etrex cable

[Nutsosa]

I recently bought a Garmin Etrex, and I'm looking for a cable to connect with my pc. Garmin sells one, but it is a bit overpriced for a simple cable. I checked Bestbuy, Radioshack, and Newegg, and there doesn't seem to be a non-Garmin cable available.

Did Garmin design some sort of funky proprietary interface on the Etrex so that one is forced to purchase the overpriced data cable from them?

 

[Rivet]

Try eBay web site.

 

[paul ron]

I have an ETREX GPS and instead of buying a cable I made my own. Do you have the newer USB or the older serial type interface? Check the manual for the type yours is?

The place I got the cable end from is at this site... http://www.pfranc.com/projects/g45contr/emap/index.htm

They have lots of information and all the instructions you'll need to make it. Oh I clipped off a serial cable of an old mouse, that was easy enough to find. The soldering was easy and straight forward. If you need a hand let me know?

 

[Nutsosa]

Looks like Ebay has them (thanks Rivet). They're going for less than Garmin charges, but the Ebay sellers are all overcharging for shipping/handling (I guess everybody has to make a buck), so it ends up not being much of a bargain.

After some Googling, it looks like the cable interface is proprietary, or at least unique, so a standard cable/connector doesn't work. There are several sites describing how to make your own cable though.

There are some examples here, and a how-to here. Time to dig through my box of old cables and start tinkering

EDIT: Thanks paul ron . . . you must have posted when I was still typing

 

[DougPaul]

After some Googling, it looks like the cable interface is proprietary, or at least unique, so a standard cable/connector doesn't work. There are several sites describing how to make your own cable though.

Only unique (unusual connector). The 4 wires are ground, RS-232 in, RS-232 out, and external power (3.0V only).

Don't know off hand which pin is which. You should be able to find it with a search. If not, I can probably measure it off one of my cables.

Doug

 

[paul ron]

The connector end is cheap and works great. As I said just use an old mouse cable, solder onthe bought end and you're in business. Just don't hook up the power connections, the voltage has to be 3V, anything over will damgae your GPS. I think the power on teh serial connector is 5V, so just avaoid it.

I had to e-mail the guy my address and he sent the end to me, after which I sent him $5 as a donation since they really don't have a price on it.

 

[michaelb]

I have the gilsson cable instead, because that was about half the price of the garmin version. My cable also supplies power, so I can leave it on when hooked up to my mac, and not run the batteries down. This is a nice feature. The cable seems to work fine.

I don't remember where I ordered it from, but I am confused by the prices listed here on the gilsson site, since there is no way I paid much over $20. So maybe the price of the combo cable went up by a lot. The simple no power cable is $18. I think I got it through some reseller at amazon.

http://www.gilsson.com/garmin_gps/cables/epc.htm