JdmTool
A command-line tool for downloading Jeppesen databases and programming Garmin aviation data cards aiming to be compatible with Jeppesen Distribution Manager.
It requires:
- Jeppesen subscription
- A GNS 430/530 data card programmer (USB ID
0e39:1250) - A 16MB data card
Currently, it has only been tested on Linux with GNS 430 and a Jeppesen NavData database.
Installing
You may want to create a Python virtual environment using e.g. virtualenvwrapper.
Install the latest jdmtool release:
pip3 install jdmtool
Or install the latest code from GitHub:
pip3 install "git+https://github.com/dimaryaz/jdmtool.git#egg=jdmtool"
Make sure you have access to the USB device. On Linux, you should copy udev/50-garmin.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/.
Basic Usage
Log in
$ jdmtool login
Username: test@example.com
Password:
Logged in successfully
Refresh the list of available downloads
$ jdmtool refresh
Downloading services...
Downloading keychain...
Success
View available downloads
$ jdmtool list
ID Name Coverage Version Start Date End Date Downloaded
0 Garmin GNS 400/500 Series WAAS - NavData Americas 2303 2023-03-23 2023-04-20 Y
1 Garmin GNS 400/500 Series WAAS - NavData Americas 2304 2023-04-20 2023-05-18 Y
View detailed info
$ jdmtool info 0
Aircraft Manufacturer: LOCKHEED
Aircraft Model: SR-71
Aircraft Tail Number: N12345
Avionics: Garmin GNS 400/500 Series WAAS
Coverage: Americas
Service Type: NavData
Service Code: DGRW7253
Service ID: 12345678
Service Renewal Date: 2024-01-01 00:00:00
Version: 2303
Version Start Date: 2023-03-23 06:00:00
Version End Date: 2023-04-20 06:00:00
Next Version: 2304
Next Version Available Date: 2023-04-10 06:00:00
Next Version Start Date: 2023-04-20 06:00:00
File Name: dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin
File Size: 8443904
File CRC32: eceb0273
Serial Number:
System ID:
Downloads:
/home/user/.local/share/jdmtool/downloads/dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin (missing)
Download the database
$ jdmtool download 0
Downloading: 100%|█████████████████████████████████████████████████| 8.44M/8.44M [00:03<00:00, 2.15MB/s]
Downloaded to /home/user/.local/share/jdmtool/downloads/dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin
Transfer the database to the data card
$ jdmtool transfer 0
Found device: Bus 001 Device 052: ID 0e39:1250
Transfer /home/user/.local/share/jdmtool/downloads/dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin to the data card? (y/n) y
Erasing the database: 100%|████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [02:15<00:00, 63.1KB/s]
Writing the database: 100%|████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [04:14<00:00, 40.5KB/s]
Verifying the database: 100%|██████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [01:32<00:00, 92.5KB/s]
Writing new metadata: {2303~12345678}
Done
Advanced Features
Check that the tool can detect the device and the data card:
$ jdmtool detect
Found device: Bus 001 Device 049: ID 0e39:1250
Firmware version: 20071203
Card inserted:
IID: 0x1004100
Unknown identifier: 0x38001000
("Unknown identifier" likely contains the information about what type of card this is, but I don't have enough information to decode it.)
Read the metadata (should contain the cycle and the service ID):
$ jdmtool read-metadata
Found device: Bus 001 Device 045: ID 0e39:1250
Database metadata: {2303~12345678}
Write the metadata (should probably keep the same format):
$ jdmtool write-metadata '{2303~12345678}'
Found device: Bus 001 Device 045: ID 0e39:1250
Done
Read the current database from the data card:
$ jdmtool read-database db.bin
Found device: Bus 001 Device 044: ID 0e39:1250
Reading the database: 100%|████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [01:33<00:00, 91.6KB/s]
Truncating the file...
Done
You should now have the database in db.bin:
$ file db.bin
db.bin: DOS/MBR boot sector, code offset 0x3c+2, OEM-ID "GARMIN10", sectors/cluster 8, FAT 1, root entries 512, sectors 32768 (volumes <=32 MB), sectors/FAT 16, sectors/track 63, heads 255, hidden sectors 63, serial number 0x1102, label: "GARMIN AT ", FAT (16 bit)
Write a new database to the data card:
This will do some sanity checks to make sure the file is in fact a Garmin database. If it rejects your file, please file a bug to let me know.
$ jdmtool write-database dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin
Found device: Bus 001 Device 045: ID 0e39:1250
Transfer dgrw72_2303_eceb0273.bin to the data card? (y/n) y
Erasing the database: 100%|████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [02:15<00:00, 63.1KB/s]
Writing the database: 100%|████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [04:14<00:00, 40.5KB/s]
Verifying the database: 100%|██████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [01:32<00:00, 92.5KB/s]
Done
After it is done, you may want to run jdmtool write-metadata '{...-...}' to save the new cycle number in the metadata.
Bugs
This has only been tested with a single card reader and two cards, so chances are, it won't work correctly for others. Please file a bug if you run into problems.