+geofred Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 I have Garmin Mapsource maps. I have the serial connector for my eMap which worked well when connected to the serial of my old laptop. So I upgraded for a better laptop. Better appears to mean USB connections only. Is there a workaround so my serialless toshiba can be used with my eMap? Quote Link to comment
+Searching_ut Posted January 18, 2003 Share Posted January 18, 2003 You can get USB to serial adapters, but they run about $30 or so, and you have the headache of loading drivers. Belkin makes one that I've used before but I'm sure there are many other companies out there.... Quote Link to comment
+Jacksons Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 Xircom also makes one,thats what I use I'm a man and I can change if I have to,I guess. Quote Link to comment
+rayt333 Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 Check on E-bay for a serial to USB adapter, I just bought a brand new one (unopened box) for $9.50 (plus shipping) It was for a Palm Pilot but it is still a serial to USB adapter. Quote Link to comment
targetdrone Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 Try this thread here or do a search under 'usb serial'. There are already several threads on this topic. "It's free advice and worth every cent." Quote Link to comment
The Ram Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 I purchased one from Deluo. It comes with the software, if you need it. I just plugged it in and it worked fine, so I did not have to install the software on my PC. This is also where I bought my GPS receiver and Street Atlas 2003. Deluo Quote Link to comment
+geofred Posted January 19, 2003 Author Share Posted January 19, 2003 I have Xircom USB to 9 pin cable. The problem is there is no support for XP and the laptop will not allow complete installation of the drivers. It would "endanger" the system. To those of you who have responded--are you running XP? Quote Link to comment
+skeeter-n-lucy Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 I have XP and have had no success using anything with the USB to Serial adapter. I have purchased a card reader and use it that way. I would love to be able to use my GPSr and my laptop together but I will make do for now. It seems that since there is no serial port, my computer cant assign a com 2 or 3 port. I have heard of using serial PCMCIA cards...has anybody used those??? Quote Link to comment
brazenhead Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 I run XP and have a port replicator that handles my old keyboard and serial/parallel ports. Installing the drivers for it was (relatively) painless and the serial port seems to be working well with my Garmin Vista. The only problem I have is updating the OS on the GPS itself. The updater program from the Garmin website doesn't recognise the com port, but the GPS software does. Go figure. Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 But I am at work, and do not remember from where. E-mail me direct, and whenI get home and read E-mail, I will remember it and respond with the URL. They were like $13 each. Mike. Desert_Warrior (aka KD9KC). El Paso, Texas. Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom. They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS! Quote Link to comment
+arrowroot Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 The Belkin one works OK, but I was unable to get it to download maps at 115KB, only 57.6KB. A full load on the GPSMAP76 takes about an hour at 57.6. I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know Quote Link to comment
+Mr. Snazz Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 I'm using a socketcom serial PCMCIA card with my sony vaio, running WinXP. Works great. Didn't have to install any drivers, worked right out of the box. Caution: if you're running linux, you might have trouble getting this card to work. If you happen to get it to work, please e-mail me I can only get it working under linux with a really, really odd base baud rate, which ends up being 9600 and no use with my streetpilot Quote Link to comment
gnawbone Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 [/Quote)I have Xircom USB to 9 pin cable. The problem is there is no support for XP and the laptop will not allow complete installation of the drivers. It would "endanger" the system. To those of you who have responded--are you running XP? [/Quote] I bought a serial to USB cable/connector at Radio Shack. It comes with the drivers on a floppy disk and the drivers are for XP. It works fine ... haven't had any problems at all. Quote Link to comment
+sbukosky Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 I blew out my serial card twice so decided to try a USB to serial adapter. It gets tempermental and I often have to reboot things to get the GPS and program to communicate. Where it really fails is with loading maps. I'm able to load one map and maybe two. I can't get more than that to load. I'm told that the USB adapter won't allow firmware upgrades either. Steve Bukosky N9BGH Waukesha Wisconsin Quote Link to comment
dboggny Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 quote:Originally posted by sbukosky: It gets tempermental and I often have to reboot things to get the GPS and program to communicate. i have a magellan platinum that is attached to my computer via a belking usb adapter and i am running xp. my plat can talk to mapsend, delorme and easy gps without any issues EVER. quote: Where it really fails is with loading maps. I'm able to load one map and maybe two. I can't get more than that to load. Again, with the setup i described above i am not experiencing this. quote:I'm told that the USB adapter won't allow firmware upgrades either. never had a problem with firmware upgrades one issue i did experience was the comport the computer assigned to the adapter. it origionally assigned comport 9 on my computer and none of the prgrams recognzied that. i went to hardware manager and made it comm2 and no problems, runs like a charm. myabe its just a magellan thing Steve Bukosky N9BGH Waukesha Wisconsin SR and dboggny. Quote Link to comment
+geofred Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 I contacted Belkin.com and bought their adapter cable with driver CD. It installed flawlessly and my eMap connected without trouble. Thanks to all. Quote Link to comment
+Thomas & Dingo Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Just bought a Platinum and the Belkin usb adapter, works great under XP with easyGPS. however Streets and Trips does not recognize anything connect to serial ports. Wish I would have kept my old laptop just for this. Never mind, Dooh, Found the NMEA setting, now works. [This message was edited by Thomas & Dingo on February 12, 2003 at 04:12 PM.] Quote Link to comment
+Night Stalker Posted February 14, 2003 Share Posted February 14, 2003 I bought the USB to Serial cable from HP which was the brand of laptop that I had bought my wife. Installation went without a hitch except that it still wouldn't work. For some reason the installation assigned Comm 9 so no software would recognize it. Once I changed it to Comm1 I had no problems. I guess maybe its worth the extra money to buy the cable from the PC or laptop manufacturer to make sure everything works ok. Lost? Keep going. You're making good time anyway!! Quote Link to comment
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