Do I require a driver?

[+Team Batpony]

I am running the geocaching thing again at my school (Don't know if anyone remembers, but it was one of my first posts here) and instead of eTrex Venture HCX's like last year, this year we are using those clunky old yellow eTrex H's. There is no way to enter a waypoint from the device itself, except for marking one at the location you are currently at. You have to transfer them VIA serial. The computers at school have a serial port, and are able to run GSAK v8. I also have the necessary cable to connect the GPSr to the serial port. However, I cannot install any drivers, as that requires admin access. My question is this: To transfer waypoints from GSAK v8 to the Garmin eTrex H from a computer running windows XP, over serial, do you require a driver? Please reply quick, as I need a quick answer. To the mods: Please do not move this, as I feel that it will get more/better answers in it's current subforum.

[jholly]

I'm thinking no. Did you try it and does it error out?

 

The way you enter a waypoint on Garmins is to mark your location and then *edit* that waypoint.

[+B+L]

My question is this: To transfer waypoints from GSAK v8 to the Garmin eTrex H from a computer running windows XP, over serial, do you require a driver?

If you are not using a serial to USB adapter, you should be able to get things working without needing additional drivers. Otherwise, you should start thinking about what sort of bribe is likely to be the most effective.

[+Chrysalides]

If your school computers have serial ports (very rare these days), you don't need drivers. I don't know if you need admin privileges to use the serial port though. My guess is that you don't need any extra privileges.

 

With GSAK, select GPS -> GPS Setup, select eTrex H, and select the correct serial port.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Chrysalides

[Dj Storm]

...

There is no way to enter a waypoint from the device itself, except for marking one at the location you are currently at.

...

 

To enter a waypoint from the device itself, mark one at whatever location you're at, then edit the coordinates of the waypoint you just entered.

[+Team Batpony]

...

There is no way to enter a waypoint from the device itself, except for marking one at the location you are currently at.

...

 

To enter a waypoint from the device itself, mark one at whatever location you're at, then edit the coordinates of the waypoint you just entered.

 

These GPSR's do not have the "stick" that you use to edit the waypoints, sadly.

[Pup Patrol]

The owner's manual might come in handy:

 

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/eTrexH_OwnersManual.pdf

 

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/eTrexH_QuickReferenceGuide.pdf

 

We've been using GPSBabel for quite some time:

 

http://www.gpsbabel.org/

 

 

B.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Pup Patrol

[+Too Tall John]

...

There is no way to enter a waypoint from the device itself, except for marking one at the location you are currently at.

...

To enter a waypoint from the device itself, mark one at whatever location you're at, then edit the coordinates of the waypoint you just entered.

These GPSR's do not have the "stick" that you use to edit the waypoints, sadly.

They don't need the "stick". The upper left buttons on the unit are up and down arrows, you can scroll through the numbers using them. It is clunkier, but still doable.

[+StarBrand]

Often serial ports are not enabled on newer computers. Check (if you can) in the device manager to see if they are enabled and what com port they are. Match the com port setting in GSAK.

[+Team Batpony]

I hooked up one GPS VIA serial, fired up GSAK from a USB stick, and nothing. GSAK would not launch due to some odd error. I found out after some googling that it was because I had installed GSAK tot he stick on a Windows 7 PC, but ran it on Windows XP. I secured a working WinXP laptop that did not have all the restrictions the school puts on about installing programs, installed GSAK to the USB stick, ran it on the PC with the serial port, and... nothing. I got an error about a missing DLL. back on the laptop, which I had to track down again, I copied the DLL from it to GSAK's folder on the USB stick, and put the stick back into the PC with serial port. I ran it, and voila. It worked. I inputted some caches, and they successfully transferred to the GPS unit. The only downside to this setup is that I need to remember to export the database to a GPX before closing GSAK, or else the whole database gets lost for some reason. The point is, it WORKS! We are going to do the geocaching tomorrow, and I will report on it in a new thread.

[+5g]

You can manually enter waypoints. We used this GPS for our first hundred or so caches.

[Skippermark]

Relocating to correct section.

[+Team Batpony]

Relocating to correct section.

 

I asked kindly in my first post for mods NOT to move it...

[+Sol seaker]

and they kindly moved it anyway.

 

I've got an etrex H and I love it. Mind you, I've got an Oregon 400T to use along side of it, but my H is much more accurate than my 400T.

 

You CAN enter coords by hand. I used mine for a long time before I got the cable.

You hit "mark" which gives you where you are, then you change the coords for that spot. You have to scroll through them and use the arrow up and down keys to change them, it's a pain in the fingertips but it works.

[7rxc]

Relocating to correct section.

 

I asked kindly in my first post for mods NOT to move it...

 

They waited until you had your answer... now it is over here where people can look it up as a tech reference.

This area has perhaps even more tech types. So it works two ways for you.

 

Doug 7rxc