Map won't display on CHIRP and some elite HDI units.

[markus]

Hi!
I have created a map with the common colour scheme and Atlas 10. It displays well on HDS gen 1 and 2, Simrad and (at least one) Elite HDI 7x, but it won't show anything at all on an Elite CHIRP and some Elite HDI 7. These units won't even attempt to load the map (I have noticed you can see a brief white screen and a flashing memorycard symbol when maps start loading), but they do load a map generated with Atlas 7 and a more simpe colour scheme compatible with the "Blue OS".
I am out of things to try and wonder if anyone here has any suggestions to why the CHIRP and some Elite 7 HDI won't display the map. (I have put chart data to Lowrance and zoomed to the correct position.)
/Markus

[Hubert]

Maybe on these units, that do not work, there is an old firmware running.

For Elite HDI there is a new release just a few days ago ...

[prometheus]

Agreed with Hubert Here are the 'usual suspects' when content fails to display in Elite units.
* There were issues with an elite update ending in 5.0.12 and earlier versions where version 10 at5s would have trouble, the 5.0.14 and later firmware seems to have fixed that:
http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Software-Updates/
* There were also issues with the IMC producing raster that will not display with vector data on Elite HDI and Elite CHIRP units. Try reprocessing the data with the 0.7.4.0 release of the IMC and see if the problem persists.
* Also, if you checked the option 'encryptcard' in advanced options>atlas description, and did not actually encrypt card or have tools to encrypt card, then the content will flash white and show the basemap.
*also, if you are using IMC 0.7.4.0 it will default to version 13 (the default used to be 12) which 13 won't work on an Elite HDI or Elite Chirp, you might check the defaults.
* Lastly, if you are using raster at5s and the files are not named "_3DTexture_" plus whatever name you wish to use, you will get the flashing white screen and possibly a reboot

[markus]

Thanks for your replies. The map is a pure vector map. I tried it in a store yesterday and it displayed on the HDS and Elite 5 unit they had, but not on the Elite 7 HDI. The Elite 7 HDI had the latest firmware installed. I also tried a demoversion I have with a small part of the lake and this displayed on all units. The differences between these maps are that the full version is encrypted (with the gang programmer and working) and there is an at5.xml generated together with the full version (which I don't think is necessary to have in this case?). Can any of these factors cause the displaying problems?

[markus]

I have done some more testing on two different HDI 7 units, one upgraded to the latest version, one with older software, (but they behaved exactly the same way in my test).
I created a map with two different colourpalettes from the common colour scheme:
Palette 1: 9,56,62,16,218,15,21,20,14,19,12,4
Palette 2: 1,44,56,62,11,16,17,22,21,23,19,12
I processed the maps with atlas 7 and with Atlas 10. (I'd rather not use Atlas 12 since it won't work on Elite (non HDI) units then?) I also encrypted one version and left one unencrypted. Alltogether 8 different versions of the same map. All of them works fine on the Elite 5 and HDS 7 units I tried them on.
Only one version works on the Elite 7 HDI (the encrypted Atlas 10 version with palette 1). All other versions fail to display and causes the units to reboot.
The Elite 7 HDI units also displays an encrypted map from Atlas 7 with colours 15,16,9,12.
I will try them on a CHIRP tomorrow and see what happens.
/Markus

[prometheus]

To anyone else who needs this info, after digging into this quite heavily, it ended up being some microSD cards smaller than 2GB (128MB to 1GB) that had known compatibility issues with Android, Nokia, and other devices. The cards were bulk purchase generic cards, not name brand. I would assume there is something the manufacturer did differently than what other manufacturers do with the secure digital "standard". It could also be a manufacturer defect, but this is all alleged and conjecture since I have not had a mechanical or software engineer look at the issue. These cards cause the unit to lockup even without mapping. Kudos Markus for finding this I tested with a 256MB card from Sandisk and had no issues.

That being said, file systems supported on the chart plotter include: FAT (for up to 2GB, technically can go to 4GB but...), FAT32, ext2, and ext3. There are windows tools that support ext2 and ext3 in windows. Technically the chart-plotters do not support larger than 32GB cards, I get reports that ext2 and ext3 with a 64GB chip works because the 64GB SDXC is backwards compatible with SDHC, if you try this, you are trying this at your own risk and we are in no way liable.

File systems not supported: NTFS, XTFS, etc.

For those who do not know Secure digital card capacity:
SDSC = Secure Digital standard capacity = up to 2GB in size
SDHC = Secure Digital High Capacity = >2GB to 32GB in size
SDXC = Secure Digital Extended Capacity = >32GB to 2TB in size

[markus]

Just for the record, the 2 GB cards from the same manufacturer also cause the HDI/CHIRP units to reboot. 
Thanks for your support,
/Markus

[prometheus]

Thanks for the feedback

oddly enough, there was a generic manufactuer who made microSD chips that fit in the SD adapters that the same manufactuer also produced, but the microSD does not conform to any actual microSD slot because it is too thick. The length and width are fine, the height is too thick, it does not conform to the SD size dimension standard.

[prometheus]

For anyone who has had this issue:
I was also able to duplicate a problem on Elite 7 HDI where raster at5s would not display with update 4.0.5.0.17. Sometimes when you download the .zip from the website, the .upd (updater file) may become corrupt. You will successfully update the unit, but raster files will no longer work. You will need to re-download the updater file and attempt another update of the same software version to fix the issue.