Communication ports

You can connect most GPS receivers to your computer through the computer’s serial port. If you want to download data from a GPS receiver to use with a digital map or upload maps and data to a GPS receiver, your computer needs a serial port and a special cable to connect the two devices. (Note: Some GPS receivers use a faster USB connector to interface with a computer.) If your computer doesn’t have a serial port, as is the case with a number of laptop computers, you need a USB adapter and serial cable to connect your GPS receiver to a computer. Read more about this in Chapter 9, also. If your GPS receiver supports both a serial connection and a Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory card for storing data, use the memory card when you’re exchanging data. It’s both faster and easier to use than a serial cable when interfacing the GPS receiver to your computer. You will need a card reader connected to your computer to transfer data to and from the memory card.