MacBook Pro and the Garmin Legend

[+TeamCarrigan]

Hi fellow geocachers,

 

I have had a heck of a time getting my Garmin Legend to work with my Apple laptop. I have a Garmin Legend and a MacBook Pro. I bought a serial-to-USB adapter to use with the Pro, but no matter what program I use, it fails to recognize my Legend.

 

Questions:

1) Is this a lost cause? Do I need to upgrade to a unit with USB connectivity? Do these exist?

2) Is it the program? The best I have seen in GeoJournal.

3) Will the latest GPSs with geocaching mode fix this problem?

 

Help me Mac friends!

 

Sam

[Barrikady]

Hi fellow geocachers,

 

I have had a heck of a time getting my Garmin Legend to work with my Apple laptop. I have a Garmin Legend and a MacBook Pro. I bought a serial-to-USB adapter to use with the Pro, but no matter what program I use, it fails to recognize my Legend.

 

Questions:

1) Is this a lost cause? Do I need to upgrade to a unit with USB connectivity? Do these exist?

2) Is it the program? The best I have seen in GeoJournal.

3) Will the latest GPSs with geocaching mode fix this problem?

 

Help me Mac friends!

 

Sam

I am not familiar with the Legend. However I can tell you that you should be able to download tracks from your GPSr to your MacBook Pro. I have used a Keyspan Serial-to-USB converter with my Mac, and it worked fine.

 

You should download the free Mac program "LoadMyTracks." It is able to easily grab KML files and GPX files.

 

You can get Load My Tracks here

Edited January 4, 2008 by Barrikady

[+T F T C]

LoadMyTracks won't work if the computer doesn't even see the unit, nor does LMT assist the computer in recognizing that there's a unit plugged in.

 

EDIT: Have you attempted to set your unit to USB mode (or something like that)? That's what I have to do with my eXplorist.

Edited January 4, 2008 by chimbisimo

[+TeamCarrigan]

LoadMyTracks won't work if the computer doesn't even see the unit, nor does LMT assist the computer in recognizing that there's a unit plugged in.

 

EDIT: Have you attempted to set your unit to USB mode (or something like that)? That's what I have to do with my eXplorist.

 

I have selected USB in the preferences. I suspect it's my converter cable. What do you use?

[+T F T C]

Well, for my eXplorist, I'm able to use the USB cable that came with the unit. But I can have my unit plugged into my computer without it mounting. To get the computer to see it in this situation, I'll need to put the unit in USB transfer mode. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Garmins, so I won't be much help.

[robertlipe]

The serial legend has nothing in common with the Explorist. The options that chimbisimo are describing don't exist on that generation of product.

 

If you're using a program that asks you "usb or serial", you should normally answer what the GPS actually is. In the case of the B/W Legend, that GPS is serial.

 

People have used Legend with MBP with USB/Serial adapters like the Keyspan with GPSBabel; there's nothing inherent in the combination to not work.

[+Oddboggle]

I'm using a program called MacCaching. (http://www.maccaching.com/)

It works with my Garmin LegendC and allows me to use my ipod as a paperless option.

 

Good luck!

[+T F T C]

I'm using a program called MacCaching. (http://www.maccaching.com/)

It works with my Garmin LegendC and allows me to use my ipod as a paperless option.

 

Good luck!

 

Again, it doesn't look like a software problem. If the computer can't see the GPSr, no application on Earth would help.

 

Of course, if I'm wrong, please let me know. hah

[+Oddboggle]

I'm using a program called MacCaching. (http://www.maccaching.com/)

It works with my Garmin LegendC and allows me to use my ipod as a paperless option.

 

Good luck!

 

Again, it doesn't look like a software problem. If the computer can't see the GPSr, no application on Earth would help.

 

Of course, if I'm wrong, please let me know. hah

 

FWIW, a couple of other recommended programs I tried couldn't see my Garmin. I'm on a Mac Mini 1.42 G4 PPC, which is somewhat ancient, and loaded up the most recent firmware to my Garmin, and believed I was SOL until I tried the MacCaching program.

 

I just hope the program's an option for TeamCarrigan with the MacBook Pro if it's indeed a software problem.

[+T F T C]

So your gps wouldn't mount before MacCaching, but would mount after MacCaching?

[+sduck]

What kind of usb<>serial cable do you have? Do you have the right drivers for it? (yes, you'll need to load drivers even on a mac) I've got a IOgear guc232a that works fine with the included drivers. I also have an old keyspan that worked fine on an old pc, but I haven't tried it on the mac, but I've heard they work too. Lots of the cheaper no-name adapters aren't going to work - this may be your problem.

 

FWIW my garmin 60c works fine with geojournal via usb - no adapter needed. It also works this way with maccaching.

[robertlipe]

Since Geojournal and Maccaching both use the same software behind the scenes for GPS communications, it's unsurprising to me that both work with your 60c, sduck. (Hint: it's software that I'm rather fond of and that is regularly exercised on both a G4 Mini and MBP.)

 

But for the serial units, it doesn't work magic. If you don't have appropriate and fucntioning USB/Serial drivers, you won't get past "start" and the error messages given can't produce much of a clue.

[+TeamCarrigan]

What kind of usb<>serial cable do you have? Do you have the right drivers for it? (yes, you'll need to load drivers even on a mac) I've got a IOgear guc232a that works fine with the included drivers. I also have an old keyspan that worked fine on an old pc, but I haven't tried it on the mac, but I've heard they work too. Lots of the cheaper no-name adapters aren't going to work - this may be your problem.

 

FWIW my garmin 60c works fine with geojournal via usb - no adapter needed. It also works this way with maccaching.

 

I think you're right. It's my adapter. Nothing seems to work and it can't be EVERY program that's the problem. Could you recommend a quality adapter?

 

How do you like your 60c?

 

Thanks!

[+sduck]

[

 

I think you're right. It's my adapter. Nothing seems to work and it can't be EVERY program that's the problem. Could you recommend a quality adapter?

 

How do you like your 60c?

 

Thanks!

 

The IOGEAR USB 1.1 to Serial/PDA Converter Cable (GUC232A) - plug that name into amazon or google, it's fairly cheap.

 

I love my old 60c, but I've recently upgraded to a 60csx.

[+ollave]

I think you're right. It's my adapter. Nothing seems to work and it can't be EVERY program that's the problem. Could you recommend a quality adapter?

 

It could be every program that's the problem, if they're all using gpsbabel as a back end. (GPSBabel+ and MacCaching do, at least.)

 

It's unclear to me if you can't connect to the unit at all (which suggests a faulty cable or uninstalled driver) or if you are connecting but unable to transfer. If you are seeing errors in transfers it would help to post them.

 

I bought a USB-serial cable for my Geko 201, and it turned out to contain a Prolific USB-serial chip in it. It's hard to prove what is going wrong, but it appears that either the chip or the OS/X driver lose an initial character some time, leading to lots of errors like this:

 

GPS_Packet_Read: No DLE. Data received, but probably not a

garmin packet.

GARMIN:Can't init /dev/cu.usbserial

 

I've seen the same problem with a Legend and a different cable, but one still using a Prolific USB-serial conveter.

 

I have been able to make a minor modification to gpsbabel to work around that case, and transfers are now "mostly" reliable. (Sometimes it's necessary to retry, and very rarely a power cycle of the Geko 201 is needed.)

 

If the above error is what you are seeing, and if you'd like to try a modified gpsbabel binary, let me know.

 

I do plan on talking to the gpsbabel maintainers about this problem to see if they'll accept my code change, but I want some more testing first.

 

Cheers,

 

Giles

[+Paul_Aris]

Anyone have any luck with a Garmin Etrex Legend serial with Garmin Communicator plugin? I can use load my tracks with my etrex with a iogear usb/serail adaptor but communicator will not recognize it.

[+Paul_Aris]

Anyone have any luck with a Garmin Etrex Legend serial with Garmin Communicator plugin? I can use load my tracks with my etrex with a iogear usb/serail adaptor but communicator will not recognize it.

 

Funny thing is the garmin communicator works through VPC and Windows XP on my macbook but would not recognize my GPS through OSX with safari or firefox.