Connecting Garmin handheld to laptop for OpenCPN or SeaClear

[kwalters]

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx handheld. If I wanted to use it with a laptop for OpenCPN or SeaClear which cable would I use? Has anyone successfully done this and if so any advice? Thanks in advance.
Ken

[Administrator]

Hi, Ken:

Leave the handheld GPS topside, if that's your practice. You can get a GPS with a USB cable for as little as $36.95. Just plug it right into your laptop.

This GPS works just fine inside the cabin on our boat, and its performance is amazing compared to older generation devices.

When you're tiptoeing into that creek with the winding, unmarked channel, just bring the laptop and GPS up on deck, and drill down in the electronic charts on the laptop.

I love both of the programs you mentioned.

Bill

[rigspelt]

Same experience as Bill, using a Garmin 76C which has a less sensitive receiver chip than yours. I made an extra long UBS cable so I could leave the GPS in the cockpit and the laptop below in the cabin, with the receiver acting like a GPS antenna for the laptop. Found I could leave the receiver in the cabin too when we were down in the US off the eastern seaboard. At the time I was using OziExplorer and Garmin's moving map software, but any charplotting software that is Garmin-receiver aware would work with a USB cable.