eTrex with USB to Serial adaptor

[CJfish]

Guys or Girls,

I have tried using a USB to serial cable to connect my eTrex to a PC without any success. I have tried using a couple of different types of cables but no luck. I am using the standard data cable with a RS232 plug on it.

I can communicate with the PC when using the com port in the back of the machine but I also have a laptop that I wish to use and it does not have a com port, only USB.

I am using the basic Garmin Mapsource (World Map) software, if that helps.

Has anyone else experienced these problems or I am just doing something wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

CJ

[jrs]

Some older usb-serial adaptors have a deparate need for hardware handshake
signals. They don't do anything without them.

To use one without handshake (which is not needed at GPS baud rates)
you might need to add a couple of wires to the back of the female DB9 plug.
Shorting pins 7 and 8 (rts to cts) and shorting pins 1 to 4 to 6 (dsr dtr, dcd) will make any usb-serial adaptor think it has all the handshakes it ever wanted.
This won't upset normal serial ports in this application.

[arthurking83]

Hi CJFish,

another thing to look out for.

If you can get the device info of the USB to serial adapter(s) from device manager!

I had trouble with the driver that was supplied with my Prolific- PL2303 chip adapter, but after installing the updated version from the prolific website! ;)

Also tell us what Com Port numbers you are trying on.

I just spent the best part of a day getting my new PDA to work with my USB-serial adapter... turns out it was the old driver I found, finding a new driver and setting the ComPort to the correct number, did the trick!

Set the Com Port with the same settings as that on your Garmin, 4800 BAUD should be fine...(although I set my Magellan to 115200, and the track file downloads much faster into Ozi!!).

I have found on the three computers I have attached my USB-serial adapter tit set itself up on ComPort 6. (maybe it just like that number!! :D )

Check your Ports (Com & LPT) in Device manager, have a good poke around in there to find out all the info you need to set it up as per the GPS.

If you still have troubles, under the Properties tab on the USB-serial adapter, look for the details on the device ID.

my Prolific PL2303 has a deviceID string that looks like this...
USB\VID_067B&PID_2303\5&192CE995&0&3



:)

[CJfish]

Guys,

Thanks for your help. I tried a few things and got the you know whats with it and gave up for a while. I ended up borrowing a USB to serial adaptor from work and after loading the drivers for it, hey presto, it worked like a champion. I did a little searching on the web and there are certain chipsets that don't like to work with certain applications, from what I could make of it anyway.

Everything is working fine now.

Cheers,

CJ