Update Nav. Data GNS430W

[toto]

7 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

Didn't the 430W and 530W come with the Garmin card reader to program the terrain/obstacle card?

Nope. You had to buy the card writer separately. 

[kortopates]

Back in the day when I ran a pair of GNS430W, like 99% of the pilots, we only updated the NAV data. That's all you really need.  Scorched earth DTED (terrain) data doesn't change much and the obstacle data has little value with the limited display on the 430W screens; especially if you don't make a habit of flying low and if you do you'll find your iPad better equipped to display obstacle data. Save the $ for better nav data coverage.

The data cards are proprietary. When I used mine they were only available from Jepp, but that was before Garmin also provided Nav data so that may have changed.

At least with Jepp, you could download the Nav data at home onto a laptop, then in your hangar you could program the cards without an internet connection. I'd bet you get the same convenience with Garmin's downloading app. 

If you travel with your Mooney, you'll want the full US coverage, If you ever cross the border North of South, you'll need an Americas' subscription.  

Edited February 13, 2019 by kortopates

[MinneMooney]

1 hour ago, Fred₂O said:

This thread has been very informative.  I've come to some preliminary conclusions:  (1) I need a subscription if I intend to use my IR to the fullest, and (2) just because I have a Jeppesen navdata card in my 430W now, I probably want to switch to Garmin, because I need both halves of CONUS and don't want to pay >$400 for it.   I purchased the Jepp. skybound writer, when I really should have purchased the Garmin writer and a Garmin card nav. data card.    Ugh.  My inner CB is .  I wish I would have started this thread earlier.  Anybody have anything I need for sale?  Trade?

Well, of course I just had to buy the Jeppesen card reader from them or I would have offered to buy yours. I’ve seen several for sale on eBay.

From what I’ve read, the cards are not Jeppesen/Garmin specific but the readers are. I also think that you can download the Jeppesen updates at home and then take it to your airplane (without an internet connection) and (using your laptop) write the downloaded data to your card. So that might be convenient for planes with multiple pilots. I don’t think you can do that with Garmin. You need to download and update the card in a single operation.

I would have opted for Garmin if I could have just to get the full US for less $. However, I will likely be calling Chase for an IFD440 one of these days and Jeppesen is the only option for those. At least Avidyne uses ordinary SD cards.

[kortopates]

3 minutes ago, MinneMooney said:

From what I’ve read, the cards are not Jeppesen/Garmin specific but the readers are.

Only true of the modern GTN's - not the 430's - soon as you have one in your hand you'll understand since there is nothing else like them.

And technically, the cards are TSO'd approved, because of additional s/w on the card besides NAV data. Just be aware.

[toto]

I can't possibly imagine that the navdata cards are anything more than commodity CF cards with a commodity CF writer, which you could buy on eBay for about 25 bucks in 1998.  But a $200 CF writer is a drop in the bucket compared to the $15k you just spent on the installed box. And having the thing stamped "Jeppesen" or "Garmin" will eliminate annoying insurance or warranty disagreements down the road.

[Vance Harral]

Just now, kortopates said:

At least with Jepp, you could download the Nav data at home onto a laptop, then in your hangar you could program the cards without an internet connection. I'd bet you get the same convenience with Garmin's downloading app. 

For what it's worth, I've always updated my cards right at the hangar using a laptop hot-spotted to my cellphone.  Nav database is about 12MB.  Safetaxi and obstacle databases are about 6 and 4 MB, respectively.  Even the terrain database is only 24MB.  Usually takes less than 60 seconds to download on 4G/LTE, and doesn't even show up as a blip on my data plan.

[MinneMooney]

1 minute ago, kortopates said:

Only true of the modern GTN's - not the 430's - soon as you have one in your hand you'll understand since there is nothing else like them.

And technically, the cards are TSO'd approved, because of additional s/w on the card besides NAV data. Just be aware.

I guess didn’t say that very well. What I meant was that you can write either Jeppesen’s or Garmin’s data to the same card.

 

[KSMooniac]

I can't possibly imagine that the navdata cards are anything more than commodity CF cards with a commodity CF writer, which you could buy on eBay for about 25 bucks in 1998.  But a $200 CF writer is a drop in the bucket compared to the $15k you just spent on the installed box. And having the thing stamped "Jeppesen" or "Garmin" will eliminate annoying insurance or warranty disagreements down the road.

There is something else going on...I briefly tried to read a card on my computer as CF storage and couldn't. I HATE paying for the data twice for a pair of GNS units. Couldn't figure a way around it. Some super hacker might be able to do it, but I couldn't so they extract more money from me every year...

Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk

[0TreeLemur]

Correction: The data cards are not CF cards.  I found an old CF card and it is too wide to fit into the Jepp. data card adapter.

[kortopates]

3 hours ago, KSMooniac said:

There is something else going on...I briefly tried to read a card on my computer as CF storage and couldn't. I HATE paying for the data twice for a pair of GNS units. Couldn't figure a way around it. Some super hacker might be able to do it, but I couldn't so they extract more money from me every year...

Sent from my LG-US996 using Tapatalk
 

Probably every new GNS user has tried that!

Compact Flash, introduced in '94, had only come out a few years earlier than the GNS430 ('98) which had to be much longer in the development phase than the CF. Hard to say what garmin had to work with when they were freezing their hardware design but I'd think its questionable at best to suggest CF technology was even an option for them at the time.

Edited February 13, 2019 by kortopates

[jaylw314]

A bit of follow up and resurrecting this thread.  I've previously used Jeppensen and their Skybound adapter to download aviation database updates to the left-hand card on my 530W.  I already have a Garmin USB adapter that I've never used, but I assumed the previous owner had updated the terrain database at some point.  I decided to switch to buying the database from Garmin.

The flyGarmin website uses a Windows app to update the data card, so presumably you can't do it off a Mac or Android device.  I just took my cheapo netbook/tablet and hotspotted it, and it worked fine.  It seemed to take about 2/3 the time as the Jeppensen update (maybe 3-4 minutes).

Long story short, I can confirm the Garmin USB adapter can be used through the flyGarmin website to update aviation databases to the same data card without a hiccup.

The score seems to be for my database yearly:

• Garmin $300 for all the US
• Jeppensen $370 for only the western US