To download your tachograph, you will need to first insert your Company card (Workshop or Control cards may replace this in certain situations) into the tachograph(VU), in either card slot. For some VUs, the ignition must also be switched on.

Connect your Digidown to the 6 pin connector on the front of the VU - this may be behind a small cover or in the printer drawer. The Digidown will indicate it is ready by blinking each of its LEDs in turn. Press the button for the required download.

During the download, the LED by the selected button will flash repeatedly about twice a second. Successful completion of the download is indicated by the LED blinking briefly about once every second. The downloading of data from a VU can take a considerable length of time, potentially in excess of 30 minutes depending on the options selected. Using 'Latest VU' can reduce the download time considerably.

Please do not disconnect the Digidown during a download. Doing so may cause errors on the SD card.

The Digidown has three controls:

• All VU - pressing this causes the Digidown to download all the data stored in the VU.
• Latest VU - pressing this causes the Digidown to download only the latest data within the VU.
• Card - pressing this causes the Digidown to download the data from the driver card (if any) inserted into the VU.

For fleet operators, 'Latest VU' typically downloads data recorded by the VU during the previous 2 to 3 months. For drivers' hours enforcement purposes, 'Latest VU' typically downloads data relating to the last 8 or 28 days. For accident analysis, 'Latest VU' perhaps downloads the detailed speed data.

The 'Latest VU' button is programmable - please see our configuration app.

To download a driver card you will need to insert the driver card into one slot of your tachograph and your company card into the other.

Connect your Digidown to the 6 pin connector on the front of the VU - this may be behind a small cover or in the printer drawer. The Digidown will indicate it is ready by blinking each of its LEDs in turn. Press the 'card' button.

During the download, the LED by the selected button will flash repeatedly about twice a second. Successful completion of the download is indicated by the LED blinking briefly about once every second. The downloading of a driver card will usually take only a few minutes to complete.

Please do not disconnect the Digidown during a download. Doing so may cause errors on the SD card.

EU regulations require you to download the data from your digital tachographs every 90 days. Driver cards must be downloaded at least every 28 days. If data is not downloaded on a regular basis, the stored data may be overwritten and lost.

The Digidown can be connected to a PC using the supplied USB cable. The Digidown will appear as a standard removable drive. Alternatively, the SD card can be removed from the unit and read via a separate SD card reader (available from most major electronics retailers).

The downloaded data appears in the 'Digidown' folder under 'VU' for tachograph files and 'Card' for driver card files. The files in these folders can be copied to an appropriate location on your computer for analysis and storage.

In order to view and analyse your files, you will need appropriate tachograph analysis software. Please talk to your dealer for more information.

Files downloaded by the Digidown are in the precise format specified in EU regulation 3821/85 Annex 1B Appendix 7 and thus should be readable by any drivers' hours software package which is otherwise capable of handling data from digital tachographs.

Each time a Digidown saves a tachograph data file that file is given a name. The format of this name is not specified in any EU tachograph regulations. The authorities in France and Spain have defined file name formats which must be used in those countries. Elsewhere there is no specific requirement for any particular name format but there are several commonly used name formats.

To change the name format of your downloaded files, please see our configuration app.

Please see our configuration app.

The memory card supplied with your Digidown will hold thousands of downloads. However, it may be convenient to have a second memory card.

2GB SD memory cards are supplied as standard by Lisle Design (although lower capacity cards are adequate for this application). Larger capacity memory cards are not suitable for use with the Digidown. The SD cards supplied by Lisle design have been specially selected for optimal performance with the Digidown. A few card types unfortunately do not conform fully to the SD specification, therefore are not suitable for this application.

Please ask your distributor about replacement ready-formatted SD cards from Lisle Design.

For any 2GB SD memory card to work with the Digidown it must be formatted FAT16 (which Windows calls 'FAT'). Most computers offer 'format' as an option in the disk management system.

When a newly formatted SD card is inserted into a Digidown and the unit is connected to a tachograph or computer, the unit will create a folder structure on the card. This process is automatic and will generally take a few seconds. During this process all the LEDs on the Digidown will be off.

Please note that a small number of SD memory cards do not conform fully to the SD specification and are unsuitable for use with your Digidown. Lisle Design recommends the use of SD cards selected by Lisle Design, available through your distributor.

Your download has not failed and should continue as normal.

When using any download device with a VDO digital tachograph, the message 'Download Fault 12' may occasionally be shown on the display. This is a feature of the VDO tachograph. It does not indicate any problem with the download process or the downloaded data. It indicates that the tachograph has not stored any data for one or more of the days within the download period, probably due to the power supply to the tachograph being disconnected.

When using a download device with the Stoneridge digital tachograph an equivalent message 'Data Integrity Error' may be shown.

In either case, users should allow the download to finish normally and then press the 'OK' button on the tachograph to clear the error message.

There are four different types of tachograph smart card:

• Driver card: Carried by all drivers, must be inserted into the tachograph when the driver is working
• Company card: Used by the company to lock tachograph data and authorise downloads
• Workshop card: Used by workshops for tachograph calibration and programming
• Control card: Used by enforcement agencies to check for infringements

EU legislation requires that the information from the tachograph and driver card is recorded and stored at regular intervals. Read more about tachograph downloading regulations.