Garmin And The Lack Of Nmea Output

[+OzzieSan]

Is there a thread where this is being discussed? I did a quick search and came up empty. What are your thoughts on this?

[+LordSaw]

My 76C has both USB and Serial bus inputs. There is still the choice for NMEA for the serial bus comms. The USB port uses Garmin format only. Garmin has always had a proprietary format but still supports NMEA.

 

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[+OzzieSan]

My 76C has both USB and Serial bus inputs.  There is still the choice for NMEA for the serial bus comms.  The USB port uses Garmin format only.  Garmin has always had a proprietary format but still supports NMEA.

 

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I own three Garmin units and am quite aware of their proprietary format. I am referring to the units coming out that ONLY provide the proprietary format. Like the Vista C which I see as not supporting NMEA.

 

Note: Corrected spelling.

Edited October 18, 2004 by OzzieSan

[+NightPilot]

If it doesn't work with NMEA, then I'm not spending money on it. Period.

[+LordSaw]

If I understand the NMEA website, the NMEA format is also a proprietary format/bus, developed for marine applications. It is not an open source format, it is intended to connect electronic devices on large marine vessels for data exchange. I suggest you visit the NMEA website for details. Try Googling "NMEA"

 

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[robertlipe]

My thoughts on Garmin and their pain-in-the-neck protocols and their arrogance toward developers are well known. They have indeed failed to document the USB protocol used by their new models - I had one locked on a bus analyzer just last night studying their wierdness.

 

NMEA is a semi-open spec. Getting a full copy does indeed cost a few bucks. The good news is that if you aren't building NMEA gear and are merely consuming or producing NMEA bits, you can look at the sentence and pretty much figure out what it means. "Enough" documentation on it is freely available that it's not an obstacle to developers.

 

NMEA isn't the end-all for unit communications, but what it does, it does adequately well. If all you need is position reports (i.e. you're a moving map maker) and want to work on a zillion receivers, it's a no-brainer.