We use the Jeppesen Distribution Manager on Mac for GNS430, GTN650 and G1000 and it works well.
Flygarmin worked fine on a mac for me.
I have a lot of old but vital software (we have to be able to revisit designs done say 20 years ago, so “moving to the latest £10k package”, so beloved of EDA software salesmen, is not an option) which doesn’t run on anything after winXP. I have for some time built all PCs as win7-64 but with a winXP dual boot (difficult nowadays because most motherboards don’t have XP drivers, but there is a specific high-end Gigabyte one which does it all perfectly). However I have found that VMware does a good enough job of emulating winXP and the dual boot was never actually needed. One exception I recall was mouse operation; you had to disable something like wheel integration in the VM.
I wonder why Garmin don’t just use wifi to update everything. Then you could just need a phone with a wifi hotspot when you visit the plane. The Avidyne IFD boxes have wifi but I don’t know if they have that capability.
For some reason the handheld GPS makers manage to really bodge their management/ update software. I could never get the Garmin stuff to recognise the Aera 660 for example, via USB. Fortunately, the unit has wifi and updates through that.
@2greens1red wrote:
Talking to Garmin they strongly advised using a PC, which would be a pain on this trip.
Sometimes they don’t know what to recommend. Here is the text from the Garmin support after I have had troubles with the initial installation auf the SD card:
It is not true that you have to use Windows XP, we would prefer you used regular Windows 10 (not a virtual machine), but the flyGarmin for MAC works correctly as well.
Updates from the iPad to the GTN take less than a minute without chart, 10 minutes with it.
I agree the cost is large. For me it adds a big moving map (the iPad) with georeferenced charts driven by my panel’s GPS, so excellent accuracy; flight plan transfers is cool but not as transformative as with the GNS.
Can’t answer on 650…but running Windows on an Mac works excellent. Many options are available, I use “Parallels Desktop for Mac”
An iPad and a Bad Elf Wombat will do it, too. But your subscription must be with Jeppesen, not with Garmin.
Thanks, Denopa, looks an interesting solution.
Cost is a bit eye-watering for a “SD card”, however sophisticated.
Do the updates really take 40mins? Ground power’s a bit theoretical where we’ll be operating, unfortunately, and security, if anyone knew what it was, a problem.
Yes and it works ok. But I’ve now moved to doing with the iPad and the flightstream 510, and that’s so much easier that I would suggest you look into it
I’m totally new to the GTN 650, and need to update an a/c in S.Africa mid-April (I’m in UK), pre-ferry to Kenya.
According to Garmin in addition to the serial no. (which I have), I need the system ID (which I don’t have, and needs winding it up to see). I’d prefer to only bring my Mac out, and FlyGarmin for Mac is in Beta.
Talking to Garmin they strongly advised using a PC, which would be a pain on this trip.
Has anyone experience with a Mac and updating a 650?