Re: [Gpsbabel-misc] Help connecting to a Garmin GPS II Plus

[Robert L. <rob...@gp...>]

The GUI just calls builds and calls the command line. When you select
'device', it'll give you a drop-down for the serial device. It's
/dev/cu.usbserial* in this example which is NOT a Garmin - it's just a
random device I have attached right now. After you tell it what you're
writing (I'm sticking with my GPX blah.gpx example) it should show you the
very command line program that it's running to do the real work.

In my case, I'm getting an expected error because my serial device is very
much not a Garmin GPS, but I wanted to show the entire process, top to
bottom. It added the "-t" "-r" and "-w" options because those are checked.
I didn't type those (-w is the default) in my rapid-fire answer earlier.

[image: image.png]

Still, we have the hard part solved. Device comms is the lost science
talking to that device. We can get your data out (or in!) one way or
another. But the GUI really shouldn't be mysterious; we just have to figure
out what's different for you.

Are we considering different settings "obvious"? (It's a device, not a
file, and it's on /dev/ttyS0 or whatever) Is there some kind of an error in
that bottom textarea where there would normally be a healthy GPSBabel
command plus whatever chatter it produces? (That'd be down there where my,
um, error message is. :-) )

Come to think of it, maybe we should label that bottom textarea so you'd
see more than just dead space...Let me think on that more after we get you
squared away.

RJL


On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 10:57 PM Jack Frillman <jcf...@me...> wrote:

> I was trying to use the GUI.
>
> When I tried
>
> gpsbabel -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx -F blah.gpx
>
> as you suggested from the command line it worked.
>
> Thanks for the tip.
>
> I appreciate it.
>
> Jack
> On 7/17/24 19:24, Robert Lipe wrote:
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 6:16 PM Jack Frillman via Gpsbabel-misc <
> gps...@li...> wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to connect to a Garmin GPS II Plus but have been unable to
>> get GPS Babel to connect to the GPS unit.
>>
>> This is what I'm working with:
>> + Garmin GPS II Plus (This has the 4 pin proprietary plug to a RS232
>> plug. I have RS232 to USB cable connected to that.)
>> + Linux Fedora 39
>> + GPSBabel 1.9.0
>>
>> I have read through the "Hotplug vs. Garmin USB on Linux" documentation.
>> This documentation refers to the old Fedora Core naming convention up to
>> Fedora Core 14.   How does Fedora 39 relate to these directions?
>>
> It doesn't. You have a serial Garmin, not a USB Garmin. That doesn't apply
> to you.
>
>
>
>
>
>> When I do a "sudo dmesg" I get this output when the GPS unit is plugged
>> into the computer.
>>
>> [  247.416794] usb 1-3: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
>> [  247.543901] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=067b,
>> idProduct=2303, bcdDevice= 4.00
>> [  247.543917] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2,
>> SerialNumber=0
>> [  247.543923] usb 1-3: Product: USB-Serial Controller D
>> [  247.543928] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
>> [  247.546847] pl2303 1-3:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
>> [  247.547892] usb 1-3: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
>>
>> So I know that Linux is recognizing it.
>>
> Yay.
>
>
>
>> What do I need to do to get this working?
>>
> You didn't say what's NOT working or what you tried or what you're even
> trying to do. Did you just stop?
>
>
>> Note: I had this GPS cable combination working once on a Windows comput
>> er  that I no longer have.
>>
>
> GPSBabel on Windows and Linux works very much the same. Only the device
> name changes and that's picked by the OS, not by us.
>
> So if before you did a
>
> gpsbabel -i garmin -f com3: -o gpx -F blah.gpx
>
>  to read your waypoints from the garmin on com3 and write them in a gpx
> file name blah.gpx
>
> you can  now
>
> gpsbabel -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx -F blah.gpx
>
> only the device name changes.
>
> Some Linux systems don't always use ttyUSB0 so literally, but that's where
> I'd start.
>
> You may have permissions issues about opening device nodes as a user, but
> that works exactly the way UNIX permissions have worked for 50 years and
> isn't really a GPSBabel issue.
>
> Enjoy.
>
> RJL
>
> --
> Go on! Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers and gunpowder and cordite!
>       -Daffy Duck
>
>