On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:35:03 GMT, DJ wrote:

Tyring to avoid the cost of buying a ready made cord. Any ideas out there
as to the various ways to construct a cable to download from the computer
to the GPS. Understand you need a serial DB9 female plug, a 12 volt power
source (I don't know amperage ) and of course the loose wires from the GPS
. I have a Garmin 178C and I do know which color wire go where....what I
need is some creativity or hardware ideas as to how to get them all
together and then still be able to take my GPS and its cable and put itr
back on the boat,,,Anybody ever done anything like this before??????or am I
being penny wise and pound foolish for even trying?

There are a couple of wiring diagrams on my GPS site that may be
useful - as well as my NMEA FAQ.

The manual for your GPS should show which wire is data in, and which
is data out - connect the GPS data in to the PC data out, and vice
versa, and connect all the grounds together.

You shouldn't need a 12 volt supply if the GPS has internal batteries.

If your computer does not have an "old fashioned" RS-232 serial port
(usually a DE-9 male connector), then you will need to buy an RS-232
- USB cable (which really has some electronics embedded in the DE9
connector)


I have the Blue Chart software on my computer.....but no data card or card
reasder (another expensive USB cable).....Thanks much...DJ

When transferring BlueCharts, the GPS will have to be set to
"Garmin/Garmin" protocol - somewhere under "System/Communications" or
similar.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca