Aera 500 road maps updatable?

[rans6andrew]

I have a Garmin Aera 500, which has given excellent service for 4 years now. I update the flying map database annually. I have yet to update the obstacles database but I am considering doing so although I suspect that all of the tall man made things that might cause warnings to sound/flash up will be depicted on the map graphics so I can see to avoid them anyway.

I have not found a way to update the road maps. Does anyone know if it is possible to do so? I would talk to Garmin Aviation but it is one of those numbers that rip you off to call and, if their Motorist's GPS helpline is anything to go by, they always have a long wait in their queuing system.

Rans6............

[moreflaps]

Looking at the website most maps are downloadable and 500 compatible -but you may need a microsim to hold the extra data. You may not get some of the advanced features like 3D buildings and detailed turn off advice with a new map for a different region. If you have native maps for your region, the lifetime updates is the best way to go I think and these should give you the special features. (I'm in the same situation right now as I have a PAC Garmin -which I could sell to allow me to replace with a UK one now I'm UK based (PM me)...)

HTH

Moreflaps

[rans6andrew]

I shouldn't need any more memory, the A500 already has Europe wide road mapping which I want to update. Unfortunately I have not found roadmap updates on the Garmin aviation website, the Express utility that you use to update the motorist's GPS units doesn't recognise the A500.

Rans6.........

[soay]

I've updated the road maps on my 500, but it's a right pain, because they don't all fit in its internal memory, but that's where the automatic update wants to put them. Unfortunately, the updater only realizes that after a couple of hours, so the download has to be started again. After all the bother, I've taken to using the free road maps on my Lumia Windows phone, which is much easier to take away with me.

[rans6andrew]

ta Soay, where did you find them?

How did you get them?

Garmin Express or some other utility?

Did you have to pay for them?

Are the files much larger than the ones installed when the unit was bought? I can't understand why there is memory shortage issues, the unit is supplied with the data installed, I just want to update it a little, not add a load more country maps in.

I don't want/need all of Europe, can I just get the UK and near Europe which should fit into the existing memory?

Rans6.......

[soay]

I purchased the map update from Garmin. I think I used Garmin Express to install them, but they keep changing installers, so I can't be sure.

[rans6andrew]

Ta Soay, I will have to have another play on the Garmin website. I am sure that my copy of G Express didn't recognise my A500 when I plugged it in.

Rans6.............

[stevelup]

Hi

Garmin Express should definitely recognise the Aera as a road nav and let you do the update.

I don't know what country you're in, but if you're in the UK, a single update is £49, and a lifetime subscription is £75 which entitles you to four updates per year for the life of the device.



Steve

[Genghis the Engineer]

The lifetime of the device, as I discovered with my old Nuvi, being limited by the internal memory.

Garmin seem to make each update a little bit bigger than the last, and I certainly could never get it to store primary maps in a card - so eventually my old Nuvi stopped updating. Still worked fine, but the maps became increasingly out of date.

G

[BEagle]

I became increasingly frustrated with Garmin Express, which never worked properly with my nüvi 660, WinXP and 'down-the-phone' Internet, so now I use Garmin MapUpdater to download the full map set onto my laptop and the UK/Ireland set onto the GPS. Once that's complete, I use Garmin MapInstall to create a customised map set which fills the 2Gb memory - the full European mapset needs around 4Gb if not more.

Customised mapset building is a total pain though! Mainly due to the rather poor HMI Garmin use.....

A top tip - the UK/Ireland mapset also includes the following French maps:

Amiens
Bethune
Blain
Brest
Bruz
Caen
Dunkerque
Fougeres
Le Havre
Lille
Lorient
Nantes
Quimper
Rouen
Saint- Malo
Vannes
Vertou

It was like pulling teeth trying to get that information out of Garmin! I did once try downloading to an 8Gb SD card on Garmin's advice, but that crashed my GPS software, requiring a total reset. Which lost all my 'favourite' destinations.

Because Lifetime Update cannot be transferred to a new unit, even for a fee, Garmin are losing out because many of us will keep going with 8 year old GPS units rather than losing something for which we've already paid.

[BEagle]

City Navigator Europe NT 2016.10

I don't know when it was released, but anyone with Garmin nüMaps Lifetime™ Europe should now be able to download the latest version of City Navigator Europe NT, which is version 2016.10.

I did so yesterday, but NOT by using Garmin Express! The older, more reliable Garmin MapUpdater worked fine; I installed UK and Ireland directly to my nüvi660 and the rest to my computer. Then I created a custom mapset for the near continent using Garmin MapInstall - a tedious process which took over an hour. To transfer the mapset to the GPS took another 90 min, but eventually all was fine.

Garmin prefer people to use Garmin Express but, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of people have had problems with Express.

I'm not sure whether the aera500 is compatible with MapInstall though...

[Keef]

I updated the automotive part of my Aera 500 last year with no problems: you've got me worried now!