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G-1000 SD Card Alternatives


Txbyker

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I have been operating off of the same Garmin SD cards, or should I say Micro SD cards, in my G-1000.  It becomes cumbersome to go back and forth to the hangar to retrieve them, download new monthly data, then upload to the panel.  These original Garmin TSO cards are actually micro SD cards in a holder.  

Somewhere I read it might not be legal from the FAA perspective to not use the Garmin TSO cards.  Garmin offers blank cards that you must order through a Garmin dealer.  I believe the part number is 010-01431-00.  I have been told they are $100 with someone else saying $350.  I do not know what magic Garmin might add to available retail cards to make them worth this price.  

The G-1000 and software loading will have some limitations. I believe they must be formatted as FAT32 and less than 8GB in size.  I believe Garmin maybe using SANDISK which are about $12 for a card.  

Does anyone have any input on this subject?

Russ

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I don't know about the legality of using generic cards but I can provide a procedure to clone SD cards from a format and file perspective. I have tested the procedure with the GTN-650 SD cards including using micro SD cards. 16GB cards and higher can be used as well, as the cloning software partitions the SD card to the same size as the card that is being cloned. 

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55 minutes ago, jonhop said:

I don't know about the legality of using generic cards but I can provide a procedure to clone SD cards from a format and file perspective. I have tested the procedure with the GTN-650 SD cards including using micro SD cards. 16GB cards and higher can be used as well, as the cloning software partitions the SD card to the same size as the card that is being cloned. 

Would you mind sharing the procedure?

Thanks,

Russ

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I use generic Sandisk Ultra 4GB cards as an alternate to the original Garmin cards for the second set of cards.

The part# that came with the WAAS upgrade is 010-00330-43.    Hardware wise these are Sandisk cards with a Garmin label, there is nothing special in the format.

It is felt that the cards need to be blessed at least once in the upper MFD slot, and then cloned. (Can't say if this was required) 

I used a raw unix (dd) disk cloner, and keep copies of the original images for future problems.

Remember that when you swap cards you will need to install all of the updates each cycle.. Nav, Safetaxi, obstacle, Charts, Airport Directory.

I put all of the databases on the (2) lower cards, I don't use the "official method" of using a top slot card for the nav database and the bottom slot for the others, I just put the next NAV database on the bottom card and the G1000 reads it just fine.   This may keep me from pre-loading the secondary database, but I see no advantage to that, and the database sync feature also seems to have no benefit in our 2 screen systems.  

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The difference in the $100 Garmin card and the more expensive ones is whether or not it comes pre-loaded with data.  Just make sure that your Garmin dealer orders the blank card if you already have a fly.garmin.com account.  There can't be any difference in a Garmin card and any other retail card...you're paying $88 for a Garmin sticker.  I recently paid that though to avoid any legal issues.

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