A new basemap only cost $100, so I just created a new Garmin account and bought it. Pretty cheap, in aviation terms.Kai wrote:Bad news is that you will have to create the backup SD card from scratch and you cannot backup your currently installed databases if they are expired or if you don't have access to the Garmin account where they were created. Especially buyers of used Diamonds with G1000 should make sure to get a decent backup made by the seller if they can't take over the Garmin account.
I did download all the installers and saved the unlock codes to a text file. However, I'm on a Mac and my Windows 7 VM doesn't appear to recognize the built-in SD card reader, so I ended up installing the Garmin Communicator plugin on Firefox. I went to Basemap and clicked "Install" and it happily programmed two cards so far.1. login at https://fly.garmin.com/fly-garmin/
2. select "Aircraft" from the horizontal menu bar
3. select the database you have already purchased and would like to restore
4. click on "Install..."
5. now it looks like you had to install the GARMIN communicator plugin or so. You don't have to. Personally, I like to keep things simple and I don't know what it does. So just click on the alternative download on the right hand side, see arrow in screenshot.
6. You will now see the actual download link. Download and save to a safe location. Also copy and paste the unlock code and system ID to a textfile or so and save to a safe location.
7. Have as many new SD cards ready as you want to produce and stick the first one into your PC's SD slot. Run the downloaded executable file and enter the codes when prompted to do so.
You can now theoretically produce as many SD cards as you want to simply hitting the "Program Device" button each time you inserted a new SD card.
I decided to get a PilotPak, so in addition to the basemap, I had US/Europe Obstacles, Nav data, SafeTaxi, FliteCharts, Airport Directory, and worldwide 9 arc-second terrain. It took around 40 minutes per card to download and program all that data!
I did it just now, and the option for manual download is still in the same place it was in Kai's screen shot. They don't use unlock codes if you use the Garmin Communicator plugin, but if you download as Kai did they do provide unlock codes to use with the installers.smoss wrote:1) When did you actually try this process, recently or in 2010 as the basemap cycle suggests? I don't recall having an option for manual download, and I didn't think they used unlock codes at all anymore.
I did it with pretty much the entire list of databases, and it appears to have at least written to the card successfully.2) Did you try it with only the basemap, or also the terrain and obstacle databases?
Not yet. Will follow up when I actually get to that.3) I assume you verified that it actually worked in you plane? (although not sure possible without the other databases also there)
I used plain old SanDisk blue SDHC cards, 8GB, off the shelf at Walmart with no formatting - Just as they came in the box. I did not copy the airframe info file to them. I did install the communicator plug-in first, and still had the manual option.4) Did you use a totally blank SD card, or one with your airframe info file copied on it. If copied AF info file, what did you do with SN?
5) Did you first format the SD card in FAT?
6) Did you have the communicator plugin already installed and still had the option for manual download, or did you never install the communicator and we'd need to uninstall ours first. (update-after trying myself, yes, you must uninstall the communicator ad-odd or you will not be given manual option).
I was using a 4GB SDHC card to update the databases before, so ours is definitely capable of reading them. We have a 2006, 40.648 with the latest G1000 software (0321.23 IIRC).Rick wrote:The G1000 in my '04 DA40 would not recognize SDHC format cards, but would handle standard SD cards, including the 4Gb SD cards, just fine. I'm not sure if that has changed since then or not - I'm guessing not.
Does anyone know if getting an SD reader to support SDHC is just a driver change, or is the hardware somehow different, too?
That's odd - We've done two updates since we bought our DA40 in 2010, first from the 0369.xx to 0321.22 and then 0321.23 when it came out, and I think we're still on the original 2006 cards.acyr wrote:Where was this info when I needed it. I ended buying 2 cards from Garmin for over $1k. They would not budge, after the software for my g1000 was updated to the lastest, i could not get any updates on the old cards.
If you've added FliteCharts, SafeTaxi, or any of the other optional features, it may be that you simply didn't have enough room on the cards after the update was applied to hold the additional data those features require.