Garmin Usb Driver Mac Os X
Note: This page describes an obsolete version of GPSBabel that may substantially differ from the current or development version.
| Garmin serial/USB protocol (garmin) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prev | Chapter 3. The Formats | Next |
This format can...
read and write waypoints
read and write tracks
read and write routes
This format has the following options: snlen, snwhite, deficon, get_posn, power_off, erase_t, resettime, category, bitscategory .
GPSBabel supports a wide variety of Garmin hardware via serial on most operating systems and USB on Windows, Linux, and OS X.
For serial models, be sure the GPS is set for 'Garmin mode' in setup and that nothing else (PDA hotsync programs, gpsd, getty, pppd, etc.) is using the serial port.
Supported Garmin GPS receivers with USB include
| Astro | Forerunner 205 | GPSMAP 60CSx | StreetPilot 2650 |
| Edge 205 | Forerunner 301 | GPSMAP 60Cx | StreetPilot 2720 |
| Edge 305 | Forerunner 305 | GPSMAP 76C | StreetPilot 2730 |
| eTrex Legend C | Foretrex 201 | GPSMAP 76CS | StreetPilot 2820 |
| eTrex Legend Cx | Foretrex 301 | GPSMAP 76CSX | StreetPilot 7200 |
| eTrex Legend H | GPS 18[1] | GPSMAP 76Cx | StreetPilot 7500 |
| eTrex Legend HCx | GPSMAP 195 | GPSMAP 96 | StreetPilot c310 |
| eTrex Summit Cx | GPSMAP 276C | GPSMAP 96C | StreetPilot c320 |
| eTrex Summit HC | GPSMAP 295 | Quest | StreetPilot c330 |
| eTrex Venture C | GPSMAP 296C | Quest II | StreetPilot c340 |
| eTrex Venture Cx | GPSMAP 378 | Rhino 520 | StreetPilot i2 |
| eTrex Venture HC | GPSMAP 396 | Rhino 530 | StreetPilot i3 |
| eTrex Vista C | GPSMAP 478 | Rhino 520 HCx | StreetPilot i5 |
| eTrex Vista Cx | GPSMAP 496 | Rhino 530 HCx | |
| eTrex Vista H | GPSMAP 60C | StreetPilot 2610 | |
| eTrex Vista HCx | GPSMAP 60CS | StreetPilot 2620 |
the following Bluetooth Garmin products:
| GPS 10[1] |
and most serial Garmin GPS receivers including:
| eMap | eTrex H | GPS 12 | Rhino 110 |
| eTrex Camo | Forerunner 201 | GPS 12XL | Rhino 120 |
| eTrex Legend | Foretrex 201 | GPS III | Rhino 130 |
| eTrex Summit | Geko 201 | GPS III+ | StreetPilot III |
| eTrex Venture | Geko 301 | GPS II | StreetPilot III+ |
| eTrex Vista | GPS 12CX | GPS II+ | |
| eTrex (Basic Yellow) | GPS 12Map | GPS V |
The following Garmin GPS receivers are supported, but they do notsupport Garmin communication protocol and don't work with the garmin option. To use these receivers, read or writeGPX files from the mass storage device as mounted on your computer.
| eTrex 10[2] | Nuvi 255[2] | Nuvi 770[2] | Nuvi 1690T[2] |
| eTrex 20[2] | Nuvi 250W[2] | Nuvi 775T[2] | Nuvi 3750[2] |
| eTrex 30[2] | Nuvi 255W[2] | Nuvi 780[2] | Nuvi 3760T[2] |
| Colorado 300[2] | Nuvi 260[2] | Nuvi 785T[2] | Nuvi 3790T[2] |
| Colorado 400c[2] | Nuvi 265T[2] | Nuvi 880[2] | Oregon 200[2] |
| Colorado 400i[2] | Nuvi 265WT[2] | Nuvi 885T[2] | Oregon 300[2] |
| Colorado 400t[2] | Nuvi 260W[2] | Nuvi 1200[2] | Oregon 400c[2] |
| Dakota 10[2] | Nuvi 270[2] | Nuvi 1250[2] | Oregon 400i[2] |
| Dakota 20[2] | Nuvi 275T[2] | Nuvi 1260T[2] | Oregon 400t[2] |
| GPSMap 62[2] | Nuvi 300[2] | Nuvi 1300[2] | Oregon 450[2] |
| GPSMap 62sc[2] | Nuvi 310[2] | Nuvi 1350[2] | Oregon 450t[2] |
| GPSMap 62stc[2] | Nuvi 350[2] | Nuvi 1370T[2] | Oregon 550[2] |
| GPSMap 78[2] | Nuvi 370[2] | Nuvi 1390T[2] | Oregon 550t[2] |
| GPSMap 78s[2] | Nuvi 465T[2] | Nuvi 1350[2] | StreetPilot c510[2] |
| GPSMap 78sc[2] | Nuvi 500[2] | Nuvi 1490T[2] | StreetPilot c530[2] |
| Montana 600[2] | Nuvi 550[2] | Nuvi 2250[2] | StreetPilot c550[2] |
| Montana 650[2] | Nuvi 600[2] | Nuvi 2250LT[2] | StreetPilot c580[2] |
| Montana 650t[2] | Nuvi 650[2] | Nuvi 2350[2] | Road Tech Zumo[2] |
| Nuvi 30[2] | Nuvi 650FM[2] | Nuvi 2350LT[2] | Zumo 220[2] |
| Nuvi 40[2] | Nuvi 660[2] | Nuvi 2360LT[2] | Zumo 450[2] |
| Nuvi 50[2] | Nuvi 670[2] | Nuvi 2405[2] | Zumo 500[2] |
| Nuvi 200[2] | Nuvi 680[2] | Nuvi 2450[2] | Zumo 550[2] |
| Nuvi 205[2] | Nuvi 750[2] | Nuvi 2450LM[2] | Zumo 660[2] |
| Nuvi 200W[2] | Nuvi 755T[2] | Nuvi 2450LT[2] | Zumo 665[2] |
| Nuvi 205W[2] | Nuvi 760[2] | Nuvi 2450LMT[2] | Surely any Garmin product that Garmin actually sensibly designed after 2006 or so.[2] |
| Nuvi 250[2] | Nuvi 765T[2] | Nuvi 2505[2] |
None of the GPSBabel developers has access to every model on that list, but we've received reports of success and/or have reasonable expectations that the above models work. If you succeed with a model that is not on that list, please send a message to the gpsbabel-misc mailing list with the details so that we may add it.
Not every feature on every model is supported. For example, while we do extract data such as heart rate and temperature from tracks on the sporting models like Edge and Forerunner, GPSBabel is not a fitness program at its core and does not support features like workouts or calorie/fitness zone data. Furthermore, sporting models don't support track upload. When trying to upload tracks to these devices, GPSBabel converts them to courses on the fly and uploads these instead. When uploading waypoints at the same time, these are converted to course points by mapping them to the nearest track point on the track/course (no matter how far away from the track they are). Since course point creation requires time stamps for the track points, they are created automatically assuming a speed of 10 km/h for tracks that lack them.
To communicate with a Garmin GPS serially, use the name of that serial port such as COM1 or /dev/cu.serial.
To communicate via USB use usb: as the filename on all OSes. Thus, to read the waypoints from a Garmin USB receiver and write them to a GPX file:
gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F blah.gpx
If you have multiple units attached via USB, you may provide a unit number, with zero being the implied default. So if you have three USB models on your system, they can be addressed as usb:0, usb:1, and usb:2. To get a list of recognized devices, specify a negative number such as:
gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb:-1
When reporting problems with the Garmin format, be sure to includethe full unit model, firmware version, and be prepared to offerdebugging dumps by adding -D9 to the command line, like:
gpsbabel -D9 -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F blah.gpx
Custom icons are supported on units that support that.Neither GPSBabel nor your firmware know what is associated with anygiven slot number. They don't know that the picture you placed in thefirst slot is a happy face, they only know they're in the lowestnumbered slot. GPSBabel names the them consistently with Mapsource,so they are named 'Custom 0' through 'Custom 511'.
For models where the connection on the GPS is a serial interface, be sure the GPS is set for 'Garmin mode' in setup and that nothing else (PDA hotsync programs, gpsd, getty, pppd, etc.) is using the serial port.
For models connected via USB, we recommend use of the usb: filename. For this to work on Windows, you must install the Garmin driver. For Linux, this will fail if you have the garmin_gps kernel module loaded. See the Operating System Notes for details.
This module also supports realtime tracking which allows realtime position reports from a Garmin GPS receiver over USBor serial.
Important
The following Garmin units do not follow the standard Garmin communications protocol and are not supported by GPSBabel.
Marine plotters:
| GPSMap 420 | GPSMap 450 | GPSMap 530 | GPSMap 545 |
| GPSMap 430 | GPSMap 520 | GPSMap 535 | GPSMap 550 |
| GPSMap 440 | GPSMap 525 | GPSMap 540 | GPSMap 555 |
The PDA products
| iQue 3000 |
| iQue 3200 |
| iQue 3600 |
| iQue M3 |
| iQue M4 |
| iQue M5 |
Length of generated shortnames.
This option overrides the internal logic to figure out how manycharacters an addressed Garmin GPS will support when using the '-s' smartnameoption. This should be necessary only if you have a receiver type thatGPSBabel doesn't know about or if you want to 'dumb down' one unit to matchanother, such as wanting waypoint names in a StreetPilot 2720 (which supports20 character names) to exactly match those in a 60CS (which supports 10).
Allow whitespace synth. shortnames.
This options controls whether spaces are allowed in generated smart names when using the '-s' option.
Default icon name.
This option specifies the icon or waypoint type to write for each waypoint onoutput.
If this option is specified, its value will be used for all waypoints, notjust those that do not already have descriptions. That is, this optionoverrides any icon description that might be in the input file.
Value specified may be a number from the Garmin Protocol Spec or a nameas described in the Appendix B, Garmin Icons.
This option has no effect on input.
Return current position as a waypoint.
This options gets the current longitude and latitude from the attached GPS deviceand returns it as a single waypoint for further processing. For example,to return the current position from a USB Garmin to a KML file:
gpsbabel -i garmin,get_posn -f usb: -o kml -F myposition.kml
Command unit to power itself down.
This command forces an immediate powerdown of the addressed Garminreceiver. It is ignored on hardware that does not support this command.Obviously, further processing once you have sent a 'power off' command toa unit that supports it is rather futile, so place this option carefullyin your command.
gpsbabel -o garmin,power_off -F /dev/ttyS0
Erase existing courses when writing new ones.
By default, GPSBabel makes effort in order to keep courses already present onthe device, if any. This option allow to replace courses already present. Ifyou don't mind to keep old courses, this option is recommended because itallows a faster transfer.
This option applies only to Garmin devices that support courses such as the Edge 305 or the Forerunner 305.
Sync GPS time to computer time.
This option is experimental and was added to solve a very specific problem. Certain Garmin units (the original black and white Vista is known to have this) will sometimes scramble their clock crazy far into the future (like 2066). When this happens, the GPS itself may or may not work and later conversations with GPSBabel may fail as the time overflows the documented range. The use of resettime brings the GPS's internal clock back close enough to reality that the GPS itself can then 'fix' it when it has next a lock.
Category number to use for written waypoints.
This numeric option will force waypoints to be written with thatcategory number when sending to a Garmin receiver that has categorysupport. It is ignored on receivers without that capability.
Bitmap of categories.
This option is closely related to the 'category' option. While category allows you to choose a single category that waypoints should appear in, this options allows you to specify a bitmask to be used for the category. Options may be specified in either decimal or hex.
Example 3.11. Example for garmin bitcategory option to put all waypoints in categories 1 and 16.
The following two commands are equivalent. They place a the point in both the first and last of the sixteen available categories. gpsbabel -i gpx -f PocketQuery.gpx -o garmin,bitcategory=32769 -F usb: gpsbabel -i gpx -f PocketQuery.gpx -o garmin,bitcategory=0x8001 -F usb:
[1] This model does not support transfer of waypoints, tracks, or routes, but may be used with the realtime tracking feature.
[2] This unit uses GPX format, not Garmin protocol. Therefore one should communicate with it by reading and writing GPX files instead of using this format. Members of this class of products do not support realtime positioning protocol.
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Ok the instructions that come with the Garmin forerunner are completely wrong, the CD is useless (it has the manual but no software) and the Garmin support website is not much help either. There are all sorts of discussions on the Garmin site for Mac users about ‘it does work with Lion’, ‘it doesn’t work with Lion’ and so on. At one point it even had me downloading a PC .exe file!
The answer is that it does work very well with OSX but there are two separate pieces of software that need to be installed.
1. The first piece of software is a Safari/Firefox/Chrome Plugin that lets your browser talk to your Garmin. You can download it from garmin.com under ‘Support’ menu then ‘Software’ then ‘Software for Mac OS’ then ‘Garmin Communicator Plugin‘.
When it’s downloaded you can test it on this test page: http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/test/
2. The second piece of software is a USB driver that talks to the Antenna. Again, you get it from ‘Support’ menu then ‘Software’ then ‘Software for Mac OS’ then ‘Garmin ANT Agent’. When it’s downloaded you can ‘pair’ with your Garmin device as per the instructions.
Finally if you want you can go to the mac app store and download the Garmin fitness software for free.
Related posts:
How to run Windows on a MacHow to install an Imagerunner printer in Snow LeopardHow to write your own mobile phone drivers for OSXWhat to do about “The optical photoconductor needs to be replaced” printer errorHow to match the colours on your monitor to your printer.Andrewsays:February 4, 2012 at 3:07 amThanks. I own both a mac and a garmin watch, so this was useful.
ReplyRamonsays:September 20, 2012 at 5:47 amfinally!!! thanks so much for sharing. Incomprehensible that this is so hard for Garmin to include in their own instructions!
ReplyAustinsays:January 19, 2013 at 11:45 amTHANK YOU!!!! Banging my head on this one.
ReplySamsays:May 20, 2013 at 3:21 amAnd then you turn pairing on in your garmin and it is done!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for this very clear post…It helped tremendously…Garmin’s instructions are so wrong…
ReplyEric VdBsays:April 23, 2014 at 1:05 pmThe aforementioned explanation is supposing the use of an ANT usb devise plugged in the MAC that talks wirelessly over ANT … but normally I thought you could also connect directly the Forerunner via the USB cable. Isn’t it the case ? Is the only way to make the Forerunner to talk with OSX via an ANT USB devise plugged in the Mac ?
Thank you
Trouble connecting Forerunner to MAC/OSX, try these small steps.
If all drivers and Garmin SW are installed and you still can not connect:
power down Forerunner (hold light button 5 seconds).
Put in cradle, then plug in to USB.
Works every time.
Cheers!
quick and easy solution. big Thank You.
Replyjuyeatessays:November 2, 2014 at 3:06 pmHi.
Ive downloaded these plugins, when I plug in my forerunner with the usb cable the laptop can see it but the garmin connect website still can’t see the device.
I’m running osx 10.6.8
Hi
Trying to connect my forerunner 305.
Tried all the above, no luck.
I have a garmin 800 connected no problem…
garmin connect says no garmin communicator installed. I have installed it, restarted after the install, uninstalled, reinstalled, restarted ….. same error, no garmin communicator installed.
Don’t have ANT, I am using usb.
Any other advice?
Thanks
Dave
ReplyBensays:March 20, 2015 at 9:52 amHave a new Mac and not able to connect Garmin Express to Garmin Connect for my Forerunner 310XT. Afraid the advice here does not work now. Seems to install and pair to the device ok but when I go to sign in to Garmin Connect to transfer data, I get an error message saying “There was a problem connecting to the Garmin servers. We’re unable to sign you in because our servers are unavailable at this time.” Clearly a software issue but Garmin’s support team not helping at all (will not refer this to software team because I don’t have any logs for the device – of course I don’t the application has not installed properly)! Issue has been ongoing for days, product support is totally useless. If it isn’t fixed I will be giving the device away and buying a Suunto and saying bye bye to Garmin for good.
ReplyADRsays:March 22, 2015 at 10:17 amI have the same problem… I have read the FAQ and the solutions on Garmin website, but still not working.
Any suggestion for this issue?
I wrote a email to Garmin support and I’waiting their response in three working days :-(
I am also having this SAME problem and it is very extremely annoying. I can’t seem to find a solution that works! So if anyone finds anything out, I would appreciate a post.
Thank you and happy training!
Sara
Did you ever get a reply from Garmin on your connecting issue. Would be interested to hear what they have to say as I am having the same issue. I also emailed them and have note heard back yet.
Je3ffsays:October 18, 2017 at 8:30 amUPDATE Oct 18 2017
Just got off the phone with Garmin software support. Trying to connect my old Forerunner 305 and get the “Cannot connect to Garmin Servers” error message. I was told that they have “recently become aware” of this issue (ha!) and know what the problem is, they just need to create the fix (write some code) and update the software version. “It should be pretty soon” he said… I was added to an email list that will notify me when the fix is in!!! Until then, my old 305 is a paperweight…
THANK YOU David from September 22, 2014!! That absolutely did the freaking trick!!!! FINALLY!!!
ReplyDansays:September 9, 2015 at 7:42 amI may have missed this in the above comment, so forgive me if that’s the case. But for me, the solution was simply to switch of the watch (hold down power button – top left) for 15 seconds until it goes off. Then hold down the same button until it powers on again. Hey presto, it works!
ReplyDavid Leighsays:March 13, 2016 at 12:39 pmDefinitely works, just tried it on my new Frontrunner 10. Looked like it had frozen, but this sorted it out- thank you.
ReplyDansays:September 9, 2015 at 7:43 amForgive me, it looks like David had already found the solution. I was just so excited I got mine working I jumped the gun and went and posted. Sorry guys!
ReplyScottsays:October 2, 2015 at 2:23 pmI have been unable to get my new Forerunner 310xt to work with my Mac Mini or my Macbook Pro.
I downloaded the plugin with high hopes as I have tried everything else I can think of to get things to work. Unfortunately, I still cannot get it to work.
I had the 305 prior and was having pretty good success using the prior Garmin Training software and the USB cradle. I first thought that the 310 would work with the old software, but then realized there is no cradle and the USB cord is only for charging, not data transfer.j
I have installed the Garmin Ant Agent and Garmin Express software on by of my Macs, hoping I could at least get one to work. No dice. The Mac Mini registers the Ant stick, but usually does not recognize the 310. Garmin Express doesn’t recognize even the Ant stick, so it cannot speak with the 310.
The Macbook Pro does not register the Ant stick, with either GAA or Express software.
Help…
ReplyKevinsays:September 19, 2016 at 1:35 pmSame problem. Spent an hour and a half on the phone with Garmin tech support. They concluded it is something wrong with my MAC settings that are preventing connecting to their servers. I’ll try Apple tech support next.
ReplyAxlsays:December 18, 2016 at 12:07 amChrome No Longer Supports this Plugin — use Safari browser instead!
http://blog.chromium.org/2013/09/saying-goodbye-to-our-old-friend-npapi.html
I’m Stil truing to connect my S2 to my MAC but doesn’t work. Please! I lost all courses and I don’t know how to get it again.
Reply