gps to laptop

[d900]

Hi, i have been watching the forum for a while now, seems to be a very good knowledge base, so here goes, i have just bought a garmin 60, seems like a very good piece of kit, the problem i have is connecting it to work on my pc, it works perfectly with the mapcal software that came with it, but i really want to use it with seaclear, i loaded g7 and can now make the gps beep when trying to download waypoints to seaclear but it still wont give me a position any ideas welcomed, thanks in advance

 

[Talbot]

There are two possible causes:

You have not configured Seaclear to use the comm port that the GPS is connected to.
or

You are using a usb/serial lead that doesnt work.

A lot of the prolific leads have problems with GPS,

 

[Guest]

Ok ..... your post is a bit bare on actual detail ....

Please describe what cables you have, what talks to what ... how have you set it up etc.

Once we have some details - then the rest will start to drop into place. As Talbot says - biggest step is to get com ports same ... that is what port data is coming in on - that is found via Device Manager ...... and the port that Seaclear is listening on - found via the menu in Seaclear.

Forget Hyperterminal as Seaclear has a very good own data display in / out ..... once you get ports set.

 

[d900]

Hi thanks for the reply, the lead is the usb connection that came with the gps, under device manager the connection comes up under garmin then a sub menu with usb o.
in seaclear i have it connected to port 3 and in comms i have selected Rx 2 i have the gps set on nema in and out,

 

[Guest]

OK ..... but when you see the Garmin connection under the heading Com Ports in Device manager .... it should say Com 1 ... 2 .... 3 etc. Ignore USB listing .... go to the Com port listing.

Set Rx2 on Seaclear to same ......

You say that you have NMEA in / out ... so thats done.

Will be back soon - have to go shopping !!!!

 

[d900]

i have nema selected on the gps, on seaclear it is showing nothing in the nema moniter, and in device manager under ports (COM&LPT) i have only one port listed, printer port (lpt1) i do have other usb connections listed but they don't have numbers, strange thing is that if i ask seaclear to get info from the gps ie track the gps bleeps and says info sent, if i try to get a position it says waypoint error, the mapcal software works perfectly so i assume the lead is ok, thanks for the help any further advice gratefully received i don't feel ready to give up on this yet, as i think i must be getting close to sorting it.

 

[Talbot]

Very strange. Am I right in saying that the Garmin has a direct USB connection, or is it a serial connection that then goes into a usb/serial cable?

 

[d900]

erm, bit stumped about what type of lead, all i can see is a fitting in the middle of the lead, then a normal usb connector at the end

 

[Talbot]

Does that fitting come apart, and if so, are you left with a lead like this -

and the bit from the GPS looks like one of these -

if so, then the cable from garmin is a serial lead, and the other bit on the end is a usb/serial converter. This is almost certainly where your problem lies. When you connected the usb slead into the laptop, it should have had a special bit of software to enable the laptop to recognise it as a usb/serial lead, then you would see it in "hardware devices" under ports. Sometimes windows provides its own software, but this doesnt work with GPS.

The best I have found are these

 

[d900]

Hi sorry if i'm a bit slow with the techie stuff but no the connection on the lead is fixed, it hasn't got any of them bits on it, just a usb connector at the end,

 

[Guest]

Ok ...so you have a usb lead - not a conversion lead as Talbot rightly says - many of them don't work very well.

Let us assume you are running win XP ?

So try this ..... Unplug the lead ..... leave it uplugged. Restart the computer without. Wait for it to start and settle down with all running and ready to rock & roll. Open up device manager and open up Com Port listing.
Now watching carefull - plug in the lead - making sure that it is connected to GPS before plugging into PC.

What happens ? Do you get a system tray message saying that windows found USB device and is installing ? Does an entry come up in Com port listing ?

As top Mapcal - that is purely a map calibration utility to install mapping to Seaclear .... Seaclear is the program that will sort the connection once we identify where the data is coming in.

So what happened ?

 

[d900]

ok tried that, all that happened was that, the word garmin appeared in the list (not under any heading) and when you click on it it says garmin usb,

 

[Guest]

have you gone to properties of that listing ?

Something strange .....

 

[d900]

yes just tried that it says device is working properly, location 0 usb device. sorry i've just realised i have miss led you the software that came with the device was actually mapsource trip and waypoint manager, just noticed the name on the cd on the desk

 

[Guest]

When you first connected after buying - did it install a driver fron the CD ? It may be this that is interfering ...

Maybe uninstall all the stuff you installed when you connected it ? Start from zero again ... let XP install its own USB driver for the cable and then look ? A lot of USB cables on GPS etc. will run with Prolific driver ...

 

[Guest]

Re: gps to laptop ..... Oh Dear !! Just looked at Garmin 60 text

Quote : The GPS 60 has both a USB and a Serial port connection, for speed and versatility. The serial port connection will allow you to transfer data via NMEA protocol and the USB interface will allow faster downloads to and from Garmin’s MapSource programs.

So maybe the USB cable is data restricted to garmin mapsource only ?? Did you get the Serial cable as well ?

Here's on Garmins site ..... "Fast map transfer, with support for both USB and serial port interfaces; navigation instructions can be shared with repeaters, plotters, and autopilots using NMEA protocols through the dedicated serial port "

 

[Guest]

Seems a common problem ....

Here's a forum that discusses it :

http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?p=170363

as example .....

 

[Talbot]

You say it works well with the mapcal software, is that software still running when you try to connect to Seaclear?

Cause any programme that uses a GPS will take exclusive possession of the port and will not allow any other software to use it.

 

[d900]

thanks for he replies and help guys, i am only trying to run it with one program at a time, i will send an enquiry to garmin to see if i need to buy the serial, I'm not sure if the usb cable is restricted to garmin that seems to make sense though, once again thanks

 

[Guest]

I would look elsewhere once you get an answer - Garmin cable prices are daft !! There are many other third party sources of USB and Serial cables ..... GPS Warehouse being one ... a google for GPS cables will throw up quite a few ..... Xpansys being another etc.