[Brian Dunham]

I just picked up a used '08 with Nav. When I tried to enter an address to search to, or look for any POIs (except Honda dealers) it wouldn't find them. The "keyboard screen" was blacked out. I notice when the map is being displayed that only a few major roads (basically interstates) are displayed. Wondering what is going on. Is it like some GPSs where a memory card has to be loaded to get anything more than a "base map"? Thanks.

eta, did a little research as to how to go to the screen for card info-it says "card not accessible". Checked in the trunk, there is a card installed. Any thoughts?

 

[pwhoever]

Two things come to mind... One is that the card is bad and the data corrupted or that one or more pins that the card pushes into inside the navi unit could be bent or broken off. Hopefully that's not the case.



It's also possible that the card may not be pushed in all the way. Try doing that first. It's possible that it may have unseated and pushing it back in may get it working.

 

[pwhoever]

Another question, is it an OEM data card? If not, it's possible that the previous owner tried making a custom update and didnt do it correctly.



And to answer your question, the 06-08 Navi rely on that card to work. If the card isnt being read, you will only be able to see the base map which has very few details. And that will explain being unable to do any kind of search.

 

[Brian Dunham]

Two things come to mind... One is that the card is bad and the data corrupted or that one or more pins that the card pushes into inside the navi unit could be bent or broken off. Hopefully that's not the case.



It's also possible that the card may not be pushed in all the way. Try doing that first. It's possible that it may have unseated and pushing it back in may get it working.

I ejected the card, put it back in-no change. What you say makes sense. I have been doing some research, came across how to do a hard reset-will give that a shot tomorrow.

 

[MacWing]

What firmware version is on your navi?

 

[Captron]

OK! I'm going to ask where is this card that you speak about in the GPS???

I have a 2010 and never seen a card..
I'm asking here: I'm not a dummy, I love repairing, fixing stuff, rebuilding BUT I have never seen a card that's in my GPS????

Ronnie

 

[weengers]

OK! I'm going to ask where is this card that you speak about in the GPS???

I have a 2010 and never seen a card..
I'm asking here: I'm not a dummy, I love repairing, fixing stuff, rebuilding BUT I have never seen a card that's in my GPS????

Ronnie

On the left side of the GPS unit on the back wall of the trunk is a small door. Open that door and you will see the SD card. SD card for '09 and up, compact flash before that.

 

[pwhoever]

I ejected the card, put it back in-no change. What you say makes sense. I have been doing some research, came across how to do a hard reset-will give that a shot tomorrow.

I'm not sure a hard reset will change anything. It is a bit involved to remove the Navi unit and the reset switch from what I have been told is easily damaged.



Is your CompactFlash card a Honda OEM one? And like MacWing asked, what firmware is your unit? Also what does it list under Map Info under System Info?



Another thing you could try is to take the card out while the bike is off, turn the ignition to Acc. Wait until the display comes up with the Navi "enter" screen and instead of hitting "enter", put the CompactFlash card all the way in and then hit enter.


Another thing you could try is to update your firmware. The most current firmware is 5.10. You can update to this and it wont affect the ability to use older maps. By trying to update, you would be able to confirm if the navi unit is able to read/access CompactFlash cards.

 

[Brian Dunham]

I'm not sure a hard reset will change anything. It is a bit involved to remove the Navi unit and the reset switch from what I have been told is easily damaged.



Is your CompactFlash card a Honda OEM one? And like MacWing asked, what firmware is your unit? Also what does it list under Map Info under System Info?



Another thing you could try is to take the card out while the bike is off, turn the ignition to Acc. Wait until the display comes up with the Navi "enter" screen and instead of hitting "enter", put the CompactFlash card all the way in and then hit enter.


Another thing you could try is to update your firmware. The most current firmware is 5.10. You can update to this and it wont affect the ability to use older maps. By trying to update, you would be able to confirm if the navi unit is able to read/access CompactFlash cards.

I need to read up on how to answer the rest of your questions, but I did try the bolded. It's getting closer-it reads the maps, does a 0-100 "countup" as it loads, then says "can't unlock maps". I suppose that's good, the card reader itself seems to be functional.

ETA, Software version on the bike is 4.70. The card is marked as follows:

39250-MCA-R00
2 GB CF CARD
CITY NAVIGATOR NORTH AMERICA V8.00
011-01245-04

Other side says SanDisk SDCFJ-2048-965-01

None of which means anything to me...

 

[kwthom]

Previous owner may have tried to update the map set, which is a challenge to do correctly on the '06 - '08 CF-card variants.

 

[pwhoever]

Scratch this answer. It was bad info...

 

[pwhoever]

Ok, the card you have is an original card for a 2008 Navi. My best guess is that the original card got lost and the previous owner happened to get his hands on an OEM card that was originally used on another GL1800 or the owner, like Kwathom mentioned, tried to update the card himself and screwed up, most likely by failing to unlock the mapset. These cards are originally programmed for a particular Navigation unit and are not interchangeable. I'm not sure if when first used, it creates the file or if the file is preprogrammed for the unit. There is a way to unlock the gmapsupp.img file which is the mapset. But... the maps depending on what the previous owner did, may be over 10 years old and are going to be missing a lot of newer roads. With that said, if you have a card reader/writer that will accept CompacrFlash cards and a computer, you can download a program called gimgunlock and use that to unlock your mapset.



In your case though, I might suggest just buying the updated card(s) from Garmin and that will at least get you the 5.10 firmware update and the official 2017 maps from Garmin. But be advised, the maps are actually going to be from late 2016. Outdated, yes but much more current than the ones you will have if you software unlock your current card. Also, this will be the last official update that Garmin or Honda will be making available for the 06-08 years.

 

[pwhoever]

To go further, if you have a Garmin with lifetime maps, Base Camp on your computer, and that gimgunlock program, you can make your own updated maps. I currently have a custom mapset using 2020.20 on mine. Especially since you will not be able to get any more current updates after this latest one from Honda, you will almost be forced to do this to have current maps. It is not that hard to do.

 

[MacWing]

Ok, the card you have is an original card for a 2008 Navi. My best guess is that the original card got lost and the previous owner happened to get his hands on an OEM card that was originally used on another GL1800 or the owner, like Kwathom mentioned, tried to update the card himself and screwed up, most likely by failing to unlock the mapset. These cards are originally programmed for a particular Navigation unit and are not interchangeable. I'm not sure if when first used, it creates the file or if the file is preprogrammed for the unit. There is a way to unlock the gmapsupp.img file which is the mapset. But... the maps depending on what the previous owner did, may be over 10 years old and are going to be missing a lot of newer roads. With that said, if you have a card reader/writer that will accept CompacrFlash cards and a computer, you can download a program called gimgunlock and use that to unlock your mapset.

In your case though, I might suggest just buying the updated card(s) from Garmin and that will at least get you the 5.10 firmware update and the official 2017 maps from Garmin. But be advised, the maps are actually going to be from late 2016. Outdated, yes but much more current than the ones you will have if you software unlock your current card. Also, this will be the last official update that Garmin or Honda will be making available for the 06-08 years.

AFAIK, the original cards and the ones that are purchased from Garmin/Honda are unlocked to the card serial number. They will work in any compatible navi. If you copy the map to another card, the maps will be locked and unreadable by the navi. With v4.7 of the firmware, you should be able to read the non-NT as well as the NT maps that are unlocked either to the card or the navi unit.
If the previous owner had Garmin or a helpful sailor unlock the map to a different navi unit (id or serial number), it won't work in your navi without some software help.

The navi unit is very easy to get at. A phillips screwdriver will open up the protective box that it is in and you will then be able to see the connector for the CF card and inspect for bent pins.

You should not have to do a 'forced update' if you are upgrading to a newer US version of the firmware. It is necessary however to change the country version or previous versions of the firmware.

If you have a friend with a purchased CF card or homemade one that is working and will let you borrow for a few minutes, it may help you decide where to go from here.

 

[Captron]

On the left side of the GPS unit on the back wall of the trunk is a small door. Open that door and you will see the SD card. SD card for '09 and up, compact flash before that.

Thanks I will look this morning! :kiss::kiss:

Ronnie

 

[Brian Dunham]

To go further, if you have a Garmin with lifetime maps, Base Camp on your computer, and that gimgunlock program, you can make your own updated maps. I currently have a custom mapset using 2020.20 on mine. Especially since you will not be able to get any more current updates after this latest one from Honda, you will almost be forced to do this to have current maps. It is not that hard to do.

Thanks (again) for the detailed reply. I need to do some digging-I do have "lifetime" Garmin City Nav maps from my days using a dedicated GPS and used to use Basecamp for planning backcountry trips on my ADV bikes. I've largely switched to a phone and Osmand for that, but my Garmin info should still be valid. Cool to find out. The real issue is going to be to remember my logon info-I think it was at least one computer ago the last time I used it!

 

[pwhoever]

AFAIK, the original cards and the ones that are purchased from Garmin/Honda are unlocked to the card serial number. They will work in any compatible navi. If you copy the map to another card, the maps will be locked and unreadable by the navi. With v4.7 of the firmware, you should be able to read the non-NT as well as the NT maps that are unlocked either to the card or the navi unit.
If the previous owner had Garmin or a helpful sailor unlock the map to a different navi unit (id or serial number), it won't work in your navi without some software help.
......


If you have a friend with a purchased CF card or homemade one that is working and will let you borrow for a few minutes, it may help you decide where to go from here.

That make sense and I knew the software was protected somehow so I stand corrected. But with the unit updated to 4.70 firmware, I'm wondering if the PO used the factory card to put a custom mapset and updated firmware on it instead of leaving it unmolested and creating a separate card to do that. The original firmware that would have been on that OEM card would have been 4.30 or something like that. And based on the unlock message he is getting, I am assuming the PO either didnt unlock the custom mapset or did it wrong. And I know that since he has the 4.70 firmware, he should be able to bounce between any mapsets including the original mapsets without having to reset anything. I have the 2020.20 maps on a new card but also have my original V7 along with the OEM 2013 cards and my unit will read any of them.

 

[Brian Dunham]

Thanks for the input everyone. I was able to download Openstreetmaps from here and get them working on the bike. http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

I use OSM on my phone for backcountry nav, and had loaded them on a Garmin Oregon at one time. OSM is pretty cool because it's "crowdsourced" data-and updated more regularly than Garmin's data. I had updated the maps with legal, open, backcountry roads in my neck of the woods some years ago. Ended up being pretty easy to do.

 

[OldFatGuy]

Thanks for the input everyone. I was able to download Openstreetmaps from here and get them working on the bike. http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

I use OSM on my phone for backcountry nav, and had loaded them on a Garmin Oregon at one time. OSM is pretty cool because it's "crowdsourced" data-and updated more regularly than Garmin's data. I had updated the maps with legal, open, backcountry roads in my neck of the woods some years ago. Ended up being pretty easy to do.

So I downloaded some sections from the above site and opened with BaseCamp. What makes these maps/roads different? Just trying to find out what I can do with them and how they might help me. Thanks for the above link. Selecting and downloading areas was pretty simple.

 

[Brian Dunham]

So I downloaded some sections from the above site and opened with BaseCamp. What makes these maps/roads different? Just trying to find out what I can do with them and how they might help me. Thanks for the above link. Selecting and downloading areas was pretty simple.

The biggie is you can update any time-for free. In my case my original data cartridge was "locked" and the maps couldn't be loaded. This got me up for free.