newbie just about ready to throw GPS out a very high window

[+bovrilheid]

Hi all, Hello from 60 degrees north, we live in Shetland in the UK a fabulous part of the world with large open spaces and I'm after some of your expert help please. I bought my kids an etrex H for their birthday, we've managed to find 3 caches because of local knowledge with a GPS. Anyway, it came and I bought a cable to connect to a PC and then an adapter to convert the serial port into a USB port. Now when I connected all this up to my PC I was prompted to load a few drivers and software which went well and we can upload co-ords directly from this site via the PC....this is where all the good news ends though. Our main machine is a mac, usually the easiest thing in the world to connect to. But not in this case, it seems to want to set up a new network when the USB connector is inserted, I've downloaded drivers but it refuses to recognise my etrex. Can anybody help us out, because after 2 days of messing about we are still not connecting to the mac. I know I can use it via the PC, but as I say I would really like to use the mac to co-ordinate all my stuff. Might it be with the I/O output of the GPS. In short HELP!!!

[sabrefan7]

I use an iMac and a Garmin 60csx I have never had any trouble. have you tried the Garmin communicator?

 

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

[+bovrilheid]

yep I've tried it, but after searching the Garmin website....guess what it doesn't work with the connector on a Mac, pretty annoyed that I either have to buy yet another cable or use the PC....unless anyone else can solve the problem. thanks ever so much for your reply sabrefan though

[+ihorn]

I have the same GPS and I never use a cable to connect to my PC. All I do is hand enter the Coordinates on it, and then go searching. You can input around 100 by hand I think. I never have a lot entered, as I dont go out that much because of school.

[+briansnat]

Moving to a more appropriate forum

[+LukeTrocity]

yep I've tried it, but after searching the Garmin website....guess what it doesn't work with the connector on a Mac, pretty annoyed that I either have to buy yet another cable or use the PC....unless anyone else can solve the problem. thanks ever so much for your reply sabrefan though

Guess mac doesn't"just work "....

 

So now that I am on the macbookpro I can type a better response. What EXACTLY happens when you plug the gps into the usb port and turn it on. Screenshots would help too.

Edited September 10, 2010 by luketrocity

[+randco]

You might see if one of the applications listed here will help you.

[+bovrilheid]

Hi again,

 

when connected a network window opens up, asking me to configure a new network via the USB/Serial port. Not much else to say, will do a screen shot later on...in a bit of a hurry just now...but thanks for the response guys....I can just use it on the PC but I'm the sort of person who likes things to be tidy and solved !!!!!!

[+John Drake]

Someone posted a Flickr howto for just this situation:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mac/sets/72157604984866335/

 

Their solution involved installing the PL2303 USB to Serial Driver, and using GPSBabel to transfer data.

 

It looks awkward. I don't know if the modern Mac programs from Garmin (BaseCamp and the Garmin Communicator Plugin) will even work with your device.

 

Cheers.

[+bovrilheid]

Someone posted a Flickr howto for just this situation:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mac/sets/72157604984866335/

 

Their solution involved installing the PL2303 USB to Serial Driver, and using GPSBabel to transfer data.

 

It looks awkward. I don't know if the modern Mac programs from Garmin (BaseCamp and the Garmin Communicator Plugin) will even work with your device.

 

Cheers.

[+bovrilheid]

John, thanks for that will have a look and see what happens....seems such an awkward problem for such a simple process...many thanks

Bovrilheid

[+bovrilheid]

John, thanks for that will have a look and see what happens....seems such an awkward problem for such a simple process...many thanks

Bovrilheid