GPS to Laptop

[RBBailey]

So, you would think that the GPS to a Laptop idea would have caught on a few years ago... Anyway, I can't figure out how to get a serial cable GPS to talk to a laptop. I have tried two different GPS units on two different laptops with three different map programs. The best I can do is to get it to download and upload, but no realtime tracking. I say, "the best I can do" because it seems that sometimes it works and sometimes it does not, and it always ends in a complete crash and automatic restart of the computer.

I am trying to use one of those serial to USB cables with original driver software that is supposed to install on Windows XP. I would really love to be able to mate these two technologies together, and all the geeks at Best Buy and Radio Shack say, "...hu... I don't know, ha, ha, I've never heard of ANYTHING like that happening dude!" Anyway, any hints?? Products, software that works.

GPS = Magellan Sport Track Pro & Magellan Meridian Platinum
Computers = Sony VAIO, and HP Pavillion - both running XP

 

[skydiver]

GPS = Magellan Sport Track Pro & Magellan Meridian Platinum
Computers = Sony VAIO, and HP Pavillion - both running XP

Computer shouldn't matter. I've used 486/33 laptops at times.
I've successfully used Delorme Streets (v9,2003 & 2004), and Deluo Routis.
I've used this setup with various old NMEA gps units (Magellen colortrak,etc) and it workes awesome.

Most of the software has a 'init gps' feature to make it start tracking you.
Go to download.com, search for "nmea gps" (no quotes), and nab a few of those programs and see if that works. If they work, then it's a config problem with your current software.

Good Luck!!
-Tommy

 

[vabiro]

I suspect your problems are with the USB to Serial adapter.

When you use a USB specific device the USB seems to be much simpler. I have heard that that adapter can complicate things.

I have had good luck with the people at http://www.gpscity.com. They have a support forum staffed by experts in each manufacturer and topic.

Additionally, I received a diagnostic program with my GPS unit's driver package. It polled the COM ports to find the GPS unit, which solved a problem I was having with finding what port my USB GPS unit was on (I think it was COM6 or 9). Some mapping programs will have an "Automatic" choice for the COM port address.

Victor

 

[RBBailey]

All three programs that I use automatically search for the GPS on the various comm ports.

On the VAIO it finds the GPS no problem, but as soon as you start traking it causes the mouse pointer to flip-out, starts running all over the screen opening programs and closing things etc... Sometimes it does this even when in a clean Windows desktop - no programs running.

When I get it to search for the GPS (or tell it where it is manually) on the HP it simply gives a "fatal error" message and restarts the computer. I have tried installing manually, automatically, with XP driver, with 2000 driver, on all 4 coms, etc, etc... always does the same thing.

Like I said, I went to two different stores were they sell both GPS units and these serial/USB cables and no one has any answers.

 

[skydiver]

All three programs that I use automatically search for the GPS on the various comm ports.

On the VAIO it finds the GPS no problem, but as soon as you start traking it causes the mouse pointer to flip-out, starts running all over the screen opening programs and closing things etc... Sometimes it does this even when in a clean Windows desktop - no programs running.

That little snippit sounds like a sympton of an IRQ conflict. You should be able to force your serial port (or usb-to-serial) to an unused IRQ. (You can usually free one up by disabling the LPT port in CMOS). If it's a built in serial port, do this in the CMOS. If it's a usb-to-serial, do it in the windows device manager.

Good luck!
-Tommy

 

[RBBailey]

You mean a USB port on the computer that is assigned to a com port? I think I tried it already. ( I shouldn't ask these questions without the hardware infront of me.... )

Anyway, the programs were looking for the GPS on specific com 1... com 2... com 3... LPT 1... and so on, so I used device manager to assign it to one of the coms I had seen while it was searching - it would then find it, but still flip out and start over. Even if I don't have anything else plugged into the computer - serial, parallel, USB - it still doesn't work.

I will try it again tomorrow and get back to you with more specifics, thanks.

 

[Jaime]

Make sure you don't have Hotsync (palm software) running, or any other thing that might be running in the background.

I have an old 133Mhz AST laptop with win98 working perfectly (although slowly) with a Magellan Sportrak Pro connected via serial port using NMEA protocol and DeLorme Topo.

Good luck, these types of problems can be frustrating as hell.

 

[JeffreyDV]

Why not try hooking it up without the adapter?

 

[Joey]

The problem is the adapter and Windows XP (sorry to say), I like XP, but the serial to USB adapter and XP do not usually work well together. I would recommend getting a PCMCIA card with a serial Adapter or trying to get a GPS that is strickly USB only.

I love to hear that people at these stores never hear of this happening, of course they probably just told the last 20 something customers the same thing.

 

[wei]

On the VAIO it finds the GPS no problem, but as soon as you start traking it causes the mouse pointer to flip-out, starts running all over the screen opening programs and closing things etc...

That's because Windows thinks the serial GPS connection is a mouse. This is a known and documented issue with Windows trying to be too smart. One way to fix it is to edit a file called boot.ini on your C: drive. Simply append "/noserialmouse" to the boot string to fix this forever. For example, you'll see something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noserialmouse=com2

Note that you can specify the com port as well. Hope this works for you.