GPSMAP176C Software Version 4.10
------------------------------------------------------------
To view the software version, complete the following steps:
1.Press the Menu key twice to access the Main Menu.
2.Select the System tab ( Systm ), and press Menu.
3.Select the System Information option and press Enter.
4.The software version will be displayed on screen.
------------------------------------------------------------
Warnings:
If this software is uploaded to a GPS unit other than the product for
which it is designed, you will not be able to operate that unit.
If the upload software fails, verify that you have good batteries
installed and try again. If repeated upload attempts fail, you may need
to return the unit to GARMIN for service.
------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
------------------------------------------------------------
Changes History:
Version 4.00 to 4.10
1. Fixed handling of Daylight Savings Time in Europe.
2. Added Metric Nautical underflow support for meters.
3. Fixed display handling of the depth field when disconnected.
4. Disabled Change Data Field option when page layout is NONE.
5. Added GPS Status as a configurable Data Field item.
6. Corrected problems with tide calculations.
7. Fixed drawing of text labels on the map.
8. Fixed find address to support all valid characters when entering a house number.
9. Corrected issue with route creation.
10. Fixed problem with scrollbar when viewing a list of exit services.
11. Corrected display of diacritics for Croatian cartography.
12. Change for manufacturing.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.95 to 4.00:
1. Updated the non-English translation strings.
2. Added support for non-US time zones.
3. Fixed bug so editing a field will be stopped when the menu key is pressed.
4. Fixed address/intersection search to work with searches by city.
5. Modified the address/intersection search results page to display five results at a time.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.94 to 3.95:
1. Fixed bug on data card information page to prevent unit shutdown.
2. Fixed MapSource data transmission bug introduced in last release.
3. More tide chart adjustments.
4. Increased number of proximity waypoints to 50.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.93 to 3.94:
1. Added support for new address formats found in Puerto Rico.
2. Added a 'Recent' tab to the main waypoints page.
3. Added new page layout option to map page that includes the compass pointer.
4. Removed 'Full Screen Map' map menu option.
5. Modified Time Setup page to remember the last Time Zone or Offset when user changes to UTC and back.
6. Fixed bug in using UTC time that caused the Sun & Moon page to freeze unit.
7. Fixed bug with Auto Daylight savings time so it works for more than just the current year.
8. Fixed tide chart to shift based on local time setting to show UTC.
9. Fixed incorrect hyphen wrapping bug.
10. Fixed Save Color Tracks list so the color blocks match up with the names.
11. Fixed problem with Urban Land being the wrong color.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.92 to 3.93:
1. Fixed behavior of "Next" button on the waypoint review page.
2. Fixed problem with editing routes using the "Use Map" menu option.
3. Fixed problem with inserting waypoints into routes using "Edit as Text" method.
4. Added tab wrapping support to main menu pages.
5. Added bitmap icon to the description box of the hilighted item when doing a find operation.
6. Corrected moon phase display problem for southern hemisphere.
7. Added more detailed layout options to numerics page.
8. Fixed city selection when using older Metroguide data.
9. Added Course Pointer support to the Pointer/Compass page.
10. Added Zoom In/Zoom Out Shortcut Keys for Time scrolling on Celestial Pages.
11. Added Find and Navigation context support to celestial pages.
12. While in cursor move mode on the Tide Page, allow date to scroll when cursor reaches left or right edge.
13. Restructured Alarms page into multiple tabs.
14. Removed support for match quality in address select page.
15. Fixed problem where waypoint labels did not show up on map.
16. Fixed problem of the unit freezing when the cursor came back from being outside of the map area.
17. Switched from yellow highlight colors to previous color scheme.
18. Fixed marsh bitmap drawing problem.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.91 to 3.92:
1. Fixed data transfers to be compatible with all versions of Mapsource.
2. Fixed street finds to work with older Mapsource data.
3. Combined System, Time, Units, Location, and Interface(Comm) tabs from the main menu into one Setup Tab.
4. Combined Tide, Sun & Moon, and Hunt & Fish tabs from the main menu into one Celes Tab.
5. Fixed bug introduce in last release with the User Datum on the Location Setup page.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.70 to 3.91:
1. Support added for nearest point searches.
2. Added auto fuel, convenience stores, and truck stops to auto fuel group.
3. Increased maximum length of number when performing an address search.
4. Support added to enable/disable supplemental maps based on map families.
5. Halo highlighting of waypoints now supported.
6. Proximity Circles radius may now be adjusted through Map->Waypoint setup page.
7. Automatically switch to North Up Orientation when zoom level is greater than 120 miles and the unit is set to Track Up Orientation.
8. New advanced heading line - Define heading line by distance or time.
9. Added various national grid location formats.
10. Changed UTC to a time format instead of a time zone.
11. Changed pointer heading to remain in same direction when GPS signal is lost.
12. Changed Distance Measure behavoir - Quit key will stop measuring but leave the map panned.
13. Improved route arrow drawing.
14. Battery Capacity Low Warning improvements made.
15. Fixed European WAAS shutdown problem.
16. Fixed font size problem for cardinal lettering on numerics page.
17. Fixed so waypoints can now have spaces in name.
18. Updated tab and highlight colors.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.60 to 3.70:
1. Fix to update nav when you insert/remove a waypoint to/from an active route.
2. French Translation: Changed string for "On" from "Le" to "On."
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.50 to 3.60:
1. Corrected problem with European Tides.
2. Corrected problem with manual route edit.
------------------------------------------------------------
Versions 3.40 to 3.50:
1. Improved non-volatile memory storage of WAAS/EGNOS ionospheric mask corrections.
2. Reduced delays in aquiring a position when using differential GPS.
3. Added Canadian tide support.
------------------------------------------------------------
Changes History:
Versions 3.30 to 3.40:
-Corrections-
1. French translation update.
------------------------------------------------------------
Changes History:
Versions 3.20 to 3.30:
-Corrections-
1. Fixed problem with changing elevation units. Now able to change to meters
without having to restart the unit.
2. Improve WAAS/EGNOS satellite selection algorithm to select the satellite
with the most beneficial corrections given the unit's current position.
Units will not use a WAAS/EGNOS satellite if the unit's current position
is outside of a given WAAS/EGNOS satellite's service volume.
3. Enabled CPO_RCV output. This allows for doing high accuracy surveying by
post-processing our carrier phase data.
4. New French translations.
------------------------------------------------------------
Change History:
Versions 3.10 to 3.20
-Corrections-
1. Corrected problem that prevented a user non-volatile memory clear.
----------------------
Change History:
Versions 2.08 to 3.10
-Corrections-
1. Fixed problem on the tide page of displaying local time vs. station time.
2. Fixed problem of serial map transfer to a datacard via MapSource.
3. Fixed text inconsistency on the Units tab.
4. Fixed cursor on the x-axis of the tide page.
-Improvements-
-Additions-
1. Added the ability for the user to change the color of a saved track on the screen.
Saved tracks may be displayed in one of 16 different colors.
2. Added support for South African Grid coordinates.
3. Added support for EOV Hungarian Grid coordinates.
4. Added duplicate interstate name support for exit searches.
5. Added support for Australian tide data.
6. Added support for Enhanced Blue Chart Symbol sets.
7. Added a new tab "Navaids" which includes settings for Symbol Sets, Text Size, and Light Sectors.
8. Added Hungarian language support.
9. Added diacritics support for map text.Change History:
----------------------
Change History:
Versions 2.07 to 2.08:
-Corrections-
1. Corrected lockup problem when navigating a track back.
2. Fixed color mapping when downloading screen shots to a PC.
3. Changed the weigh station bitmap to match that of the GPSMap176.
4. Corrected problem which would prevent the display of a nearest exit
road search.
-Improvements-
-Additions-
----------------------
Versions 2.06 to 2.07:
-Corrections-
1. Restored compatibility with some 2MB data cards which was
lost in rev 2.06.
2. When reviewing a chart accessed by pointing to deep water
on that chart, provide a "Create Waypoint" option to
allow waypoint creation as the default behavior.
3. Prevented some unnecessary map draws.
4. Corrected a problem that caused the unit to draw the Course
Line incorrectly when a Man Overboard operation overrides a
GOTO operation before the unit has a fix.
5. Fixed an error that prevented the Arrival alarm from
re-triggering during a Go To operation if the distance
option was selected and the distance value was changed.
6. Fixed a problem where route lines were not being clipped
properly on the edge of the screen when the route waypoints
were close together.
7. Corrected a potential problem when adding the last available point
to a route.
8. Unit now reports "Blank Card" instead of "Incompatible
Card Format" when a card with no data has been inserted.
9. Corrected size reporting problem that occurred in certain
types of data cards.
10. Updated language translations with corrections.
-Improvements-
1. Improved distance and bearing calculations for higher
map zoom scales.
2. Improved accuracy of map cursor operations.
3. Enhanced NMEA depth capability to support both DBT and DPT sentences.
-Additions-
1. Added light sector support to both the map page and the review page.
2. Increased the number of waypoints in a route to 254 from 50.
3. Added track area calculation to the saved track review page.
4. Implemented the display in configurable fields of route waypoint
detail for the active route waypoint, next active route waypoint,
and the destination route waypoint.
5. Added Czechoslovakian to the list of languages choices.
6. Implemented new Advanced NMEA setup item for setting the
Waypoint ID output format. This should allow for backwards
compatibility with a wider range of NMEA driven products,
including older AutoPilots.
----------------------
Versions 2.05 to 2.06:
-Corrections-
1. Eliminated potential problem in transferring maps
directly from MapSource for certain map sizes.
2. Corrected handling of waypoint deletion when leaving
the Waypoint Edit page.
3. Fixed problem where the Anchor Drag alarm was not properly
reset for subsequent alarm conditions.
4. Updated language translations with corrections.
-Improvements-
1. Improved handling of map points used in Find and
Navigation contexts.
2. Improved WAAS operation prior to completing the collection
of the almanac data.
3. Made greater use of mixed case in the Map Setup page.
----------------------
Versions 2.04 to 2.05:
-Corrections-
1. Fixed problem in NMEA output which could cause PSLIB not to
be transmitted.
2. Corrected display of baud rate on the Communications
tab page so as to properly leave room for the status.
3. Never use WAAS correction if a port is set to RTCM.
4. Corrected time axis values on tide chart for stations
with UTC offsets of -10 hours.
5. Corrected a problem which could cause certain Marine
Service points to not be found by the Find Menu.
6. Resolved an issue with the Find Menu Map Selection option
which could prevent valid maps for Marine Services and
Geographic Points from being displayed.
7. Corrected highlight behavior for toggling between Marine
Service details and contact information when scanning the map.
8. Changed meter units overflow threshold to prevent sudden
jumps to kilometers when there is adequate space for display in
meters alone.
9. Always update a waypoint's data upon return to the user
Waypoint Edit page. This corrects a problem where a
waypoint's position, distance, and bearing was not
updated after 'Show on Map' was selected and the
waypoint was moved on the map.
10. Handled application of North Reference Offset in the Waypoint
Edit page when projecting a waypoint so that the NRO of the
reference or projected location can be applied, instead of
the NRO of the current location.
11. Correctly handled the order of address street names and numbers
consistently with the local conventions in the map region in
which the address is located.
12. Fixed problem preventing next street from being shown on map page in some
instances.
13. Draw spar buoys in their actual color instead of always
black.
14. Displayed North reference source in bearing data where it
was previously missing.
15. Made corrections to all text translations.
-Improvements-
1. Implemented color scheme to provide better contrast and less
washout when used in combination with the backlight outside.
2. Sped up Find Menu category determination. Find categories now
are only presented if there is a map feature of that type
somewhere in the currently available maps. Find categories
are also saved for several cards.
3. Enhanced Find Menu Map Selection option further by improving
consistency in map selection between nearest and by name
searches so that every attempt is made to use the same
map family where possible.
4. Improved the visibility of the cursor on the tide chart,
and made it moveable.
5. Improved consistency of the 'Declutter' map feature.
6. Improved the appearance of the pointer tail.
7. Improved Find Address/Intersection pages to be
consistent in size and font usage with other Find related
pages.
8. Displayed as the first item in the Nav Key Menu an option
to reactivate the current Go To if currently doing a
Go To to a point in the active route.
-Additions-
1. Implemented progress indication for first-time card reads.
2. Implemented an 'Append To Route' option on the Waypoint Edit
page to allow appending of waypoints to new and existing
routes.
----------------------
Versions 2.03 to 2.04:
1. Allow individual classes of NMEA sentences to be
disabled via an advanced NMEA setup page.
2. Added support for BWC, XTE and VTG NMEA sentences.
3. Added generation of 'Datum' NMEA sentence.
4. Restore Celestial and Hunt and Fish Pages' time & position
to current time and current location at power-on.
5. Always update a waypoint's data upon return to the user
waypoint review page. This corrects a problem where a
waypoint's position, distance, and bearing was not
updated after 'Show on Map' was selected and the
waypoint was moved on the map.
6. Corrected a map drawing problem which caused country
names to not be centered on their anchor point.
7. Go-From position is now properly remembered when the
unit is turned off then on again.
8. Improve collection of WAAS data when tracking more than
one WAAS satellite.
9. Update the map when transitioning to the next leg in a
route.
10. Added translations for Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German,
Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish.
11. Fixed possible lockup when calculating sun/moon rise and
set times for extreme latitudes.
12. Integrated choice of 'Other Location' or 'Current Location' into
the Find Menu itself for such pages as the Celestial and Hunt
& Fish.
13. Corrected a map drawing problem which could cause bridges
in BlueChart data to appear fuzzy, and slightly larger
than intended.
14. Improved responsiveness and accuracy of unit reaction to
insertion of a data card; especially when large data cards are used.
15. Optimized Find Menu to improve responsiveness for multiple
Map types, such as Marine Service or Geographic Points.
16. Added Fishing Hot Spot Facilities support to the Find Menu.
17. Added an integrated Nearest and By Name tab page to the Find Menu,
where Spell-n-Find is possible.
18. Improved Tide page operation by using the Find Menu for searching
for nearest Tide stations.
19. Enhanced the Map Page with a new Declutter Option, allowing
the user the opportunity to clear away detail from such items
as: Businesses, Fishing Hot Spot Facilities, Geo Points,
Spot Soundings, and Map Borders.
20. Added separate Map Setup options for Businesses, Fishing Hot Spot
Facilities, and Marine Services.
21. Enhanced the User Waypoint Page with the capability to now
project a waypoint based on other map data through the Find Menu
as well as through directly setting the Distance and/or Bearing.
22. Added support for a new Swedish grid.
23. Always display airports when available in map data.
24. Corrected problem with speed filter not remembering previous
setting when power cycled.
25. Added support for diacritic characters in map data.
26. Added the ability to find streets by each word in the name when
supported by the map data.
----------------------
Versions 2.02 to 2.03:
1. Improved speed and reliability of autolocate operation.
2. Improved WAAS acquisition and reliability.
3. Widened text font vowels to improve legibility.
4. Enhanced Find menu operation to include Marine Services, Tides, Navaids,
Anchorages, Wrecks/Obstructions, and Restricted Areas. Look and feel of
new Find menu now matches Garmin fixed mount Blue Chart units with
the addition of Spell-n-Find as well as Address/Intersection lookup.
5. Added DGPS and Accuracy alarms.
6. Added support for "Other Location" Find option on the Celestial and
Hunt tab so position could be selected from map.
7. Enhanced main menu unit settings with Direction Display option of
Cardinal Letters, Numeric Degrees, or Mils.
8. Separated setting of Elevation units from Distance and Speed units.
9. Updated the Anchor Drag alarm with a persistent alarm sound until
acknowledged so as to allow the user sufficient time to be alerted.
10. Improved retention of last highlight position on the Main Menu pages.
11. Enhanced Blue Chart map point review with the ability to jump to the
exact chart associated with a particular point on the Data Card
Information page.
12. Tide page now informs the user if the tide data is inaccurate.
13. Corrected NMEA input support for GPS related sentences.
14. Improved Blue Chart map selection criteria for boundary conditions.
----------------------
Versions 2.01 to 2.02:
1. Correctly determined when and where the map should be drawn.
2. Corrected list order for units' page and configurable fields.
----------------------
Versions 2.00 to 2.01:
1. Prevented default Loran TD setup from being invalid.
2. Stored saved track point locations so that they don't move when being
transferred back and forth between the unit and a PC.
3. Implemented optimized display redrawing.
4. Implemented improved palette and transformation capabilities.
5. Improved colors of bitmaps and added several new bitmaps.
6. Poweron now jumps to GPS page and will auto change to the
map page upon obtaining a fix or canceled via a keypress.
7. Implemented correction in time field initialization in the
active route page.
8. Implemented correction in data card detection on the disclaimer
page when a data card is hot swapped while gathering copyright data.
9. Map drawing improvements added including fixes for symbol labeling
and map outlines.
10. Highway field improvements to font selection based on scale added.
11. Implemented improved backlight limit checking based on available voltage
and temperature.
------------------------------------------------------------
Upload Instructions:
Instructions for uploading the new software to your GPSMAP176C using Microsoft
Windows 95/98/NT:
1. Download the appropriate self-extracting archive file for your GPSMAP176C
onto your hard drive.
2. Unzip the files in the archive by running the downloaded executable file.
3. Connect your GPSMAP176C to a free serial port (Com 1, 2, 3, or 4) on your PC
with a PC interface cable.
4. Turn on your GPSMAP176C and ensure the Serial Data Format is set to
"GARMIN Data Transfer". You can find this setting in the Main Menu under
"Setup".
5. Change to the directory in which you unzipped the files,
(i.e., C:\GARMIN), and run the update program, updater.exe. Select the
appropriate serial port and click "OK" to begin the software upload.
During the upload, the GPSMAP176C's display will indicate "Software
Loading...." The upload process should take 3-10 minutes to complete.
When the upload is completed, the GPSMAP176C will reset itself and turn on
normally.
------------------------------------------------------------
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.