Hand held GPS/PC interfacing

[Idunno]

I just bought a Magellan GPS315. It's a hand held job with quite a small screen but it's got lots of nice features, appears to be quite accurate, and is good fun (and cheap).

Now, there is a PC link cable available for this machine. It's quite pricey, so I'm in no hurry to buy it yet...the only advertised function is that it allows you to alter the Waypoint database via your PC.

However I'm wondering if it isn't possible to do more with this cable.

Does anyone out there know if it's possible to use the cable to connect the GPS to my Laptop (or even Psion) and plot continuous 'position' progress on a detailed colour map on the Laptop screen? I'm sure this is possible with the right software. But is it available commercially (and affordably).

Thanks.

[BayAreaLondoner]

There is a standard serial protocol that is used. I imagine that if the cable connects the GPS unit to the PC via the serial port, a moving map type program on the PC would be able to retrieve position data from the GPS unit.
Take a look at some of the GPS-aware software out there to see if they mention support for your particular GPS unit. If you don't see anything, go to groups.google.com and do a search for the name of your GPS unit and "moving map" or something similar.

[Cornish Jack]

Recently bought Route Planner Millenium (Palmtop Software). This is EPOC based but useable on Win CE machines as well, apparently. There is a chapter in the handbook 'Attaching a GPS to your EPOC device'.
"To attach a GPS device to your EPOC device, a cable might be provided. If not, you can use the cable that comes with your EPOC device and the PC adapter cable for your GPS device. Additionally, you will need a null modem cable/male-male gender adapter, which is readily available in shops selling electronic equipment."
It further goes on to indicate that the software supports NMEA and SIRF GPS devices. These, apparently, are types of output from the GPS.
I intend to use the program for mapping purposes on the PSION 5 as I don't have a GPS unit ....... yet! :D

[Idunno]

Thanks guys. Did a bit more digging and discovered that MS Autoroute 2002 is GPS compatibele! Hurray...thats all I need.

Ta.