Garmin Rhino 120

Overview

Importing and exporting data from/to the Garmin Rhino 120 units can be accomplished in several ways, resulting in several possible file formats. Care should always be taken to note the spatial reference system used to collect data, and how these data are handled by any import/export software. These units use a serial interface, therefore you will need a machine with a serial port or an appropriate USB serial port adapter. The best has several applications installed, and more information on possible software solution can be found here.

In general it is best to save your waypoint or track data in GPX format, as this format is text-based and can easily be converted to other formats. Most applications will create GPX files using the native coordinate system of GPS (geographic coordinates WGS84 datum). Care should be taken to ensure that any GPX file created (for the purposes of uploading data to a GPS) contain "tags" (attributes) that conform to the standard names the GPS unit expects. Here are the tags that the Garmin Rhino 120 expects:

• ele the elevation in meters
• name the name of the waypoint
• cmt a comment about the waypoint
• desc a short description of the waypoint
• sym the symbol to use for plotting (default is 'Waypoint')

Software Tools

It is possible to integrate the tools below with popular GIS applications. See each program's website for details on ArcMap / GRASS integration.

• DNRGarmin A full-featured GUI-based application for Windows
• GPSbabel Simple command-line/GUI-based application for Windows, MacOS, and Linux
• QGIS Limited GPS functionality, application for Windows, MacOS, and Linux

Examples

Gpsbabel

garmin-specific notes

 
From GRASS
Importing will automatically convert coordinates to the spatial reference system of the current location. It is important to rename columns in the attribute table to conform to what the GPS unit expects-- this can be done when converting from shapefile to GPX file. If the standard GPS attributes are not used, the waypoints will be automatically numbered upon upload to the GPS. The GPX_USE_EXTENSIONS=YES creation option allows attribute data that do not conform to the standard waypoint naming conventions to be included in the GPS file. The GPS will ignore these data.

• Import track (from GPS)
  v.in.gpsbabel -t in=/dev/ttyS0 out=gps_track
• Import watpoints (from GPS)
  v.in.gpsbabel -w in=/dev/ttyS0 out=gps_points
• Export (to GPS) [see attached files at bottom of page]
  
  # export point vector 'wp' to shp file
  v.out.ogr in=wp type=point dsn=wp.shp
  
   
  # translate wp.shp to wp_gps.gpx (GPX file)
  # note that we are re-naming the column 'cat' to 'name'
  ogr2ogr -t_srs '+proj=latlong +datum=WGS84' \
  -f GPX -dsco GPX_USE_EXTENSIONS=YES \
  -sql "SELECT cat AS name FROM wp" \
  wp_gps.gpx wp.shp
  
   
  # upload the wp_gps.gpx file to the GPS unit
  gpsbabel -i gpx -f wp_gps.gpx -o garmin -F /dev/ttyS0

 
Examples using the command line and the GPX file format

• Import (from GPS)
  1. Import waypoints from garmin to GPX file
     gpsbabel -i garmin -f /dev/ttyS0 -o gpx -F garmin_points.gpx
  2. Import track from garmin to GPX file
     gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f /dev/ttyS0 -o gpx -F garmin_track.gpx
• Export (to GPS)
  1. Export waypoints from GPX file to garmin
     gpsbabel -i gpx -f garmin_points.gpx -o garmin -F /dev/ttyS0

Converting to/from GPX format

See example waypoint and track GPX files attached at the bottom of this page.

 
Using GDAL/OGR

• Convert GPX to Shapefile (note the file order) [data are in geographic coordinates WGS84]
  ogr2ogr waypts.shp waypoints.gpx
• Convert GPX to Shapefile, and project to UTM z10 NAD83
  ogr2ogr -t_srs '+proj=UTM +zone=10 +datum=NAD83' waypts.shp waypoints.gpx
• Convert Shapefile to GPX format, note that we need to inverse project to LL WGS84
  
  # note that we are re-naming the column 'cat' to 'name'
  ogr2ogr -t_srs '+proj=latlong +datum=WGS84' \
  -f GPX -dsco GPX_USE_EXTENSIONS=YES \
  -sql "SELECT cat AS name FROM wp" \
  wp_gps.gpx wp.shp