Well I plugged my Garmin Etrex 20 into my computer via a USB cord and the 8GB card in the GPS is still loading.It`s been 4 hours.If this is one of Garmins best software programs,something tells me that Garmin is in trouble.I happen to be one of the more patient user out there.A lot of people are going to say the heck with it and go to another Gps manufacture.I already made a vow not to buy another Garmin.
I have an Etrex 20 with loads of maps on a sd card, it's never taken more than a minute (once the map files have been indexed which only happens first time Basecamp 'sees' them).
Well I plugged my Garmin Etrex 20 into my computer via a USB cord and the 8GB card in the GPS is still loading. It`s been 4 hours.
Do you have a large amount of Birdseye imagery on your eTrex 20? I ask because BC seems to insist on reading it all from your device even if it already has the .jnx files in it's database. In short there's a cache for the .jnx files you've downloaded AND one for the files on your device. That needless takes HD space plus time to read them from your device via the slow device USB connection. Yes it should only read them once but I find that behavior very annoying.
I have an Etrex 20 with loads of maps on a sd card, it's never taken more than a minute (once the map files have been indexed which only happens first time Basecamp 'sees' them).
Hey, not to disrupt this thread, but: If you have a load of maps on the microSD and it never takes more than a minute.... What is responsible for my Montana 650 taking 10 minutes or so to load the data of the microSD? (If I disconnect and reconnect the unit, the subsequent connections are fast. But the initial connection (daily) still takes ~10 minutes. In contrast, the internal memory loads/reads in about 30 seconds.
I've done some testing. It's not the photos, because I've tried dumping them. Could it be custom POI's? If not, it has to be either maps, or BirdsEye imagery (which are treated like/considered maps.)
Also, I presume you were implying the indexing happening only the first time Basecamp "sees" them still happens each time you cycle both the unit and exit/re-run basecamp.
See Stuart's reply above your post ... I suspect it'll be your BirdsEye files.
Thanks;
That's what I had suspected. It's a shame you can't toggle a setting in Basecamp to ignore reading the BirdsEye imagery on the unit. (Especially when the exact same imagery is already in Basecamp!) Waiting ~10 minute for microSD chip reading (versus <30 seconds for the internal memory) every time you connect to the unit is "excessive!"
I just wasn't sure about your definition of "the first time." ~ I experience this "first time" (Basecamp indexing the BirdsEye imagery) on a daily recurring basis. (Happens every time I tether the GPSr unit and run Basecamp)
Note: I suspect a smarter/more persistent cache could also alleviate this "problem."
First off I thought I had a 8GB Card in the GPS,but it is a 16GB Card.Right now I have 10GB of Birdseye imagery on it.Yes I know that is a lot. But it should not take that long for BaseCamp to recognize everything that is on the card, because everything is already loaded into BaseCamp.
1gb of BirdsEye takes about 10 minutes, and 10gb takes over 4 hours...... Sounds like load times are "logarithmic" in nature. Aside from being "excessively slow", it just doesn't seem right unless something else is going on. Does all the data ever load successfully after 4 hours? Have you ever waited that long to see a successful chip read?
Even if it does, something should be done about this! Especially when the same imagery may already be available (having first originated) in Basecamp.....
Hint: Basecamp setting to ignore maps and/or imagery files on the GPSr?!?!?! The 10 minutes it takes me for my 1.3gb of BirdsEye imagery (on the microSD) is enough to be irritating..... Also, I always worry that if I end my Basecamp session before all the data on the microSD loads: That I could somehow corrupt the data on the chip. (There's a nasty error that appears if the unit is disconnected prematurely. Also there's no way to terminate the read process other than exiting Basecamp.)
PS: Not long ago, I kept running into a "never ending load" with my Montana 650 microSD chip. It turns out something had in fact become corrupt. I can't remember what it was let alone how fixed it. When you come to expect long load times like that (which nevertheless behave like something is wrong), you're never quite sure if everything is really OK..... (If it were not for the backups, I'd worry about this every time I connected/disconnected the GPSr unit. In any event, quality software shouldn't behave like this!)
And since the flashing green constantly pulses/repeats itself..... There's no indicators that "real progress" is actually being made. (I never liked those "robot progress" bars that don't "spatially represent" actual progress. ~ At the very least a numerical percentage should accompany the green flashes.)
Sounds like load times are "exponential" in nature.
The transfer speed depends on the particular GPS model (some are "faster" than others), the USB interface type (USB 1.1, 2.0 etc) and so on. I don't know of any Garmin model that can do much above about 500KB/sec.
Then there's the whole PC speed issue since BC is written in .NET which slows it down.
Now I never directly connect my devices to BC or MapSource. I use clone devices (fast SD and CF cards) so I solve the BirdsEye "problem" by renaming the Birdseye folder (to say Birdseye.sav) so BC doesn't "see" the folder. That trick won't work on a real unit though.
What BC needs is a "don't cache data on my device(s)" tickbox or at the very least a smarter cache algorithm.
