Handheld/Laptop combination

I'm the guy that posted back in March about my Garmin 12CX and its
burned out backlight and failing memory battery. Rather than pay for
repairs, I ended up just buying a GPSMap 76 ($143 from Amazon) which
serves my basic needs (which way? and how far?). I've never been all
that enthused about postage stamp sized maps on handhelds but my new
one does everything a mapless 76 will do and it cost less too.
But before I pitch my 12CX in the trash, I've been thinking how nice
it would be if I could hook it up to my laptop, using just the
antenna/receiver parts of the gps (sitting on my dashboard) and a
laptop as a chartplotter (on the front seat). Now there's a screen
size I can use as a chartplotter. And since I already have the
hardware (gps, laptop, serial cable) I'm wondering, does there exist
software to do what I'm thinking? (basically, I want the laptop to do
everything that the GPS would normally do except receive signals) And
if so, who provides it? And how much? And what sort of "gotchas" have
I not considered? (yes, I've considered the laptop on the floor if I
have to slam on brakes)
Anyhow, thanks in advance for any advice/ideas.

Rick

I've done this - use the GPS as an NMEA data source, with a power/data
cable and external antenna, I've just stuck the thing under the seat
and pretty much forgot about it.

Get a cable:

http://www.pfranc.com/cgi-bin/P/pCombo32/garmin-GPS-cables

And an antenna:

http://www.gilsson.com/

Just have to get the thing set to output the data...might be tough
with a goofy display.


On Sun, 04 May 2008 15:28:00 -0500, PhantMan@nospam.invalid wrote
(with clarity & insight):

okay thanks. But what did you use for laptop software?

On Sun, 04 May 08, Wayne R wrote:

On Sun, 04 May 08, PhantMan wrote

Wayne R wrote:

I'm just playin' around. That's why I don't want to spend much on this
little endeavor.


In fact, I have a broadband wireless card so I can use my laptop
anywhere in my house via a wirless modem. I'm not sure how I would use
it riding down the road in a car though. We're talkin' range a only a
few hundred feet here.

Rick.

On Mon, 05 May 2008 17:09:23 -0500, PhantMan@nospam.invalid wrote
(with clarity & insight):


Oh, I didn't mean WiFi, but one of the cellular systems' type. I've
got one from Verizon and it works much better than I expected.