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Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 08:15

Hey thanks in advance for any help I receive in getting my laptop set up with gps.

I've searched for answers and they are there but for the life of me I am just too computer illiterate to get it to work.

Ok, I have win 8, I have a garmin 18x, I have opencpn.

I have no clue how to find the gps to connect it to opencpn and to just get it to work. I am very frustrated at this point.

So, in a step by step manner how do I do this?

Garmin gives me the downloads but not any clear instruction on how to use them.

I would love some fresh layman's approach to this thank you!

**boatman61** · 18-01-2014, 08:31

Okay... I'll give you my way.. then someone can tell you how to do it properly..

Switch on your laptop.. switch on your GPS and connect the 2 with your USB cord..
Open the CPN program then go to Tools and click.. in the box select the GPS tag and click...
You then have to find the Comms port your GPS is plugged into.. often it finds its self.. but not always..
Set Baud rate to 4800 then tick the Garmin box skip the next and tick the 3rd.. then confirm..
May find you need to repeat the process from time to time.. or to re-boot the program.. think as its an on going project they're still ironing out some gremlins..
Hope it works..

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 09:41

Ok I have a garmin 18x puck, I can only just plug it in and there is nothing to turn on. I dont know where to look for the coms port. Everything else is there in cpn. But when I turn cpl on and look for my position it is not there.

nohal · 18-01-2014, 10:05

Pwdrskr...
You well might be out of luck with Windows 8, or not. Have a look at http://www.justanswer.com/gps/7w1z7-...ws-tablet.html
But if your computer skills are at the level you describe, maybe better go to a bar and buy someone who knows a bit more a beer to help you out.
Windows 8 unfortunately brought a whole new layer of problems to this area as they basically removed the "Receive NMEA over a COM port" concept used for the past decades.

Pavel

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 10:28

My skills were awesome in xp but win 8 really blows. I have a laptop, not a tablet i'm trying to get going Nohal, thanks.

One is that the puck has no user interface(that I can find) and it looks like cpl sees it in the tools menu but I have no way to know what is what. I've downloaded the gps gate and still have no idea how to make everything speak to each other. I don't expect it to be easy but a person shouldnt have to be a frickin programmer to get this pos to work.

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 10:57

I am eyeing my hockey stick to send this Garmin puck out to the back forty...

I uninstalled the Garmin driver, plugged it in again and it went through a install process then disappeared. Where did it go? Jeez I just don't have the patience here. I have two chart plotters, my note 8 tab with Navionics but I wanted to have a bigger gps screen and thought this would be easy to get to work...wrong. I'm used to installing stuff and it says next and finish and voila!

Shouldnt there be a Garmin gps icon somewhere that I can click on and adjust whatever i need to adjust?

nohal · 18-01-2014, 11:17

Pwdskr...
This is how it was until Windows 8... Neither Garmin nor the navigation software authors could anticipate which kind of drugs and how strong will be popular in Redmond during the creation of W8. I would personally not install it on any of my machines, but understand that normal people have not much choice these days.

Pavel

**boatman61** · 18-01-2014, 11:32

They (Microsoft) can likely SELL you a program whatever that will make it work...

smaarch · 18-01-2014, 11:43

I have a garmin 18x running on a netbook running windows 7 (which stinks) with the latest version of Opencpn which i had to reload because of a computer problem.
can't speak to W8.
there is no interface on the Garmin - just plug and play.
1st: for some reason Open Cpn didn't install correctly and it took me awhile to realize this. make sure you have the correct dialogue boxes (as indicated in the online manual...that was my first clue) Make sure you installed it with Virus protection turned off.
Make sure the connection in opencpn is set to garmin. (don't recall where it is but it's simple).
And finally......oh brother i feel like an idiot.... Make sure you are in a location with a clear view of the sky and the gps can get a signal.

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 12:12

Hehe, yeah, I have a clear view...lol. I could even hope to see a signal graph telling me if it is even getting signal but noooo. So Maybe I should scrap win8 and get win7. I have hated 8 since I bought this new laptop. I'm still searching the net for answers but all I get tech talk and way too many xyz's.

I know I can connect my plotter to my pc and just have what it sees on screen but that's not what I'm getting at here.

Thanks

Lake-Effect · 18-01-2014, 12:35

I found a manual for the Garmin puck here.

On page 36 (Appendix E) they discuss sensor configuration software, which can be downloaded. If that software runs on Win 8 (and that's maybe a big if), it may help you see and set the params of your Garmin puck.

Most USB GPS pucks that excrete NMEA0183, like yours, appear to a PC as some form of serial-USB adaptor, and your NMEA0183 stream shows up a virtual serial COM port... eg COM9.

I've not yet had the pleasure of trying to use Win 8. So I have no idea what tool/app one could use to check serial ports on Win 8.

PS - Linux has this sorted out. You could maybe also install Ubuntu or similar on your laptop (dual-boot, so you still have Windoze), and/or you could try booting on a USB stick with Navigatrix, which is a live "marine" Linux distro that has OpenCPN and other marine goodies, and you can boot on it without mussing your hard drive.

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 14:22

Thank you Lake Effect, well on win 8 they have removed the com port. I used to find it under usb in device manager and win 8 shows nadda. I will look deeper into that manual and also the serial adapter, which seems to be what I need at this point. The driver update for Garmin "says" it made it compatable with win 8 but doesnt show "how" to connect it. If I can't figure it out over the weekend I'll call Garmin on Monday to get the skinny. Opencpn sees the Garmin (I think) in the tools menu and I check it but chart still shows the default location. I'd just like to make some progress at this point. I might try OziExplorer and see if it will work with that. Anyone with win 8 here??? I'll keep chugging away....

Brilliant Sea · 18-01-2014, 14:35

Here is a screen shot of opencpn tool menu, does it look right?

bobofthenorth · 18-01-2014, 14:51

You said you have GPSGate. If so then forget about OCPN for a while and use GPSGate to troubleshoot. If GPSGate autostarts then it will put an icon in the sys tray (lower right) Right click that and open GPSGate config. If it is receiving a position from your Garmin it will tell you.

Once you know that's working then set GPSGate to output to a standard com port and use that port in O.

BTW that little GPSGate icon will turn green if it has a position.