Note: This page describes an obsolete version of GPSBabel that may substantially differ from the current or development version.

GlobalSat GH625XT GPS training watch (globalsat)

This format can...

  • read and write waypoints

  • read and write tracks

  • read and write routes

This format has the following options: showlist, track, dump-file, input-is-dump-file .

Serial download protocol for the GlobalSat Sport gh625XT™ training watch.

The GlobalSat Sport GPS training device present themselves as USBserial devices. To get the training just connect the device using the supplied USB cable to your computer and the device will show up as a serial device.

gpsbabel -i globalsat -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx,garminextensions -F outfile.gpx

Example 3.17. Command showing list of tracks on device

gpsbabel -i globalsat,showlist=1 -f /dev/ttyUSB0


Example 3.18. Command track can be used to fetch a single track, default is all tracks

gpsbabel -i globalsat,track=number -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx,garminextensions -F outfile.gpx


The gh625XT USB cable provides a physical USB interface to the host computer, but internally it uses a Prolific PL-2303 chip to do this. So you must have drivers installed on your computer to recognize the PL-2303 and provide that data as a serial port to software like GPSBabel. Such software comes with the unit for Windows or can be downloaded.

showlist option

list tracks.

The showlist argument displays the list of tracks stored on the device.

Example 3.19. Command showing list of tracks on device

gpsbabel -i globalsat,showlist=1 -f /dev/ttyUSB0


track option

get track.

The 'track' option is used to fetch a single named track, probably one you learned about via the 'showlist' option from a previous invocation, instead of fetching all the tracks, which is our default.

Example 3.20. Command track can be used to fetch a single track, default is all tracks

gpsbabel -i globalsat,track=number -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx,garminextensions -F outfile.gpx


dump-file option

Dump raw data to this file.

The dump-file option is primarily for debugging is module. It lets you provide a file which contains the raw stream of bytes coming from the device. This is useful for capturing device state to describe to a developer that can't actually access hte physical device as well as mocking the entire device for automated regression testing.

gpsbabel 
-i glboalsat,dump-file=gh625xt.bin -f /dev/ttyUSB0

can be used to read the device and store its state in the file gh625xt.bin. That file can then be distributed and someone else can read it with a command line:

 gpsbabel 
-i globalsat,input-is-dump-file=1 -f gh625xt.bin -o gpx -F test.gpx

input-is-dump-file option

Dump raw data to this file.

This is the companion to dump-file and is used to tell the reader that the code is talking to a stored file and not physical hardware.