GPSTRANS

NAME

gpstrans - communicate with Garmin GPS receiver

SYNOPOSIS

gpstrans [ options ] [ file ]

DESCRIPTION

gpstrans allows the user with a Garmin GPS receiver to upload and download waypoints, routes, almanacs (satellite orbital elements) and trackroutes. If file is not supplied, data will be read from stdin (-ux switch) or written to stdout (-dx switch).

OPTIONS

-pport

set serial I/O device

	-s		set datum, format, offset, and device interactively, and save them in $HOME/.gpstrans.
	-i		identify connected GPS
	-o		turn off GPS device
	-t		get time from GPS
	-ts		get time from GPS and set system time on host
	-dx		download data indicated by x: r=route, t=track, w=waypoint, a=almanac
	-m		With -dt, downloads track data in the format which can be displayed by Mayko mXmap(1). With -dr or -ur, downloads or uploads route data in a format compatible with Mayko mXmap.
	-ux		upload data indicated by x: r=route, t=track, w=waypoint, a=almanac
	-v		print program version.

--verbose

Increase verbosity.

--debug

Add debug printouts.

--help

Print help text.

CONNECTION

For a DB-25 connector, you may need to connect pin 4, 5 and 6, 8, 20 together. This sets handshake signals so that your workstation can use the serial port to communicate with the GPS.

1 ### #####
o o o # # # o # o o o o o
o o o o o o # o o o o o

Connect the Garmin cable as follows:

2 3 7
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o o o

		Pin 2 goes to DATA IN (White)
		Pin 3 goes to DATA OUT (Brown)
		Pin 7 goes to GROUND (Black)

If it doesn’t work in this way, try exchanging pins 2 and 3 at the connector.

The circular connector on a Garmin GPS II receiver can be wired to a DB-9 connector as follows:

_____ _____,-----,
3 / \ 4 | | |
| o o | | | |_____
| < <- groove -> |=====| |----,|
| o o | | | | ||
2 \ _____ / 1 |_____| | ||
‘-----’ ||
||
views are looking ||
into connector ||
at each end of cable ||
||
||
5 3 2 ________ ||
o o o o o | \___________||
o o o o |_________,------------’

DB-9 pin 2 goes to circular connector pin 2
DB-9 pin 3 goes to circular connector pin 4
DB-9 pin 5 goes to circular connector pin 3
other pins are not connected

(Note: the pin numbers for the circular connector are
arbitrary, and may not match the ‘official’ numbers.)

If your plug is more recent than the one above (ex: etrex) then you need DB-9 or DB-25 to be connected to your Garmin GPS like this:

_____,-----,
POWER(+) | | |
groove --> |=====| |_____
DATA IN | | |----,|
DATA OUT | | | ||
GROUND(-) |_____| | ||
‘-----’ ||
||
||
||
||
||
||
________ ||
| \___________||
|_________,------------’

DB-25 :

2 3 7
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o o o

		Pin 2 goes to DATA IN (White)
		Pin 3 goes to DATA OUT (Brown)
		Pin 7 goes to GROUND (Black)

DB-9:

						5 3 2
						o o o o o
						o o o o

pin 2 goes to DATA IN (White)
pin 3 goes to DATA OUT (Brown)
pin 5 goes to GROUND (Black)
other pins are not connected

For testing, you might try setting the GPS to NMEA-Output and using a terminal emulator program like Kermit. The GPS will send a data record every 2 seconds. As long as you don’t see any data on your computer, gpstrans won’t work.

After finishing the test, be sure to set your GPS receiver to GRMN/GRMN.

ENVIRONMENT

GPSDEV

Serial I/O device (overrides contents of $HOME/.gpstrans, and is overridden by -p switch).

FILES

$HOME/.gpstrans

Has user preferences for datum, format, offset, and serial I/O device (see -s switch, above).

AUTHOR

GPStrans is Copyright 1995 by Carsten Tschach <tschach@zedat.fu-berlin.de>. The datum translation routines are based on the program MacGPS from John F. Waers <jfwaers@csn.net>. Mayko mXmap output format by Matthias Kattanek <mattes@ugraf.com>. German Grid by Andreas Lange <andreas.lange@rhein-main.de>. etrex support by Joao Seabra CT2GNL - <seabra@ci.aac.uc.pt>. Other Garmin formats added by Jim Van Zandt <jrvz@comcast.remove.me.net>.

SEE ALSO

mxmap(1), GPSMan