jdmtool 0.5.1

Tool for downloading and transferring Jeppesen databases

JdmTool

A command-line tool for downloading and transferring Jeppesen databases aiming to be compatible with Jeppesen Distribution Manager.

It requires a Jeppesen subscription, and currenty supports the following services:

• NavData for Garmin GNS 400/500 Series
  • Requires a data card programmer device:
    • Jeppesen Skybound G2 USB Adapter (USB ID 0e39:1250), or
    • Garmin USB Aviation Data Card Programmer (USB ID 091e:0500 / 091e:1300)
  • Requires a NavData card (16MB WAAS, 8MB, 6MB, 4MB, 3MB, 2MB)
• All database types for Garmin G1000, G900X, G950, GTN650, Aera660, Aera760, G3X Touch
  • Electronic Charts support is somewhat experimental; see more info here.
• NavData and Obstacles for Avidyne IFD 400 Series
• NavData for Avidyne EX5000

It is mainly tested on Linux, but should work on OS X and Windows.

Installing

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"

Optional Just-in-Time compiler

For all avionics that use an SD card or USB drive, you should install a Just-in-Time compiler by running:

pip3 install jdmtool[jit]

This should significantly improve transfer speeds.

GNS 400/500

You must install the USB library:

pip3 install jdmtool[usb]

On Linux, make sure you have access to the USB device; see Installing udev rules on Linux.

On Mac OS X, everything should just work; if you get permission errors, you could try using sudo.

On Windows, you will need the WinUSB drivers; Zadig is recommended. Jeppesen drivers should also work for Skybound devices. Garmin drivers will NOT work for Garmin programmer devices; you will need to uninstall them and install WinUSB.

Basic Usage

Log in

You only need to run this once (unless you change your password).

$ jdmtool login
Username: [e-mail]
Password: 
Logged in successfully

Refresh the list of available downloads

Run this every time you want to download updates.

$ jdmtool refresh
Downloading services...
Downloading keychain...
No updates.

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            
 1  Garmin GNS 400/500 Series WAAS - NavData                                Americas              2304      2023-04-20  2023-05-18            

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

This is optional - the next command will automatically download the database as needed - but can be useful if you want to transfer the database when you are offline.

You can specify a single service ID, multiple IDs separated by commas, curr for all services that are current, or next for all services that are not yet current.

$ 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 (GNS 400/500)

$ jdmtool transfer 0
Found device: Bus 001 Device 052: ID 0e39:1250
Detected data card: 16MB WAAS

Selected service:
  Garmin GNS 400/500 Series WAAS - NavData                              2408    2024-08-08 - 2024-09-05

Transfer to the data card? (y/n) y
Blank checking: 100%|██████████████████████████████████████████████| 8.59M/8.59M [00:06<00:00, 1.33MB/s]
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 in: 291.9s.

Transfer the database to the SD card / USB drive

You can specify a single service ID, multiple IDs separated by commas, curr for all services that are current, or next for all services that are not yet current.

Note: the final database file requires the FAT32 volume ID of the device. jdmtool will attempt to find it automatically - which requires the destination to be an actual FAT32-formatted device, not any random directory. Alternatively, you may set the volume ID manually using the --vol-id parameter.

Getting the volume ID automatically is currently not supported on Mac OS, so you will need to use the --vol-id parameter. You can try these instructions for finding the volume ID.

$ jdmtool transfer 0,1 /run/media/user/USB/
Found volume ID: 1234abcd

Selected services:
  Avidyne IFD 400 Series, Bendix King AeroNav Series - NavData          2405      2024-05-17  2024-06-16
  Avidyne IFD 400 Series, Bendix King AeroNav Series - Obstacles        2405      2024-05-17  2024-06-16

Transfer to /run/media/user/USB/? (y/n) y
Writing to /run/media/user/USB/navdata.dsf: 100%|██████████████████| 32.2M/32.2M [00:10<00:00, 3.18MB/s]
Updating .jdm...
Writing to /run/media/user/USB/obstacles.dsf: 100%|████████████████| 2.24M/2.24M [00:02<00:00, 984kB/s]
Updating .jdm...
Done in: 12.5s

Delete expired downloads

You can delete expired downloads by running clean:

$ jdmtool clean
Found 1 obsolete downloads (8.2MB total):
  /home/user/.local/share/jdmtool/downloads/dgrw72_2408_d1dc1d8c.bin

Delete? (y/n) y
Deleted.

Extract Garmin databases

Garmin subscriptions are not (yet) supported - however, if you get a hold of a .taw or .awp file, you can extract its contents using the extract-taw command:

$ jdmtool extract-taw j500a-us-2413.awp
Database type: 190 (G500)
Year: 24
Cycle: 13
Avionics: 'GNS 430W/530W'
Coverage: 'US Garmin Navigation Database'
Type: ''

Extracting nav.bin... Done

You can transfer GNS 400/500 NavData databases to a data card using the write-database command (see here for more info). Terrain and obstacles databases are not supported, but may be in the near future.

You can extract other database types, but jdmtool cannot do anything with them yet.

More Information

• Experimental support for Electronic Charts
• Troubleshooting data cards (GNS 400/500)

Bugs

Please file a bug if you run into problems, or if you have a device/service that is not currently supported.