Today I was in our computer department getting some maintenence done when I noticed one of the techs was making his own serial to Garmin connector.

Apparantly the diagrams for the pin connections are available somewhere on the net. or in the Garmin manual. (Etrex) I didn't ask where but will, if I think of it.

For the Garmin connect he used a piece of plastic a bit thinner than a credit card, cut down to size so it would slide in. There was a positioning slot cut into it. Then he used a knife (his tiny drills were at home) to drill holes for each wire to be fed into the plastic.

Then he made other holes further up the card to knit the wires in place so they wouldn't slide out. Then he lightly glued the wire to the plastic right where the contacts on the Garmin were.

He had an old serial connect kickin around that he connected to the other end of the wire. Then he just verified that the connectons were correct with an Ohmeter.

Hey any port in a storm! It worked!

He is still employed and as far as I'm concerned that's the type of guy you need working for ya!