Hacking Garmin GPS?

[laanan]

Hi folks,


I'm really loving figuring out Open CPN. It's a great project. I purchased a usb GPS receiver on Amazon to connect to it.


In the meantime, I am going sailing this weekend, and I was wondering if anyone has had any luck hacking an existing Garmin GPS to work with Open CPN. I have a Drivesmart 65 that I used for a trip down to Costa Rica, but I otherwise don't use it for street navigation. Does anyone know of a way to strip off the existing software to use an "open source" software on it? Or...any ideas on loading charts onto it or just using it as a USB receiver? I know it's a long shot, but I thought it might be worth a try. Thanks for any help!


Best,

Matt

[Lake-Effect]

I have two older GPS handheld units (Garmin and Lowrance) and both of them have serial outputs. They can put put a NMEA0183 stream. I have not investigated the newer USB units.

I've never heard of anyone loading a different operating system on Garmin hardware. And not something you'll pull off in just over 24 hours.

[laanan]

So true!



I ended up just using my iPhone with an app called NMEA GPS. I used the Hotspot feature on the phone and used 172.20.10.1 for the host address. Worked fine.

[SailRN]

I've used Bluetooth from my Android telephone, a USB connection to a Garmin handheld GPS, and a USB connection from the port on my AIS transceiver to provide location information to my laptop OpenCPN. Using the AIS had the added benefit of displaying AIS targets on OpenCPN in addition to the GPS fix.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by laanan

...I was wondering if anyone has had any luck hacking an existing Garmin GPS to work with Open CPN. ...Does anyone know of a way to strip off the existing software to use an "open source" software on it? Or...any ideas on loading charts onto it or just using it as a USB receiver?

We now have a newer Garmin handheld GPS and a Garmin fishfinder. (I gave the older GPS to a friend) I haven't tried any serious hacking, because Garmin's worked pretty hard to keep their platforms "closed". And for what you pay for Garmin units, it doesn't seem worth it to risk losing their original functionality.

The Tracker 4 fishfinder also has built-in GPS and it records tracks... and I am a bit frustrated that I can't get track data out of it, or even a position datastream to feed the DSC VHF receiver. It's all proprietary.

Anyway, generic USB GPS fobs are under $30, single-board open platforms like the Raspberry Pi are inexpensive, or grab an old laptop and put Linux on it... that's the most efficient route.

[Gremnalkut]

it's quite interesting! I have just started studying this topic, but I can already say that I really like it.td

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, christense, and Gremnalkut.

[capt jgw]

Hacking Android phones is done often, they have new OS's that act pretty much like the original but don't have all the "bloat ware" apps that you can't remove. Frees up more than half the phones memory. They call it "rooting" the phone for getting root access. I've never tried it but there are forums on that subject, try searching those. Some of those guys might know how to do it on a Garmin. Be careful though, there's a danger of "bricking" the unit, removing the OS and can't install the new one, or put the old one back.