One year in Geocaching and I don't know the answer to a simple question like this.

[+Markwell]

My wife finally broke down and go tme the 9-pin connecting cable for my Garmin eTrex for my birthday (I got the etrex last year, and yes - we bought through the off-route.com site for the Geocaching kickback).

 

Is there some special drivers or software that I need to upload/download stuff? Will EasyGPS do the trick with setting up the communications? Or will the driver be included with the cable?

 

Newbie when it comes to this...

 

Markwell

Non omnes vagi perditi sunt

[+Whidbey Walk]

It’s easier than you might think. Plug the cable into the computer and the unit. Then start easyGPS. All that you then have to do it tell easy GPS what unit you have and what com port you have it plugged into. It will then try and communicate with the unit. If it succeeds, you’re done. If it fails try changing the com port you selected and try it again.

 

No drivers required at all.

[Kerry.]

Markwell, No special drivers but certainly some sort of software. EasyGPS will do it but has some limitation in position formats etc. There's a heap of other software around (some free) that will also do it.

 

Not a lot required in configuring most of the software packages and the receiver also requires to be set for the specific type of comms.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[Kerry.]

Markwell, No special drivers but certainly some sort of software. EasyGPS will do it but has some limitation in position formats etc. There's a heap of other software around (some free) that will also do it.

 

Not a lot required in configuring most of the software packages and the receiver also requires to be set for the specific type of comms.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go

[+GOT GPS?]

G7ToWin is a good Waypoint, Route, Tracklog, Screen Capture program for the Garmin.

 

[+Mopar]

If you've had the GPS for a year without the cable, your probably at least a few firmware revisons behind the times. Now you have the cable you can upgrade it. Garmin's pretty good about improving and adding new features into existing GPS's.

 

Illegitimus non carborundum!

[+TresOkies]

No driver needed. The way I do it is

 

Download a bunch of .loc files off of our favorite website

Drop all the .loc files onto GeoBuddy

Merge them all into one file and save as .wpt

Import into Garmin MapSource.

Download to GPSR

 

Chances are, you don't have MapSource, so replace steps 3 and 4 with

 

3. Merge them all into one and save as .loc

4. Open with EasyGPS

 

If you are thinking about MapSource, MetroGuide 4.0 is far superior to the others.

 

-E

 

--

N35°32.981 W98°34.631

[+Markwell]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mopar:

If you've had the GPS for a year without the cable, your probably at least a few firmware revisons behind the times. Now you have the cable you can upgrade it. Garmin's pretty good about improving and adding new features into existing GPS's.

---

 

That was one of the first things I wanted to do! Thanks all for your comments. EasyGPS it is - and possibly the GeoBuddy as well.

 

I gotta see if I can have my own Access database expert to a .loc file (all right!!! geeky stuff to figure out!).

 

Markwell

Non omnes vagi perditi sunt

[OFF RODE]

National Geographic TOPO! also has a very nice GPSr interface that allows up and downloads of waypoints, routes, placenames, comments etc. as well livetracking ( if you have a laptop) and great topo maps...but its a bit pricey.

 

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." Yogi Berra

[jfitzpat]

If you are using a PC, you should be able to test your cable using the Waypoint Exchange on LostOutdoors. Just plug in the cable, turn on the GPS, and go.

 

Another way would be to run a terminal program (ex. Hyperterminal on a Windows PC), select 4800 baud, 8, n, 1, and 'no handshaking'. Then set your Garmin to NMEA out for 'Interface'.

 

After the GPS initializes, you should start seeing messages on the terminal page. They should basically always start with a $ and end with *.

 

Once you know that your serial port and cable are good, setting up other packages should be a snap. The problem is usually if a serial port is disabled in the BIOS so that the interrupt can be used for another peripheral.

 

Good Luck,

-jjf

[+Markwell]

Cable came in the mail Wednesday, and I sat down for 15 minutes this morning and had managed all my waypoints, cleaned up some data, uploaded the newest non-found caches in my area and updated the firmware to Garmin etrex 2.11.

 

As Iron Chef would say: "Woot! Woot!"

 

I don't know how I lived without it.

 

Thanks Topografix for the cool freeware - watch for me to upgrade soon.

 

Markwell

Non omnes vagi perditi sunt

[+Markwell]

Cable came in the mail Wednesday, and I sat down for 15 minutes this morning and had managed all my waypoints, cleaned up some data, uploaded the newest non-found caches in my area and updated the firmware to Garmin etrex 2.11.

 

As Iron Chef would say: "Woot! Woot!"

 

I don't know how I lived without it.

 

Thanks Topografix for the cool freeware - watch for me to upgrade soon.

 

Markwell

Non omnes vagi perditi sunt

[toller]

To add a little to what Mopar said just in case you weren't aware:

 

Try this link

http://www.garmin.com/support/download.html

 

This will get you to Garmin's software update page. These update the operating system in your GPS. This is quite easy to do. Download the update to a file. Use winzip to unzip it. Connect your GPS and make sure your GPS is on and set up to communicate in "Garmin" mode. Double click the .exe file you've unzipped. Things should progress by themselves.

 

If you have any problems, drop a note. Some of the updates have made a noticable difference for me.