Magellan Meridian GPS AND SD Card Compatability

[blacklab2020]

Does anyone use the Meridian GPS models by Magellan?

If so, are the SD cards sold by magellan unique, or are cards made by other manufacturers (e.g. SanDisk) compatable as well?

I asked product support for magellan, but they would not tell me anything more than toshiba is the only other brand that will work.

Justin

 

[skidoc22]

sd card

I have a sandisk card that works just fine. It was also half the price of the Magellan sd card. Perhaps I don't know something but I would think they are all made to a certain standard. The Magellan cards may be faster but I have not compared them. I have a Meridian Platinum.

 

[blacklab2020]

magellan SD cards overpriced!!!

If thats the case (SanDisk works fine) then Magellan cards are way overpriced. They want 90 dollars for a 64 mb card that you can get for 30 elsewhere.

Are you using a card larger than 64 mb?

Thanks, Justin

 

[Remix]

Any brand should work fine, although 2 years ago there were issues with a bad run of Sandisk cards on alot of devices, not just GPS's.

When you upload a map into the SD Card, it will go alot faster if you use a digital media card reader, instead of uploading through the magellan serial port. This can be easy or hard, depending on the version of Magellan Topo or Streets software you are using.

Make many small maps (eg Adirondacks, Catskills, Whites) instead of a single large one. (eg Northeast US). The unit will paint the screen more quickly as you move (or zoom in/out) with small maps. You can select the right map from one of the menus.

You should always make sure you have the latest firmware in the unit by checking the magellan web site.

Finally, consider joining the magellen yahoo group for Magellan for plenty of tips and tricks, like replacing the startup screen with your name, phone number, and reward offered if returned.

 

[skidoc22]

If thats the case (SanDisk works fine) then Magellan cards are way overpriced. They want 90 dollars for a 64 mb card that you can get for 30 elsewhere.

Are you using a card larger than 64 mb?

I agree which is why I use a sandisk 128MB card. I also use the card reader to transfer the maps to the card - the Magellan unit is absurdly slow and it wastes the batteries.

 

[blacklab2020]

ThalesNavigation/Magellan's Latest Response

I sent a second inquiry to magellan ealier today, this is the response I got:

There are several SD memory cards that can be used with your Meridian Gold GPS unit. We have not tested and verified every SD memory card manufacturer. However we have tested San Disk, Toshiba, Viking, Lexar, and Kingston SD memory cards with success to be used with most of our MapSend Software. We've also tested larger capacity Toshiba and San Disk cards up to 512 MB with success with most of of software.