 Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone any experience of using these and any tips.
I have a fairly old Garmin Etrex summit. Garmin do a cable to connect to a PC via a serial port (for ~£27), but anyone know if you can get a direct to USB connector. Garmin do a RS232 USB adapter, but it is a hefty $55 on their website.
If I connect up my old GPS is there any problem downloading software updates to it from the Garmin website?
Map software wise I'm looking at Memory map at the moment. Anyone got experience of it? Or alternatively recomend other mapping software?
Cheers
Dave
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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ebay will do you a serial to USB adaptor for a few quid, I got one for my Garmin Forerunner. To be honest, the info held on GPS is hardly detailed, and I used to find the serial connection fast enough. Downloading 20 routes took 1 min, but I can spare 1 minute.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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My laptop doesn't have a serial port RS232. Got a cheapy USB / Serial convertor in the computer souk but it didn't work with my Garmin Forerunner. Garmin Helpdesk recommended their own but as you've found it's not cheap. Have they done something odd with the pin outs? Didn't buy theirs - just lived with the thing as it came out of the box but the Forerunner is very basic and you can't download maps onto it anyway. You can only upgrade the software and upload the data onto a Log book software that comes free from Garmin.
Try a cheapy adapter - nothing to lose.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Dave Horsley,
Trail magazine say they are reviewing the various mapping options with GPS in the next issue. I'l look out for it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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kuwait_ian, I may just go with the serial port cable (mind you the garmin one of those ain't cheap either). It was just to save fishing around at the back of the computer which is under the desk when with a USB cable I could plug it into one of the free USB ports on the monitor which sits on my desk.
Martin Nicholas, I'll keep my eye open for the magazine. One of the reasons for getting a PC based OS mapping software is that having to buy lots of OS maps the cost soon mounts up. With the software can print out a map of the area I'm going to walk/tour which if necessary I can laminate and it doesn't matter if it gets trashed. Can also download any relevant waypoints to the GPS so I don't get lost (hopefully!).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dave Horsley, MemoryMap runs on a pda too. Printouts are supposed to be limited to A4, due to OS restrictions.
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RobertC, One way I get round any software restriction on print size is to use Windows "Prt Scr" feature and then paste it into an imaging application and print from there. This works great for me with MemoryMap.
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