Export Active Captain Route To Garmin

[Therapy]

I used Active Captain to create a few routes.

Then I used the suggested GPSBabel to convert to .gpx. I also made a .gdb that has all six routes in it.

I put the chip in the Garmin and use the "merge card" option and the screen shows nothing except "files" and there is nothing there.

I am clueless and the manual is not helping me.

Can someone tell me how to do this to get some pre-planned routes in my Garmin?

Garmin screen choices are not as intuitive as anything I have seen on PCs.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Therapy

I used Active Captain to create a few routes.

Then I used the suggested GPSBabel to convert to .gpx. I also made a .gdb that has all six routes in it.

I put the chip in the Garmin and use the "merge card" option and the screen shows nothing except "files" and there is nothing there.

I am clueless and the manual is not helping me.

Can someone tell me how to do this to get some pre-planned routes in my Garmin?

Garmin screen choices are not as intuitive as anything I have seen on PCs.

I haven't used GPSBabel myself, but I don't think Garmin reads .gpx. You need to use GPSBabel to convert to the proprietary Garmin format. Sorry, I don't know what the extension is.

Try going back to GPSBabel and see if there is a "Garmin" format listed for output. If not, make a route on the Garmin and save it to your chip. Look at the extension and see if that extension is listed in GPSBabel.

-dan

[ActiveCaptain]

We've had a bunch of people go back and forth between ActiveCaptain and their Garmins. I've gotten quite a few sample files.

The way everyone is doing it is by using the Garmin PC software. It appears to read and write GPX itself so no conversion is needed.

There are likely some ways to convert GPX into a device-specific Garmin format that will work on certain devices. Post a little more info about the Garmin you're trying to go to and I'll see what I can come up with.

[Therapy]

The garmin unit is a 5212.

It seems the Active Captain makes a .gpx file when I click on export.

GPSBabel has several choices for Garmin in the list of output files. One of those is .gpx.

The Garmin will not let you just view files like on a PC as far as I know.

Clueless here.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

We've had a bunch of people go back and forth between ActiveCaptain and their Garmins. I've gotten quite a few sample files.

The way everyone is doing it is by using the Garmin PC software. It appears to read and write GPX itself so no conversion is needed.

There are likely some ways to convert GPX into a device-specific Garmin format that will work on certain devices. Post a little more info about the Garmin you're trying to go to and I'll see what I can come up with.

If they are using the Garmin PC software then they are not using Active Captain. Or am I missing something yet again?

Maybe all .gpx files are not the same?

[ActiveCaptain]

You don't need GPSBabel or anything else. What you need is Garmin's MapSource product:
MapSource

MapSource will work with the 5212 - at least they say it does and I think there are others I know doing it. It will read and write GPX files. GPX files should be compatible between products but there are many type of data that can be in a GPX file and sometimes there is confusion about tracks vs routes vs waypoints.

The reason you'd use ActiveCaptain is that it gives you a route archive and the ability to grab routes from many thousands of other boaters. There are other features coming with routes on ActiveCaptain too - ways of combining routes with all of the points-of-interest data we have. It will provide a really nice tools for bridge and hazard planning, finding fuel, being alerted about specials enroute, or finding friends who will be along the same ways.

ActiveCaptain's sharing of routes isn't just between captains. It's also between devices. So having the route on the AC server will provide a gateway to the Garmin device as well as the other partner navigation products and other products. That way you'll have the exact same route running on all devices when you're underway. You might not have an iPhone/Android/tablet now, but chances are you will in the future. It's quite nice to have the same route on your iPhone as your Garmin while traveling along it.

This is all very new and is something that doesn't exist anywhere else. It will be a little confusing until all the pieces are unrolled and it all becomes clearer.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

You don't need GPSBabel or anything else. What you need is Garmin's MapSource product:
MapSource

MapSource will work with the 5212 - at least they say it does and I think there are others I know doing it. It will read and write GPX files. GPX files should be compatible between products but there are many type of data that can be in a GPX file and sometimes there is confusion about tracks vs routes vs waypoints.

The reason you'd use ActiveCaptain is that it gives you a route archive and the ability to grab routes from many thousands of other boaters. There are other features coming with routes on ActiveCaptain too - ways of combining routes with all of the points-of-interest data we have. It will provide a really nice tools for bridge and hazard planning, finding fuel, being alerted about specials enroute, or finding friends who will be along the same ways.

ActiveCaptain's sharing of routes isn't just between captains. It's also between devices. So having the route on the AC server will provide a gateway to the Garmin device as well as the other partner navigation products and other products. That way you'll have the exact same route running on all devices when you're underway. You might not have an iPhone/Android/tablet now, but chances are you will in the future. It's quite nice to have the same route on your iPhone as your Garmin while traveling along it.

This is all very new and is something that doesn't exist anywhere else. It will be a little confusing until all the pieces are unrolled and it all becomes clearer.

I guess some tweaking needs to be done then cause the .gpx Active Captain produces the Garmin can't see.

Reads nice on paper etc.....................

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Therapy

I guess some tweaking needs to be done then cause the .gpx Active Captain produces the Garmin can't see.

Are you saying that you have the Garmin MapSource program and you are not able to open the GPX files?

If that's the case, please contact me outside of this thread and I'll help you. If the problem is that you don't have the Garmin MapSource software, then I'm not sure how you expect the Garmin to be able to see the data.

[Therapy]

I guess I mean I don't really know what to expect.

What I expect to do is to:

create a route in Active Captain.
Save it to my desktop
convert it through Babel
put it on a SD card
plug the SD card into my Garmin
Get the Garmin to suck it in by pushing the correct buttons.
display the route when I push the appropriate buttons (touch screen on the 5212)

The book says to save a route from the chartplotter to the SD that it saves it as a .adm. It does not say what mapsource to SD the format is. I don't have mapsource. Is it free?

See, I thought I could use Active Captain.

[Therapy]

So I went to the Garmin site and found out:

Mapsource only comes on a CD with maps.
You have to buy the maps on a CD and they toss in the mapsource.
Heh! I have the maps for the Garmin on a SD card. No mapsource on them. Heh!

They have a "trip and waypoint manager" CD but the 5212 is not a compatible unit as per the Garmin site.
Heh!

So it seems it all has to be done on the unit itself unless some aftermarket source has "cracked the code", which is what I thought Active Captain > computer > Babel > SD card > plotter would do.

[ActiveCaptain]

I'm sorry - I'm unsubscribing from this thread. If you want help, I'm happy to do so outside the forum like a mentioned above.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

I'm sorry - I'm unsubscribing from this thread. If you want help, I'm happy to do so outside the forum like a mentioned above.

Well, OK.

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

Are you saying that you have the Garmin MapSource program and you are not able to open the GPX files?

If that's the case, please contact me outside of this thread and I'll help you. If the problem is that you don't have the Garmin MapSource software, then I'm not sure how you expect the Garmin to be able to see the data.

No problem.

I don't have mapsource so that eliminates your offer of outside help.

I expect Garmin to see the data after it is converted. I do it for my kindle.

[Noname]

Take a look at Garmin's Homeport software program. I believe it converts SD card data from a chartplotter in garmin format to .gpx format.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Seaduction

Take a look at Garmin's Homeport software program. I believe it converts SD card data from a chartplotter in garmin format to .gpx format.

I'll look that up though I am not really concerned going from Garmin plotter format (unknown to me) to .gpx. .gpx is what the Active Captain gives you when you save a route. Babel has several choices for Garmin formats and I don't know which one it wants.

Pretty sure they want it that way too so they can sell more stuff. In the future I think there will be a universal format like the NMEA that came about.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Seaduction

Take a look at Garmin's Homeport software program. I believe it converts SD card data from a chartplotter in garmin format to .gpx format.

Seeing that on the site it might be what I have to get.

Thanks much.

I did not see it when searching the site.