Lowrance electronic 6 - Manual (Page 15)

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To help you decide what size cards to buy, make some map borders cov-
ering the type of travel you expect. Then use the Estimate Custom Map
Size command to calculate the size.
For example, one Missouri customer frequently travels and fishes in
the four-state area of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He
purchased an additional 128MB MMC, which holds all four states at
once. This lets him travel long distances for extended periods without
needing a computer to change the maps on his card.
To give you an idea of how big a Map File can be, we made some exam-
ples using the regular versions (no topographic data) of MapCreate
USA and MapCreate Canada, with all mapping categories included.
(Size will vary depending on which package of MapCreate you have.)
In the U.S., Lake Michigan is approximately 26 MB, all of Missouri is
41 MB and the entire state of California is approximately 87 MB. A six-
mile-wide corridor map from San Diego, California to the Maine-
Canada border, following Interstate highways, is about 50 MB.
In Canada, a map of Lake Winnipeg (including the major lakes to the
northwest) is 6.84 MB. All of Saskatchewan is 64 MB, all of British
Columbia is 69 MB. A six-mile-wide corridor map from Prince Rupert
on the west coast to Louisbourg on the east coast, following Trans-
Canada highways, is about 35 MB.
Important Notes About Cards and File Size
The size of a Map File is important. It must be small enough to fit on
the MMC (MultiMedia Card) that your GPS uses for data storage. This
solid-state, flash memory device is about the size of a postage stamp.
(SD [Secure Digital] cards are also compatible with any Lowrance or Ea-
gle product that uses MMCs.)
At press time, the MMCs shipped with the GPS Accessories Pack ver-
sion of MapCreate 6.3 are 32 MB size. If you're using a 32 MB MMC,
your Map File must be less than 32 MB in order to fit on the card. (This
space issue is the same as floppy disks; you can't really fit a 1.44 MB
file onto a 1.44 MB diskette because some space is required for the
disk's file allocation table. In the case of a 32 MB MMC, actual maxi-
mum useable space will be approximately 29 MB to 30 MB.)
MMCs and SD cards are used in a variety of other digital devices. Most
electronics or digital camera stores sell MMCs and SD cards, and at
press time they are available in 16 MB, 32 MB, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256
MB and 512 MB sizes. Cards with even greater capacity will likely be
available in the future. MapCreate is a powerful tool for your GPS, be-