Garmin 296 and FliteStar

[Rich Raine]

I recently bought a Garmin 296 and found I can not upload route or data from
the 296 to Flitestar. The Garmin 295 worked flawlessly. I have the serial
cable and the USB cable. Neither one will allow this transfer.

Does anyone have any better experience? If not beware...I wouldn't have
upgreaded to the 296 if I knew I could not make this upload.

Thanks for any thoughts.

--
Rich Raine
Rich@ eRaine.com
remove spaces for email
www.eRaine.com

[C J Campbell]

"Rich Raine" > wrote in message
...
> I recently bought a Garmin 296 and found I can not upload route or data
from
> the 296 to Flitestar.

You may need to change the transfer setting on the GPS from "Advanced NMEA"
to "NMEA," or vice versa.

The manual that Garmin wrote for this unit is despicable. You can't find
anything in it. The manual also contains several inaccuracies.

The 296 itself is beautiful, light weight, and it works very well. It is
missing a few features the 295 had, notably the RMI indicator option. I am
getting about 7 hours of battery life out of a charge.

[John Bell]

> The manual that Garmin wrote for this unit is despicable. You can't find
> anything in it. The manual also contains several inaccuracies.
>
> The 296 itself is beautiful, light weight, and it works very well. It is
> missing a few features the 295 had, notably the RMI indicator option. I am
> getting about 7 hours of battery life out of a charge.

CJ,

I don't have a 296, just a 196. However, I have played with the 296. If
you go to the HSI page and press menu, you can change the HSI BUG to
indicate BEARING. This essentially gives you an RMI and HSI combined into
one. If I remember correctly the pointer on the EFIS option is BEARING,
which makes it a big RMI for the arc that it covers.

John Bell
www.cockpitgps.com

[Dan Luke]

"C J Campbell" wrote:
> The manual that Garmin wrote for this unit is
> despicable. You can't find anything in it. The
> manual also contains several inaccuracies.

My big complaint is that I cannot slew the map pointer to an airport and
create a user waypoint on a runway as I could with the 295. If I try,
the 296 will simply create another waypoint at the airport datum point.
One of my favorite tricks with the 295 was creating a waypoint at the
approach end of a runway, selecting "direct" to the point and setting
the GPS OBS for runway heading. This gave me an extended runway
centerline that was helpful with visual approaches. Can't do it with
the 296 unless I'm sitting on the runway.

Another thing: the flight recorder feature has a bug in it that causes
it to record spurious landings. For example, when I flew from Mobile to
Pinckneyville, IL it said I made 10 landings enroute. On almost every
flight it has recorded phantom landings. Garmin says this is due to
momentary loss of satellite reception, but I doubt it. I've kept a
watch on the GPS status page and never seen fewer than six strong
satellites.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

[C J Campbell]

In any event, Flitestar will not talk to any GPS on a USB port. This is
fairly typical of Jeppesen.

The 296 uses a different type of serial cable which I do not have. However,
it seems to communicate well with Mapsource software, which brings up
another irritation: when I installed the trip manager that comes with the
296 it destroyed all the licensing information for other Mapsource products.

[C J Campbell]

Jeppesen Tech Support has this to say about Flitestar and USB ports:

Christopher,

Flitestar 9.0 does support USB connections, usually through I/O Gear 9-pin
serial to USB converters. Not all serial converters function well with
Flitestar. The I/O Gear unit seems to be one of the best ones currently on
the market.

-Scott @ Jepp Tech Spprt









"Christopher J Campbell" on 06/03/2004 10:21:22 AM

To: PcTechSupport

cc: (bcc: Scott Kiefer/Jeppesen/TMC)

Subject: USB support for GPS

Now that GPS units are using USB connections and many laptop computers don't
even have a serial port, when will Flitestar begin supporting USB
connections to the GPS?

Christopher Campbell

[Tom Sixkiller]

"C J Campbell" > wrote in message
...
> Jeppesen Tech Support has this to say about Flitestar and USB ports:
>
> Christopher,
>
> Flitestar 9.0 does support USB connections, usually through I/O Gear 9-pin
> serial to USB converters. Not all serial converters function well with
> Flitestar. The I/O Gear unit seems to be one of the best ones currently on
> the market.
>
> -Scott @ Jepp Tech Spprt

So nice of them to be five or six years behind the technology curve..

>
>
> "Christopher J Campbell" on 06/03/2004 10:21:22 AM
>
> To: PcTechSupport
>
> cc: (bcc: Scott Kiefer/Jeppesen/TMC)
>
> Subject: USB support for GPS
>
> Now that GPS units are using USB connections and many laptop computers
don't
> even have a serial port, when will Flitestar begin supporting USB
> connections to the GPS?
>
> Christopher Campbell
>
>
>
>

[Bill Padley]

Hi there

I have just received my Garmin 296 , and also have the IOgear usb to serial
adapter
However , the cable provided by Garmin is a small connector on one end , and
a usb on the other..the usb to serial adapter is expecting a the serial end
to be plugged ito the GPS, which of course it cant...(no serial female
socket)

has anyone got the GPS 296 to talk to Jeppesen Flitestar , and if so how did
you connect it?

many thanks

Bill Padley
London
"C J Campbell" > wrote in message
...
> Jeppesen Tech Support has this to say about Flitestar and USB ports:
>
> Christopher,
>
> Flitestar 9.0 does support USB connections, usually through I/O Gear 9-pin
> serial to USB converters. Not all serial converters function well with
> Flitestar. The I/O Gear unit seems to be one of the best ones currently on
> the market.
>
> -Scott @ Jepp Tech Spprt
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Christopher J Campbell" on 06/03/2004 10:21:22 AM
>
> To: PcTechSupport
>
> cc: (bcc: Scott Kiefer/Jeppesen/TMC)
>
> Subject: USB support for GPS
>
> Now that GPS units are using USB connections and many laptop computers
don't
> even have a serial port, when will Flitestar begin supporting USB
> connections to the GPS?
>
> Christopher Campbell
>
>
>
>

[Dave Butler]

Bill Padley wrote:
> I have just received my Garmin 296 , and also have the IOgear usb to serial
> adapter
> However , the cable provided by Garmin is a small connector on one end , and
> a usb on the other..the usb to serial adapter is expecting a the serial end
> to be plugged ito the GPS, which of course it cant...(no serial female
> socket)

I didn't quite follow that description, but if what you need is a serial
gender-changer, they are quite inexpensive and available. Check your local
computer supply store.

[Bill Padley]

Dave..

I didnt explain well..<g>
There was a thread here previously to say that Flitestar did not work well
with USB gps connections, only serial ..A serial to USB converter
(theIOGEAR) was recommended ..all good so far...

However garmins output from the 296 is on a very small connector (like a
camera firewire connector) -on the other end is a usb plug ..how can the
serial to USB converter be used when there is no serial connector on the
garmin?
How does the serial to usb converter actually get to the garmin?
that was my question...I believe some people have it working with Flitestar
, but I have no idea how!

cheers

Bill Padley
london
"Dave Butler" > wrote in message
...
> Bill Padley wrote:
> > I have just received my Garmin 296 , and also have the IOgear usb to
serial
> > adapter
> > However , the cable provided by Garmin is a small connector on one end ,
and
> > a usb on the other..the usb to serial adapter is expecting a the serial
end
> > to be plugged ito the GPS, which of course it cant...(no serial female
> > socket)
>
> I didn't quite follow that description, but if what you need is a serial
> gender-changer, they are quite inexpensive and available. Check your local
> computer supply store.
>

[Rich Raine]

You have to buy the Garmin Serial cable for $38. However this will still
not work properly with Flitestar/Flitemap. It will upload a route from
Flitestar but it will not substitute the waypoints with the actual items.
In other words if you plan a route KFOK-CCC-KHTO you will find is has
uploaded those custom user waypoints that will apprear over the airports and
vor. This of course makes the upload worthless. The Garmin 295 would
upload perfectly, leading me to think they have changed something in the
protocol with the 296.

Because the interaction between these two tools is some important, I have
been sending emails and calling each manufacturer attempting to see if there
is a resolution. Each one says its the other ones fault. Because this
formerly worked fine with the 295 I assume the problem is with the 296.

It sure would be nice if there was more competition in this arena.


--
Rich Raine

remove ----- for email
www.eRaine.com


"Bill Padley" > wrote in message
.. .
> Dave..
>
> I didnt explain well..<g>
> There was a thread here previously to say that Flitestar did not work well
> with USB gps connections, only serial ..A serial to USB converter
> (theIOGEAR) was recommended ..all good so far...
>
> However garmins output from the 296 is on a very small connector (like a
> camera firewire connector) -on the other end is a usb plug ..how can the
> serial to USB converter be used when there is no serial connector on the
> garmin?
> How does the serial to usb converter actually get to the garmin?
> that was my question...I believe some people have it working with
Flitestar
> , but I have no idea how!
>
> cheers
>
> Bill Padley
> london
> "Dave Butler" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Bill Padley wrote:
> > > I have just received my Garmin 296 , and also have the IOgear usb to
> serial
> > > adapter
> > > However , the cable provided by Garmin is a small connector on one end
,
> and
> > > a usb on the other..the usb to serial adapter is expecting a the
serial
> end
> > > to be plugged ito the GPS, which of course it cant...(no serial female
> > > socket)
> >
> > I didn't quite follow that description, but if what you need is a serial
> > gender-changer, they are quite inexpensive and available. Check your
local
> > computer supply store.
> >
>
>

[Bill Padley]

Rich

Thanks for that info...what a mess!
keep us in touch if you get any more out of either manufacturer , though to
be fair , if it worked with the 295 and now is broken , it does kinda point
to Garmin !

all the best

Bill Padley
London
"Rich Raine" > wrote in message
...
> You have to buy the Garmin Serial cable for $38. However this will still
> not work properly with Flitestar/Flitemap. It will upload a route from
> Flitestar but it will not substitute the waypoints with the actual items.
> In other words if you plan a route KFOK-CCC-KHTO you will find is has
> uploaded those custom user waypoints that will apprear over the airports
and
> vor. This of course makes the upload worthless. The Garmin 295 would
> upload perfectly, leading me to think they have changed something in the
> protocol with the 296.
>
> Because the interaction between these two tools is some important, I have
> been sending emails and calling each manufacturer attempting to see if
there
> is a resolution. Each one says its the other ones fault. Because this
> formerly worked fine with the 295 I assume the problem is with the 296.
>
> It sure would be nice if there was more competition in this arena.
>
>
> --
> Rich Raine
>
> remove ----- for email
> www.eRaine.com
>
>
> "Bill Padley" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > Dave..
> >
> > I didnt explain well..<g>
> > There was a thread here previously to say that Flitestar did not work
well
> > with USB gps connections, only serial ..A serial to USB converter
> > (theIOGEAR) was recommended ..all good so far...
> >
> > However garmins output from the 296 is on a very small connector (like a
> > camera firewire connector) -on the other end is a usb plug ..how can the
> > serial to USB converter be used when there is no serial connector on
the
> > garmin?
> > How does the serial to usb converter actually get to the garmin?
> > that was my question...I believe some people have it working with
> Flitestar
> > , but I have no idea how!
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > Bill Padley
> > london
> > "Dave Butler" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Bill Padley wrote:
> > > > I have just received my Garmin 296 , and also have the IOgear usb
to
> > serial
> > > > adapter
> > > > However , the cable provided by Garmin is a small connector on one
end
> ,
> > and
> > > > a usb on the other..the usb to serial adapter is expecting a the
> serial
> > end
> > > > to be plugged ito the GPS, which of course it cant...(no serial
female
> > > > socket)
> > >
> > > I didn't quite follow that description, but if what you need is a
serial
> > > gender-changer, they are quite inexpensive and available. Check your
> local
> > > computer supply store.
> > >
> >
> >
>
>