+Lineman101 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 No, the cache limit is 5000 total. Quote Link to comment
PeteTy Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. i have an etrex 30 myself (the 24 channel receiver appeals to me soome to be accurate right away even under bridges and in valleys) and a 10 year old etrex without sd slot this holds only 500 catches i loaded all these(it was at its limit) into the etrex 30 I was a bit worried so found an sd card 2gb the hand held unit works with SDHC card so unless there is some sort of arbitrary limit you can do far better than a 2Gb max SD card smallest sdhc card is 4Gb I have the usa relief maps on the 2G card and havent overflowed yet try the garmin site a lot of people there have done things There are some exceptions that are strange in the garmin catalog (like SD rather than SDHC) the forum there has a lot of stuff where people push the limits Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 I guess a person could avoid putting any caches in the GPX folder of internal memory, then swap SD cards with their own GPX folder that contains the *.gpx cache file(s). However, swapping cards will force a full reload of the file on initial startup, and that takes a while. And although the geocache_visits.txt file for field notes won't care and would upload just fine, you'd lose a record of which caches had been found on the 'other card' when you swapped. Has anyone tried this yet? Quote Link to comment
Fangamon Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 16 GB SD card works just fine to.. Quote Link to comment
+GeoTrekker26 Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 16 GB SD card works just fine to.. Glad to hear it does as Garmin suggest using nothing larger than 32 GB. Quote Link to comment
Fangamon Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 16 GB SD card works just fine to.. Glad to hear it does as Garmin suggest using nothing larger than 32 GB. 32Gb size is not guaranteed to work and Garmin has recognised this as a firmware issue yet to be fixed! Quote Link to comment
Fangamon Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 (edited) Really? Where have Garmin said that? Here is their official advice: https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={e1f8cf10-260f-11e1-73d0-000000000000} Here, from the horses mouth! https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?55192-etrex-30-32GB-sd-card-issue "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I am happy to assist you with this today. I sorry to hear that the 32GB Micro SD card(s) aren't working properly in your device. The only 32GB Micro SD card we have tested to see if it will work is the SanDisk 32GB Micro SD HC card. We can't speak for every card made by every manufacturer but that is the only one we know works for sure. We usually don't advise to use a card that large though. For most people a 4GB-16GB will work for almost everything. Sorry for any problems that this may have caused. With Best Regards, David 6310 Customer Care - Outdoor Team" Edited December 11, 2013 by PigSti Quote Link to comment
+coggins Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 (edited) Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. No, you can not double the number of caches from 5,000 to 10,000 by putting 5,000 on a smart card. If the eTrex 20 is capable of 5,000 caches, you can load up to that number, period. A larger datacard won't increase that number, nor will a different coloured card. Using two or more cards is right out. Edited December 11, 2013 by coggins Quote Link to comment
+Lineman101 Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share Posted December 11, 2013 Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. No, you can not double the number of caches from 5,000 to 10,000 by putting 5,000 on a smart card. If the eTrex 20 is capable of 5,000 cashes, you can load up to that number, period. A larger datacard won't increase that number, nor will a different coloured card. Using two or more cards is right out. Then multiple cards is the way to go when traveling. Thanks for your input. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Just be sure you delete any from the internal memory GPX folder when you do this. What you put on a uSD card in a GPX folder doesn't replace what is loaded on internal, it augments it. So to get the full count on each uSD card you load up, you want NO caches loaded on internal memory. Quote Link to comment
+Lineman101 Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share Posted December 11, 2013 Just be sure you delete any from the internal memory GPX folder when you do this. What you put on a uSD card in a GPX folder doesn't replace what is loaded on internal, it augments it. So to get the full count on each uSD card you load up, you want NO caches loaded on internal memory. Got it. Thanks. Were heading to Hawaii next month so I'll just have four cards preloaded (One for each island)with nothing loaded in the internal memory. Thanks again for your help. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 OK - I'm confused. Why load a separate card for each island? There aren't enough caches on all of the islands put together to overrun your unit's 5,000 capacity. You are allowed to have more than one GPX file on your unit for caches (just use different names), or bundle them all up using GSAK or similar into a single *.gpx file. A couple of carefully placed centers for PQs and you've got them all. Quote Link to comment
+BAMBOOZLE Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 You could load a hundred GPX files to a card and rename them, maui.XXX, houston.xxx, etc. Whatever you wanted to seek just rename it Geocaches.gpx.....this would require traveling with some sort of computer. It's a shame the Garmins won't let you " clear memory " and then load the file of your choice......sure makes me miss the Magellan Meridian filing system. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Takes longer to load with a ton of *.gpx files, but yes -- in principle, it's true. There aren't 5000 caches spread among the islands, so a handful (max 3) PQs would cover them all. Quote Link to comment
Fangamon Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 (edited) Well that says nothing about recognising a firmware issue? Yes you're right, Garmin has refused to 'recognise' a firmware issue! Let's think, ah yes 'of course' every other global manufacturer of 32 GB SD cards besides the one Garmin used to write it's firmware with got it wrong and Garmin is right to dismiss the user for their obvious stupidity in choosing amongst the 100's of SD card brands that brand that does not work on a Garmin!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a firmware issue. . Edited December 12, 2013 by PigSti Quote Link to comment
BOBBLES WORLD TOUR Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Lots of 32Gb cards work, some don't, just like some 4Gb cards work and some don't. I'd say that was a card issue Either way if you buy a card that doesn't work, try another brand (in fact also check you haven't bought a counterfeit card, lots of them out there) Or just use the card that was recommended. Beats the try one, then another etc that you recommend susan. Quote Link to comment
Fangamon Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 (edited) The only 32GB Micro SD card we have tested to see if it will work is the SanDisk 32GB Micro SD HC card. We can't speak for every card made by every manufacturer but that is the only one we know works for sure. We usually don't advise to use a card that large though. For most people a 4GB-16GB will work for almost everything. Say no more! Yes, I got that brand, model and got the 16 GB size they recommended and it works fine. Edited December 19, 2013 by PigSti Quote Link to comment
+BlackRose67 Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 I use ADATA 8 and 16 GB Class 10 microSD cards in my eTrex 20 and GPSMAP 62s, no issues. I have also used a Kingston 4 GB Class 4 microSD card in my eTrex 20, also no issues. Quote Link to comment
+dolphinpower37 Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. How do you put caches on the sd card and what setting do you use for the garmin etrez20 to show them? I have had this garmin for a little while and am having trouble with the sd card. Hope you can help Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 (edited) Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. How do you put caches on the sd card and what setting do you use for the garmin etrez20 to show them? I have had this garmin for a little while and am having trouble with the sd card. Hope you can help stick the card in the Etrex, connect it to your computer and it should show that you've connected two drives (maybe E: and F: depending on your setup), the first drive will have lots of stuff in it (which comes with the device), the second should be empty (if it was a new card), using the Windows file manager create a folder on there called Garmin and a folder inside that called GPX, and copy your .gpx files into there, so you have something like F:\Garmin\GPX\PQ1.gpx. If it's a new card I'm not sure what you do about formatting it, Maybe the Etrex has an option to do that, if not when you plug it into your PC it will probably say it needs to be formatted - just make sure you don't format the drive with all the "stuff" in it. Edited June 20, 2015 by MartyBartfast Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Since the eTrex expects a FAT32 format, and that's how almost all cards are formatted from the factory, there should be no need to format it before use. Quote Link to comment
Shenanigans NZ Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Hi everyone. I just figured out how to use a smart card in my Etrex 20 thanks to the nice folks in this forum. I know the 20 is capable of storing 5000 caches on the internal memory. Is it possible to put another 5000 on the card for a total of 10,000? Thanks. No, you can not double the number of caches from 5,000 to 10,000 by putting 5,000 on a smart card. If the eTrex 20 is capable of 5,000 cashes, you can load up to that number, period. A larger datacard won't increase that number, nor will a different coloured card. Using two or more cards is right out. Then multiple cards is the way to go when traveling. Thanks for your input. Well how come I've put over 10000 on my card, I sugest that you use folders containing no more than a 1000 geocaches in each which will mean 10 files, you will get a warning that you've exceeded the 5000 caches, ignore it. As below make a directory on the SD card named Garmin, inside it make another named GPX, put your files inside that one. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Putting them on is one thing, being able to access them all is another. +1 to that. Unfortunately, the device doesn't give any sort of warning that things are about to go wonky, either. Things just go badly when you start looking for particular caches. Quote Link to comment
+BlackRose67 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Putting them on is one thing, being able to access them all is another. Very true. When I was actively using the eTrex 20 for caching, I found that if I loaded more than 1500 caches on the microSD card, the chances of an indexing failure increased substantially. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Basically, it will read the first 5000 and the rest will not show up. Quote Link to comment
+JohnCNA Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 Basically, it will read the first 5000 and the rest will not show up. My experience with an eTrex 30 was a lot less than that before I would start running into index problems. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 (edited) Indexing problems are a different thing. That seems to be more to do with the size of the files. Edited November 26, 2015 by Red90 Quote Link to comment
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