Garmin GPS II PLUS
Submitted: Friday, Jan 09, 2004 at 13:42
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jeff-wa
I was a very lucky boy and got a Garmin GPS II PLUS with car kit, external arial and data/power cable for christmas. I have already used it with the 4wd days out of
perth book and programed trips in manually on the unit, it works brilliant. What I am still a little confused about is how to use it on my laptop and what advantages it will give me... Maps?? Can this unit support them? How do I go about it.
I have look around on the previous posts and in the naviatgation section of Oziexplore but am still not sure
where to start.
Reply By: Member - Raymond - Friday, Jan 09, 2004 at 16:13
Friday, Jan 09, 2004 at 16:13
Hi Jeff
I have the Garmin 11+ and it is great, I run it with a IBM thinkpad and use the following system
link text from Exploroz
shop, plus Hema Desert Map set which was great. Travelled throughout the
Kimberley's with the GPS and the maps and had no problems even on hard to find tracks. The only problem you may come across is that Garmin use a comm port and some laptops only have USB. There are comm to USB adapter Cable available on the net
regards Rwanderin' in retirement. victor 2010
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Reply By: joc45 - Friday, Jan 09, 2004 at 16:59
Friday, Jan 09, 2004 at 16:59
Hi Jeff,
The fun of going bush now begins!
OziExplorer is what I use on an ageing 486dx Thinkpad.
Maps:
- NatMap have all of Aust in 1:250,000 digitized on 2 cds for $99 - think this site sells them. Calibration files are downloadable free from the Ozi website.
- Also, recently released, most of the SW and south coastal is now available as DOLA maps in 1:50,000 (2cm=1km), which goes to east of Esprerance. Calibration files are included. Cost also $99 (1 cd). Avail from
Perth Map Centre, the author, Greg Harewood at explorer@vtown.com.au, but maybe David is now selling them on this site.
- and of course the HEMA desert maps, also avail from this site.
Out in the wilds, the 250k maps are quite sufficient, but in thick sw bush, the 50k maps are better, but not as good as the CALM maps, which are not commercially available.
You can also do them yourself; I sat down for many long nights and scanned all my 50k paper maps and re-stitched them, and these work a treat. The Ozi site also tells how to do this.
To interface to the Garmin, you will need a serial port on your laptop, otherwise you'll need to buy a USB-serial converter, and I've heard they sometimes are a bit temperamental. A Pentium laptop of >200mhz and 64MB memory will get you by, but you can survive with slower machines.
OziExplorer is downloadable from www.oziexplorer.com as a free trial.
Rgds
Gerry
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