Garmin sounder

[dollargary]

I have a Garmin 178c gps map sounder, that I no longer can get hot maps for. Could someone tell me if they prefer Garmin or lowrance electronics. I do not want to take any chances while on the water. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[dombern34]

I have the Garmin 541s and i wouldn't trade it in. it is a great gps. Garmin has always been on all my boats and will stay that while unless something just Amazing comes along.

[Badbagger]

Just left West Marine. Going to add a Garmin 720s and in time, a Lowrance HDS8 Gen 2. Garmin has the auto guidance feature which is nice. We're going that route as a safety net should something happen to me, the GPS will take the wife right back to the doc just in the same way your car gps will guide you home.

[reelhandy]

I have the 178C as well. Did you mean that you can't get new bluechart maps? I didn't think the 178C ever could use Hot Maps.

[dollargary]

I have since called the garmin company, and asked them about my garmin 178c sounder and they stated that model is out dated and no longer in stock. They also said they did not have or produce any data cards for the 178c sounder. They did give me some compynies to call that may have data cards for that model. Every one of them said they did not carry dats cards for that unit. So I guess it's time for a new unit. Thanks to all of you who responded to my question. It's great to know there are people who really care about others. Thanks again

[reelhandy]

The latest coastal charts for that unit came out in 2009. I'm thinking that 3 year old charts should still be pretty useful. In fact I'd say they'd be pretty useful until a big storm came along to drastically move the bottom around. At that point though all of the current charts would need to be redone. Now if you are talking about freshwater maps, I don't think they ever made any for that unit. You can still get the latest 2009 Bluechart CD here http://www.tigergps.com/garmapblueca.html . With that you get all of the USA charts, but you can only unlock one area. I think on mine it's Tampa to New Orleans. You do need a data card to load the map onto, but if you have one with old maps on it just overwrite them.
Here's an ebay link to a datacard with Tampa to NO already on it. http://tinyurl.com/cxwm5tt . That auction ends today and it looks like it's going to sell for close to the $30 he starting it at. Those are 2003 maps though so the charts on it are getting a little old.
Something you can do with that units Mapsource software on a computer is to overlay your routes onto the latest Google Earth satellite photo. Then you can then see if an unmarked channel that you have been using has shifted.

[Badbagger]

Search flea bay for this: Garmin g2 Vision 3D VUS515L

I bought one last week for $46.00 Covers our area and it's a 2011 updated card.

[dollargary]

Thanks badbagger and reelhandy iam going to those web sites now.

[reelhandy]

The G2 won't work on a 178c, but here's another site with the CD for sale http://www.c3gps.com/index.php?p=produc ... &parent=11

[dollargary]

Thanks reelhandy, I thought I had made a mistake when I kept getting nothing on the g2 website. I will try the other site.

[reelhandy]

You're welcome dollargary. I think the 178c is a good product. Now that all these gps companies are going to the 3D thing (not a fan myself), to get folks to buy the new stuff they stop supporting the old stuff. I really don't mind looking at my GPS like it's a color 2D chart, and that's all the 178c can do. It's not like they are putting new roads in out there all the time, and if things do change inshore the new maps might not show it either. I think the best deal is that 2003 card on ebay for $30, especially if you don't already have a data card. Then keep your eye out for the newer version. The CD has all the maps, but you have to put them on a card to load them into the GPS. To do that you have to have either a Garmin card writer/reader, or the special Garmin cables to hook the GPS to your PC so that you can load the card in the GPS. I have the card read/writer. The only good thing I can say about that process is that it lets you plan trips and add waypoints on your PC and then load them into the card.

[reelhandy]

Needed to add this follow up. Do not buy the CD's. Evidently Garmin has decided that they will not unlock anything on that CD, regardless of whether or not one possesses a paid for valid unlock code. They have purposely forced that product into obsolescence. The data cards are still workable if you can find them, but they will no longer unlock any map from that CD so that it can be loaded on to any Garmin unit that can use them.
I found this out when I went to add my bought and paid for maps onto the 178C that came with the Parker that I recently bought. The deal with the CD was that you could load the maps you buy onto 2 Garmin devices registered to you with Garmin. They would be locked to the unit they were released to, but 2 units was the deal. In fact the Garmin website still provides that information.
I had the one 178C already, so I registered the other with Garmin and then tried to load the maps......no go. So I call Garmin support and was told that they would no longer allow any new map loads to any of the devices that those maps could use. Now I bought the first 178C in 2008 and paid almost $600 for it. Then I put about $300 into maps, and another $125 in a Garmin proprietary blank data card, and their proprietary card read/writer. That's over a grand invested into a product that they have decided to purposely make obsolete.
I personally am pretty peeved by this.
Anyway when I get peeved I try to find a workaround, and that's what I did.
So dollarguy and anyone else on the forum that has found that Garmin won't provide them with the product service for units using the old Bluecharts that they deserve, let me know. I only wanted to load the Tampa to New Orleans map that I had bought and paid for in 2010 onto a single GPS.....and they wouldn't do it. Because of that I now have total access to all of the maps on the CD and I can put them on as many units as I want.
If you find yourself in a similar predicament with the old Bluecharts for Garmin let me know. I can probably help you out.

[dollargary]

Reelhandy, I have almost given-up on finding any data for my 178 c. I have been looking at a garmin 441s or a 541s. I don't even have a data card for the 178c, so I figured all was lost for the 178c. Reel handy will I need to find (if I can) a data card to down load the information you are talking about?

[dollargary]

Reelhandy, I have almost given-up on finding any data for my 178 c. I have been looking at a garmin 441s or a 541s. I don't even have a data card for the 178c, so I figured all was lost for the 178c. Reel handy will I need to find (if I can) a data card to down load the information you are talking about?

[reelhandy]

dollargary you will, but if you follow this link you can get a 128mb data card for $50. http://tinyurl.com/c49bhj9 The next problem would be if you didn't have something to load it with. The data card is proprietary to Garmin so you need to either have their read/writer or the hook up to make your 178C connect to your computer. If you have those I could send you the maps. If you don't have those you could send the card to me and I will load it. I only have the salt water maps, but with a 128mb card you could load the coastline from Brownsville Tx to the Chesapeake Bay, and out about 100 miles. PM me if you want to do something like that.