Using laptop as GPS - Software

[+baloo&bd]

Have used Microsoft Streets and Trips for years. Unfortunately, need to upgrade my hard drive and it was downloaded from Amazon, which will not let me re-download it.

 

Is there any replacement software out there? It obviously needs to load caches via a GPX or similar file and do routing as well as work with a USB puck.

 

I thought basecamp may work, but it does not. I am going to try nroute but I remember that being somewhat limited.

[+Red90]

Garmin does not offer any software. In the past they had a couple of programs (nroute and Garmin Mobile PC), but they are long since dead. You can get them running, but it is not straightforward.

[+StefandD]

There are several geocaching apps for Windows 8/8.1/10, which might be able to use the GPS of your laptop.

 

In Win 10 is the [HERE] Maps app installed, in which you can download the whole world for offline use.

 

The website of Google Maps is able to locate you by your GPS. I believe you can download a limited number of areas for offline use.

I guess the Bing Maps website can do the same.

[+Mineral2]

Basecamp should work. You just need to install a routable map to use with it and your GPS. I suggest OpenStreetMap (http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl).

[+Red90]

Basecamp should work. You just need to install a routable map to use with it and your GPS. I suggest OpenStreetMap (http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl).

 

??? Basecamp does not work with a GPS and does not provide real time routing.

[alandb]

If you search around, you can still find some online stores that claim to have Delorme Street Atlas USA Plus 2015. Of course when Garmin bought Delorme they discontinued the Street Atlas product, so you can no longer get it directly from the company. But some stores may still have it as new (old stock). The Street Atlas Plus product supports using a GPS USB puck on a Windows laptop and does a pretty good job of road navigation. It doesn't really have geocaching functions AFAIK, although you can import waypoints.

Edited February 1, 2017 by alandb

[+Mineral2]

Basecamp should work. You just need to install a routable map to use with it and your GPS. I suggest OpenStreetMap (http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl).

 

??? Basecamp does not work with a GPS and does not provide real time routing.

 

My mistake. I interpreted the OP's problem as needing to make routes on the computer and then send them to his GPS.

[+two left feet]

If you search around, you can still find some online stores that claim to have Delorme Street Atlas USA Plus 2015. Of course when Garmin bought Delorme they discontinued the Street Atlas product, so you can no longer get it directly from the company. But some stores may still have it as new (old stock). The Street Atlas Plus product supports using a GPS USB puck on a Windows laptop and does a pretty good job of road navigation. It doesn't really have geocaching functions AFAIK, although you can import waypoints.

 

I run Street Atlas and Topo on my laptop Win 7 and have for years. You can import an entire .gpx pocket query directly into a draw layer. But it is much more functional to run through GSAK and export all the HTML parts onto the hard drive and then export the waypoints as a .txt for import to Street Atlas. You can then click on a push pin and pull up all the cache info offline. Sadly by 2015 when the last update to SA happened it was already out of date and bugs were no longer being fixed so you would be running with less than accurate information. The other downside is that SA is extremely powerful and has lots of options which means you have a long learning curve. On top of that Garmin DELETED years of support on Delorme's forum so all the past wisdom and help is gone forever. Thanks a lot Garmin!!!

 

On the other hand, I have retired my laptop and moved to Cachly running on an iPad. I can run entirely offline with maps and pocket query and use a bluetooth GPS to provide position information to the iPad. As soon as Cashly ports to Android I will be ditching the iPad and moving to Android tablets. So the need for laptop navigation is slowly becoming extinct. If you just need map and navigation without any Geocaching support I run Mapfactor Navigator free version. Pretty basic OSM maps with basic routing and no .gpx or .kml support. But it is on a laptop. You may need to be good at GPS setup to get a USB puck to work with it.

 

It may be out there but I don't know of a current Windoze based laptop program with offline maps and good support of Geocaching.

[+baloo&bd]

Garmin does not offer any software. In the past they had a couple of programs (nroute and Garmin Mobile PC), but they are long since dead. You can get them running, but it is not straightforward.

 

nRoute is still available. I just have to play with it. I remembered severe shortcomings, bu better than nothing.

[+baloo&bd]

I run Street Atlas and Topo on my laptop Win 7 and have for years. You can import an entire .gpx pocket query directly into a draw layer. But it is much more functional to run through GSAK and export all the HTML parts onto the hard drive and then export the waypoints as a .txt for import to Street Atlas. You can then click on a push pin and pull up all the cache info offline. Sadly by 2015 when the last update to SA happened it was already out of date and bugs were no longer being fixed so you would be running with less than accurate information. The other downside is that SA is extremely powerful and has lots of options which means you have a long learning curve. On top of that Garmin DELETED years of support on Delorme's forum so all the past wisdom and help is gone forever. Thanks a lot Garmin!!!

 

On the other hand, I have retired my laptop and moved to Cachly running on an iPad. I can run entirely offline with maps and pocket query and use a bluetooth GPS to provide position information to the iPad. As soon as Cashly ports to Android I will be ditching the iPad and moving to Android tablets. So the need for laptop navigation is slowly becoming extinct. If you just need map and navigation without any Geocaching support I run Mapfactor Navigator free version. Pretty basic OSM maps with basic routing and no .gpx or .kml support. But it is on a laptop. You may need to be good at GPS setup to get a USB puck to work with it.

 

It may be out there but I don't know of a current Windoze based laptop program with offline maps and good support of Geocaching.

 

I am not desperate enough to use crapple products just yet, especially since then it would only be good for this one purpose.

 

With all the salespeople out there using their laptops, I have to think there is something available for computers that won't cost an arm and a leg like Map Point, although if I could find it for a reasonable price that might be what I have to go with.

 

I may have a line on some old stock of MS S&T 2013, which would be ideal. Seems very short sighted to discontinue it.

Edited February 1, 2017 by baloo&bd

[+Red90]

nRoute is still available. I just have to play with it. I remembered severe shortcomings, bu better than nothing.

 

As I said..... You can get them running, but it is not simple. Mobile PC is a lot better, but again, work is required to get it working. I have a laptop setup that run them both along with data logging my track connected to a puck GPS. It all works after you spend many hours figuring out how to set it up, but in the end, it is much simpler using a Nuvi and you get a lot more functionality. The new Nuvis add a lot of things that make routing so much better than when those programs where written. Or just use a phone or tablet. Endless apps available.

[+Mineral2]

 

I am not desperate enough to use crapple products just yet, especially since then it would only be good for this one purpose.

 

 

You can always use Locus Pro on an android tablet or phone. You avoid using both crapple and microsucks products.

[robertlipe]

Hey, Balloo&bd.

 

I know you've been at this for a while and I'm not trying to be mean or start a fight, but I'd advise you to look at a different class of products. Not to be disparaging, but this is a dead market for a good reason.

 

Laptops are terrible to navigate by. I've tried it with every product above and even my own product (which I'm not recommending because it's terrible for this...) It's my personal experience that even the worst Nuvi you can buy today is a better auto nav system than any combination of S&T, Mapsource, Mapsend, Street Atlas, etc. It's not a coincidence that all those programs have stopped focusing on this market. I have over a 120 GPSes and there's still a StreetPilot 2720 on my dash, so I can speak for nostalgia. Any Nuvi (with "LM" or, better yet, "LMT" in its name to add "T"raffic to "Lifetime Maps") for $100 is going to be much less aggravating than keeping a laptop running. An old cell fone running Google Maps with offline maps cached (has to be refreshed every 30 days) or a data-only SIM is going to give you the streets that you won't get on a Mapsend CD (for the cost of the Nuvi...) for years. If you're doing things like multi-point routing (I do) you may need to move from the bottom of the product line, but the overall experience is just better. The price of licensing the map data from Navteq/TeleAtlas is crushing in low volumes.

 

I used to love S&T - it was my favorite mapping app for years. There are features in GPSBabel that exist for me power-caching with S&T...in 2003. https://www.gpsbabel.org/formats/s_and_t/Importing_into_Microsoft_Streets_and_Trips_2003.html I traveled thousands of miles with a laptop operated by a co-pilot, shouting out turn-by-turns and reading geocache descriptions, but I just can't imagine doing it these days.

 

Sorry if that sounds like tough love, but it kind of goes hand in hand with my previous post on serial port GPS...

[+two left feet]

Hey, Balloo&bd.

 

I used to love S&T - it was my favorite mapping app for years. There are features in GPSBabel that exist for me power-caching with S&T...in 2003. https://www.gpsbabel.org/formats/s_and_t/Importing_into_Microsoft_Streets_and_Trips_2003.html I traveled thousands of miles with a laptop operated by a co-pilot, shouting out turn-by-turns and reading geocache descriptions, but I just can't imagine doing it these days.

 

Sorry if that sounds like tough love, but it kind of goes hand in hand with my previous post on serial port GPS...

 

Robert; there are still a few of us old timers out here doing it on a laptop with a copilot. Just this week I put together a 345 mile track to get caches along a trail to pick up 13 counties in my state. It is just so good to be able to zoom back and get a big picture and then plan an attack. Also I am able to overlay a .kml file with the county lines so I can see them clearly as we drive. See my test page here; County lines and cache finds We cache in remote areas where having the Topo maps help make sense of which approach to take. Granted that for auto travel to a destination I use a Nuvi and for casual caching I use an iPad. However I still find uses for Babel, GSAK and Delorme Topo. But indeed the laptop and software are going but not quite dead yet. BTW; thanks for all your work that makes Geocaching fun for a lot of us! Not to mention .kml, .gpx and other conversions.

Edited February 2, 2017 by two left feet

[alandb]

If you search around, you can still find some online stores that claim to have Delorme Street Atlas USA Plus 2015. Of course when Garmin bought Delorme they discontinued the Street Atlas product, so you can no longer get it directly from the company. But some stores may still have it as new (old stock). The Street Atlas Plus product supports using a GPS USB puck on a Windows laptop and does a pretty good job of road navigation. It doesn't really have geocaching functions AFAIK, although you can import waypoints.

 

I run Street Atlas and Topo on my laptop Win 7 and have for years. You can import an entire .gpx pocket query directly into a draw layer. But it is much more functional to run through GSAK and export all the HTML parts onto the hard drive and then export the waypoints as a .txt for import to Street Atlas. You can then click on a push pin and pull up all the cache info offline. Sadly by 2015 when the last update to SA happened it was already out of date and bugs were no longer being fixed so you would be running with less than accurate information. The other downside is that SA is extremely powerful and has lots of options which means you have a long learning curve. On top of that Garmin DELETED years of support on Delorme's forum so all the past wisdom and help is gone forever. Thanks a lot Garmin!!!

 

On the other hand, I have retired my laptop and moved to Cachly running on an iPad. I can run entirely offline with maps and pocket query and use a bluetooth GPS to provide position information to the iPad. As soon as Cashly ports to Android I will be ditching the iPad and moving to Android tablets. So the need for laptop navigation is slowly becoming extinct. If you just need map and navigation without any Geocaching support I run Mapfactor Navigator free version. Pretty basic OSM maps with basic routing and no .gpx or .kml support. But it is on a laptop. You may need to be good at GPS setup to get a USB puck to work with it.

 

It may be out there but I don't know of a current Windoze based laptop program with offline maps and good support of Geocaching.

 

You can still find the Delorme Forum content on Wayback Machine. (archive.org/web/). The newest image seems to be from Sept. 2014.

[+two left feet]

 

You can still find the Delorme Forum content on Wayback Machine. (archive.org/web/). The newest image seems to be from Sept. 2014.

 

Well live and learn. Had never been there before. Thanks VERY MUCH for this helpful tip!