SD Card Info from Tomtom

[Meteor242]

I spent about an hour on the phone with a real nice Level Two tech support guy, and here is what I found out.

Bottom line - I asked these questions and according to the tech support guy:
1. What type of SD card, SD or SDHC? SD only (limited by the hardware).
2. What size card? 4 MB maximum.
3. What format? Tomtom uses the FAT32 format.
4. What brand? Doesn't matter.
5. What speed? The faster, the better. (like 150x)

I don't have an SD card yet, therefore I'm unable to verify ANY of the above!
So, good luck!

He was not aware the Tomtom website is advertising the 720 as supporting up to an 8GB SD card. He said that was impossible as the hardware will ONLY support SD cards (not SDHC cards, and any card larger than 4GB is an SDHC card). He said he will try to get that removed from the website.

D-F, I replied to you back on August 30th that I was not too well versed on SD Cards; however, I've now taken some time to learn some stuff about them. Here is some of what "I think" I've learned:

There are three versions of the SD specification: 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0.
Both of the old versions, 1.0 and 1.1 (SD-Secure Digital) are supported by the 720. The new version 2.0 is not. ("Most" 2.0 cards are SDHC compliant-Secure Digital High Capacity.)

Standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices, however only SDHC cards will work in SDHC compatible devices (which the 720 is not.)

For probably more than you want/need to know about SD cards, and why there has been such confusion regarding compatibility between SD devices and SD cards, you can follow this link:
http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/index.html#special-sd.html

Regards

 

[tomtomkid]

Sd Card

While discussing on other problem, I am having with my GO 720, I had a question from the supervisor Tech Support - SD card on GO 720.
His answer was, use upto 4Gb only. 8Gb is supported, but use descretion as far as loading it is concerned. If the Tomtom applications & data keep on residing in internal memory, using 8Gb only slows down the processor a bit, because of searching on larger external memory.

 

[Meteor242]

8GB or SDHC?

Yeah, I understand. I had several conversations with tech support and got a different explanation each time. One rep told me that it would not support anything below 32MB. Another said anything between 256MB and 8GB was supported. Another said that it would work with an 8GB card, but that if you put more than 6GB on it it would bog the system down and make everything slow. Who do ya believe?

I think the most reasonable explanation for all the consternation over this issue is that SDHC is not supported. I found many sources saying a device designed for SD would not support an SDHC card. However, a device designed for SDHC will support an SD card. That, plus I have yet to hear of anyone getting an 8GB card (which, by definition is an SDHC card) to work, has led me to think the 720 was indeed designed using SD hardware.

If anyone has had any success with a known SDHC card, please let us know! Especially an 8GB card, as I'd love to have one!

 

[Uncle Ben]

"SD not included supports up to 2GB SD or MMC"

That's what it says on the box that came with my GO 720.

 

[Wooferman]

8g SDHC card works

I have an 8g SDHC card and it works great i put over 7gig of mp3 and it'S not slowing down my tomtom
the brand of sdhc is topram

 

[IsLNdbOi]

Wooferman, so you're using an 8GB SDHC card with a TT GO 720? How many mp3s do you have on the card? How many files total do you have on the card?

 

[riptorn]

As it has been said that it is not possible to do this. Please let us all know what firmware your TT720 is using (did you update it). Also what SDHC card are you using. There are alot of different types out there and some might work while others will not.

I got good results from the Transcend (non-SDHC) 150x 4gig SD card available at Costco Canada's website. Although I have an iPod and don't use the TT720 for mp3 playback yet.

Nathan...

 

[JimT]

Is anyone aware of any locations whwere an older $GIg sd cards are available? I'm sure somebody has a supply somewhere. I have a @gig currently in my 510 but would like to upgrade to a 4gig.

 

[digital-flex]

Is anyone aware of any locations whwere an older $GIg sd cards are available? I'm sure somebody has a supply somewhere. I have a @gig currently in my 510 but would like to upgrade to a 4gig.

Just a word of caution, not all 4GB SD cards work. There are really two brands of 4GB SD cards that I know of that work, Topram and Transcend. You also want to make sure that they are NOT SDHC, as TomTom units don't play nice with them as you can tell by this thread.

 

[IsLNdbOi]

I guess Wooferman was mistaken about the type of SD card he's using...

 

[digital-flex]

I guess Wooferman was mistaken about the type of SD card he's using...

It just one of those things where its not supported but works. If he/she is using the Topram 8GB SDHC then you can certainly try. I know that on of our mods has the SanDisk 4GB SDHC card and works fine with his unit.

 

[IsLNdbOi]

Which unit? I'm mainly interested in the TT GO 920T.

 

[digital-flex]

Oh, he was using the TomTom ONE New Edition (v2 as its commonly known).

 

[Wooferman]

sorry to dispapointe you but nop it is an sdhc car the tomtom will not recoise it if you put it whit the usb dock but.. use the sdhc card reader thant comme with the 8gig I fill it up with over a 1000 mp3 about 7 gig and more and over 20 folders under the mp3 folder and the tomtom 720 will reconise every mp3 i got
and wen i tried to use the usb dock it wit my sdhc 8gig it wanted to fomat it a 3.5 gig

so like i said juste use the tt720 to reade info not to put any on it witout the usb cradle

wooferman

p.s i tried all the same thing with my friends 4 gig sdhc sandisk and work perfecly

 

[Meteor242]

Well, I finally got my SD Cards.

I bought two 4GB SD cards (both are non-SDHC). One is a SanDisk and the other is generic. They work perfectly. The full capacity of the cards are recognized by the TomTom HOME application. The format of the cards are reported to FAT32.

The mp3's I placed on the internal RAM (about 300MB's worth) and the mp3's on the SD Card are all recognized and accessed by the Jukebox application as one library of music.

So, according to Wooferman it sounds as though there are some SDHC Cards that will work, but with some mixed results, like not being able to access the full capacity of the card through the TomTom HOME application.

I have seen a web page that describes how to see the technical details about an installed SD Card reader, such as the one in the TomTom. I'll see if I can find it again and post it here. The information derived from that might be able to refine what cards will and won't work correctly by manufacturer design.

Rick

 

[radoidge]

I have tried several SD cards with my GO 720. When the unit boots up with an SD card inserted, it shows the start-up screen, then powers off. It will not work while the card is inserted. If I then remove the card and boot up, the unit works fine. Any idea what this can be?

 

[Meteor242]

What brand, size, format and type of card are you using?

(I.E.- San Disk, 4GB, FAT or FAT32, SD or SDHC)

 

[cdrsft]

SDHC and TomTom Devices

Hi there,

I know there has been alot of discussion about this topic, and I'd just like to clarify that I am successfully using a 4GB SDHC card in my 720.

- Yes I've done all the updates from HOMEv2 software.
- No i haven't done any other modifications to the unit.
- Yes, I'm positive it's an SDHC (not SD) card. Kingston SD6/4GB.
- Yes, I can access the full capacity of the card.

I am an electrical manufacturing engineer, I can explain why this works if anyone is interested. It has to do with the SDAV controller in the unit.

Being as I dont know TomTom's manufacturing history, I can't say whether my unit is any different than anyone elses, but I purchased it this August.

Good luck!

 

[tchan012]

SDHC cards work with Tomtom 920T

I got a new SDHC card today and put it in my TomTom and it did not work. I was about to return it back, but before that, I decided to test my 2GB non-SDHC SD card and that did not work as well. a quick google search revealed why.
All your songs need to be in a folder named mp3 (and not in any sub-folders).
I did so, and now my 920T recognizes the songs in the card.

There are many places online where people say SDHC does not work with TomTom 920T, but i think it is because they are not putting in the files in the mp3 root folder.

Granted that is a little weird - you would think that TomTom would be smart enough to parse through sub folders, but I don't care, as long as there is a way!

 

[norty]

I was having problem with Kingmax standard SD card, then decided to buy a Sandisk Ultra II 4GB SDHC Class 4, and it works perfectly without any problems.