Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

[John_S]

I picked up an Eagle IntelliMap 502c GPS for an exceptional price, along with Mapcreate 6.3. I want to put as much info as I can on a SD card, and the 2Gig pricing looks favorable. Eagle/Lowrance will not provide any brand/type recommendations. Has anyone used large SD cards in Lowrance or Eagle units and can provide brand/type info? By type, I mean the standard speed and fast speed ones. Thanks.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

2G is 2G -- buy what's on sale at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Office Max, etc.

 

[tommays]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I dont care for brands like PNY compared to Sandisk which really makes memory products



Tommays

 

[SFT2]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I picked up an Eagle IntelliMap 502c GPS for an exceptional price, along with Mapcreate 6.3. I want to put as much info as I can on a SD card, and the 2Gig pricing looks favorable. Eagle/Lowrance will not provide any brand/type recommendations. Has anyone used large SD cards in Lowrance or Eagle units and can provide brand/type info? By type, I mean the standard speed and fast speed ones. Thanks.

I agree, memory is memory. Watch for sales at Radio Shack. I picked up a couple of 1gs for $9.99 each a few months ago. As soon as you get it home, load it with over 1g of maps and plug it in to make sure the GPS can read the whole thing. My PDA can't, even though it'll show it as a 2g card. As soon as it tries to read anything from the 2nd gig it crashes.

Also, if you wind up with a spare card and want to carry it on the boat with you, make sure it's in some kind of waterproof case. SD cards do not like moisture at all.

 

[John_S]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I got through the phone support wait for a couple of other questions. The tech recommended SanDisk. He "prefered" not to use PNY or Lexar. He couldn't answer if there was any benefit from running the higher speed chips for quicker map loading, like there is in cameras and memory sticks. Now, he did add to the confussion by indicating the info he had was that the 502 could only use up to 1G. The printed and online manual says 2G???

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I use a 2 gig SanDisk card in my LCX27 for recording even tho the manual only mentions cards up to 1 gig. I don't think 2 gig were available when it was printed.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

Lowrance / Eagle say do not go over 1 GIG. You can put alot of data on a 1 GB card. The entire state of California and off shore 50 or more miles and half of Nevada only takes about 500 MB with everything turned on so still have half of the card for trails and and waypoints which is plenty.

I also had bought a 2 GB card but called Lowrance before opening and they said do not recomend over 1 GB.

As far as speed they said did not matter. I did some research and found the higher speed cards are newer Technology and also use less power so if it a battery operated unit may make a small difference. Most of the battery power goes for the LCD and Lights. On a 12 volt unit no difference.

FRY.com or Output.com had 1 GB SD card 60 times for 9.90. The brand was Corsair one of the very best with lifetime warranty.

 

[skimmer]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I use the sandisk SD cards, 5 year warranty, fast enough, reasonably priced.

 

[John_S]

Re: Lowrance/Eagle 2G SD card recommendations

I purchased a 2G Sandisk standard speed SD card. It was $20 at CC, but I was already there getting the latests "Pirates" DVD. I built five large maps ranging from 200M to 500M. The 2G SD card has a total 0f 1.7G data loaded. I am able to load all 5 maps on the unit and zoom down and display some of the data from each. The 2G SD cards seem to work fine. This time the online and printed manual was correct. I did update the Intellimap 502c S/W from version 1.5.0 to 1.7.0. I did this before trying any of the maps.

I will say MapCreate ver 6.3 does not like working with large, 1G + files. I created a map that was 1.6G in size. It took more than three hours to build. How much over three? Don't know. It was done when I woke up in the AM! It took a while to transfer to the SD card, and at the very end it gave a S/W error(CPP). The file was on the SD card, but didn't chance loading it. Moved it back to the HD. I found a few other quirky things with the S/W and card reader, but overall, not bad.

BTW, it doesn't make a "bad" car gps. I have been test running it on the dash of my suv. Also worked fine in a rental for a round trip to Springfield MA. Always wanted to know the names of the small lakes off the highway traveling through the Berkshires.