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)
- Jeppesen Skybound G2 USB Adapter (USB ID
- Requires a NavData card (16MB WAAS, 8MB, 6MB, 4MB, 3MB, 2MB)
- Requires a data card programmer device:
- 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.
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"
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.
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.
You only need to run this once (unless you change your password).
$ jdmtool login
Username: test@example.com
Password:
Logged in successfully
Run this every time you want to download updates.
$ jdmtool refresh
Downloading services...
Downloading keychain...
No updates.
$ 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
$ 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)
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
$ 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.
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-idparameter. 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
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.
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.
Please file a bug if you run into problems, or if you have a device/service that is not currently supported.