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Garmin GPS interface to Mac

I am trying to interface my Macs to a Garmin Etrex H GPSr, for which I have bought an RS232 cable. I have now tried two USB-to-RS232 adapters.

The first was a Keyspan adapter which advertised "plug-and-play" support for Macs. However, I found no drivers on the Keyspan website, and their technical support people confirmed that there weren't any for my Macs.

Next I tried one of unknown manufacture, but which employed an FTDI chipset. Their website has VCP drivers which should support Intel and other Macs running OS 10.4 or later. However, the installation instructions must apply to 10.4 as the screenshots don't match up with Leopard.

The system profiler can see the adapter, but I can't seem to configure it as a COM port.

I'm on the point of giving up, but entering accurate co-ordinates into the GPS manually is is a real pain — in the thumb!

Any help would be much appreciated.

14 iBook G4; 2.66GHz iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 11, 2009 7:41 AM

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Posted on Apr 11, 2009 8:12 AM

While I am not familiar with the Etrex line I am somewhat familiar with the Nuvi line of Garmin GPS's. Garmin has excellent support for Macs, with several free applications that allow you to update your GPS's firmware (Web Updater), POI's (POI Loader), and for creating routes or inputting additional POIs Garmin Roadtrip.

I suggest you visit Garmin's website and use this URL to locate the software you need.

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/index.jsp

If your Etrex has a USB connection on it then connect it directly to a USB port on your iMac. If it only has RS232 connection you may have to experiment with various RS232 to USB adapters as some work some just don't.

As I mentioned earlier there is a lot of support for Macs from Garmin and their telephone support is awesome! If you still have problems I would suggest contacting them during the week for additional help.

Regards,
Roger
4 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 11, 2009 8:12 AM in response to David Watson

While I am not familiar with the Etrex line I am somewhat familiar with the Nuvi line of Garmin GPS's. Garmin has excellent support for Macs, with several free applications that allow you to update your GPS's firmware (Web Updater), POI's (POI Loader), and for creating routes or inputting additional POIs Garmin Roadtrip.

I suggest you visit Garmin's website and use this URL to locate the software you need.

http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/index.jsp

If your Etrex has a USB connection on it then connect it directly to a USB port on your iMac. If it only has RS232 connection you may have to experiment with various RS232 to USB adapters as some work some just don't.

As I mentioned earlier there is a lot of support for Macs from Garmin and their telephone support is awesome! If you still have problems I would suggest contacting them during the week for additional help.

Regards,
Roger

Apr 12, 2009 12:33 AM in response to David Watson

Thank you for the reply; it ws very helpful. I will certainly investigate further with Garmin.

My only hesitation is the price Garmin want for the adapter, £45, having already spent £20 on the RS232 cable. The Etrex was only £65!

For that reason, I'll keep the question open for a while to see if anyone comes up with a more economical solution.

Garmin GPS interface to Mac

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