A Mac, Garmin 72H, and OpenCPN

[DrWatson 378]

So, having all the above elements, including the free charts from LINZ for NZ and half the pacific, Who thinks the whole lot should play together nicely?

 

Mac with OS10.6.8 (don't really want to upgrade due to other Science software requiring this version)

 

Garmin handheld 72H with nice USB mini port

 

openCPN already running with charts on above Mac.

 

Only thing is I really can't seem to get the GPS talking

 

Ideas?

 

 

[Island Time 1,239]

Sorry, I don't know much about Macs. I should think if the Garmin comes with MAC comms software it should work fine?

 

Perhaps the OCPN forum on cruisers forum might be able to help? See here

Matt

[dave_c 0]

The usb port on the 72H is there just to fool you. It can only be used for transferring waypoints to the computer. On one of the setup pages of the 72H, if you select USB, it will show up as a hard drive on the mac, but will not transfer any gps data.

 

The only way to get gps data out of a 72H is through NMEA using the serial port (the big round 4 pin port on the back). You would need to use a serial to usb adapter to get this to work, and have the right garmin serial cable for the gps.

 

The easy solution would be to go on trademe or eBay and get a usb gps puck. These are really small, fairly cheap, and will plug straight in to your mac's USB port. Then you just point OpenCPN to it and away you go.

 

At the moment I'm actually using my 72H to provide gps to everything onboard as my dome gps died a couple weeks ago. I butchered a 12v power cord I had for the 72H to get all 4 pins on the serial port going and wired the NMEA output into a magic Raymarine box which then sends it to everything onboard that needs GPS. So far it has worked great, and a lot cheaper than replacing the main gps dome.