SD Card questions

[suzukizone]

This relates to a 2012 Zumo 660LM. At present there is no SD card in slot under the battery.

1.I do not listen to music,take cell phone calls, etc. I am too old to complicate my life and safety while riding. I have only the current North America map which is overkill for me as 150 +/- is my limit for riding at this age. I use the GPS, strictly for turn by turn audio directions, don't even look at the screen when on the road.

What exactly is the use of the additional memory the card provides? Would I get any noticeable benfit from having a card in the slot? I was going to put a card in, at least for good luck anyways

2. I have a couple of extra Sandisk 64Gb Extreme Pro cards I bought for use with my wee little GoPro cube.( They are marked V30 & A2) Would those cards be sufficient for general use on the Zumo?

3. If I felt for some reason, I wanted a larger card, say 128Gb or larger, what is the lowest level card I should get? I had tried some lesser cards on the GoPro a ways back but they didn't work as smoothly. I then discovered there were ever increasing levels of "performance" and the Extreme Pro version was recommended. Never had a prob recording on the GoPro since.

Obviously I am Tech Difficient but trying to learn something in my declining years.

Thanks all for your wisdom,

Stay safe.

DH

[carolinarider09]

According to documents I can find, the maximum size SD card for the 660/665 is 32GB. So, no you could not use the larger cards.

However, I have never tired to use a larger card.


I don't know of any benefits to inserting the card, given the way you use the device.

[rbentnail]

Given the way you use the device, there may be a huge advantage to using an SD card.

On my 595, I NEVER transfer a route to the device Internal Storage. Why not? Because once I'm done with a route and delete it on the device, it's completely deleted. If I want to use that same route again I have to hook to my computer and transfer it again.

When a route is put on the SD card, it gets imported same as always. After the route is run and I delete it, it is still on the SD card and I can re-import it whenever and however many times I want without ever hooking to Base Camp again.

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IMHO there's no point in going with a huge card, it's just a waste of money. 8 or 16 gb will do significantly more than you need it to right now.

I've never had any luck with used SD cards. Garmin is weird that way. I buy a new card and insert it straight away in the device. The gps devices I've owned will format it properly and create the necessary file structure for you. I do not know if yours will or not. I then simply drag and drop from the Base Camp route list to the User Memory. I never use the Transfer command up top.

[MSTOCK27370]

This relates to a 2012 Zumo 660LM. At present there is no SD card in slot under the battery.

1.I do not listen to music,take cell phone calls, etc. I am too old to complicate my life and safety while riding. I have only the current North America map which is overkill for me as 150 +/- is my limit for riding at this age. I use the GPS, strictly for turn by turn audio directions, don't even look at the screen when on the road.

What exactly is the use of the additional memory the card provides? Would I get any noticeable benfit from having a card in the slot? I was going to put a card in, at least for good luck anyways
DH

For the way you use the 660, the only question would be, how much free space do you have in the internal memory?

I don't have a 660, so I can't compare. My 450 and 550 don't have enough internal memory to hold the North America map. The maps have grown in size since these were first released. I use an SD to split the map install so that I can have the entire map in the Zumo. Your 660 might be capable of holding the entire map. Transfer of the route to the SD card instead of internal memory is an interesting option.

[rbentnail]

Yeah, my old nuvi 780 was the same way. In addition to using the SD card for maps I also chose to download and update just the eastern half of the USA. That helped with boot up times, etc. But since the OP currently isn't using a card I'd guess it's a non-issue for him.

[suzukizone]

Thanks to all for replies. I have put a 64Gb card that has no files on it into the 660. Will see how it works and experiment with installing routes onto it in future. The 660 has the latest North American city maps installed so no issue with that. I will check the level of internal memory and how much space is left next chance I get.

Move through the world and ride safe till then,

DH

[SteveA]

Did the 64GB card work?

[suzukizone]

Does it work? Have no idea. Home repairs, etc have taken over my life. Have to satisfy my GPS habit by trying to design and make a prototype sun visor as I cannot read the screen in bright light. Not that I look at it much at all, Too unsafe taking my aging eyeballs off the road. Letcha know if I get out on the road. Not even sure why I need a card at all but didn't want to be out on some rural road & have the 660 tell me it was out of memory space or something. Had one laying around so I popped it in the slot.

DH

[danham]

What rbentnail said. Having my pre-planned routes on the SD card allows lots of flexibility and prevents confusion on long trips. Quick example: on a card you can sort the order routes appear in and load only the ones you need each day into active memory on the 660. This saves a bunch of scrolling through route names that can be slow and confusing.

Let me know if you want details on doing this.

-dan

[SteveA]

What rbentnail said. Having my pre-planned routes on the SD card a.............

Let me know if you want details on doing this.

-dan

Yes please Dan.

I've now put my maps into main memory and removed the SD card. I needed to just use the UK instead of the whole of Europe in order to get the maps to fit.

I read on here that just having an SD card fitted slowed the Zumo 660 down.. if that's not the case I'd like to try out your idea Dan.