Garmin 60csx And Macintosh

[+NotThePainter]

So what's a Macintosh cacher to do? Garmin has clearly stated that they'll be bringing Macintosh support this year, but the "good stuff" won't be here until the end of the year.

 

So if I buy a 60csx now, how useful will it be to me? I want auto-routing etc...

 

It also seems that if I go to a friend's house and download the maps he's stuck because of the 2 GPS limit. (And yes, I understand software pirary, I write software for a living. Trust me, I'd buy Macintosh software in a second if it was available.)

 

But that doesn't help me since I still need to download the caches to the GPS.

 

Do I have to wait a year or is there a good workaround now? (We'll ignore that GSAK isn't available, nor will it be, for Macintosh. One can only assume that GSAK is useful, but not essential.)

 

Thanks!

 

Paul

[+Rosterman]

Do I have to wait a year or is there a good workaround now? (We'll ignore that GSAK isn't available, nor will it be, for Macintosh. One can only assume that GSAK is useful, but not essential.)

 

Thanks!

 

Paul

 

Paul,

 

I just bit the bullet and bought a cheap IBM T22 laptop off eBay. Made sure it had a DVD drive, and it came with Windows XPpro. I got it for a very reasonable price (not much more than Virtual PC), and it allows me to use all the GPS software available. I use the Mac to keep my Treo650 up to date with Cachemate.

 

The PC Laptop is not used for anything else. Hope this helps!

[robertlipe]

GPSBabel for the Mac should get your caches on your 60CSX today *if* you use the serial connection. (Yeah, that means a serial cable and a USB serial adapter.) It will also let you move tracks and routes. For Maps, borrowing a Windows system for map upload with mapsource remains your best option.

 

I don't know when we'll do 60CSX USB support MacGPSBabel. Honestly, the interest in the Mac stuff has been very small.

[+Intermountain Angler]

Just a few years ago i was talking with national geographic and they told me there was not much interest in mac compatable software with their mapping software but they did see the light and came out with it.

I would hope garmin will get this going sooner rather then later, Yes put my vote in.

[rickertk]

Before the X series, I would have suggested GPSbabel. When I got my VistaC a year ago, it was the only piece of Mac software that would communicate with it. I never used the MacGPSbabel wrapper much; I had more flexibility from the command line. If you have another piece of software to put GPS data into, that can import/export GPX files, that should be all you'll need.

 

Keith

[robertlipe]

From my seat, I've been asking for help to develop or fund the MacGPSBabel work for about a year now. Despite about 8,000 Mac downloads in that time, nobody has stepped forward to help update and maintain it and the number of donations (I've said I'll do the work, but I won't buy the hardware out of my own pocket) has been less than five. Not "five thousand". Five. For most of that year, GPSBabel was the _only_ program on a Mac that would talk to a popular class of Garmins.

 

If .5% of those downloaders thought the program was worth $20, I'd have bought a Mini and been cranking out the releases. As it stands, MacGPSBabel is kind of frozen in time.

 

I'm already busily working on the new X series protocol, so it's not like my hands aren't already busy. There's a chance it'll Just Work on Mac, but experience shows that expecting this is unwise. If GPSBabel (or any other software) supports it, it's becuase someone wanted it badly enough to make that happen and combine access to the right hardware and motivate the skilled people to do it.

[+NotThePainter]

I'm a Macintosh programmer, been doing it since System 6.

 

How can I help? (We might want to take this off line..)

 

Paul