Garmin GPS Interfacing for the Psion and PC

Last updated 31 January 1999

Purpose

The purpose of this page is to provide information on interfacing Garmin GPS's to Psion organisers and PC compatibles.

This is a UK specific page. Therefore US suppliers, US specific software etc... is not covered.
For a lot of very good information on Garmin GPS's please visit Tom's page at http://www.bridge.de/~tom/garmin.htm.

Garmin GPS suppliers

Slick Code Engineering (http://www.scws.com/gps/)
This is where I got my GPS from. They were the cheapest at the time. I ordered it by phone and it arrived the next day by registered post.
Business On The Move (http://www.21store.com/garmin/index.htm)
This web site has a lot of details about the units together with very good pictures of them.
Lowe Electronics Ltd (http://www.lowe.co.uk/)
Lowe sell Garmin GPS's but they also sell lots of accessories for them. In particular they sell an external magnetic mount amplified antenna which is very highly recommended by many people.

Interfacing

The first thing you will need is the Garmin connector. For this look at Larry Berg's Purple Computing page at http://home.cdsnet.net/~purple
Angus Pinkerton is the UK distributor of the connector and his homepage is at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/angus.pinkerton/

Below is a picture of the Garmin plug.

Garmin Plug - 15.77 K

When assembling this plug the best way that I have found is to use some high quality PVC heat resistant cable. Then use a hot glue gun to hold the wires inplace within the plug. You can also use it outside to make a strain relief.

To a PC

Assembly Diagram - 15.86 K