? Is the level of detail the same on all the maps?

So right now, i have the USA and Canada map installed to my SD card, and all is well ...

Wily
 
Greetings! Just got TomTom for the first time, and posting here for the first time ...

I noticed, using TomTom Home, that it would appear you CAN install regional maps as opposed to all of USA and Canada - but I also noticed that while the USA and Canada is just under 1 Gb, all the regional maps added up are much, much larger than that. So I wondered why that might be? Is the level of detail the same on all the maps?

So right now, i have the USA and Canada map installed to my SD card, and all is well ...

Wily

US & Canada *IS NOT* the complete mapset. It has some POI categories stripped out to fit on a <1GB card. The 'North America' set (at 1.4GB) is complete, and more closely represents that combined regional maps in size.

The US & Canada map is missing the following POI categories:


Church
Dentist
Doctor
Government office
Law courts
Legal/other
Legal/solicitors
Shop
Veterinarian


Shop is a HUGE oversight, as that's most retail stores -- national and local.
 
Thanks for that answer - I suspected something like that!

Now, that lead to another question - I tried to delete US+Canada and install North America - at the time of attempted install, my SD card was showing about 1.8Gb free (it's a 2Gb card) but TomTom Home would not install it? Giving me an error message along the lines of: "This item is not suitable for your device"

My device, BTW, is a Fujitsu-Siemens PocketLoox with a GPS built in, and a 2.0Gb SD Card.

Thanks,
Wily
 
Thanks for that answer - I suspected something like that!

Now, that lead to another question - I tried to delete US+Canada and install North America - at the time of attempted install, my SD card was showing about 1.8Gb free (it's a 2Gb card) but TomTom Home would not install it? Giving me an error message along the lines of: "This item is not suitable for your device"

My device, BTW, is a Fujitsu-Siemens PocketLoox with a GPS built in, and a 2.0Gb SD Card.

Thanks,
Wily

I would probably reformat the card and reinstall.
 
Thanks for that answer - I suspected something like that!

Now, that lead to another question - I tried to delete US+Canada and install North America - at the time of attempted install, my SD card was showing about 1.8Gb free (it's a 2Gb card) but TomTom Home would not install it? Giving me an error message along the lines of: "This item is not suitable for your device"
The 6.60 maps (for whatever reason) would grey-out the NA mapset for PPC devices and give the message you cited. This has changed with the 6.65 disc, which, hopefully, you obtained.
 
Is the Maps version different from the App version? My TomTom App version is 5.010 - I don't know what the Map version is, but it's the TomTom Navigator 6 DVD - I ordered it from the company less than a month ago ...

Wily
 
I ordered TomTom Navigator 6 from semsons last week, but I noticed the maps on the DVD are dated 7/24/2006 and 7/25/2006. I installed the New England + Mid Atlantic map. The map version is v660.1193. The TomTom Navigitor 6 version is 6.010

When I run TomTom Home (v1.5) it says there are no updates.

TomTom support said I can update the maps through their site or contact the vendor.

When I try to update maps through the TomTom website nothing happens when I click 'confirm selection'.

I'm stuck right now, still waiting for a reply from TomTom.
 

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