Garmin Montana 610T MicroSD card and Birdseye expiration...

[Despotes]

What is the maximum size the 610T will accept?

Also, is it possible to download aerial imagery directly to the Micro SD card and use it on the Montana after the subscription has expired? If not, workarounds?

I'm aware of the slow boot up times when loading a lot of imagery files onto a Micro SD card, so I figured I could simply install the most used image files directly to the Montana and before the 1 year subscription runs out, install onto the or multiple Micro SD cards other less used aerial imagery.

The Garmin DRM is ridiculous.

[+ecanderson]

It's the download that works by subscription, so yes, if you download the aerial/satellite data for a subscription linked to your unit, you can move it to the device whenever you like and use it whenever you see fit.

[+Atlas Cached]

The *.JNX files Garmin sends to your GPSr (\Garmin\JNX\) will always work with that unit. Make a backup copy of them for future use, with that unit only.

[+ecanderson]

To be clear, the files may also be downloaded to the PC so long as the device is connected during the download, and the various pieces that have been downloaded can be moved to the unit as needed. This eliminates the need for massive amounts of storage on the device, speeds the device up a bit (at least on my 450, it helps not to have a boatload of unused BirdsEye on it), and automatically assures the owner that there is a backup copy of then waiting on the PC should a file on the unit blow up later. I think perhaps that many are using this 2 step process (download, then install as needed).

[Despotes]

Thanks for the replies. One more question;

I just downloaded Basecamp and when I select Birdseye in "Tools" it shows only 3.54Gb of space available on my 610T. The 610T is suppose to have 8Gb. I haven't installed anything yet and already 4.46Gb of memory is used up. Is that normal for the 610T?

Also, can I delete anything to create more space on the 610T? I don't geocache and don't need the entire US TOPO 100k maps just the Northeast. Is it possible to delete areas you don't need?

Edited December 24, 2016 by Despotes

[+ecanderson]

Just curious since I don't have one ...

 

Did the 610T by chance come with a load of geocaches pre-loaded in a big ggz file? If so, you will definitely want to delete those. The cache data is so old by the time you get one of these units that it won't be of any value even if you wanted to go caching. Look in the Garmin/GPX folder to see what's there.

 

As for the maps, I wouldn't have recommended the US 100K topo (you paid for that as part of the "T" option on your 610"T"). If you want to save space there, yes, it should 1) be possible to trim those to less tiles using Basecamp's method, or 2) you might prefer to set the 100K topos aside altogether and consider a higher resolution (24K) topo for just your areas of interest from sources such as gpsfiledepot or other good sites. If you go the latter route, you can just copy off the 100K topo map to your PC for safekeeping and load up the much smaller map from the alternative site.