NMEA GPS Connection

I am trying to use a Garmin GPS18x USB device with my Sirius system but I am having no luck getting Dewesoft to recognize it. The computer is running Windows 10. I can see the GPS device in Windows. Dewesoft, however, can't find the device. In the Dewesoft setup screen it only gives an option for looking at the COM 3 port. On my computer system COM 3 is taken by another device. Is there a way to have Dewesoft look at other ports, or do I need a different GPS device?

Dear Andrew,

unfortunately this version of the Garmin GPS will not work in DEWESoft, because it's only able to output data in a Garmin proprietary format.

If we look at this page on the Garmin website, they note the following information:

"GPS 18x PC — has DB-9 pin serial connector with a 12 V cigarette lighter adapter; can output data in NMEA 0183 format (industry standard) or proprietary Garmin format.

GPS 18x USB — has A-style USB connector, compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 full-speed hosts; can output data in Garmin proprietary format only.

GPS 18x LVC — has bare wire for connection to a variety of applications; can output data in NMEA 0183 format (industry standard) or proprietary Garmin format; provides a pulse-per-second logic-level output with a rising edge aligned to within 1 microsecond of UTC time".

If you want to use a 3rd party GPS in DEWESoft it has to support the NMEA 0183 format (which is a standard GPS format). The list above shows that the Garmin GPS 18x PC and 18x LVC are able to output data in that format, but the USB version is not.

Thank you for the information on the Garmin output data formats. I should have looked more closely at the specs of the Garmin units.