(Need to run as a user who has rights to read the serial port, so some systems may require the program to run as root or with sudo.) Gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F waypoint.gpxĪssume the GPS receiver is attached to the first serial port. If instead the device is connected to the USB port: That sets the input type to the Garmin serial protocol to read data from the serial port and write it to a GPX format file named waypoint.gpx. Gpsbabel -i garmin -f com1 -o gpx -F waypoint.gpx
Under Windows assume the GPS is attached to the first serial port: Here are some examples to read waypoints from a Garmin GPS and write them out to the GPX format file named 'waypoint.gpx.' (NB, if the following commands do not appear to work on the Garmin units, check that the Interface Setting on the unit is set to "GARMIN" or "GARMIN DGPS"). Use -f when you read from the GPS and -F to write to the GPS.
Use the -f and -F parameters to specify the serial port for your GPS. A Garmin serial protocol GPS is specified -i garmin while a Magellan is -i magellan. Connect your GPS to your serial port or USB port depending on your device type (for connecting serial receivers to USB ports see GPS Serial to USB). GPSBabel directly supports hundreds of GPS receivers from Garmin, Magellan, Wintec and more.
written by your GPS device or by a smartphone app). Most of the following subsections' content only is relevant if you do not already have a GPX file (e.g. GPS device communication via serial or USB ports That's generally a better format for interoperating with a database or spreadsheet. For a more robust alternative to the three-field format of GPSBabel's strict CSV format, consider using unicsv which lets you specify headers and many more field types. '-F way.gpx' (capital F) provides the name of the output file (or output serial port). '-o gpx' specifies the output is GPX format. '-f way.csv' (note that is a lower case f) specifies the name of the input file (or the name of the input serial port). Gpsbabel -i csv -f way.csv -o gpx -F way.gpxĭeconstructing the command line: '-i csv' using the comma separated value INTYPE. To convert this CSV file into the GPX format (file way.gpx) we use this command: For example a serial port may appear as 'com1' under Windows or '/dev/ttyS0' under Linux.Īs an example, let us suppose you have latitude, longitude, and waypoint name in a file 'way.csv' That location can be either a file or the name of a physical device. Where ‘INTYPE’ and 'OUTTYPE' are formats that GPSBabel understands and 'INFILE' and ‘OUTFILE’ are the locations of that data. Gpsbabel -i INTYPE -f INFILE -o OUTTYPE -F OUTFILE
Of course, you can't use this page to communicate with your GPS receiver - and a few of GPSBabel's more advanced options (filters and custom XCSV files) aren't included.
You can download it and run it on almost any computer, but its command-line interface requires some getting used to - so I've created this on-line gateway that lets you access a copy of gpsbabel running on. GPSBabel is a freeware program that converts GPS data from one format to another. No ads? No problem! You can support GPS Visualizer by making a donation with PayPal instead.Įnglish Dutch French German Italian Norwegian Portuguese Spanish