Gps, Db9 Serial Connection, And My Laptop

[nchmura]

Here's my situation:

 

I have 3 GPS units:

 

1) Magellan Map 330

2) Garmin Rino 110

3) Eagle Explorer (more on the way)

 

And i have 3 different serial cords, one for each.

 

Now besides geocaching, I use my GPSes to map mountain bike trails, and this year i have several biking trips planned along with an initiative to leave GPSes at local bike shops as loners so i can map more trails. The idea was to have the shop contact me or whatever and i could swing down with my laptop and download the data and be on my way.

 

Basically i need to get connect these gpses to my laptop. The problem is i have a nice toshiba laptop with NO serial connections. So I need some sort of device that will get my laptop a serial connection somehow.

 

If i was to go the Usb adaptor route i would need to get one for the garmin, the magellan, and the Eagle is so old i doubt that sort of thing exists. And thats $100 easy, not to mention from what i understand many of the softwares don't fully support usb data transfer.

 

Next I was looking at PCMCIA to db9 serail connectors, they seem to be about $50 and might do the job - but i have never used or known anyone to use one of these. I am hoping someone here can attest to them. Will it work for me?

 

The last thing i was thinking was the possilbity that there was some sort of db9 to paralell port converter 'method' that would somehow figure out what was going on and make the paralell port act like a serial and route the data correctly? Seems far fetched and unlikely, but i have to ask.

 

Are there any other options for me? Any suggestions? Experiences?

 

Thanks.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I use a generic adapter from Targus that work fines for me but all I use now are Magellan. I got it from Staples. It was a lot cheaper than the one Magellan offers. My guess is that it will work with other brands, perhaps others will post the experiance with generic. I suspect Garmin and Magellen price the adapter a little to high for what they are, kind of like buying an SD card from Magellan.

[nchmura]

I use a generic adapter from Targus that work fines for me but all I use now are Magellan. I got it from Staples. It was a lot cheaper than the one Magellan offers. My guess is that it will work with other brands, perhaps others will post the experiance with generic. I suspect Garmin and Magellen price the adapter a little to high for what they are, kind of like buying an SD card from Magellan.

Are you talkin' a generic USB adapter? If so, did you have to do any setup to get it to work? What softwares are you using as well?

 

Sorry for all the questions

[robertlipe]

As part of GPSBabel testing, I have a menagerie of GPSes that's even worse. The common denominator in all those units is the DB-9 serial, so USB->serial really is the way to go. They aren't terribly expensive. I've had the best luck with units built around the MCT chips such as the ones from pfranc (that site is kind of garmin-centric, but it's not like the hardware/drivers really know what's plugged into them.)

 

If you wanted to show off and use all three devices at the same time (yeah, that's kind of crazy on a laptop, but for development or testing it would certainly be handy) you could plug each of your devices into something like this: http://www.usbserial.com/USBG-4X232.html

 

Forget about the parallel port idea.

[nchmura]

As part of GPSBabel testing, I have a menagerie of GPSes that's even worse. The common denominator in all those units is the DB-9 serial, so USB->serial really is the way to go. They aren't terribly expensive. I've had the best luck with units built around the MCT chips such as the ones from pfranc (that site is kind of garmin-centric, but it's not like the hardware/drivers really know what's plugged into them.)

 

If you wanted to show off and use all three devices at the same time (yeah, that's kind of crazy on a laptop, but for development or testing it would certainly be handy) you could plug each of your devices into something like this: http://www.usbserial.com/USBG-4X232.html

 

Forget about the parallel port idea.

Thanks!

 

Would you say you had luck using the pfranc usb-serial cable with magellan GPSes (or eagle / lowrance for that matter)?

 

Looking around pfranc i saw one person had luck with a newer magellan unit after performing some configuration trickery, but thats all i could find.

 

There are also bunch of serial-usb cables on ebay as well, all labelled for garmin, for $5.... i wonder.

[robertlipe]

I've used that cable with Garmins and Magellans under Linux and Windows with GPSBabel. (Lowrance ignored my request for developer/eval units and their user base is so small I've been unable to justify one ad the associated development cost to add them to my menagerie.) The pfranc site has a lot of, well, excitable utterings on it. :-) I don't see the specific Magellan reference you mention so I can't comment on it specifically.

 

In reality, there are probably about a half dozen _real_ makers of low-end USB->serial devices like these. (Magic Control Technology, Prolific, etc.) there are a lot of units that are electrically identical and just repackaged in different injection molds or with different badges or driver combos.

 

This market seems to be attract ebayers to buy the product in bulk, sell them for dirt, then charge the max for S&H to reduce ebay "purchase price overhead".

[nchmura]

I've used that cable with Garmins and Magellans under Linux and Windows with GPSBabel. (Lowrance ignored my request for developer/eval units and their user base is so small I've been unable to justify one ad the associated development cost to add them to my menagerie.) The pfranc site has a lot of, well, excitable utterings on it. :-) I don't see the specific Magellan reference you mention so I can't comment on it specifically.

 

In reality, there are probably about a half dozen _real_ makers of low-end USB->serial devices like these. (Magic Control Technology, Prolific, etc.) there are a lot of units that are electrically identical and just repackaged in different injection molds or with different badges or driver combos.

 

This market seems to be attract ebayers to buy the product in bulk, sell them for dirt, then charge the max for S&H to reduce ebay "purchase price overhead".

 

I am leaning towards just going with one of the pfranc dealios you mentioned. I bought a cable and some rino plugs from them so far and have had no problems so hopefully the streak wil continue.

 

I will let you know it works with my eagle explorer gps (its the same as the lowrance 12) if it helps with your gps babel efforts

 

Thanks!

[nchmura]

robertlipe,

 

sorry to bother you some more - but reading around it seems a lot the serial usb adaptors out there for garmins list they support just about every unit EXCEPT the rino's!

 

Do you have any experience with the pfranc cable and the rino's?

 

thanks again

[robertlipe]

a lot the serial usb adaptors out there for garmins list they support just about every unit EXCEPT the rino's!

 

Do you have any experience with the pfranc cable and the rino's?

As I said, it's not like the serial adapter normally knows what's plugged into it on the serial side. Rino, Digital camera, external modem, bean cutter[1], whatever.

 

As an exception, some of the USB/Serial devices to try to be smart and figure out if there's a serial mouse plugged into them. In that case, instead of looking like a serial port to the host, it pretends to be a USB mouse. In the real world, this logic tends to work poorly and is the reason you sometimes hear of the "you have to attach/turn on the attached device AFTER the system boots" type of problems. In the end, it ends up torturing users just to benefit both of the people in the world that try to attach a serial mouse to a USB system.

 

I think the reason you don't see Rino called out is that by comparison it's not a very popular line. I sure don't hear much about them in GPSBabelsville.

 

[1] In a previous life, serial ports were a hobby of mine and Del Monte was a customer....

[designeco.net]

You are after a usb to serial adapter. Most gps units use the rs232 standard for commincations.

this standard uses pins 2,3,5 of a db9 plug for tx,rx, and ground signals. This should mean that once you have sorted out the adapter it should be a simple mater of using the cable from each different gos unit plugged into the adapter and communicate with your gps programs.

[nchmura]

Thanks for all the help.

 

The pfranc adaptor will be ordered. Stopped into compusa for fun over the weekend to chat usb to serial and see what they had and I came out knowing less And the cheapest adpator they have was $40.

 

Pfranc to the rescue again!

 

And as of last night i now have a 4th gps, a Garmin GPS 12, should make things a little more interesting!

[+geospyder]

Here is what I bought from eBay

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6757798611&rd=1

 

I'm hoping that it will work to connect my Palm Pilot IIIxe and Magellan Meridian Platinum to my PC which has no serial ports - but lots of USB port.

 

Strange - when I working I developed financial software but know next to nothing about hardware - so you may see many questions from me when I start trying to get things to work

[nchmura]

Just wanted to update everyone for posterities sake.

 

I ordered the serial to usb cable from pfranc.com, it arrived today and i just did the whirlwind tour of units:

 

Garmin GPS 12

Garmin Rino 110

Magellan Map 330

Eagle Explorer

 

So using ExpertGPS to download the data from the GPSes - the pfranc cable onto my Toshiba Satellite Laptop - every gps downloaded perfectly!

 

Though i didn't try uploading to the units....

 

But, needless to say, I am very happy about this

[+NightPilot]

If the data goes in one direction, it will go in the other. The software on the end is the only limitation, not the adapter.

[nchmura]

If the data goes in one direction, it will go in the other. The software on the end is the only limitation, not the adapter.

Kinda of what i figured

 

I am still smitten that that cable works so well

[+Rubberhead]

Here's another hardware approach - basically it adds a true serial port to your laptop:

 

[+NightPilot]

That's probably the ideal solution, but it ain't cheap. If you have the spare cash, that's the way to go.

[nchmura]

Here's another hardware approach - basically it adds a true serial port to your laptop:

 

Yeah, i was looking into those as well - pretty expensive though

[+RAYAR]

I purchased the Belkin F5U109 USB to serial adapter and down loaded the .pdf installation instructions and driver file for XP. Had to follow installation instructions carefully and it worked first time. The packaging makes it sound like it's for PDA's but it actually gives you a serial port. Do not install USB driver for your GPSr when asked because you are actually connecting by serial 9 pin. You already installed the USB driver for the adapter. You're actually setting up your GPSr for a serial port connection. Remember that. I'm using the Garmin GPS-V.