"Jack Erbes" wrote in message
...
Jsp wrote:

My Furuno GPS can be connected to a PC by a serial cable. The wiring
diagram can be viewed on the GPS itself. But: my laptop doesn't have a
serial port. Is there a way to make a USB-cable instead? (And to have
some chartplotting program recognize this)?


What you need is called a serial to USB adapter or converter.

You can find them at places like CompUSA, Fryes, Circuit City, Best Buy,
Staples, etc. The ones made by Belkin seem to be widely acceptable, I
have never found a serial input (including a number of GPS NMEA inputs)
that would not work with the one I have.

It is a short (10" or so) cable with a USB plug on one end and a small
housing with a DB9P connector (looks just like your missing serial port
socket) on the other.

The Belkin I have (model F5U109) also has three LEDs (RX, TX, LINK) to
indicate status of the serial connection and traffic flow.

If you are into shopping around for one, try eBay. There are hundreds
of them for sale there every day. A search for "serial usb" will turn up
a bunch.

Jack


--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

For a simple GPS to laptop, any of the run of the mill converters mentioned
should work. However, for bi-directional use with a lot of data, only a few
more costly units seem to work consistently. I have found this to be the
case in programming ham radio and marine radio handhelds such as
Vertex/Standard units. My old favorite Belkin failed me there. Raymarine
recommends the Sealevel 2105 or 2201 serial port to USB for their RayTech
RNS 5.0 software.
I don't recall what Furuno or Northstar recommends, but they have similar
suggestions.

73
Doug K7ABX