Garmin GRS NMEA

[Blue5]

Sure this has been covered before and there is a solution but I need help.

Firstly bought a DSC VHF and installed it to find the Magellan GPS would not give position to the radio, contacted Magellan to be told that model was "100 years old" and would not talk to the Icom, so OK bought a Garmin 152 and all works well, GPS set to NMEA/in/out and this gives Lat/Long to the radio.

Problem started with trying to use laptop as chartplotter, having Bluechart 8.5 and downloaded nroute I thought I would be up and running but I cannot get the GPS to talk to laptop as the error message says GPS needs to be set to Garmin and not NMEA in/out which I need for DSC.

Any suggestions gratefully received

 

[jb2006]

I am sure my etrex worked fine to the laptop with a NMEA to serial lead and a serial to USB converter. I'll have another go later in the week and see if I can come up with anything. I am using Mapsource with Bluechart 7.

 

[Sheff]

I think you will find garmin handhelds only ouput nmea 0183 via a serial port and their own nmea protocol via usb.

If I recall this problem was encountered and covered in an article of February's Sailing Today................ Garmin GPS60, I think.

 

[dmayes]

My Garmin GPS 60 outputs proprietory sentences using the usb port when connected to a PC. This is the way Garmin expect you to connect to a PC as it interfaces with their PC program they supply with the GPS. If you want to connect to a chart plotter software you need to set the Garmin to output NMEA as you did with the radio but on my GPS 60 this is output from an extra plug and socket which you have to buy. As you are already getting this data to your radio you must have this cable. Just make sure that the NMEA out is set to the same speed (normally 4800) as the input to your PC and you may have to get a "usb to com port" converter for your PC as few PCs are delivered with com ports today. You then need to connect the Garmin NMEA out to that com port. There are some programs that can accept the Garmin sentences direct into the USB port, OzzieExplore is one of them.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
Sure this has been covered before and there is a solution but I need help.

Firstly bought a DSC VHF and installed it to find the Magellan GPS would not give position to the radio, contacted Magellan to be told that model was "100 years old" and would not talk to the Icom, so OK bought a Garmin 152 and all works well, GPS set to NMEA/in/out and this gives Lat/Long to the radio.

Problem started with trying to use laptop as chartplotter, having Bluechart 8.5 and downloaded nroute I thought I would be up and running but I cannot get the GPS to talk to laptop as the error message says GPS needs to be set to Garmin and not NMEA in/out which I need for DSC.

Any suggestions gratefully received

[/ QUOTE ]


Unfortunately Garmin with Bluechart has decided that BC can only read Garmin Protocol .... this is daft - as it means you are stuck with one or other not working.

 

[jleaworthy]

Probably also seems daft, but you could get a cheap Garmin from e-bay as I did (I got a 12 for about £30) and use it to run the ICOM. That way you'll have a simple hook up and the advantage of two independent position systems.