Updating old Garmin units

[Trevor Rennison]

I have a Nuvi 300 and my wife runs a Nuvi 250 wide. They are oldish units and we need to update the maps. It seems we are now at the point where it is cheaper to just buy a new unit with free lifetime updates, than it is to buy new maps for our old units. A visit to my local Cape Union Mart store today confirmed this, but I'd just like the opinion of some experts on the forum, before making a final decision. My situation is almost decided on as I want a unit for my bike, so I figure I may as well buy a Zumo and get the car bracket, then I can use it for both car and bike.

Both our units, although old, are in excellent condition and it seems a shame to just sideline them so I was wondering if there are any other options before biting the bullet and buying new units? I think the Zumo for me is a given though, regardless of what can be done with my old 300.

Any advice or expert opinions?

[F.Viljoen]

Hi Trevor, welcome to the forum.

Firstly, what mapset are on your units now?
If it is Garmap 2009 and onwards, you will only pay R349 for each unit to upgrade to the latest, and last version, namely Garmap SSA Streetmaps version 2013.2 NT
This upgrade is only available till the 31st of December 2014.
If you can live with this upgrade for a couple of years to come, then at least you get some more free usage out of your existing devices.
Then you either chuck them away when hardware or battery life fails, or when the map has become in error with present roads and names.

Buying a new device from Garmin, you will get free lifetime maps with it, namely City Navigator Southern Africa NT, currently version 2015.3
This lifetime map is for the life of the unit, or until Garmin changes to new hardware/software/designs that your unit simply can't be used anymore.

With the City Navigator maps you get Junction View, Lane Assist and Speed. This features are not available on the Garmap maps.

As to choice, there are lots of errors on both map-sets. I personally did the last upgrade to Garmap 2013.2 on all my units, but also have City Navigator on them as well.
So I have the choice to switch between 2 worlds.

Strange that you realized that the units and maps are outdated just before Christmas!

[Trevor Rennison]

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the long delay in my reply. After some deeper thinking, A Zumo for my bike is more of a 'nice to have' than a 'need to have' and I can't really justify that expense yet as I don't see me using it that much unless my riding pattern changes drastically. Maybe when I retire and start to explore further with the bike I will then get a Zumo.

For now, we took advantage of a recent special at Makro where both the wife and I bought a new Nuvi 42LM for only R999 each! Now we have updated units with the latest maps and I think that was the best way to go.

To answer your earlier question: My Nuvi300 had 2012 street maps in it and I think My Wife's 250W had the 2010.3 street maps in. So I missed the boat as far as upgrading the maps in these units, but no worries. We'll keep them for backup, just in case.

The 42 comes preloaded with some safety camera info and I used POI Editor to load the last file that I had downloaded, before the old forum was shut down. This is obviously way out of date now and I'd like to update it. I don't mind paying for useful stuff, but having contributed quite a bit of data to the old forum, I thought it was a bit of a cheek when Garmin suddenly announced they will charge for this data!

I used to have regular chats on email with Shorty, and he was my contact to submit data, but unfortunately, I've lost contact with him since he retired from Tom Tom. I've dug out Shorty's last email and in there he mentions a once off fee of R100 to be able to download RHD again. I've read the mail a few times but can't follow what he's trying to tell me. Perhaps in the time that has elapsed since then, things have changed?

Bottom line: I'm now looking for info on how to download the latest RHD and get it onto my new units. I'm quite PC savvy but I struggled to follow Peter's instructions so can you or anyone else help me? Perhaps point me to a thread on the forum where I can read up on how to do it, or email me instructions?

Any assistance will be much appreciated.

[Jan Horn]

Trevor the data is still available here for free. It can be downloaded from download-page-for-road-hazard-data/
Frans update the data once a month. The data has been extensively reworked and is now mostly lane specific or direction specific where applicable. You now also have the option of voice warnings. We also just introduced a direct to the GPSr download gpi file option which came online yesterday Which you find at the of the index page of the forum The vanilla option would be for those preferring the old ding dong warnings and the wave option is for sound warnings. A word of warning here to be patient the wav file is about 20gb and take a long time to download. The vanilla file is 1.4gb and download quicker.
To download and install the RHD without the voice options and use PoiLoader to install are straight forward. Download the RHD data and Toll files (ignore the wave voice files) unzip to a folder sett up for that purpose of your choice and down load to the GPSr using PoiLoader. If you want to try the voice file option it is a bit more complex and I can mail you detailed instructions.

[Trevor Rennison]

Thanks Jan

I've followed that link but I don't see anything other than wav or mp3 files. The most recent post is still 2014. I must be doing something wrong, but what? Is it because I'm relatively new on the forum that I can't see certain things? I've discovered that's the reason I can't create a signature or put up my mugshot as an Avatar, but I wouldn't expect those restrictions to extend to the posts for the data, or does it?

[F.Viljoen]

Go here:

download-page-for-road-hazard-data/road ... -t599.html

I am busy with a new guide, but you can use the existing one at

download-page-for-road-hazard-data/road ... s-t75.html

[Jan Horn]

There are no restrictions Trevor. The 42 will be wav compatible. Download the two files RHD January 2015(Wav) and Toll Data(wav) unzip both to the same folder and use PoiLoader to install it from that folder on your GPSr. The gpx files contained in those files contains an url pointing to the location of the wave sound files but when it (the sound Wave files) is not installed on your computer PoiLoader will ignore the url and install the files without the voice sounds and you will only receive the normal bong warnings when you approach the RHD Poi.

You should be able to load an avatar and signature please try again and if you experience any problems please let us know so we can assist.

[Trevor Rennison]

Thanks guys. Now it's starting to make sense and I'm finally getting somewhere.

I'll read the guide to make sure I get all the files in the right places. Not too worried about wav or mp3 at this stage, quite happy with the bong sound as that's what I'm used to.

I have the old poi loader still on my PC. I used it the other day and I should have no problems with that.

What kind of sounds does the wav and mp3 play? Maybe the wife will like it?

Will shout for help again if I need but I think I've got it now. Will confirm once I have it working.

[Jan Horn]

Trevor download one of the voice files from the RHD forum, unzip and use windows media player to listen to them. The Mp3 will be the smaller download but will be useless if you want to use it on the 42 at a later stage. The voices are TTS generated. We are still waiting for a lady volunteer with a nice English voice to make to do the recordings for us which would make a nice alternative addition to our data.

[Trevor Rennison]

Okay thanks Jan

I'll play with it over the weekend and see how it goes.

I used the 42 on my commute to work this morning. It behaves somewhat differently to my old unit. Seems to have many new features, most of them I like, but the thing was driving me crazy with the bongs for speeding! It obviously came preloaded with some Cyclops safety camera data and then I went and loaded the most recent RHD files that I had downloaded just before the old forum shut down. So now it warns me twice about everything!

My strategy of driving 10km/h above the posted speed limit on my clock speed translates to a true speed of about 5km/h above the limit. Not enough to trigger any of the camera traps but enough to get away from slower drivers. With the old unit this wasn't a problem, but this 42 bongs repeatedly and shows the speed and the warnings in red because technically, I'm over the limit. I'll use the POI Loader to remove all the old RHD data before I add any more. Hopefully that will quiet things down a bit. It's very difficult to speed with this unit and not know that you're speeding, which I suppose is a good thing. Very useful in unfamiliar areas where you don't know the limit and don't see any signs.

One thing I've noticed is that in cruise mode, the 42 doesn't show me what streets are coming up, like my 300 did. I presume that is a feature of the mapset? That was quite handy if you knew more or less where you were going and were just looking for a street name. I like the lane assist and junction view. Could have done with that when I was driving in the UK last year!

Anyway, so far, so good and I really can't complain about a unit that only cost me R1000. I'll report back when I've got the latest data loaded.

I'll also play with the unit over the weekend and get to know it better.