[Q] Transfer tracks and waypoints from and to Garmin GPS

Annika said:

Personally I use Oregon 650 and my pals Oregon 550...
If I can find my cable and 60csx I will give it a try

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Actually this ought to work with all Garmin GPS devices that have USB. Garmin has its own protocol for transferring data over USB that all their devices should support. What differs between different models are supported data types. For example there are 15 different types for a waypoint. The simplest one has only name, position and comment, while some others have even 10 other properties. Sadly enough Garmin doesn't provide any database or spreadsheet that would say what devices support what types. And the only way to find that out is to ask the GPS device.

For that I made a simple app that will try to connect to the GPS and load its name and the supported types.

1. Connect the GPS to your Android phone
2. Open the Garmin Protocols app
3. Click Connect
4. Click Yes when it ask for USB permission
5. Click Conect again

Now you should see the name of the GPS and below it a list of the supported types (type name contains letter and 3 or 4 numbers such as D109)

Please try it with any GPS you can and if the app works successfully send me the GPS name and the supported types. Also if this app will work with your phone and the GPS then my app for transferring tracks and such will work too.


The app should be attached to this post (Min Android version is 4.0. If you have older version please let me know and I'll try to do something about it. The app requires android.hardware.usb.host, so it may not install if USB Host is not supported. There are no permissions.)


Since I can't yet post outside links.. in case you'd like to know more about the Garmin Interface specification try googling "garmin commProtocol" (it's the first link "Interface SDK' and inside it the .pdf)

Annika said:

Personally I use Oregon 650 and my pals Oregon 550...
If I can find my cable and 60csx I will give it a try

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I've attached the latest version of GPS Protocols (it's on Play Store, too). The 60CSx is now tested and supported. Also you can read from and save to a .gpx format. And if you still want to try GPS Transfer then please let me know and I'll send it to you

PS: In order to support the Oregons I'd need the supported protocols obtained from the GPS Protocols app.

Cheers