Norm's GPS Communicator

This downloadable zip file contains a java program that will communicate with a Garmin 12XL GPS (and models: 126, 128, 48, II Plus) and the ICOM GP-270ML GPS via your computer's serial port. It uses the same format files as my Waypoint applet . It's about 260Kb in size.
This program was written to the specifications in Garmin's GARMIN GPS Interface Specification which was downloaded from www.garmin.com/support/commProtocol.html.

Installation instructions

1. Create the folder: C:\Work\GPSCommunicator\. This is where the programs parts will reside. It is started by a shortcut that is in the zip file.
2. Unzip the downloaded zip file into C:\Work\GPSCommunicator\. There are 11 files:
   • comm.jar - Contains Sun's class files for serial port communication
   • GPSDevComm.jar - contains the GPS Communicator program files
   • GPSDeviceCommunicator.ini - the program parameter file.
   • DocumentViewerWParser.jar - contains the help program files
   • win32comm.dll - Sun's serial port communication program
   • GPS Device Communicator - Shortcut to execute the program using Sun's Java interpreter.
   • GPS Device using JVIEW - Shortcut to execute the program using Microsoft's JVIEW program.
   • javax.comm.properties - Used by Sun's serial port programs.
   • 3 icon files: *Icon.jpg - These go on the upper left of the windows

   
   

3. Copy win32com.dll to the C:\Windows\ folder. This file must be on your command search path. Please let me know if you already have this file.
    
4. Modify the GPSDeviceCommunicator.ini file to suit your needs. It contains Name=value pairs that you can set by editting with Notepad or Wordpad. Set Owner= to your name. For example: Owner=George
   

   Following is a list of the .ini file 'Names' with their default values (comments follow the #):

   • GPSBrand=Garmin # Or Micrologic for the ICOM GPS
   • SerialPort=1 # or 2 or 3 or 4 - you're serial port
   • AllowUpLoad=Yes # =No will not allow writes to the GPS
   • BaudRate=9600 # what you serial port baud rate is
   • Owner=Somename # This is the name that will be written to disk file
   • ShowMsgsOnLog=Yes # Messages will be written to the log file vs only to a window
   • TimeOutMS=1000 # set how long (in millisecs) to wait for a response from the GPS
   • WaypointsDir=last directory used with a waypoints file

   
    

5. Copy the shortcuts (extension = .LNK) to your desk top. Or they can be clicked on/executed where they were unzipped. These shortcuts can be tailored by right clicking them and selecting Properties and choosing the Shortcut tab and changing the displayed fields: Target or Start In.
   
   •   Target - contains the command that is to be issued. You would add -options here. A Target value if you're using Java 1.1:
        <javaPath>\bin\java.exe -classpath <javaPath>\lib\classes.zip;GPSDevComm.jar;DocumentViewerWParser.jar;comm.jar;. WayPointApps.GPSDevices.GPSDeviceCommunicator -debug -MsgsOnLog -WrtCons
       where <javaPath>\ is the path to the Java 1.1 files.
     If you are using Microsoft JVIEW:
        C:\WINDOWS\jview.exe /cp GPSDevComm.jar;DocumentViewerWParser.jar;comm.jar WayPointApps.GPSDevices.GPSDeviceCommunicator -debug -MsgsOnLog -WrtCons -JVIEW
     If you are using Java2 then the Target value is:
        C:\WINDOWS\java.exe -jar GPSDevComm.jar -debugXX -WrtCons
     
     
   •   Start In - contains the path to the folder where all the program parts are. For example: E:\Work\GPSCommunicator

Operating instructions

Connect the GPS to its cable (for the Garmin the cable part no. is 010-10141-00) and connect that cable to a serial port on your computer. Be sure the SerialPort= value is set to the port you are using (usually 1 or 2). You can set the serial port with the 'Options|Set COMM port...' menu item. NB: Seems to work best with baud rate=9600.

Start the Garmin GPS. I set it to Simulator mode in the Setup|System menu. Go to the Setup|Interface menu to watch for messages from the GPS. The top line should say GRMN/GRMN and the seond line HOST. If the interaction with the computer gets hung and the GPS hasn't completed its transfer of packets, page up to the Setup menu and return to the Interface menu. Then select the second line down, press enter and change the display until it says HOST and press Enter.

On your computer, click on one of the shortcuts to start the program.

Select the GPS|Open GPS menu item to connect to the GPS. If you get an error message, check all your connections and the contents of the .ini file. Note for Micrologic GPS - Open tries to read WP0503.
If no luck contact me at radder@hotmail.com.

After a successful connection, read the waypoints from the GPS into the computer's memory by selecting the GPS|Read Waypoints from GPS menu item. You'll get a display that contains all the waypoints.

Read all the Routes from the GPS by selecting the GPS|Read Routes from GPS menu item. The routes will be read and saved in memory. You can look at individual routes by selecting the GPS|Display Route... menu item and selecting the route you want.

Edit window for Updating and saving waypoint files

To edit an existing waypoints file (they have extension of .wps) use the File|Open Waypoints file... menu item to open it. After opening, the waypoints will be displayed in an Edit window with a menubar, an input area for the description, a list of the waypoints, some buttons and display areas.
Each waypoint is displayed as a single line without formatting. To make changes, select a line and click the Edit button.
The waypoints can be written in NMEA format by using the File|Set Save As... menu item. The file extension will be set to .NMEA. NMEA format can be read by the CAPN program.

The Edit window buttons:

• Edit - opens window to edit the selected waypoint.
• New - opens window to create a new waypoint.
• Move Up - moves the selected waypoint up 1 line.
• Move Down - moves the selected waypoint down 1 line
• Delete - deletes the selected waypoint from the list
• Save - saves the current list of waypoints to a disk file. See the File|Set Save filename... menuitem on the main panel for setting the filename.
• Copy to work - will copy the selected waypoint to the Work window which is created by the File|Create Waypoints Work File item.

At the bottom are three more buttons used to compute the course and distance between two waypoints in the list.

The Edit window menu bar items:

• File
  • PlotWP - will display these waypoints on a plot.
  • Save As... will prompt for the format the waypoints are to be written and then for the filename. The formats are : for this program(.wps) NMEA and MaxSea(.WPT) The waypoints are then saved.
  • Export NMEA format - The waypoints are displayed in a new window in NMEA format.
  • Export POI as CAPN marks - The waypoints are displayed in a new window in CAPN marks file format.
  • Export in CAP format - The waypoints are displayed in a new window in CMAP format.
  • Export in Maptech format - The waypoints are displayed in a new window in Maptech format.
• Edit
  • Find
  • Find Next
  • Copy - copies selected waypoint for pasting later
  • Cut - copies selected waypoint for pasting later and deletes it
  • Paste - pastes copied waypoint after selected waypoint
  • Copy to Work - copies selected waypoints to the Work window
  • Endleg - inserts a End Of Leg record after the selected waypoint
  • Mark as POI - Flags selected waypoints as Points Of Interest
  • Clear all POI - Removes all POI settings from selected wayoints
  • Delete all POI - Deletes all waypoints that are flagged as POI
• Sort - sorts the list of waypoints
  • By Name
  • By GPS name
  • By latitude
  • By longitude
  • Reverse - inverts the order
• Info
  • Show Route Info - displays information about the waypoints as a route

To edit a waypoint, select it and press the Edit button. You'll get a new window that formats the waypoint and allows each field to be changed. After making your changes press the Save button to save the changes.

To create a new waypoints file use the GPS Communicator File|New Waypoints file... menu item. Be sure to use the extension wps. You'll be prompted for the filename and a description of the file before being placed in the Waypoints edit window described above. Add your waypoints and press the Save button to save them to disk.

Plotting Waypoints

Press the File|PlotWP menuitem to get the plot window. The scale is set so that all of the waypoints fit. The plot can be zoomed using the Scale menu. The displaying of labels etc is controlled by the View menu.
Course and distances can between waypoints can be measured by clicking on a waypoint and dragging the blue line to another waypoint.
Right clicking on a waypoint will display a menu:

• Waypoint info - Displays info for the selected waypoint
• Copy to work - Copies selected waypoint to the work window
• Change waypoint name - Presents dialog for changing the waypoint name
• Mark/Clear POI - To change waypoint to/from being a POI.

 Menu items:

• Scale
  • ZoomIn - Sets ZOOM IN mode. Cursor displays as cross hairs. Every click on the plot screen zooms in by a factor or two . ZoomIn goes from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 etc
  • ZoomOut - Sets ZOOM OUT mode. Cursor displays as cross hairs. Every click on the plot screen zooms out by a factor or two . ZoomIn goes from 16 to8 to 4 etc
• View
  • Show labels - Displays name labels for all waypoints and legs
  • Show Points Of Interest - Displays labels for POIs
  • Show names - Displays waypoint names
  • Show legs - displays connecting lines between waypoints in a route
  • Clear labels - clears all labels
  • Show scrollbars - for scrolling zoomed plot
  • Show lat/long lines - displays lines for latitude and longitude 

Writing Waypoints and Routes to your GPS

After reading all the Waypoints and Routes from your GPS, open a Waypoints file from your disk using File|Open Waypoints File....The waypoints will be displayed in an Edit window. If there is more than one Edit window open, be sure to use the File|Select Active window item to select the one to be written.
Select the GPS|Write Waypoints to GPS to write all the waypoints from the active window to the GPS
or select GPS|Write A Route to GPS... which will prompt you for the route number to use when writing the route.

For Garmin you can watch the screen of the GPS to see the progress of the write.

Verifying successful writing of Waypoints to the GPS

On some GPSs there is no feedback that the write of a waypoint was successful. To verify that the waypoints were successfully written, read all the waypoints from the GPS again and verify that the new one(s) are there. If there a several to be checked, an easy way to do the verification is to try to write the original waypoints again as a route. The program will check that all the waypoints are on the GPS and give an error message if any are not there. Before doing the write turn off the Allow Write flag to prevent the route actually being written.

Creating a Route to Import into CAPN

1. Open a .wps file with the GPS Communicator program
2. Set Save filename with an extension of .NMEA
   This will write out a file with correct format to be imported by CAPN with the exception of the last line's end of line, which must be deleted.
3. Save - Writes the wps file as a nmea file
4. Exit GPS Communicator program
5. Rename the .nmea file with an extension of .txt. Or in CAPN you can set the file open dialog to look for files ending with .nmea by entering: *.nmea.
6. Open CAPN program
7. Select "Routes/Marks|Import>|Route from NMEA WPL File"
8. Follow instructions to import the route from the txt file

In CAPN, to remove a route from the chart display, right click on the route leg and select "Stow Route" from the drop down menu.

Exporting waypoints from CAPN

Waypoints can be exported from the CAPN program to a file in NMEA 0183 format that can be read by the GPS Communicator program.

• In CAPN, click on Routes/Marks, select Display Route(s)..., Select the route to export and press the Send To ... button at bottom left.

  This brings up a dialog where you select NMEA 0183 format, and in the next dialog, change the filename to what you want and the extension to '.nmea'.
  Save the file and exit CAPN.

• Edit the nmea file just created and globally change the $IIWPL at the beginning of every record to $GPWPL and save.
• Enter the GPS program and use File | Open Waypoints file ... to open the nmea file.

Menu Items

File:

• New Waypoints File... - Creates new Edit window to create waypoints in
• OpenWpt File... - Opens an existing waypoints file in an Edit window. Note only one of the these two windows can be open at one time.
• Create Waypoints Work File - Creates an Edit window that waypoints can be copied to from other windows.
• Select Active window... - Allows you to chose which window will be used for uploading from or other updates done by the program.
• Set Save filename... - Presents a dialog to allow you to set the filename that the active window will be written to if its Save button is pressed.
• Edit Reminder notes - Opens the Notepad program with the Reminder notes file so that you can enter notes for yourself.
• Close - Closes the active window??
• Exit - Exits the program

GPS:

• Open GPS - Opens connection to the GPS using the serial port.
• Display NMEA input... - Will read and display NMEA output from the GPS. The GPS must be configured to output NMEA data.
• Read Waypoints from GPS - Will read all the waypoints from the GPS and display them in an Edit window.
• Display Waypoints - Will re-display the Edit window of GPS waypoints.
• Read Routes from GPS - Will read all the routes from the GPS.
• Display Route... - Will allow you to select which route is to be displayed in an Edit window.
• Read tracklog from GPS - Reads the tracklog waypoints and displays them in an Edit window.
• Write Waypoints to GPS - Writes the waypoints from the active window to the GPS.
• Write Route to GPS... - Asks for route number to use and then writes a route to the GPS using the waypoints from the active window.
• Write tracklog to GPS - Not implemented!
• Abort transfer - will stop writing to the GPS.
• Close GPS - Closes the connection to the GPS.

Options:

• AutoCreate WptName - Will try to create a valid GPS name for the waypoint . The name is stored in the waypoint name following the letters: &GPS=
• Allow Writevto GPS - When this is not checked, the program will do all the checks of the waypoints it normally does, but will not write to the GPS. This is useful to when testing or checking the validity of your waypoints before writing them to the GPS. When checked, writes to the GPS will proceed.
• Set GPS... - Use this to chose the type of GPS you are using.
• Set COMM port... - Use this to set serial port that connects to the GPS
• Set baud rate... - Use to set baud rate for serial port
• Set timeout(ms) - Use this to set how long computer is to wait for a response from the GPS (in milliseconds). Should be from 1000 to 3000.
• Clear Log - Clears the contents of the Status log.
• Save .ini on exit - When checked, the program will write a new .ini file (see above) containing any changes you have made.
• Save console to file - This item only appears if you use the command option: -WrtCons. Its used to save error messages written to the console in a log file.
• Allow multiple files open - Allow you to have more than one waypoint file open at a time. Historical reasons for this!

There can be a menu item for a particular GPS:

Micrologic:

• List used waypoint numbers -
• Assign waypoint numbers - Will assign waypoint numbers starting at the next available one to the waypoints in the active window.
• Change waypoint name,etc for matching positions - Will change the name, etc of waypoints in the active window to match those at the same position that were read from the GPS. This option could be used when resaving routes after reloading waypoints with new waypoint numbers.
• Set waypoint numbers...- Sets all the waypoint numbers for waypoints in the active window to numbers starting at the user entered number.
• Clear waypoint numbers - Clears all the waypoint numbers in the active window.

GPSU (for GPS Utility files):

• Display Routes... - Allows you to select what route you want displayed in an Edit window.

Command line options

You can tailor how the program works by adding any of the following options following the -debugXX word in the shortcut. See above. Any options ending with XX are ignored. Removing the XX from -debugXX will produce a lot of output useful for solving a problem.

• -debug  # Create lots of output on the console for problem solving.
• -MsgsOnLog #Warning messages go to the log vs in their own window
• -WrtCons  #All messages being written to the console also are written to a disk file.

Both the java and JVIEW commands have a black console in addition to the GPS Communicator window. I use that console to write informational messages that help in solving problems.

Disclaimers

Use this program at your own risk. I don't know of any way it can harm your GPS other than overwriting any existing Waypoints or Routes. The program does several tests before writing to the GPS to be sure that you are not going to overwrite anything. You should save all your waypoints to your computer before trying to write any. By setting the .ini file parameter: AllowUpload=NO the program won't try to write to the GPS.

Getting a Java interpreter

A Java interpreter is a free download from the Sun java site: java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/jre/download-jre-windows.html. Look for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) download. It's over 3Mb of data. Be sure to print off and follow the installation instructions.

A better but larger (5M) version of Java is downloadable from java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/jre/.

Last updated 6 May 2004