#TN033

 #Summary
Downloading/uploading  waypoints and routes to a GPS/ Garmin GPS 

 #Problem  

seaPro allows you to send and receive waypoints to an external device such as a GPS.
Not all GPS sets support this feature or use unsupported private communication protocols (GARMIN) 

#Solution  

Sending or receiving waypoints is controlled in seaPro from the route and log menu options.

If your GPS supports the normal NMEA 183 protocols of WPL  (for routes and waypoints) and RTE/RNN for routes, then please refer to your GPS manual on how to set up your GPS to send and receive waypoints and routes.

If you are using a Garmin GPS, you may not be able to download and upload waypoints depending on your model and version of GPS.

Typically very early Garmin GPS obeyed the NMEA international standard, later ones starting with the 45, used their own proprietary format in a bid to lock out other suppliers. Unfortunately this specification is not complete and varies between models, due to reliability, international standardization and support issues the Garmin format is not supported (simple position output is supported - see Setup->Serial).

Other GPS systems may limit you to the number of decimal places it can cope with. This can be controlled from within seaPro from the  menu Setup->Nav, chose the tab NMEA TX.. At the bottom left you will see a setting for the number of decimal positions to use when sending position information.
Note: This will effect all NMEA TX sentences including information to an auto pilot.

Other problems may be the length of the waypoint identifier, number of digits, whether the GPS will accept names or just numbers, the start number etc, all these can be set on the individual send dialog box.

Garmin 48 and similar models

You should be able to upload waypoints (inc routes) to the GPS using the normal NMEA 183 protocol, however these will be located into memory locations into the GPS and you will to manually construct any routes.

You may find some problems with icons assigned to your waypoints, this is a problem with some early firmware in the GPS a download is available from the Garmin support web site www.garmin/support/download.html