Magellan Meridian Gps-uploading Waypoints To Sd Card

[+Will+Bill]

I have a magellan meridian, but my serial cable got stolen along with my usb to serial cable. Is there any way to put waypoints on my SD card instead of shelling out 30 bucks for a new cable from Magellan? I have the MapSend Topo software (It's really cheap on eBay now).

 

Thanks!

[+embra]

You can send waypoint files directly to the SD card if you buy an inexpensive card reader. This also gives you the benefit of the speed of USB communications--very useful for copying maps to the card (see the FAQs link in my sig line for more information). For waypoints, you would just save them to the card as if you were saving them to the hard drive. They are (as you have perhaps discovered...and this may be the crux of your question) in a different format, so you need to use something like GPSBabel to do the conversion. (I recommend GPSBabelWrapper as a useful GUI to facilitate use of the comman-line driven GPSBabel).

 

The one advantage I could see of the data cable was that it was more convenient--especially when "permanently" mounted to a swivel mount I kept on my desk--to easily copy waypoints or tracks to or from the GPS. It's a little bit more hassle to open the battery compartement, remove the batteries, take out the SD card, stick it in the reader, and then reverse the process when done. The speed gain was worth it for map transfers (they take a LONG time over serial cable) but not for waypoints or tracks, which aren't that data-intensive.

[+Will+Bill]

Thanks a lot! I got it working with GSAK.

 

Thanks!

Edited July 4, 2006 by Will+Bill

[+embra]

GPSBabel will read gpx files. You need to set GPSBabelWrapper up so it looks something like this:

 

 

For input, choose File, the correct format, and the proper path to the file.

 

Make sure "waypoints" is checked.

 

For output, choose the drive letter assigned to the SD card in the reader, give it a name (IIRC the ending doesn't matter--but it's been over a year since I've used my Meridian much so I might be wrong on that), and select Magellan SD files as for Meridian.

 

Then run the command, and it all the planets are aligned you should have a waypoint file on the SD card that your Meridian can read.

 

 

Edit: You're too fast for me. GSAK (which uses GPSBabel to do the conversions) is even easier.

Edited July 4, 2006 by embra