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Note: This page describes an obsolete version of GPSBabel that may substantially differ from the current or development version.
Garmin serial/USB protocol (garmin) | ||
---|---|---|
Prev | Chapter 3. The Formats | Next |
This format can...
- read and write waypoints
- read and write tracks
- read and write routes
This format has the following options: snlen, snwhite, deficon, get_posn, power_off, erase_t, resettime, category, bitscategory .
GPSBabel supports a wide variety of Garmin hardware via serial on most operating systems and USB on Windows, Linux, and OS X.
For serial models, be sure the GPS is set for 'Garmin mode' in setup and that nothing else (PDA hotsync programs, gpsd, getty, pppd, etc.) is using the serial port.
Supported Garmin GPS receivers with USB include
Astro | Forerunner 205 | GPSMAP 60CSx | StreetPilot 2650 |
Edge 205 | Forerunner 301 | GPSMAP 60Cx | StreetPilot 2720 |
Edge 305 | Forerunner 305 | GPSMAP 76C | StreetPilot 2730 |
eTrex Legend C | Foretrex 201 | GPSMAP 76CS | StreetPilot 2820 |
eTrex Legend Cx | Foretrex 301 | GPSMAP 76CSX | StreetPilot 7200 |
eTrex Legend H | GPS 18[1] | GPSMAP 76Cx | StreetPilot 7500 |
eTrex Legend HCx | GPSMAP 195 | GPSMAP 96 | StreetPilot c310 |
eTrex Summit Cx | GPSMAP 276C | GPSMAP 96C | StreetPilot c320 |
eTrex Summit HC | GPSMAP 295 | Quest | StreetPilot c330 |
eTrex Venture C | GPSMAP 296C | Quest II | StreetPilot c340 |
eTrex Venture Cx | GPSMAP 378 | Rhino 520 | StreetPilot i2 |
eTrex Venture HC | GPSMAP 396 | Rhino 530 | StreetPilot i3 |
eTrex Vista C | GPSMAP 478 | Rhino 520 HCx | StreetPilot i5 |
eTrex Vista Cx | GPSMAP 496 | Rhino 530 HCx | |
eTrex Vista H | GPSMAP 60C | StreetPilot 2610 | |
eTrex Vista HCx | GPSMAP 60CS | StreetPilot 2620 |
the following Bluetooth Garmin products:
GPS 10[1] |
and most serial Garmin GPS receivers including:
eMap | eTrex H | GPS 12 | Rhino 110 |
eTrex Camo | Forerunner 201 | GPS 12XL | Rhino 120 |
eTrex Legend | Foretrex 201 | GPS III | Rhino 130 |
eTrex Summit | Geko 201 | GPS III+ | StreetPilot III |
eTrex Venture | Geko 301 | GPS II | StreetPilot III+ |
eTrex Vista | GPS 12CX | GPS II+ | |
eTrex (Basic Yellow) | GPS 12Map | GPS V |
The following Garmin GPS receivers are supported, but they do notsupport Garmin communication protocol and don't work with the
garmin
option. To use these receivers, read or writeGPX files from the mass storage device as mounted on your computer.eTrex 10[2] | Nuvi 255[2] | Nuvi 770[2] | Nuvi 1690T[2] |
eTrex 20[2] | Nuvi 250W[2] | Nuvi 775T[2] | Nuvi 3750[2] |
eTrex 30[2] | Nuvi 255W[2] | Nuvi 780[2] | Nuvi 3760T[2] |
Colorado 300[2] | Nuvi 260[2] | Nuvi 785T[2] | Nuvi 3790T[2] |
Colorado 400c[2] | Nuvi 265T[2] | Nuvi 880[2] | Oregon 200[2] |
Colorado 400i[2] | Nuvi 265WT[2] | Nuvi 885T[2] | Oregon 300[2] |
Colorado 400t[2] | Nuvi 260W[2] | Nuvi 1200[2] | Oregon 400c[2] |
Dakota 10[2] | Nuvi 270[2] | Nuvi 1250[2] | Oregon 400i[2] |
Dakota 20[2] | Nuvi 275T[2] | Nuvi 1260T[2] | Oregon 400t[2] |
GPSMap 62[2] | Nuvi 300[2] | Nuvi 1300[2] | Oregon 450[2] |
GPSMap 62sc[2] | Nuvi 310[2] | Nuvi 1350[2] | Oregon 450t[2] |
GPSMap 62stc[2] | Nuvi 350[2] | Nuvi 1370T[2] | Oregon 550[2] |
GPSMap 78[2] | Nuvi 370[2] | Nuvi 1390T[2] | Oregon 550t[2] |
GPSMap 78s[2] | Nuvi 465T[2] | Nuvi 1350[2] | StreetPilot c510[2] |
GPSMap 78sc[2] | Nuvi 500[2] | Nuvi 1490T[2] | StreetPilot c530[2] |
Montana 600[2] | Nuvi 550[2] | Nuvi 2250[2] | StreetPilot c550[2] |
Montana 650[2] | Nuvi 600[2] | Nuvi 2250LT[2] | StreetPilot c580[2] |
Montana 650t[2] | Nuvi 650[2] | Nuvi 2350[2] | Road Tech Zumo[2] |
Nuvi 30[2] | Nuvi 650FM[2] | Nuvi 2350LT[2] | Zumo 220[2] |
Nuvi 40[2] | Nuvi 660[2] | Nuvi 2360LT[2] | Zumo 450[2] |
Nuvi 50[2] | Nuvi 670[2] | Nuvi 2405[2] | Zumo 500[2] |
Nuvi 200[2] | Nuvi 680[2] | Nuvi 2450[2] | Zumo 550[2] |
Nuvi 205[2] | Nuvi 750[2] | Nuvi 2450LM[2] | Zumo 660[2] |
Nuvi 200W[2] | Nuvi 755T[2] | Nuvi 2450LT[2] | Zumo 665[2] |
Nuvi 205W[2] | Nuvi 760[2] | Nuvi 2450LMT[2] | Surely any Garmin product that Garmin actually sensibly designed after 2006 or so.[2] |
Nuvi 250[2] | Nuvi 765T[2] | Nuvi 2505[2] |
None of the GPSBabel developers has access to every model on that list, but we've received reports of success and/or have reasonable expectations that the above models work. If you succeed with a model that is not on that list, please send a message to the gpsbabel-misc mailing list with the details so that we may add it.
Not every feature on every model is supported. For example, while we do extract data such as heart rate and temperature from tracks on the sporting models like Edge and Forerunner, GPSBabel is not a fitness program at its core and does not support features like workouts or calorie/fitness zone data. Furthermore, sporting models don't support track upload. When trying to upload tracks to these devices, GPSBabel converts them to courses on the fly and uploads these instead. When uploading waypoints at the same time, these are converted to course points by mapping them to the nearest track point on the track/course (no matter how far away from the track they are). Since course point creation requires time stamps for the track points, they are created automatically assuming a speed of 10 km/h for tracks that lack them.
To communicate with a Garmin GPS serially, use the name of that serial port such as
COM1
or /dev/cu.serial
. To communicate via USB use
usb:
as the filename on all OSes. Thus, to read the waypoints from a Garmin USB receiver and write them to a GPX file:gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F blah.gpx
If you have multiple units attached via USB, you may provide a unit number, with zero being the implied default. So if you have three USB models on your system, they can be addressed as
usb:0
, usb:1
, and usb:2
. To get a list of recognized devices, specify a negative number such as:gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb:-1
When reporting problems with the Garmin format, be sure to includethe full unit model, firmware version, and be prepared to offerdebugging dumps by adding
-D9
to the command line, like: gpsbabel -D9 -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F blah.gpx
Custom icons are supported on units that support that.Neither GPSBabel nor your firmware know what is associated with anygiven slot number. They don't know that the picture you placed in thefirst slot is a happy face, they only know they're in the lowestnumbered slot. GPSBabel names the them consistently with Mapsource,so they are named 'Custom 0' through 'Custom 511'.
For models where the connection on the GPS is a serial interface, be sure the GPS is set for 'Garmin mode' in setup and that nothing else (PDA hotsync programs, gpsd, getty, pppd, etc.) is using the serial port.
For models connected via USB, we recommend use of the
usb:
filename. For this to work on Windows, you must install the Garmin driver. For Linux, this will fail if you have the garmin_gps kernel module loaded. See the Operating System Notes for details.This module also supports realtime tracking which allows realtime position reports from a Garmin GPS receiver over USBor serial.
Important
The following Garmin units do not follow the standard Garmin communications protocol and are not supported by GPSBabel.
Marine plotters:
GPSMap 420 | GPSMap 450 | GPSMap 530 | GPSMap 545 |
GPSMap 430 | GPSMap 520 | GPSMap 535 | GPSMap 550 |
GPSMap 440 | GPSMap 525 | GPSMap 540 | GPSMap 555 |
The PDA products
iQue 3000 |
iQue 3200 |
iQue 3600 |
iQue M3 |
iQue M4 |
iQue M5 |
Length of generated shortnames.
This option overrides the internal logic to figure out how manycharacters an addressed Garmin GPS will support when using the '-s' smartnameoption. This should be necessary only if you have a receiver type thatGPSBabel doesn't know about or if you want to 'dumb down' one unit to matchanother, such as wanting waypoint names in a StreetPilot 2720 (which supports20 character names) to exactly match those in a 60CS (which supports 10).
Allow whitespace synth. shortnames.
This options controls whether spaces are allowed in generated smart names when using the '-s' option.
Default icon name.
This option specifies the icon or waypoint type to write for each waypoint onoutput.
If this option is specified, its value will be used for all waypoints, notjust those that do not already have descriptions. That is, this optionoverrides any icon description that might be in the input file.
Value specified may be a number from the Garmin Protocol Spec or a nameas described in the Appendix B, Garmin Icons.
This option has no effect on input.
Return current position as a waypoint.
This options gets the current longitude and latitude from the attached GPS deviceand returns it as a single waypoint for further processing. For example,to return the current position from a USB Garmin to a KML file:
gpsbabel -i garmin,get_posn -f usb: -o kml -F myposition.kml
Command unit to power itself down.
This command forces an immediate powerdown of the addressed Garminreceiver. It is ignored on hardware that does not support this command.Obviously, further processing once you have sent a 'power off' command toa unit that supports it is rather futile, so place this option carefullyin your command.
gpsbabel -o garmin,power_off -F /dev/ttyS0
Erase existing courses when writing new ones.
By default, GPSBabel makes effort in order to keep courses already present onthe device, if any. This option allow to replace courses already present. Ifyou don't mind to keep old courses, this option is recommended because itallows a faster transfer.
This option applies only to Garmin devices that support courses such as the Edge 305 or the Forerunner 305.
Sync GPS time to computer time.
This option is experimental and was added to solve a very specific problem. Certain Garmin units (the original black and white Vista is known to have this) will sometimes scramble their clock crazy far into the future (like 2066). When this happens, the GPS itself may or may not work and later conversations with GPSBabel may fail as the time overflows the documented range. The use of
resettime
brings the GPS's internal clock back close enough to reality that the GPS itself can then 'fix' it when it has next a lock. Category number to use for written waypoints.
This numeric option will force waypoints to be written with thatcategory number when sending to a Garmin receiver that has categorysupport. It is ignored on receivers without that capability.
Bitmap of categories.
This option is closely related to the 'category' option. While category allows you to choose a single category that waypoints should appear in, this options allows you to specify a bitmask to be used for the category. Options may be specified in either decimal or hex.
Example 3.11. Example for garmin bitcategory option to put all waypoints in categories 1 and 16.
The following two commands are equivalent. They place a the point in both the first and last of the sixteen available categories.
gpsbabel -i gpx -f PocketQuery.gpx -o garmin,bitcategory=32769 -F usb:
gpsbabel -i gpx -f PocketQuery.gpx -o garmin,bitcategory=0x8001 -F usb:
[1] This model does not support transfer of waypoints, tracks, or routes, but may be used with the realtime tracking feature.
[2] This unit uses GPX format, not Garmin protocol. Therefore one should communicate with it by reading and writing GPX files instead of using this format. Members of this class of products do not support realtime positioning protocol.
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Garmin GPS devices with USB support are generally well‐supported on GNU/Linux systems. However, there are some niggles to get around. This page should describe how to get your Garmin devices working under various GNU/Linux systems.
There are two common causes of problems with USB Garmins on GNU/Linux: Device permissions, and the presence or lack of the garmin_gps kernel module. Both are discussed on the GPSBabel website in Hotplug vs. Garmin USB on Linux.
- 2Device Permissions
- 3Using GPSBabel
- 4Using gpsd
Check that your device is recognised
Connect your device to a USB port, then run dmesg.[1][2] You should see something like the following near the end:
If not, switch your device on! Some Garmin devices do not need to be powered on to transfer tracks and waypoints (such as Edge series models), while others do (the eTrex Legend for example).
Your GPS should also show up in lsusb output:[3]
Device Permissions
Modern GNU/Linux distributions use udev to dynamically create device files in /dev/. By default, these are only accessible by the super‐user, and unless your distribution already sets device permissions appropriately a normal user will not be able to access the device.
Checking Device Permissions
Note the bus and device number from lsusb or dmesg output. In the example below, the bus number is 5, and the device number is 10 (highlighted):
Check the permissions of device files of the format /dev/usbdevBUS_NUMBER.DEVICE_NUMBER* (no leading zeroes), and /dev/bus/usb/BUS_NUMBER/DEVICE_NUMBER (with leading zeroes):
In this case a normal user does not have full access to the USB device.
Fixing Device Permissions
To fix device permissions, you need to tell the system to create the device files with the required permissions. While device files are usually owned by root, they are group-owned by some group. Users who wish to use this device should be in this group.
On Debian 6.0 and later, udev is configured correctly. The device file will be in the lp group. To add yourself to the lp group execute this command as root:
Then logout and login. Type
to confirm that you are in the lp group.
On other distributions you may need to create udev a rule file.
On Fedora 5 and OpenSUSE 10.1 and later, create /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules containing:
On Ubuntu 12.04 create /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules as above, but SYSFS is no longer used:
Note: This tells udev to make the device files world readable
- FIXME: Needs confirming. The mode seems awfully permissive.
One could change the permissions to add a group- remember to put users in the group though. For example, change MODE above to:
Fedora 18 users can use the following line (note the colon after MODE!):
Load the new rule by executing:
Disconnect and re‐connect your GPS device, and check the permissions of the device files (the bus and device numbers may have changed).
- See also: Fixing USB permissions for Garmins in GPSBabel: Hotplug vs. Garmin USB on Linux
Using GPSBabel
- See also: Fixing USB permissions for Garmins in GPSBabel: Hotplug vs. Garmin USB on Linux
GPSBabel has support for Garmin devices (serial or USB) using the garmin format and can use its internal USB support or the USB‐serial device provided by the garmin_gps kernel module. Your mileage may vary with the garmin_gps module, so the GPSBabel documentation suggests removing and blacklisting the module and using the internal USB suppport.
Removing and Blacklisting garmin_gps
To remove the module, just run the following as root:
To prevent the module from being automatically loaded (you can still load it manually), edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
Note: The blacklist may already exist on Ubuntu and Debian systems. On Fedora, the file to edit is /etc/modprobe.conf.
- FIXME: Again, I haven’t verified the Fedora method.—Sward 22:51, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
On Debian follow instructions on the KernelModuleBlacklisting page.
Problems with usb-storage kernel driver
If gpsbabel gives you the following error message
usb_set_configuration failed, probably becausekernel driver 'usb-storage' is blocking our access to the USB device.For more information see http://www.gpsbabel.org/os/Linux_Hotplug.html
then reconnect your gps-device, but this time without putting it into usb-mass-storage mode.
Using gpsd
Much of the software that reads the current position from GPS devices does so via gpsd. gpsd is a daemon that understands various protocols used by GPS devices and presents a consistent interface that other applications such as Gpsdrive and TangoGPS can use. To use a Garmin USB device with gpsd, you will need to use the garmin_gps kernel module, or trick gpsd into reading NMEA data from gpsbabel.
Loading the garmin_gps Module
To check whether the module is loaded, run:
If there is no output, load the module with modprobe:
You should see something like the following in the output of dmesg:
ttyUSB0 (highlighted) is the USB‐serial device that you need to use with gpsd.
If you use gpsd a lot (and rarely use GPSBabel), you might want the module to load automatically when you connect your GPS device. To do this, remove it from the blacklist by commenting out the relevent line. Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and change:
to:
Feeding gpsd NMEA from gpsbabel
First, make sure your device permissions are set up correct. If not, you will have to run gpsbabel as root or with sudo.
As this is a pipe (|) from gpsbabels stdout to gpsd's stdin you must run gpsd in non-daemon mode (-N)
If you are using the garmin_gps module, you can use the following command :
Notes
- ↑For information on dmesg, one recommended article is: Nazario, José and Krishnaswami, Natarajan. 'dmesg explained'. Linux Gazette, (2000).
- ↑Ubuntu man page for command dmesg
- ↑Ubuntu man page for command lsusb
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