Northstar 952
 

I just purchased the Northstar 952 and, to date, am impressed.
However, I am trying to determine how to transfer all of my GPS
coordinates I have saved over the years of fish habitat and other
points I want to keep. Of course, I could manually do it but there
are hundreds.

Does anyone know whether there is an application that will allow me to
upload my coordinates off of the Garmin and then download to the
Northstar? I know Garmin has software/hardware to upload but I am
stuck on how to get it downloaded to the Northstar.

On 26 Oct 2004 18:05:47 -0700, (Mark) wrote:

I just purchased the Northstar 952 and, to date, am impressed.
However, I am trying to determine how to transfer all of my GPS
coordinates I have saved over the years of fish habitat and other
points I want to keep. Of course, I could manually do it but there
are hundreds.

Does anyone know whether there is an application that will allow me to
upload my coordinates off of the Garmin and then download to the
Northstar? I know Garmin has software/hardware to upload but I am
stuck on how to get it downloaded to the Northstar.

You may be stuck with a manual entry. Garmin is really picky about
data transfers with their software and to date, I don't think there is
a method by which one can transfer data from one manufacturer's unit
to another.

At least I haven't seen any yet, but then again, there's always
something new that I haven't seen yet.

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717

You can download free software such as OziExplorer or Fugawi which can allow
you to download your Garmin waypoints to your hard drive then maybe that
software or other can upload to your Northstar. I used one of these programs
to save my waypoints from my Garmin 2006 to my hard drive and I think I may
have saved my waypoints from my old Garmin 210 that way also but don'r
remember for sure. Anyway do a Google search for something like "gps mapping
software"
and download some of these and see if they work. Also you may get some help
from rec.boats.electronics, there are people there that are helpful if you
can understand what they are talking about. One more thing, you may need a
special cable to hook up your unit to your computer.

--
Ron White
Boat building web address is
www.concentric.net/~knotreel

"Mark" wrote in message
om...
I just purchased the Northstar 952 and, to date, am impressed.
However, I am trying to determine how to transfer all of my GPS
coordinates I have saved over the years of fish habitat and other
points I want to keep. Of course, I could manually do it but there
are hundreds.

Does anyone know whether there is an application that will allow me to
upload my coordinates off of the Garmin and then download to the
Northstar? I know Garmin has software/hardware to upload but I am
stuck on how to get it downloaded to the Northstar.

If you have Garmin's MapSource software, this will allow you to upload your
waypoint data into a Garmin proprietary file format on your computer. That
software will then allow you to export the data to a tab-delimited ASCII
file. The question now becomes whether Northstar has software that will
software will import the tab-delimited file and then download the data to
the GPS unit, to which I have no answer.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 07:56:54 -0700, "RG" wrote:


"Mark" wrote in message
. com...
I just purchased the Northstar 952 and, to date, am impressed.
However, I am trying to determine how to transfer all of my GPS
coordinates I have saved over the years of fish habitat and other
points I want to keep. Of course, I could manually do it but there
are hundreds.

Does anyone know whether there is an application that will allow me to
upload my coordinates off of the Garmin and then download to the
Northstar? I know Garmin has software/hardware to upload but I am
stuck on how to get it downloaded to the Northstar.

If you have Garmin's MapSource software, this will allow you to upload your
waypoint data into a Garmin proprietary file format on your computer. That
software will then allow you to export the data to a tab-delimited ASCII
file. The question now becomes whether Northstar has software that will
software will import the tab-delimited file and then download the data to
the GPS unit, to which I have no answer.

I tried that by building a translator program, but I had a devil of a
time of it.

Garmin does some kind of weird compression scheme which strips
adjacent data in ASCII format. Or at least that's what I think is
going on - may not be.

Later,

Tom
-----------
"Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt..."

Izaak Walton "The Compleat Angler", 1653

I tried that by building a translator program, but I had a devil of a
time of it.

Garmin does some kind of weird compression scheme which strips
adjacent data in ASCII format. Or at least that's what I think is
going on - may not be.


Not sure I follow you. Once your waypoint data is saved in the
tab-delimited ASCII file, it's pretty simple to massage it. The MapSource
export function will export all data in the file, coordinates, waypoint
names, and a bunch of other extraneous stuff, which would not apply to
uploading to another type of unit. Just open the ASCII file in Excel, or
for that matter, any text editor (Excel makes it easier to work with since
it is columnar data), and delete the data that is unnecessary to get it
ready for import. I have no idea if Northstar offers software for waypoint
management and route planning and if so, whether it would allow the
importation of text data. If it does allow for the import, it would just be
a matter of making sure the columnar data is in the order expected by the
Northstar software.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:34:29 -0700, "RG" wrote:

I tried that by building a translator program, but I had a devil of a
time of it.

Garmin does some kind of weird compression scheme which strips
adjacent data in ASCII format. Or at least that's what I think is
going on - may not be.

Not sure I follow you. Once your waypoint data is saved in the
tab-delimited ASCII file, it's pretty simple to massage it. The MapSource
export function will export all data in the file, coordinates, waypoint
names, and a bunch of other extraneous stuff, which would not apply to
uploading to another type of unit. Just open the ASCII file in Excel, or
for that matter, any text editor (Excel makes it easier to work with since
it is columnar data), and delete the data that is unnecessary to get it
ready for import. I have no idea if Northstar offers software for waypoint
management and route planning and if so, whether it would allow the
importation of text data. If it does allow for the import, it would just be
a matter of making sure the columnar data is in the order expected by the
Northstar software.

Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.

All the best,

Tom
--------------

"What the hell's the deal with this newsgroup...
is there a computer terminal in the day room of
some looney bin somewhere?"

Bilgeman - circa 2004

Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 15:14:12 -0700, "RG" wrote:


Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

Maybe it's something I'm doing.

If you would send that sample, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Later,

Tom

If you would send that sample, I would appreciate it.


On its way.