Garmin GPS Won't Talk to Computer Blue Charts?

[luke timmerye]

hi, my garmin gps will not talk to my blue charts or tsunami charts program. any ideas? cheers
luke
fair winds

[donradcliffe]

Is it plugged into the computer? How--serial or usb?
Do you know which COM port it is using and set the program accordingly?
Did you go through the GPS menus and tell it to send NMEA output?

[mesquaukee]

I had the same problem, there is a upgrade I installed from Garmin at http://www.garmin.com/support/mappingsw.jsp and everything worked.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Is it plugged into the computer? How--serial or usb?
Do you know which COM port it is using and set the program accordingly?
Did you go through the GPS menus and tell it to send NMEA output?

On my 76 the communication protocol has to be Garmin to talk to their software like BlueChart, NMEA to talk to other programs like Seaclear.

John

[luke timmerye]

hmmm, ok the mapsource and gps do transfer waypoints, tracks etc when i ask for it, but mapsource doesnt show an 'active' or 'live' point, so u can track where you are going on the computer...
its connected via usb, not sure how to find out which com port its in.. ive tried NMEA and GARMIN settings but both dont seem to make the gps show up on mapsource or tsunamis '99.. cheers

[scotte]

Originally Posted by luke timmerye

hmmm, ok the mapsource and gps do transfer waypoints, tracks etc when i ask for it, but mapsource doesnt show an 'active' or 'live' point, so u can track where you are going on the computer...

Ah yes... Unfortunately that's because garmin removed that functionality from mapsource - it's now for planning only. They had a free product usable for realtime navigation called nroute, but have subsequently discontinued it. It worked with existing mapsource data - although I don't know if every map type was supported, for example bluechart. You can probably find it if you search for it though, or maybe find an older version of mapsource which still does tracking.

[barnakiel]

Garmin connects to Tsunami. Set your GPS to Nmea in / Nmea Out. Scan the COMs and see where the signal goes. Set this port up in Tsunami. We had to go via an RSC/USB cable since the proprietary Garmin USB did not come up as a COM (maybe there is a patch for this from Garmin but I do not think so).

b.

[scotte]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

We had to go via an RSC/USB cable since the proprietary Garmin USB did not come up as a COM (maybe there is a patch for this from Garmin but I do not think so).

The USB port on a Garmin GPS is not, and cannot, be a COM port. Totally different protocol, totally different payload.

[luke timmerye]

thx guys.. the nroute program works fine except that its only displying charts in australia, not the rest. but its better than nothing i guess,, for the taunamis program, i'll get a different lead and see if that works.. thx for all ur help..

luke

fair winds

[scotte]

Yep, with another cable that uses the serial output of the GPS (assuming your GPS has one, didn't see your particular model # above), then it will work fine with ANY nav software expecting NMEA0183 once it's set for NMEA output. Also note that a serial-USB adapter is fine with that output, not to be confused with the Garmin USB interface.

[donradcliffe]

You can use GPS splitter, simulator and logger. Serial port splitter. - Franson GpsGate to convert your Garmin USB interface to a virtual com port to interface with navigation programs. People have reported it solved their problems, and the express version has a 14 day free trial and is only $13.

[barnakiel]

I said RSC/USB ***cable***, not the port. The port we use is the 4-pin that looks like Garmin proprietary.

b.