Is there any way you can get Routis 04 to work with Delorme Earthmate USB?

MatrixPC · 05-12-2004, 11:19 AM

Is there any way you can get Routis 04 to work with Delorme Earthmate USB?
I would like to use Routis instead of Street Atlas, but Deluo stated that the software doesn't work with Earthmate USB receiver. Is there a way around?

spectrrr · 05-12-2004, 11:37 AM

even worse, I have a Serial Earthmate GPS with a Serial=>USB adapter (laptop doesnt have serial) and havnt been able to get it to work with Routis either.

wi77iam · 05-12-2004, 01:16 PM

I haven't been able to get my usb Earthmate to work with Routis yet, using the latest usb-serial drivers from DeLorme. As soon as I select the comm port in Routis, I get the BSOD. Routis says it's the drivers that are at fault, but it is odd that I can run the Earthmate with the usb-serial driver on Mappoint and every other GPS program just fine.

I would keep trying to get this to work, but when I use Routis with my Magellan hand-held, I'm coming to the conclusion that Routis is just not worth it. Sure the 3D maps are nice, but the small fonts and small zoom buttons make me want to go back to my Street Atlas with its large fonts and voice command.

MatrixPC · 05-12-2004, 01:52 PM

I like SA but the routing is $uck. If I intended to take a wrong route, it doesn't recalculate (I did enable the option) new route. Voice command after an intended "wrong way" is out of sync and useless.
I want to see other options

wi77iam · 05-12-2004, 08:04 PM

Woohoo. Finally got it to work. Thanks to Mr. Curiosity and his xport comm port splitter.

You set up your Earthmate to use the usb-serial driver and assign it a comm port. Then you run xport and select the Earthmate port as the hardware port and select a virtual port. Then you need to run any program that will "drive" the Earthmate, like another gps program or even just hyper-terminal. Then start Routis and select the virtual port.

Viola!! Routis is now running with Earthmate.

Curiosity, you da man.

MatrixPC · 05-12-2004, 11:46 PM

That is freaking good.
The process is kinda cumbersome, but much better than not working at all.
wi77iam is it a one time deal or everytime you want to use routis with earthmate?

spectrrr · 05-13-2004, 01:02 AM

very nice find, thanks for the info

I'm guessing its everytime you want to use Routis w/ Earthmate...

how would you use a hyperterminal to drive the gps? that seems like the ideal solution, cause SA takes forever to load, and takes up system resources

wi77iam · 05-13-2004, 06:46 AM

You can set up the Earthmate to always use the usb-serial driver. Then you just have to start the xport program, start the gps driver program, then start Routis. Could all be done with a batch file on startup.

wi77iam · 05-13-2004, 06:49 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by spectrrr

very nice find, thanks for the info

I'm guessing its everytime you want to use Routis w/ Earthmate...

how would you use a hyperterminal to drive the gps? that seems like the ideal solution, cause SA takes forever to load, and takes up system resources

Just start up hyper-terminal and connect to the comm port. The gps NMEA data stream will start displaying. The virtual ports in xport need that data source from the hardware port to work.

spectrrr · 05-13-2004, 01:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by wi77iam

Just start up hyper-terminal and connect to the comm port. The gps NMEA data stream will start displaying. The virtual ports in xport need that data source from the hardware port to work.

nice nice, thanks for the info wi77iam.

if you save the connection info, then set it to start automatically with windows.... perfect.... now all thats left to do is figure out a way to have it automatically run hidden in the background.... anyone have any simple utilities up their sleeve to do that? :d

fondoo · 05-13-2004, 02:53 PM

hmm... thats funny. the deluo website indicates....

"Routis is not compatible with the Earthmate USB GPS Receiver, due to an incompatible Delorme USB-to-Serial bridge driver implementation. "

MatrixPC · 05-13-2004, 04:44 PM

Ok let me straight this out. Since I don't want to use SA cuz it use too much resource and too long to start up. The port number are just sample.
SETUP
- Start hyperterminal and select the com port where USB-to-Serial com port is (COM3).
- Start xport and have the left most drop down box select COM3
- One of the other 3 drop boxes select COM6
- Start Routis and configure it to use COM6 where GPS receiver is.

USAGE:
- Run Hyperterminal
- Run Xport (install service must be checked in SETUP step)
- Run Routis
- Enjoy

Is that right wi77iam?

wi77iam · 05-13-2004, 10:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by MatrixPC

Ok let me straight this out. Since I don't want to use SA cuz it use too much resource and too long to start up. The port number are just sample.
SETUP
- Start hyperterminal and select the com port where USB-to-Serial com port is (COM3).
- Start xport and have the left most drop down box select COM3
- One of the other 3 drop boxes select COM6
- Start Routis and configure it to use COM6 where GPS receiver is.

USAGE:
- Run Hyperterminal
- Run Xport (install service must be checked in SETUP step)
- Run Routis
- Enjoy

Is that right wi77iam?

Yep that'll work. I'm going to set up a batch file to kick everthing off and put it in my Startup folder. It would be nice if hyperterminal and xport can run minimized.

spectrrr · 05-13-2004, 10:22 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by wi77iam

It would be nice if hyperterminal and xport can run minimized.

thats what i'm trying to figure out how to do....

i know i had a program kicking around somewhere that let you minimise selected applications directly to the system tray instead of the start bar, so if you can get Hyperterminal to auto-minimise, that MIGHT work. OR if you can get hyperterminal to start minimised, that MIGHT work also (although i doubt it)

Yang · 05-13-2004, 11:18 PM

Just configure the shortcut to the hyperterminal file to run minimized..