This page is only for the use of current owners of Andren LoranGPS who paid for version 7.0 or later and is not intended for browsing. This page is the list of maintenance updates in version 7.0 and the changes to V7.0 along with a download-able updater program. You can download the maintenance upgrade for free if and only if you purchased a 7.0 or newer version. Do not download this to upgrade an older version as it may crash for lack of some vital support files. 

 
Update 7.0 or later Software to latest 7.4

Download the latest update to the v7.4 program (5.1 MB) 1/4/10

Download the version 7.3 manual (2.7 MB)

If you bought a version before 7.0, you need to purchase the upgrade and get the full installation package.

When you download this file (AndrenSetup7u.exe), place it in a convenient location like the desktop because you will need to run it. It is an unzipper that will place files into the LoranGPS folder. Make sure that it is pointed at the correct folder. After installation, you can delete the installation program from the desktop. If successful, the installed program will show the date above. When you work on your files with the new program, it will save them in the new 14 field form that is incompatible with the version 6.3 or earlier program. There is an option of saving them as 11 field compatible files if you need to share them with someone using a pre 7.0 version.

 
Appeal for calibration data

In order to better serve the Loran/GPS community, I need calibration points for various areas of the country. With this data, I can pre-calibrate the ASF tables to make it unnecessary for people in those areas to calibrate the program. Many customers do not have access to Loran units and thrash around with inadequate data such as read off maps. This makes for bad feelings about the program and many internet postings about how one cannot do a good conversion with a computer program. I will keep this information confidential and only use it to improve the pre-calibrated ASF tables. Your waypoints will not be disclosed. If you want recognition for your efforts, I can post the data on my Download Waypoints page with appropriate credits. Please send good calibration data taken with a real Loran and a GPS simultaneously. The more points, the better the calibration will be. For 9960 and 8790 data please indicate whether it was taken before 1/17/07 or after as the station timing changed on that date.

 
Modifications and Bugs found and fixed to date versus version 7.0:

2/16/10

Modified the Raymarine Archive.FSH file importer to handle multiple folders.  Previously it discarded that information and put all waypoints into one folder. 

1/4/10

Fixed an issue with the Furuno 3-D export where illegal Icon numbers could be sent and cause a failed export. Added the capability to rename Garmin ADM files for those units that allow names other than userdata.adm. Improved the GPX import to handle some files having extra parsing instructions. Added a check box to the Text (CSV) export to allow negating the longitude for compatibility with some other programs.

11/20/09

Added a new Icon translation table for Furuno NavNet 3D units.  This fixed a problem where if the Icon number was over 31, the loading of points into a GPS stopped. 

10/29/09
Found a serious flaw in the 10/26/09 version that prevents the use of the ASF tables.  Anyone with this version should download this update. 

9/27/09
Deleted reference to ~link~ in the GPS name field.  Changed the scheme to use a blank to link the name to the number.  This is more intuitive than the other scheme.  

8/24/09
Fixed an issue with the Garmin ADM importer where it would look for the wrong file in the wrong location.

8/13/09
Fixed an issue with the Raymarine exporter where it bombed if the datecode column was blank.

7/1/09
Added an oil rig icon to the icon set. Added save-as to MAP create/modify.

6/6/09
Found that the NOAA chart outlines did not display correctly on the simple chart. Also removed the 2-D bathy charts from the web site. The bathy charts are no longer available and few customers wanted them. The same bathy charts are now available on a National Ocean Service web site in a different electronic form that is not yet handled by this program.

5/6/09
Did some cleanup of the installation a while back and deleted a file needed by GPSbabel for the Garmin GDB and MPS import/export function. That broke the function, so I added it back.

4/18/09
Improved the text (CSV) importer to allow more flexibility and make the importing session more trouble free.

3/8/09
Added an error check to the startup screen. Previously, in Vista, if the program ran into a problem with improperly registered support libraries (OCXs), it would hang and give no information as to the problem nor any way out of it.

2/14/09
Fixed problem when entering waypoints. If no name was entered it would complain about duplicated names.

2/4/09
Fixed a problem with printing associated waypoints in NOAA map printing.

1/6/09
Initial installer was not copying all the NOAA charts onto the hard drive.

12/30/08
Saw that the identify waypoint feature on a chart was using "~link~" instead of the name when the name was linked to the waypoint number.

12/25/08
The Furuno NavNet exporter set some waypoints as black and that was not accepted by the GPS. These are changed to dark blue.

12/22/08
Added an import/export capability for the C-Map userimg.bin files. This type is used by Simrad, Northstar M series, SiTex, and some Furunos. Basically, if the unit uses C-Map cartography, then it probably uses this type. This mainly helps where the unit uses SD cards. If it uses C-cards, then you need to get a card reader from C-Map. Fixed an issue with the Furuno Rat/Rou file type where it would not load into the GPS more than 256 waypoints. Changed the Raymarine C/E series importer to handle the case where the user had set up multiple folders on the GPS. This had confused the previous importer so it would not import all the points.

11/9/08
Fixed a bug where a change made 3/17/08 causes a waypoint to be deleted if the Change Chain button is used while entering new waypoints. You usually don't have to bother changing chains while entering waypoints in Loran as the program can figure out the right chain itself. However, if there is any chance that it can't, then this operation is necessary.

11/1/08
Minor maintenance.

9/3/08
Added import/export routines for Garmin's new userdata.adm format used on SD cards. This makes it easy to seamlessly get data from Garmin units to and from the program.

7/9/08
Added a Furuno NavNet3D import/export capablity.

6/3/08
Added the capability to handle icons and colors in the Furuno NavNet import/export and fixed a minor bug in the import routine.

4/22/08
Changed the Icon column so that you can enter icons not on the list. Be aware that the import export routines translate my icons into what I think is the appropriate icon for each brand. Added a warning in the Furuno NavNet importer if the Lat/Lon is corrupt. Added the capability to use the function keys during data entry for numbers in the Lat/Lon and Loran fields.

3/20/08
Handled an issue where editing an entry while in the adding mode caused an extra row in the spreadsheet. Also made "import Text file" work better.

3/13/08
Fixed an issue where choosing Single ASFs per file and Set ASFs crashed the program. Also fixed it to where the Features file can be 11 or 14 fields.

3/5/08
Fixed an issue involving printing a Loran grid on a NOAA chart.

2/23/08
Made the spreadsheet display work more smoothly and put in more protections in the import routines.

2/20/08
Redid the Icon translation tables to make the Icons better match between the program and the various GPSs. Now handling Raymarine, Maxsea, and Lowrance.

2/18/08
Fixed a problem where the Raymarine C/E series export did not accurately place the points on the GPS chart plotter.

2/8/08
Fixed problem where Comments would not print.

10/30/07
Fixed an issue in GDB importing where the program would sometimes say it could not find a file it needed in the process. Also made it work with version 3.0 USR files.

8/21/07
Fixed a few issues with respect to import/export. Added an Offshore Hunter type and changed the GPX export to not have a blank in the latitude that caused GPSU to reject the file. Changed from dashes to hyphens to fill blanks in the export process for some GPS types that do not like blanks or dashes.

5/23/07
Added the ability to show NOAA charts of the BSB variety. You can get these free from http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/index.htm . Also fixed a few Windows Vista issues.

3/26/07
Found that three pages in the 9960 ASF table were mis labeled as 70/39, 70/38, and 70/37 and should have been 74/39, 74/38, and 74/37 respectively. This would have caused a significant error in conversion of data offshore South NJ, MD, DE, and NC. The ASF tables for a block from 60 miles to 120 miles offshore Maryland stretching from Cape May to Kitty Hawk were blank and the data that should have been there was 4 degrees further East. This made the ASFs zero instead of about 2.4 for the X slave and 2.0 for the Y slave. This problem has existed since version 5.0, released in 1999.

3/22/07
Found that I had erased the pre-calibration data for the SE US in January while adding the NE US data. Fixed that in this release.

 
Notes on the new features of versions 7.0 and later versus version 6.3 and earlier:
 

The fundamental changes to the program have been focused around adding three new fields for better handling the interchange of data with GPS units. These three fields are: (GPS) Name, Icon, and Depth. While the Depth field could be used for almost anything, it will be used for import/export functions where depth is called for. Most GPSs use a short name field that looks good on the screen without too much crowding. This can be a number or any set of characters available from the keyboard. In keeping with this use, the program allows Names of between 6 and 16 characters and lets the user choose to have some waypoints named while others are numbered as before. Keeping the GPS name and the program name coordinated, allows the making of hard copy listings and charts that match what is in the GPS and what gets displayed on your Chart Plotter.

The program has also added capability for more import/export flexibility. In particular, it will now handle the C-Map, RayMarine C/E-series, Furuno Rat/Rou and Garmin userdata.adm formats directly. I also made the ASCII (text) import/export routines be much more flexible to handle almost any organization of data.

As another big change, I added new Loran station information so that a user can handle the changed timing of the 9960 and 8970 chains that took place 1/17/07. In this case, the user can set up an 9960bXY pair for the before case and an 9960aXY pair for the after case..

I added the ability to skip over entering data for some fields when entering new waypoints. If you are not going to be using Depth, for example, you can hide that field or just skip over it when entering data. Also added functions for filling the Name field when you open an older file that didn't have one and finding duplicated Names. Another useful addition is the EDIT>Replace function. This allows both individual and global replaces. In keeping with the trend to be GPS centric, I have added the capability to hide almost all Loran features.

Name Change?

This program has been continuously revised since its' first sale in 1985. It started out completely Loran centric and was called the "Loran Program". It has evolved towards GPS centric. I am searching for a new name for the program since "LoranGPS" may put off some potential GPS only customers. I would appreciate suggestions. If you suggest a candidate, do a Google search to eliminate names already used.