I need GPS help!

[surf88]

My old circa 1998 Garmin finaly died, and I just picked up a Garmin etrex vista on amazon for a good deal. I'm pretty frustrated trying to figure out how to interface it wiith my PC to make stuff like this:
http://timefortuckerman.com/photopost/data/500/72006-04-29_GPS_Track-med.jpg
Please Help.

[NtrentT]

I have a garmin e-trex legend which is "Ok" , its the onlyone I have and I dont use it as much as I thought.

It uses an I/O communication port, and for some reason its always a problem finding the right baud rate, stop bits, parity and what not. It should be the same for any program yet I have run into issues with various software packages.

What do you use for communcation, USB or I/O (serial)?

[M@]

To download directly to google earth I think you "might" need a better version of earth than the free one - but I'm not sure. I paid for google earth before it was google earth so I have a paid membership - which I think is how you get that "download gps track" feature.

Downloading to other mapping stuff should be possible though - you'll need a cable if it didn't come with one: Here's a link to some:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=garmin+etrex+legend+data+cable&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=OiF&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

I'd go for USB as it's probably faster and likley to still work on a new computer in a couple years (kiss those old DB9 serial ports good bye folks...)

So do you have the data cable? Have you tried it?

M@

[surf88]

To download directly to google earth I think you "might" need a better version of earth than the free one - but I'm not sure. I paid for google earth before it was google earth so I have a paid membership - which I think is how you get that "download gps track" feature.

Downloading to other mapping stuff should be possible though - you'll need a cable if it didn't come with one: Here's a link to some:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=garmin+etrex+legend+data+cable&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=OiF&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title

I'd go for USB as it's probably faster and likley to still work on a new computer in a couple years (kiss those old DB9 serial ports good bye folks...)

So do you have the data cable? Have you tried it?

M@
Ok, I've got the cable, got the right version of google earth, and I've interfaced with my gps and transfered data. When I click on the file for my data, my tracks I uploaded only flash on and off briefly. I can not get the tracks to stay on the map.:confused:

[M@]

That's a mystery to me... can you save the KMZ file and post it somewhere?

M@

[surf88]

That's a mystery to me... can you save the KMZ file and post it somewhere?

M@
Thanks, I figured it out. The problem was, that the unit sold to me as new had a bunch of tracks already in it that were transfered during the upload and I had to find my specific tracks.
All is well. Now to learn how to overlay a topo of uncanoonuc