+Severnside Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Hi there Having just purchased a new Dakota 10, I decided to load it up with geocaches before my trip to Eurodisney last weekend. Oh dear - nothing I did would make the software recognise that the Garmin was attached to the PC by a USB cable I was about to give up and send it back when I had the idea of trying a different cable - stupid, i know but just in case. Guess what - I found the cable that came with the Dakota, noted that it said Garmin on the business end where it connects to the PC and .....BINGO ...... instant success. I really thought all USB cables were the same - but perhaps not - maybe some internal connection is a little bit different or something ?? Any answers please Jasper Quote Link to comment
+DonB Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I use a short usb cable I had laying around on my Nuvi, my 76CSx, and everything else I plug into my laptop and have never had a problem. It might be your GPS requires a special cable or it might have been what I have had happen a few times. I have plugged something in and for some reason the computer doesn't recognize it so I just unplug it and plug it back in again and everything works fine. Quote Link to comment
Forkeye Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Garmin cable is required,the cable ends seem to be the same ,probably just had a couple of wires criss crossed to make it a special cable That way you need to buy a new one from Garmin if you need it and also it may protect the unit from damage if you were to plug it into a 12 volt USB car charger plug.Though I am not sure if there is a voltage regulator chip inside the Garmin car adapter cable,but either way it means you then have to buy a car charger cable from Garmin as well Edited July 25, 2012 by Forkeye Quote Link to comment
+dprovan Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Wow, and I thought it was bad that the Delorme PNs have a cable with a special plug at the business end. Now I know it could be worse: it could be a special cable and look just like a standard cable. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Garmin does not use a special USB cable for connecting to a computer. Any decent normal cable will work. The POWER USB cable are special and this is to tell the unit it is being connected to power and not a computer to prevent it wanting to go into mass storage mode. Quote Link to comment
+JBnW Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Both my wife's and my previous cell phones (HTC and Motorola) had the same mini-USB ports. I never had a problem hooking a 76CSx or 62s to either of the cell phone vehicle power adaptors, and neither was a Garmin brand. I also can't remember ever having a problem connecting the 76CSx or 62s to any computer using any USB cable. I'm sure one came with the GPS, and we've acquired other non-Garmin cables, but I can't honestly say if the Garmin cable is on the desktop, either of the laptops, or someplace else. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Are you sure it's not the other way around? Any power cable appears to work with my Garmins! Try it with a Nuvi. It will go into mass storage mode. IIRC, they ground pin 4. Yes, http://pinouts.ru/GPS/garmin_nuvi_power_pinout.shtml Edited July 25, 2012 by Red90 Quote Link to comment
+Glenn Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 The USB standard uses 4 wires. Two for power (a +5V and Ground) and two for data transfer. But not all USB cable are made the same. Some USB cables come without the data wires and are marketed as USB power cables. The USB cables that garmin use are the USB mini pinout which differs from the usual pinout by adding another pin. According to the USB standard that extra pin is to used to tell the difference between a host and a slave, this is called the ID pin. The pin will either be connected to the ground pin or it will won't. Some companies have been known to put a resistor between the extra pin and ground. This allows a device to detect if a specific cable is being used the device. Because putting a resistor between these two pins is not part of the USB standard you can get unexpected results by using a cable that hasn't been approved by the manufacturer of a non-standards complaint device. Quote Link to comment
+Severnside Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 Well thanks everyone - that's all very useful stuff AND it explains why sometimes my Blackberry won't charge from mt lighter jack and at other times it will - I'm prob trying to use the GPS USB cable instead of the charging cable - or something like that How do you know all this stuff ??? Thanks again - I shall be nerdy and stick a label on the right cable, saying "GARMIN ONLY" Quote Link to comment
+Need me glasses Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Well thanks everyone - that's all very useful stuff AND it explains why sometimes my Blackberry won't charge from mt lighter jack and at other times it will - I'm prob trying to use the GPS USB cable instead of the charging cable - or something like that How do you know all this stuff ??? Thanks again - I shall be nerdy and stick a label on the right cable, saying "GARMIN ONLY" This is an interesting topic! I have just bought the Garmin Dakota 10 and have been using the supplied cable to try and send some geocaches to it but it wont recognise that the cable is conected, it keeps telling me to download a plugin or something, which I have tried to do but it just wont work, HELP I am close to a breakdown!!! Quote Link to comment
+Need me glasses Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Suggest you start a new thread, this isn't a cable issue but a plug in issue I just thought it might be a related issue but I will start a new thread. Quote Link to comment
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