GPS
transferring data to and from a handheld Garmin GPS?
Hi - I have had a Garmin e-trex venture GPS for about a year, but my laptop doesn't have one of the serial ports needed to connect the cable which came with the GPS. I finally got round to buying a cable which will connect it via a USB port...but now I cant figure out how on earth to transfer the data over! Please can someone help me? Should I have got some software with my GPS for this purpose? The owners manual is virtually useless. Thanks.
Public Comments
- Ni Nicola Had the same issue... i used the website below... http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/default.aspx On there is everything you need, nearly all is free, but its step by step. Hope this helps.
- I have a Garmin eTrex (the basic yellow one) that uses a serial port cable just like yours. I use the Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK) software to transfer data to and from my eTrex. There's a small learning curve and there's easier to use software available, but usually the easy software is lacking in features, where as GSAK does it all. http://gsak.net/
- Since you talk about using an adapter, I am assuming that your Venture is not a Venture HC. The older Venture has fallen out of the Garmin product line. You can contact their tech support via www.garmin.com. If you want to load maps, you will need Garmin's map software. If you just want to transfer tracks and waypoints, there are many programs available to do that. Garmin has a "point of interest" loader available but I don't know if it works with that model. I think that they also have a track and waypoint manager that you can buy. If you want to draw a map of where you were or create locations by looking at a map, I would suggest looking at USA PhotoMap (http://jdmcox.com/). It is free software that uses the TerraServer map database and will work with the older serial port etrex gps's. You can work online (which downloads the maps as you work) or offline once you have the maps in your computer. GPS Visualizer does a very good job of drawing the maps but you will need a waypoint/track manager to download the tracks from the GPS first.
