GPS issues

[Tazzie]

I have just purchased a boat which has a Garmin 128 gps interfaced to a pc with open cpn free chart download. The pc that came with the boat was a very old unit and thus, the only connection was a nine pin serial port. The sellers supplied me with a cable that would convert the nine pin plug to a usb however once I connected the new pc to the garmin gps not much happened (gps and pc arn't talking to each other) , however I noticed the mouse cursor on the screen going haywire. I suspect but am not certain that this might be a hardware problem. Any input would be much appreciated, but with replies please be aware that I can place all of my technology skills on a ten cent coin and still have room to write "The Lords Prayer" so simplicity would be appreciated
Tazzie

[lateral]

IIRC,
Computor thinks the serial adaptor supplying NMEA is the mouse, hence random movement.

Boot the computer first with mouse attached, then plug in usb to serial adaptor.
Follow the script. ie new device detected.

Did he supply a driver? If not search the net for a driver for the adaptor.
Alternatively go to System/hardware/device manager and check the serial to usb appears on a port.
What OS are you using? Also google crazy mouse & get a more detailed description
of what I related.

[Tazzie]

Lateral, Thanks for your reply, Os is windows 7 and I'm sure pc is 64 bit , would this be a problem Tazzie

[lateral]

Don't think so. But it may dictate what driver you need.

If you depower the GPS the "crazy mouse" should stop.
My computor/control panel/system/hardware/device manager, click on mice & other pointing devices & disable the device other than your current mouse.
Reboot with the gps depowered but usb still plugged in and it should be allocated a com port.
Windows 7 should have a driver for it otherwise you will have to search for one & download, preferably the brand of the adaptor.

[edsailing]

Down load and install a com port plug and play blocker - solved my problem of the leaping curser

[El Rubio]

The computer will assign a com port to the adapter automatically. It's possible that your program is looking at the wrong com port for the gps data. Verify the com port assignment and adjust the connection on the charting program.

[svinshallah]

This is a very common problem. Just last week, I was reading the manual for the Garmin 18X GPS and they had a more-than-page-long explanation of the problem and what to do about it. Download the manual from the Garmin site.

[hellosailor]

Tazzie-
All the versions of Windows NT (which includes Windows7) can mistake a gps for a serial mouse, and if you add the " /noserialmouse " parameter to the startup configuration that will also fix the problem on all versions. A web search should give you the specifics for how to do that on your system.

But many serial-to-usb converters are problematic. The simple solution is to spend about $35 on a cheap USB GPS puck and get rid of the old Garmin. The new GPS will probably also be much more sensitive, so it is more reliable belowdeck in rainy weather.

And that also eliminates any questions about configuring the serial port settings, another bugaboo that all serial port hardware often had.

[Tazzie]

Hi hellosailor,
As previously stated , my technology skills are way below average, am I to understand that if connect a gps puck to my pc it would be a chartplotter and if this is the case are there brands compatible to ocean cpn or will any gps puck do this job
Tazzie

[hellosailor]

"if connect a gps puck to my pc it would be a chartplotter "
If it was running chartplotter software, yes, it would act as one.

You could doublecheck with opcn to see if they suggest any particular models but "all" USB GPS pucks should work about the same at this point. I'm sure you can find reviews on them to see if any in particular are inexpensive vs. junk.