[OSM-newbies] Connecting to eTrex to Mac

[Richard Fairhurst]

Cas Morris wrote:

> Hi everyone, I've just started to do some GPS track logging, but I'm
> having difficulties making my Mac see my eTrex. I have bought a
> Serial-USB power / data cable from GPSbitz.co.uk, and installed the
> Prolific PL2303 driver software. I was hoping that was all I would
> need to do but the GPS unit doesn't appear on the desktop when I plug
> it in.
> [...]
> I have a yellow Garmin eTrex and a G5 iMac running OSX 10.4.10

It won't appear on the desktop - you need a special bit of software  
to read data from it. Unlike the posher eTrexes, the yellow one  
doesn't appear as a disc drive (i.e. "USB mass storage mode").

The best software for the Mac is GPSBabel+. You can download it from
http://www.gpsbabel.org/osnotes.html#osx

Make sure you have "Tracks" ticked at the top of the window; under  
Input Options, select "Use GPS receiver", type "Garmin", and port  
"usb" or similar; and under Output Options, select "Use file", type  
"GPX XML".

Until Christmas all of my mapping was done with exactly the same  
setup. :)

cheers
Richard