I know I saw directions somewhere to hook your GPS unit up to a laptop while traveling to use the monitor to read the maps, and have it available when you need to change maps on the GPS. I can't find the article,and am having no luck figuring it on my own. I have a GPSmap76CS if that matters. Have I missed something basic (that's usually what I do)? or is it even doable? Thanks for any help, my wife and I are leaving on a trip of about 5000 miles round trip to see both of our kids, one is graduating law school, in less than a month. It's almost coast to coast.
the software you want is garmin nroute: http://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=575
Thanks for the comeback, I'm sure that is what I'm looking for.
I'm surprised you found that old page. Garmin has removed the program from their site, when you click the download link you are taken back the index page. But you can still download nRoute here: http://www.gawisp.com/perry/nroute/
I have been playing with this a lot recently and am running version 276. It works fine under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Your 76cs should work fine with it, my 60csx was no problem although you may need to change a setting under Menu > Setup > Interface IIRC. I am using a little USB gps with it now, along with GPSGate which translates the output into Garmin's proprietary format.
I have to admit. I didn't check all the way with the download as it will have to be on my wife's laptop. She won't let me take my desktop. I checked on your link, and I have a question. Which download do I need. I have satellite and am nearing the limit on my bandwidth so was going to wait til it dropped. Can't get cable or broadband as I'm in the hicks here. I don't want to download more than necessary, and it doesn't really say what is in each download on the page. Thanks for your time.
nRoute_276.exe (the last one on that page) was the final version that Garmin released. I tried one of the older versions myself and it crashed under Vista 64. As they say, "your mileage may vary". :)
Are the voices necessary?
No the voices are not necessary, and probably most times not wanted. I'll have enough in my head and my wife will probably be the co-pilot. She hasn't tried downloading the link from Boyd yet, but may need another to try also. I appreciate all the help I get here. And thanks Boyd for the comeback on which one.
I think computers and GPS'es should be seen and not heard. All of mine are on "mute". nRoute evidently gives voice directions but I have never used it.
Maybe you need to explain what you want to do a little better though. Many people will feel that nRoute is pretty "retro" by today's standards. The only reason I use it is because I like the way it renders my own topo maps on the screen (they look pretty much identical to their appearance on my Oregon, and better than Mapsource can display them).
If you want real turn-by-turn navigation, it is probably not your best choice. Garmin's City Navigator is locked to specific gps'es, although it can be used on different computers. But when running nRoute, my understanding is that your copy of City Navigator must be locked to the gps that you use. Do you already have City Navigator installed on your 76cs? If not, you will have to buy it.
If that's the case, you might look at Garmin Mobile PC instead. You can get a version of it along with a USB GPS for under $100. You can also get a software-only version to use with your own GPS for even less. It is more like a Nuvi with some additional features. I find that it mangles my own topo maps since I break a lot of rules in making them :)
You could also check out Microsoft Streets and Trips. I grabbed a copy of the 2009 version recently at Staples for about $70 and it included a small uBlox USB GPS which I also use with nRoute.
Then there's also OziExplorer which I like, but it works with raster imagery, so you have to make your own maps and they are not routable.
What I want is to run the GPS screen on the laptop so we can see things better. It will be larger so we can read it better, and won't be on the dash. I have a GPS76CS that needs to be flat on the dash to get satellites so that's is a little hard to read. I can get myself lost without a GPS or my wife to help and a voice constantly telling me what to do is irritating. This will give us a lighted map when we want to look, and be hooked up when we need to change maps on the GPS. I have turn by turn navigation (it's called a wife). I appreciate your help as it takes me awhile to grasp new things (I'm old). I mostly mastered downloading maps and putting them on mapsource on my computer (32 bit and XP professional), now I have to put them in windows 7 with 64 bit (her laptop). So you can see the simpler the better. Going to see our kids. The last one left home a year ago and left me on my own to figure this stuff out. Thanks again for the help.
I'm not old, I'm 60. ;)
I think you may be misunderstanding something here though. nRoute does not "run the GPS screen on the laptop". There is no way to do this. nRoute is a completely separate navigation program. It only receives position data from your 76cs, and uses that to display maps that are installed on your computer.
Honestly, for what you're describing I think you would be better served by getting an automotive GPS unit. The Nuvi series can use the maps that you have in mapsource as well as the City Navigator maps which are pre-installed.
It will be a lot less awkward than using a laptop with cables and stuff, and the touchscreen will be a lot easier to use than menus and keyboard commands. You will need some kind of mount for a laptop in your vehicle, and a power supply if you want to run it for very long. These things will cost as much as a dedicated auto GPS. And you will also have to be concerned about theft of your computer.
You might stop by a store like Best Buy and play around with the Nuvi's on display to see what you think before going too far with the laptop idea. You should find a number of models in the $100-$150 range.
Well thanks, not the answer I wanted but I guess I might have to accept it. GPS wouldn't have to be hooked up to the laptop much, only when we needed directions. An inverter powers the laptop fine. And only one cable to hook up. I will need a way to change map areas anyway as my GPS only holds 115mb so will need laptop with us anyway. When I purchased my GPS I read about this software, but now that I need it I can't find it anywhere. Not sure if it was in or out of production, or a concept as I didn't pay enough attention. I bought my GPS for fishing, hunting, four wheeling in the mountains, and hiking in the mountains, but this one or the GPS60 series was also supposed to be good for maps. Now I would like to have this software, mostly for in cities, or rest areas. Thanks again.
If you like using Garmin maps and want to use your laptop with them, then MobilePC is a good solution I think because it's very user-friendly. Shop around and you can get the version with the USB GPS pretty cheaply. The software only version is maybe $20 less, but both versions will include Garmin's City Navigator maps.
One problem with nRoute for your application is that it doesn't support the NT version of City Navigator. Garmin has stopped making the non-NT version now, so it will be pretty hard to find. But if you already have the non-NT City Navigator and it's locked to your GPS, you could give it a try.
But as I said, it won't actually display the screen from your GPS. It just uses the position to draw its own maps. I think some of the really old Garmin GPS'es had a feature for connecting to an external monitor, but none of the newer models have this.
Very cool - I didn't know you could do that. 8)
Perhaps the Nuvi 5000 would be more user friendly than a laptop and a gps in the front seat. The 5" screen is big (and for us 60 plus guys that's important) and it will give directions.
The Nuvi 5000 was discontinued by Garmin within the past month. You might find some deals if anybody still has them in stock. I've had one for over 2 years and as a mapmaker, I especially appreciate it. The 800x480 resolution was way higher than any other Garmin consumer unit. This will not make much difference when using Garmin's maps or even most of the maps on this site. Everything is just drawn 'bigger' on the screen while still showing the same area of the map that a lower resolution unit shows.
However, if you use bitmapped custom types for lines, it can make a huge difference. A one-pixel wide line on an 800x480 screen is a very different from a 1 pixel wide line on a 480x272 screen. This gives you a bigger palette of line weights to work with. And for bitmapped polygon fills, it produces finer textures.
However, the Nuvi 5000 is a bit quirky. It is one of two Garmin lines that run on Linux, and it takes seemingly forever to boot. It also doesn't have a battery. So everytime you turn the car off and on (like at the gas station), it has to go through the whole startup routine. It's also no speed demon when it comes to rendering the map on the screen and it's missing some of the nice tweaks that the newer units have, like lane guidance (which shows a map of the upcoming intersection with an indication of which lane you should use). It also doesn't show your current speed while navigating a route.
Garmin recently introduced the 14x0 series and they also have 5" screens but the resolution is the same as the 4" screen models (480x272). These are also a mixed bag with their own quirks.
Sorry I haven't been able to respond recently, but I think I will try the Adobe plug in and USGS maps. 2 friends at work have Garmin Rhinos that when the hook up to their computer with a USB cord, it automatically comes on the computer screen. My boss has a Magellon and he has to click on one thing and it comes up on his laptop screen. He says Delorme does the same thing. I know the program is out there. Thanks for all the help.
Just posted on the groundspeak forums about the upgrade to BaseCamp
' Added the ability to use BaseCamp with the pre-installed maps on a connected device or pre-programmed SD card.'
This might be placing the data/image on the GPSr on the computer screen - maybe not. Depends on what Garmin means by 'ability to use'
Garmin just got back to me on my 3rd contact attempt. They advised me to either purchase MobilePC or use nroute and they sent me a link for it. Boyd gave me a link to it earlier with a bunch of other stuff on. Haven't had time to locate it yet. My wife says she will download it for us tomorrow. Hope it works. Might download basecamp too, I've been thinking about that. Thanks again for all the help.
Hello -
This may seem like an academic answer, but could you simply use the real time GPS tracking option on google earth? Seems like that would work, maybe have to refresh it by going on line periodically since your trip is so far, but maybe that'll work.
has anyone tried the google earth real time tracking with a garmin?
Have a look over at laptopgpsworld.com, there is a long thread about using Google Earth with a GPS over there. I have not tried it myself, and frankly am not all that much of a Google Earth fan since I can get better imagery for my own area elsewhere.
Would I need to use GlobalMapper to put the imagery into WMS format in order to do that? Maybe I need to learn more about Google Earth, but I already feel like I have too many programs that do the same kind of thing. I use OziExplorer on a netbook (and OziExplorerCE on a Magellan Roadmate 1700, which has a nice 7" screen). It works well and their .ozfx3 file is very efficient in terms of rendering and storage space.
For me, the real problem with all the laptop/netbook solutions is the awkwardness (and outright danger) of fiddling with a computer while trying to drive.
Haha ;D I used to have a 1m HughesNet dish on the roof... of my house, until I was able to get DSL here.
Yeah, that would be a lot of work to make .kmz's of a manageable size for a large area. I did make my own custom netbook mount for my car, just for fun, to use while driving around the little sand roads in the Pine Barrens here. I haven't installed GlobalMapper on the netbook though. I have it maxxed out with RAM 2 GB), but I don't think the little Atom CPU is really up to opening big image files and tracking me in realtime. :)
Since this post is back up near the top, I'll add this here. After installing the new mapsource about 3 weeks ago, N-route wouldn't open. My wife reinstalled it, and still nothin. So she redownloaded it and we tried using it on a fishing trip to NW Montana last week end. We've come to believe the new mapsource won't accept it. Has anybody else experienced this? Everything else works ok tho. Since I learned about n-route in this thread, I thought might be appropriate to ask this here. Oh, the wife and I came back with 127 Kokanee Salmon and 1 14 inch Rainbow trout. Wasn't too bad of a day and a half of fishing.
My system is Win7-64bit, Apps that are working now:
N-route 2.7.6 (my CNNANT 2009 shows up in it and all my homemade maps, but CNNANT 2010 doesn't)
MapSource 6.13.7 (it's back, didn't work for a while,don't know why it left or came back, same maps as N-route)
MapSource 6.16.1 (all maps show)
BaseCamp 3.0.4 (all maps show)
OK, thanks Seldom-sn I guess we'll try re downloading and installing mapsource 6.16.1. Or after rereading your post maybe we need an older n-route. I'm not sure what the CNNANT means, but we have n-route 2.7.6 .
City Navigator North America NT. The latest version doesn't work for me, the older one does.
Just became a FIRST TIME EVER GPS ( Garmin Nuvi-3750 ) user : saw this POST , and decided to make a comment : Please bear with a MEGA-NUBI ! When I registered my new (first-time) unit, I was VERY nervious about making ANY type of screw-up ; SO.... , when the process began , Garmin asked about where to download my MAP setup : 1) PC only; 2) Garmin only ; 3) PC & Garmin . I decided to do the DUAL download, just in case ! BEST DECISION I EVER MADE ! That step put not only the MAP on my PC , it also loaded MAPSOURCE , MAPINSTALL , and a few others ; as a part of the GARMIN Folder/Program. Now , I can see ALL the Maps on my PC for review , planning , etc. And , the screen puts a LOT more info to ( my 66-year-old) eyeballs than the much smaller GPS Screen ; I'm thinking that this is what is being looked for above in the LAPTOP REQUEST. If not , sorry ! My NEXT move will be to transition this entire PC GARMIN FOLDER set-up to my wife's NETBOOK ( Half-Pint LapTop ! ) and use it while traveling for route planning , etc : kinda like what was also described above . ALSO ; do not (yet) know why, but the Computer-based North America Garmin MAP shows TONS of POI's ( ?-waypoints ) than are EVER visible on the Garmin ; those ARE valuable when traveling - so the NetBook ( ASUS 700) will be MORE than a back-up to the Nuvi , it will be a great info source for stops , recreation, sleep-overs, etc. ENJOY !
///MRB
I'm afraid that's a little different than using a GPS with a computer. Mapsource is great for looking at the maps and planning, but you cannot connect a GPS to it an track your position. Garmin used to make a program called "nRoute" for that, and you can still download it. But it does not work with the new maps that you downloaded (it isn't compatible with NT version maps).
N route did work with OSM maps tho, If you were looking for street directions while traveling. I've been looking into USGS maps, and I registered with TerraGo, and a couple other free sites (seamless.usgs.gov, national map.gov, USGS store, and others) are usable with an adobe plug in as explained earlier. But I haven't had time to do much this summer. Kokanee are pretty much thru for the year as they have spawned so now you'd be catching next years fish so I may have time when I get caught up at home to play some more with the gps. It worked good on the lakes, that's what I actually bought it for. The n route was a blessing on my trip. The screen on my wife's laptop was big enough we only got lost once and quickly found the problem and corrected it after stopping in a parking lot. Google Earth needs a hook up to internet to do anything with it, and we didn't find enough on the road to make it even slightly plausible.
My one little question, with a lot of help from the people here seems to have drawn a lot of attention, and I hope helped a lot of people. Thanks again to Boyd, Oz, maps4gps, seldom and all the others who helped me.
Good to hear it worked out OK and you had an enjoyable trip.
Quote from: heyyou325 on September 17, 2010, 01:27:10 PMI've been looking into USGS maps, and I registered with TerraGo, and a couple other free sites
If you want raster imagery (scanned USGS maps and aerial photos), then OziExplorer is really what you need: http://www.oziexplorer.com/. There is also a mobile version that runs on Windows CE based GPS'es, such as Magellan, Navigon, Mio and others: http://www.oziexplorer.com/
You will need to make your own maps in the ozfx3 format however. But it all works very well and you can use their mapmerge utility to create coverage of very large areas with multi-gigabyte files. This is what it looks like on my Magellan Roadmate 1700.
(http://stephencreek.com/gpsreview/roadmate/oz01.jpg)
I also use the PC version on a Samsung netbook.