seaPpro-laptop-garmin !

[rodwhite]

seaPro (3000 series stnd ) up and running on new laptop (Vista) Garmin 176c into usb port nmea in/out set up -played around with gps auto scan on seaPro setup but will not show/confirm a gps ? there are no garmin drivers on laptop do i need a garmin driver, any pointer`s please that may help , /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif cheerrrsss

 

[wragges]

Is SP3k seeing any active ports when you do the scan?...if so go to view menu and look at the mnea data window to see what data you are getting on what port.

Assume the GPS has USB output, or are you using a USB-serial adaptor?

 

[Artemis_C2121]

I have seapro lite and believe that none of the seapro software will run GPS from USB tried with mine also with no joy
As far as i know needs USB to serial converter if no serial port on your laptop not sure what you best plan is. I run mine through Furuno GPS with 9 pin serial connection works very very well as long as seapro is started before the GPS is switched on (if not laptop thinks GPS is a pointing divice)


Neville

 

[wragges]

nmea output is RS232 or RS485 as standard (i.e. serial port data). Some modern GPS units however now have USB output directly, thus no convertor required.

On the pointing device issue, you can easily stop this happening by editing the boot.ini and adding /noserialmice to the boot selector.
see http://www.euronav.co.uk/eurohelp/index.htm ...article TN#036 for more info.

A Seapro user (semi-pro) for 7 years now. Probably one of the only yachts with more USB ports active than my office has. Got it running a treat with GPS, Autopilot, Plotter, DSC, AIS and Navtex. It's like NASA mission control down there!

Cheers, Steve

 

[rodwhite]

S.S yes it does show active ports-will look at nmea data window, usb- rs-232 serial interface with driver and confirms conection on btm toolbar
Artemis Philips notebook 11nb5800 with two usb ports and some lan-fax jack also ieee port could be nock head on wall time !! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Jonny_H]

We use Seapro via Bluetooth GPS - works absolutely fine - you need to assign a COM port to the GPS port (USB / NMEA / Bluetooth etc) that is accepted by Seapro - it only has a limited number of COM ports in its set-up - not as many as Windows can assign.

(We use SeaPro Pro on XP)

Jonny

 

[nigelhudson]

If it is the same as a Garmin GPS60 the USB is in "Garmin" format and not NMEA. Not all software will read Garmin format. However the GPS should be capable of NMEA output via a signal or signal/power cable which does not come as standard with most sets unless they are part of a "marine" kit. You will need to connect the NMEA output to the serial port of your computer or buy a serial/USB convertor if it is so recent that it doesn't have a 9-pin serial port.

Have a look here for suitable leads and convertors Lynks Cables - I haven't used them yet but their prices look good.

 

[Blue Fox]

A Garmin 60 will work if you download GPSgate from Franson (google it). Connects simply via the USB. You don't have to buy a serial-usb converter (and/or the expensive Garmin cable)

 

[bazobeleza]

Had a similar problem with a GPS72 and an early version of seapro, you have tell the garmin through its setup screen what to output (it isnt set to nmea) and the computer where to find it, which com port and its settings, took me nigh on a week of banging my head against a wall but I finally did it, its in the manual of the 72 but hard to find. I suspect it may be the same with your setup.

 

[whipper_snapper]

Blue_Fox is correct. Some Garmin GPS units with USB oututs are not provided with drivers to emulate serial connections. Therefore no matter what you do with your settings at either end, you cannot make the USB output talk to a charting programme that is looking for a serial input. This is certainly true of the 076C. I was amazed to discover this, but it is true!

I can think of 2 options:

1. Use GPSgate from Franson. This works very well and streams the USB data to virtual serial ports. Just tell your charting software to use one of these. It also allows you to do other cunning things with the GPS data stream including retransmitting it onto a network or other serial port. This is what I do.

2. The 076 also outputs normal serial data via its power/data plug. This appears to be also true of the 176. You can use that, but if you don't have a serial port you will need a converter, which seems crazy when you have USB data coming off the device. The big disadvantage for me was that the unit gets power from the USB connection but obviously not from the serial connection. That may or may not be a problem depending how you intend to use it.