Using old model Garmin Etrex Venture with Garmin Connect

After manually logging miles for about a year, I grew tired of constantly measuring rides and inputting numbers.  I have an older Garmin Etrex Venture (not C or HC) that I have used in the past as a bike computer so I thought I'd see what I could do with it.

Contrary to Garmin's official stance, and the Garmin Connect website, you CAN use old model serial-connection devices with Garmin Connect.  I got my Venture to work on a Windows XP computer and my new Windows 7 laptop.  I thought I would just share how I made this work.

Stuff you'll need:

1) Your Garmin Device.  Here's my Venture:

2) A sync cable. My major problem was that the original sync cable is of course a serial connection, and (like most of us) I don't have a computer with a serial port anymore.  There are a couple of options to fix this.  One is a Serial-USB adapter, which will work with your original serial cable.  Gilsson makes these and I hear they work fairly well.  Here on Amazon.com. (No, I don't get paid for Amazon referral links, illegal in Colorado).  Since I have no clue where my original sync cable is, I needed a different solution, or I would have to buy the original cable and an adapter cable.

I poked around online for a while and found a seller on Ebay purportedly selling single-cable serial/USB adapters for Garmin devices.  The seller had great feedback so I took the chance.  The cable works GREAT! Here's the link to the item I bought, and in case that item is no longer available here is the seller's page on Ebay.

  

You can see it is USB on one end:

And has the 4-point Garmin connection on the other:

The cable came with drivers for Win7, Mac OS, Win XP, and a few legacy Windows OS.  These drivers are provided by Prolific and you can download them here: http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31 should you need them.

The following instructions are in two parts - first the cable driver installation and second getting running on Garmin Connect.  Cable driver instructions will be either A) Windows XP or B) Win7.

A) For an XP installation, it is easiest to install in this order:

1) Put driver CD in drive (or download and extract the driver files to your PC).

2) Plug in the USB cable

3) Windows will run the New Hardware wizard and you can point the driver installation to your local file (CD or download location)

4) Congratulations, drivers successfully installed.  

B) For a Win7 installation:
1) Put driver CD in drive (or download and extract the driver files to your PC).
2) Navigate to the Win7 driver folder and run the driver installation executable.
3) Once installation is complete plug in the cable, and it will be recognized by Win7.

Setting up Garmin Connect:

1) Head to http://connect.garmin.com
2) Register for your account.
3) You will need the Garmin Communicator download so that the website can find your (now) USB-connected device.
4) Once Communicator is installed it will check to see if it can find your device.  Make sure your device is turned on and connected to the computer.
5) Click "Upload" near right side of the top menu bar.  Connect should recognize your device and give you the option to upload your new activities!

Connect has some nice features including the "Reports" section, which I find particularly useful.

So, there you have it.  It can be done.  Garmin Connect's website says that you have to manually upload .GPX files from older devices to work with Connect, but that just isn't the case.