Garmin Etrex Legend & Serial Interface

[+JohnTee]

I'm wanting to get my Garmin eTrex Legend connected to my laptop. No Serial Port, but three USB Ports. Bought a Dynex Modell DX-UBDB9 USB PDA/Serial Adapter Cable at Best Buy tonight. It indicates compatibility with GPSr's on the packaging.

 

First I had to go to http://www.dynexproducts.com to get the DX-UBDB9_Drivers.zip file, since WXP did not recognize the device when plugged in. Driver up and adapter recognized.

 

Plugged the GPS into the USB/Serial Adapter and did not get any recognition from the PC. Running EasyGPS, choosing Garmin eTrex Legend in the setup; options for choosing Port/Speed or USB interface are grayed out. Unable to send or receive. Looks like the GPS is not being seen by the PC through the adapter.

 

Does anyone have exprience with the Dynex adapter and/or have any suggestions? Is there a better adapter to use? Would I be better off getting a USB cable for my connection?

 

Thanks!

 

John

[canadave]

John,

 

I'm almost certain the problem isn't with the adapter; if your GPSr has been recognized by Windows XP, it's probably working fine. More likely, something's "wrong" (which could mean "not set correctly" or "disabled" or something like that) with the way the computer is set up, specifically with regards to the USB port or possibly even the driver. In other words, if EasyGPS is "seeing" the Legend, then the adapter is functioning.

 

I don't know if you've read the .PDF manual that came with the Dynex driver, but I highly recommend that you do if you haven't yet. For instance, the manual shows several components that need to be properly displayed in Device Manager; without those components, I'm guessing you'd run into problems such as the one you describe. Double-check what your Device Manager is showing you against the illustration in the manual and make sure they match; if not, you may have to uninstall and reinstall the driver.

 

Hope that helps,

Dave

[+Pasha]

First I had to go to http://www.dynexproducts.com to get the DX-UBDB9_Drivers.zip file, since WXP did not recognize the device when plugged in.  Driver up and adapter recognized. 

 

Plugged the GPS into the USB/Serial Adapter and did not get any recognition from the PC.  Running EasyGPS, choosing Garmin eTrex Legend in the setup; options for choosing Port/Speed or USB interface are grayed out.  Unable to send or receive.  Looks like the GPS is not being seen by the PC through the adapter.

Don't have any experience with this specific adapter, but keep in mind that once installed correctly, these adapters look to your PC like a Serial port, not a USB connection. When I installed mine, after the drivers were installed, I had to go into Device Manager and modify the COM port settings to get it to work.

 

I haven't used EasyGPS so can't help with that, but presumably if it works with one package it'll work with all of them. Just make sure you know which COM port it's set to.

[+napisano]

I have a very similar setup. I use a eTrex Legend with a serial connection. The USB->Serial coverter is typicaly recognized as a com port. You can set which COM Port in windows device manager. Software will continue to recognise the GPS unit as a serial connected unit.

 

Hope that helps. Feel free to e-mail me for instructions at paul@napisano.net

[+ohgr]

I've been using THIS Belkin Serial to USB adapter with my Legend and it works great. You'll need to install the driver. I had been using it on an old Palm Pilot years ago and decided to try it out on the Legend and it worked much to my surprise.

 

Ohgr

[+DocDiTTo]

couple things to check:

 

First in Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager check out your ports and see what port the USB adapter is appearing as. If it's 1,2,3, or 4 you should be fine, having it set higher than 4 may sometimes (but not always) cause problems with certain apps. To change the port, right-click the adapter in the device manager, go to properties, then the Port Settings tab and click the advanced button. Choose one that's not being used by something else.

 

Ok, now you know what COMM port it's on, so next thing, make sure your software (EasyGPS) is set up to use that port. (Not USB as someone else mentioned earlier) I'm not familiar with EasyGPS (I use GSAK) so you're on your own here. Make sure EasyGPS is set up for the GARMIN protocol too, if that's an option.

 

Next thing, make sure your GPSr interface is set to GARMIN. Don't have mine in front of me but it's main menu, then setup (or system?) then interface I think. You won't be able to choose BAUD or anything, that's fine, as you don't need to.

 

Once all this stuff is set up correctly you should be pretty much ready to go. See if it works. If you still have problems, and you've double-checked your settings, it could be the driver you're using for your USB to Serial adapter. Search the net and see if there's an updated driver (or even a completely different, but compatible one) and try it.

 

Remember to NEVER plug a new USB device in before you install drivers for it. That's a great way to mess things up royally. You mentioned you did that, so you might need to get into device manager and delete the USB to serial adapter driver and start over. Hopefully not though, I imagine there's just a setting set wrong somewhere.

[+JohnTee]

Thanks for all the replies. USB Adapter is being recognized and and after just looking at Com Ports, my Garmin etrex Legend is now being recognized by EasyGPS. I'm working on going to GSAK and CacheMate. I can UL/DL with GSAK without problem. Look like two programs to get registered.

 

On the other hand, I have an old MS Streets 98 Program that is capable of interfacing with a GPSr. It does not recognize that I have a GPSr connected and nothing shows up in the Control Panel. Is there a driver needed for WXP and installed programs to use the GPSr?

 

JohnTee

[+eisenkatze]

JohnTee,

I have Streets and Trips '06 and it requires that the GPSr be set to use the NMEA interface mode (Look under Setup on your eTrex) while EasyGPS requires the default Garmin mode.

 

Switching between the two interface modes is really the only drawback, but that might help.

 

-Ed-