C series software upgrade (compact flash card)

AIDY

AIDY

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Going to have a go at upgrading the software in my C series plotter.

The raymarine site recommends buying a SanDisk Compact flash card to download the software on. Never used a compact flash card / reader before any advice on best place to purchase and tips on updating the software would be great.

FAT16 / FAT32 ????????? formatting is my biggest bug, should it matter.

The raymarine site make's it look a bit too easy, but these things never are in practice. Dont want to bugger the plotter up. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
I had to reformat as it wouldn't recognise the card.

In fact the plotter seems quite fussy, I tried a number of different cards that I had lying around at work (not sandisk) and none worked. In the end I bought a new sandisk and had to format it back to FAT before it was recognised.
 
I just used one from my camera bag, viking card as it happens. I did not format it, I even left the camera folders there and just popped the RM upgrade software in the root.

Easy peazy, it just worked as it said it would.

Sandisk are reputed as good quality, but as you need this as a one-off I would not be too concerned, buy a cheapo card. Sorry to go against the advice dished out, but in general you pay for access speed on the cards, most are made in the same place and badged up.


EDIT>> my camera will not read cards over 512Kb, this is not unusual, cameras are designed with what is available on the day. I would not buy a 2Gb card unless someone can confirm that RM units will recognise them, not knocking the poster above, but just warning to be careful about this.

2nd EDIT>> After re-reading the thread maybe you should spend a little extra for a card you will know 'WILL' work, I was I suppose lucky in that what I had did. FWIW, RM recognised my viking cards and my gurlypals nikon badged card which could be any brand really. Is it possible for you to borrow a card from a pal to run the updates.
 
[ QUOTE ]
In fact the plotter seems quite fussy

[/ QUOTE ] can you expand on this quote please I'm worried now. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Go for SanDisk...

[ QUOTE ]
Never used a compact flash card / reader before any advice on best place to purchase...

[/ QUOTE ]I haven't upgraded the software on my C120 - Raymarine did that for me when it was in for repair earlier this year. However, before taking it to Raymarine, I did download all my waypoints/routes to a memory card. Like you, I didn't have a card or a reader. I followed Raymarine's instructions and bought a SanDisk 512MB CF card on eBay for £8, and a USB multi card reader on eBay for a fiver. It all worked fine. Other cards might be OK, or they might not, so you might as well follow Raymarine's advice.
 
What size card did you use? The upgrade package comprises 2 files from what I can see. One 6MB and the other 227k so would need a pretty large memory card.

Neil
 
[ QUOTE ]
What size card did you use? The upgrade package comprises 2 files from what I can see. One 6MB and the other 227k so would need a pretty large memory card.

[/ QUOTE ]6MB is <span class="small">tiny</span> in memory card terms - most now are at least 1GB!
 
Don't let it worry you, it's all straight forward stuff. Rather than buy a new card I tried some of the ones we had lying around work. We use them in some old equipment and they work fine in most cases but not the plotter. Got a 1 gig sandisk from 7dayshop and it worked fine.

Where abouts are you? If Chichester, your more than welcome to borrow mine, still has the code on as far as I remember.
 
Thanks for the kind offer. But for future reference I'm going to have a go at it myself. From what you guys say it does'nt seem too difficult..

Watch this space.......... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

By the way I'm based in sunny GoSport.

Thanks for all your kind advice..... better get looking on ebay for a disk and writer, Raymarine suggest you don't need anything greater than 32Mb for the application.
 
DO use Sandisk and nothing else - it will save you frustration. This is true of a lot of equipment, including many of our survey receivers. Sandisk CF is very compliant and predictable with accurate timing. Cheaper CF is not and although you may get away with it I wouldn't bother

The C series CF needs to be formatted FAT16 and the maximum CF size it will handle in a single partition is 2MB so try to get a 1MB card from Jessops or wherever - this will already be FAT16 formatted. Doubt you'll get anything smaller these days, but obviously a 512MB or whatever would do

You need to copy a couple of files into the root directory from the RM site and then insert the card and power up. The unit will then go into a maintenance mode which will allow you to program the upgrade
 
Upgraded mine last night using a SANDISK, very straightforward and the new software has a few nice features. Floppy disk didn't work too well, even when I planed it down to the right size!
Thanks guys
 
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