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Is Anyone Having Success With Virtual Pc?


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Hi!

 

I got a new laptop - a Mac. I love it! I buy Virtual PC so I can run my GSAK and Mapsource (which all works swimmingly on my WIN XP box).

 

I load up the drivers, I load up the software. I can unzip my .gpx and look at maps and all that. But when it comes to transferring anything to or from the handheld, a Garmin GPSMap60C, forget it!

 

It is weird: both Mapsource and GSAK say "no device connected." On that point they are firm!

 

But the WIN XP device manager (running on my Virtual PC), sees the USB port as enabled and even calls the device "Garmin USB Device."

 

The handheld thinks it is connected. When I unplug it, WIN XP goes beep. And when I plug it in, WIN XP goes beep again. Those annoying hardware eject/inject chimes, you know.

 

So, what is my problem? Does anyone have success running waypoints etc to/from Virtual PC-hosted applications thru a Mac to a Garmin?

 

Thanks!

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It is possible. Although I haven't been paying attention to how. I ended up buying MacGPS Pro and haven't looked back. If there ever was a good example of customer service James Associates was it.

 

I'm able to up/download WP, tracks, routes view them real time on maps (USGS). It's just flawless.

 

I really have to warn you against VPC. I only run it with the absolutely least processor intensive tasks.

 

-PB 15" 1Gig

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I'm able to up/download WP, tracks, routes view them real time on maps (USGS). It's just flawless.

So you use MapGPS Pro, of which I am ignorant. What about mapping? Or is it the mapping software, too (i.e. replaces my MapSource)? It sounds like the MapGPS Pro would replace my GSAK. Does the MapGPS Pro take in the .gpx files, too?

 

I give 512MB to VPC. It's a dog, but there's a few things I just have to use WIN for. Otherwise, I just love living on the Mac.

 

Thanks for the tip,

Ken, 15" PB 1.5GB.

Edited by BubbaSmiths
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The software itself is $50. You either download it or he emails it to you. For an additional $30 you can get DVDs of a certain topo area. I, for instance, ordered the Northeasteren US. These are standard USGS maps, although there is some sort of conversion algorithm they use so it loses very little quality when you zoom into an area. (I own both National Geographic TOPO and the James associates one and James has much better quality.)

 

MacGPS Pro reads and outputs .gpx files.

 

And you do know that Garmin announced Mac support by end of '06?

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I do appreciate: "Go with the above suggestions. Garmin will soon be supporting Mac. Hopefully Clyde will see the value of GSAK for Mac. All will be right with the world." :(

Since Apple dominates the intersection of the Digital Lifestyle, surely a year from now Geocaching via OSX apps will be seamless.

 

but...

 

I want to geocache this weekend. I have invested alot, cash and learning time, into my MapSource & GSAK environment. Perhaps unwise, but I updated my Topo and NorthAmerica in preparation for my new Virtual PC on OSX geocaching machine.

 

It gives me schpilkas to think I need to acquire new maps and mapper apps. It's not just the money, but it takes a while to get comfortable & proficient.

 

Before I dive into the "change everything" abyss, isn't anybody having a good time with:

 

Garmin via USB to MapSource in VirtualPC on a Mac running Tiger?

 

I just need to know if it "can" work. Thanks!

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You can try joining the "macmap" group on Yahoo (of which I am a member) and scour the message archives there. But I actually just spent ten mins. looking for an answer for you and have not found any that you will be satisfied with. Apparently the USB problem is on the Garmin side.

 

Some people have had varying success with other Garmin units, but unfortunately, I did not see any good stories involving yours.

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Time to get out the VISA card again (and so soon after the holidays!).

BTW, there are other free mac native apps you might want to try. I have to admit I didn't not try any of them, the integration of MacGPS Pro and their maps, plus ease of use and versatility and great tech support is well documented so I didn't even want to bother with the others...

 

good luck.

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Although I've never tried, this, in my experience anything with VPC and hardware doesn't usually work like I'd like. I would like to dump windows entirely, but there's a few apps I like to use for newsgroup downloading, dvd and video compression, etc...and VPC just isn't the way to go with anything that's trying to talk to hardware natively or eat up a lot of resources. I think the only thing my WinXP VPC runs right now is Ding! from southwest airlines.

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To use MapSource in VPC you need a serial cable for your GPS and a Serial to USB adapter. Virtual PC does not work well with Garmin USB devices.

 

Transfering maps is painfully slow but it works. For transfering waypoints to your GPS there are software solutions availible on the Mac, just have a look at versiontracker.com

 

Garmin's Mac version of MapSource can't come soon enough.

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I tried the VPC route too .... waste of money. It's cheaper to get a discount PC, throw it under the desk and use it for those few times a person needs the PC. You can hook it up to your monitor and keyboard with an AB switch if you want and run both CPU's at once for convenience.

 

I fried a Garmin once trying to update the firmware via VPC.... never again! The GPSr had to go back to Garmin for repair.

 

I use the PC for all Garmin firmware updates now.

 

I use Mac GPS Pro, TOPO and Route 66 (and now Google Earth!) on my Mac with a Keyspan USB adapter ... flawless!

 

VPC .... unfortunate waste of money .... sunken hopes ... disappointment .... "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore."

 

Jim

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My GPS60cx will be arriving this week, I'm a die hard mac fan and haven't had a windows machine in my house for over ten years.

Having said that, I agree VPC is worthless.

My plan is to barrow an old windows machine from work and use that till the new mac software is released by Garmin.

So.....What version of windows is needed to run the sofware?

 

Maybe I'll slap an Apple sticker on the side of the windows box so I don't feel so dirty. <_<

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Hi!

 

I got a new laptop - a Mac. I love it! I buy Virtual PC so I can run my GSAK and Mapsource (which all works swimmingly on my WIN XP box).

 

I load up the drivers, I load up the software. I can unzip my .gpx and look at maps and all that. But when it comes to transferring anything to or from the handheld, a Garmin GPSMap60C, forget it!

 

It is weird: both Mapsource and GSAK say "no device connected." On that point they are firm!

 

But the WIN XP device manager (running on my Virtual PC), sees the USB port as enabled and even calls the device "Garmin USB Device."

 

The handheld thinks it is connected. When I unplug it, WIN XP goes beep. And when I plug it in, WIN XP goes beep again. Those annoying hardware eject/inject chimes, you know.

 

So, what is my problem? Does anyone have success running waypoints etc to/from Virtual PC-hosted applications thru a Mac to a Garmin?

 

Thanks!

use your XP box for your gps/geocaching uses.

 

use your mac for everything else!

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Sketchy -

 

Yes, have Route 66 on the Powerbook. It's great for those long road trips. No more paper maps. Having it on the powerbook is much more versatile than a dedicated car nav unit. Taking it into the coffee shops along the way to check email, record video out the window with the dash mounted iSight and simultaneously use the Griffin Rocket transmitter for music and downloaded NPR programs, etc. adds to the value of using the powerbook. It's a versatile traveling unit.

 

In our van the powerbook is the responsibility of the navigator, not the driver. We do occasionally set it up on the cooler between the seats with the routing pre configured and map centering turned "on" for driver reference, but that's as far as it goes on the road.

 

I wrote to Route 66 and suggested that they add way point entry, etc to the next release. They responded that they would consider it. You ought to write also... the more interest I suppose, the more likely it will happen.

 

I run XP Pro on the PC unit. (Blahhh....! <_< )

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We're getting some great info here - Thanks everyone! My understanding of this is becoming more clear. I also posted a question to VPC support and Garmin support, if I hear anything I'll let you know. I think it's night time in India right now...

 

Here's a question: The thing about the USB/Serial converter. Am I connecting the handheld's USB cable connector to a Keyspan device, which then in turn connects to a 'serial port' on my Mac?

 

Or, does my Mac's USB connect to the Keysapn, then trailing a 'serial connection' to the handheld?

 

(I don't readily see a serial connection other than USB & Firewire on my G4 PB 15" aluminum. I do see a big circular 4-pin connector on my handheld, which I haven't used before).

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My GPS60cx will be arriving this week...

So.....What version of windows is needed to run the sofware?

My olde environ was a 1999 Dell running Win XP Pro, Garmin MapSource, and GSAK. Browser Firefox. Did everything I ever asked it to do.

 

Until, one day, in its' sixth year of operations, it WOULD NOT TURN ON. I now vow to back up my data on DVD-ROMs, because I think I've lost forever my beloved tracks of the Inca Trail hike to Macchu Picchu. Ahhh, my old Legend. Couldn't find any signal in the woods, but those were the days.

 

Now I have a snazzy cool Mac laptop, a GPS with a color screen, and can't download the 7-11's coordinates...

 

P.S: You can get Win XP Pro for cheap if you look around for "academic pricing." You agree that you are in school. Or work for one. Or have a kid in one. Etc. Saves me franklins (my wife is a teacher).

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We're getting some great info here - Thanks everyone! My understanding of this is becoming more clear. I also posted a question to VPC support and Garmin support, if I hear anything I'll let you know. I think it's night time in India right now...

 

Here's a question: The thing about the USB/Serial converter. Am I connecting the handheld's USB cable connector to a Keyspan device, which then in turn connects to a 'serial port' on my Mac?

 

Or, does my Mac's USB connect to the Keysapn, then trailing a 'serial connection' to the handheld?

 

(I don't readily see a serial connection other than USB & Firewire on my G4 PB 15" aluminum. I do see a big circular 4-pin connector on my handheld, which I haven't used before).

If you're still asking about hooking up your USB Garmin to a Mac and running a Mac GPS app. (i.e. MacGPS Pro), you don't need a serial converter.

 

But, if you have a serial Garmin (i.e. Etrex series) you need the Keyspan serial to USB adapter (make sure it is the high speed one) in order for your Mac to recognize it. (Actually, I'm not sure if your Mac will recognize the device through its standard serial port if you have one...Although macs have not had serial ports since...uh, anyone?)

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Well, Garmin wins the support race over Microsoft - they replied first. Here's the message:

 

Subject: RE: Tech support request for MapSource

 

Thank you for contacting GARMIN. The Virtual PC environment does not always properly recognize and translate USB devices that are plugged into Mac computers. The device may show up in the device manager, but that is only one aspect of getting proper communication.

 

The MapSource program will generally not recognize any GPS USB devices and so will not allow for transfers. The 60C can connect using the serial cable and a serial-usb adapter. The adapter creates a virtual serial port, which the Mac can recognize.

 

Garmin plans to begin supporting the OS X version 10.4 Tiger later in the

year, but I do not have a specific availability date at this time.

 

Thank You,

 

Hayden Dyck

Product Support Specialist

GARMIN International

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NEWS: I ordered a USB-Serial converter, $22.90 incl. shipping, SW-1301 from sewelldirect.com.

 

I also ordered the 4-pin circular plug serial cable for my 60c handheld, 29.99 incl. shipping, amazon.

 

While I await delivery, I'll mull over going into business of supplying Mac users a turn-key Garmin handheld to Mapsource bridge... :)

 

$53, we'll see if this works!?! :D

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I use Mac GPS Pro, TOPO and Route 66 (and now Google Earth!) on my Mac with a Keyspan USB adapter ... flawless!

Does this give you the auto-routing that the Windows cachers enjoy? I was out with a friend a few weeks ago and I was blown away by how nice the 60CS was. We did a cache, he found the next one to do and off we went, it just told us where to turn.

 

I contrast this with a recent almost surprise trip where I had an hour and a half to kill. I used all of that it seemed to find one drive up cache. Without decent maps you just cannot navigate from one lat/long to another. It was very frustrating. It was my first paperless trip with Cachemate, but the real roads got in the way. (Later on that day we had about half an hour to kill closer to home and that work out rather well, the Cachemate told us of two close by to us. Nice, since my son really wanted to log his 30th that day and we failed to do it in the hour and a half part of the trip.)

 

I'm saving my pennies, ok, saving my twenties for a 60CX but I want to make sure it will do what I want it to do.

 

Thanks!

 

Paul

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Paul,

 

Route 66 will auto route from A to B. However, it does not provide voice/audio cues, nor does it re-route you if you miss a turn. It does have a pretty good data base of businesses, it can find or extrapolate addresses and the street level detail includes alley ways in some places, e.g. Chicago.

 

It allows you to manually enter locations and save them, but does not support entry via Lat/Lon, nor does it have a Lat/Lon reference scale. I hope it does in future releases.

 

Flawless = no crashes, reliable, easy to use.

 

Jim

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Paul,

 

Route 66 will auto route from A to B.  However, it does not provide voice/audio cues, nor does it re-route you if you miss a turn. 

 

Jim

Hmmm, I'm certainly confused then...

 

What I saw was the GPS itself doing the autorouting, with maps that were loaded into it on a PC. The level of detail was amazing, it even had dirt roads on it.

 

It sounds like route 66 needs to be run on the road. I'd rather run the GPS on the road, not my laptop.

 

Thanks!

 

Paul

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Ahh I finally found mac guys on here. I've been trying to get my etrex vista to load from a Mac for a few months now. Garmin told me that it would not work with the NG Topo maps at all. He told me to try VPC but i'd probably be wasting my money. The software box said mac compatible and had a garmin GPS on the cover and said it was GPS ready. What a waste of a hundred bucks.

Edited by SAWDUST123
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Die hard mac guy here. I tried VPC and gave up. It will work the mapsource and national geographic software fine but I can't get it to talk with the GPS. I ordered the GPSPro and conectors from the GPSPro site along with the topo software for the mac. At least if this doesn't work I have someone to walk me through it.

 

I frustrates me that I must use my sons PC to work with the Garmin. I'll get it working yet!

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Ahh I finally found mac guys on here. I've been trying to get my etrex vista to load from a Mac for a few months now. Garmin told me that it would not work with the NG Topo maps at all. He told me to try VPC but i'd probably be wasting my money. The software box said mac compatible and had a garmin GPS on the cover and said it was GPS ready. What a waste of a hundred bucks.

Sawdust,

I have the Etrex Yellow. Waypoints and routes loaded up fine through TOPO! ended up not liking it as much as MacGPSPro for two reasons: it doesn't load tracks and the maps were too pixelated at closeup.

 

I'm not familiar with the vista, but does it load up via serial? and if so are you using a keyspan 19HS converter?

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I'm a happy man! Macgpspro set me up perfectly. My keyspan 19HS and gpspro work perfectly. I also got the Macgpspro topo software for the state but have not played to much with that. I have tested and viewed my waypoints and routes on a map and it works great. I also noticed, and ordered, national geographic converter program for my state topo pc discs. $10 for the disc to be able to use my pc set on the mac. The big difference between the NG set and Macgpspro set is printability! Can't print the macgpspro set. So for about $ 80 I am set! Now to wait for TOPO for mac from garmin to be able to upload maps to the vista (the only thing I still need to borrow time on my sons computer for)

 

I am so done with VPC and other work around attempts.

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A couple of things I've experienced regarding topographic maps.

 

TOPO is a little wierd, particularly its renaming waypoints during import and erratic printing behavior.

 

MacGPS Pro maps can be reverted to show full borders, etc. by simply duplicating them in the finder. The duplicate shows all scanned info from the original USGS map and prints OK.

 

USAPhotomaps runs OK, but slowly under Virtual PC. It has a good set of topographic maps as a view option in addition to the aerial photos. A screen capture to clipboard (Cmd-Ctrl-shift-4, click-drag to select portion of screen desired) then create new image from clipboard using GraphicConverter results in a good image to print.

 

Most States have somewhere within their web resources USGS DRG files which can be downloaded for free. These can then be used with MacGPS Pro, although purchasing the files from James Associates is easier and not very expensive.

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Ahh I finally found mac guys on here. I've been trying to get my etrex vista to load from a Mac for a few months now....

 

Last thing I was waiting for was the Garmin cable. Arrived today (Amazon free shipping takes forever). I hope to give the whole Mac/VPC/Garmin/GSAK/MapSource environment a go before this weekend's cachery. I hope I don't burn up any ports...

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My system is working very well with macgpspro, topo, and garmin. With the occasional need to hook up to my sons pc to transfer map data for areas now and then. I'm not even trying anymore to run VPC. I'll wait for garmin to get the mac version of mapsource out. I also just ordered a new intel based laptop:) Can't wait for my new toy!

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Been away from these forums for a while, but wish I'd been here when Bubba Smiths started this thread, since I was having the same exact problems for the last few years and have a few answers/insights.

 

As you already have read, VPC under Mac OS X WILL NOT WORK for transferring waypoints/tracks/routes/maps to your GPS60CS via a direct USB cable. It WILL work IF you use a USB-to-serial port adapter (e.g. Keyspan) (which is obviously a LOT slower).

 

The older version of VPC (< v5.x ???) which runs under Mac OS 9.2.2 WILL transfer EVERYTHING to your GPS60CS via the USB cable (at a faster USB speed) as well as using the slower USB-to-serial port adapter. With this setup, I personally have had total success -- in fact, when I do any large map transfers or software updates, I usually switch over to OS 9 to do the work. Also, since VPC under OS 9 recognizes the 60CS's USB port, so does GSAK!! You CAN transfer waypoints from GSAK to the 60CS via the USB cable directly -- NO Keyspan adapter needed!!

 

The ONLY maps that will load into the 60CS is Garmin's own proprietary Mapsource maps, which currently runs ONLY under Windows -- thus the need for VPC at the moment. As has been posted here, Garmin just made a press release that they WILL (finally!!!!!!!!!!) be supporting Mac users under OS X, but not until much later in the year. Still, a bunch of us have been complaining to Garmin for over 4 (count 'em -- FOUR) years that there IS a Mac user community out there. They finally woke up. But, we'll see it when we see it.

 

For me, I "love" GSAK -- yeah, it costs a few bucks, but it's a LOT better than all those other freebie geocaching databases or waypoint transfer apps.

 

What I don't think has been mentioned here is MacGPSBabel -- that is a FREE app that runs under OS X, and WILL transfer waypoints/routes/tracks FROM and TO the 60CS using the USB cable. It WILL NOT transfer maps.

 

My procedure is this under OS X: unstuff my pocket queries to .gpx files, drag them over to the VPC window, start up GSAK, run a macro with a couple of clicks that converts EACH of the .gpx files to .mps (Mapsource) files (for the 60CS) AND .pdb files (for CacheMate on my Palm PDA), drag the resulting files out of VPC over to the Mac side, then sync the .pdb files to the PDA, and transfer the .mps files to the 60CS via MacGPSBabel -- total time for the whole thing is about 5 to 10 minute.

 

I DESPISE VPC. I hate almost all Microsoft products. But I DO love GSAK, and I don't think Clyde is going to rewrite it for us Mac users, so that's the only way to go if you really want to use GSAK.

 

Those people that have posted that apps such as MacGPSPro and such work with OS X and their 60CS's are correct -- they DO work -- but NOT if you want to connect directly with USB. You need a Keyspan (or similar) USB-to-serial adapter.

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Does anyone have success running waypoints etc to/from Virtual PC-hosted applications thru a Mac to a Garmin?

 

Thanks!

 

I have a new 60Cx updated to 2.50 firmware and am running Windows 2000 Pro SP4 on Virtual PC 7.02 on a Quad G5 running Tiger 10.4.4.

 

I am using version 2.1 of the Garmin USB drivers, and the latest version of Mapsource.

 

Mapsource happily reads and writes tracks, waypoints and routes from the GPSr over USB. POI loader also works without problems.

 

Mapsource fails when trying to write maps direct to the unit, but will happily write these to a memory card in a USB card reader.

 

Also, I am fairly optimistic, given Garmin's policy so far on software support, that the forthcoming OSX version of Mapsource may be a free upgrade.

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