[UPDATE] Version 3.4 Released Jan. 4, 2008
This is what my unlocked C230 desktop looks like (R1)
As I “kick the tires and explore under the hood” of this great little unit, I’ll be documenting my findings in this blog so that it might help others to decide to take it for a drive on the side roads.
‘Unlocking’ is not the most appropriate word, but that is the most popular term used in Google searches for those wanting to increase the versatility of their Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs). For the average consumer, it is best that when powered on they go directly into GPS mode “out of the box” – the Mio C230 does one job and does it well!
The Mio C230 is actually a 400 MHz touch-screen computer running MS Windows™ CE Core 5.0 Operating System and MioMap version 3.3 mapping software. All we are doing by unlocking the C230 is renaming one folder and then adding a few steps to the startup sequence so that we are presented with a psuedo desktop to access and use other legal freeware software that is compatible with Windows CE, just like when you add Adobe Acrobat Reader to your PC at home.
11/3/2007
Amida168 has done an outstanding job of tweaking the unlocking endeavors of others for “older” versions of Mio’s C series GPS units and being the first to publish an unlock script (version R1) for owners of the C230, along with a very clear set of instructions and a video that will give you a hint at other things you will be able to do with your GPS unit.
Today, my initial set of tweaks…
- Used a cleaner background image. As much as I like the new Honda, icons all over a photo just isn’t right.
- Not showing an icon for DPMS, which I understand turns off the display while programs continue running. I guess this could come in handy to conserve battery life while playing a long audio stream. I’ve kept the shortcut for the Suspend function but used the DPMS icon rather than a “power button” icon, since I mistakenly thought I was turning off the C230 one evening using the icon, rather than the physical power switch and had a very low battery the next morning.
- Added 3 additional apps to the script folder that prove to function with the C230 (the bottom three icons)
- GPS Calculator (a simple 4-function calculator)
- Pocket Notepad (could come in handy for taking paperless notes using the keyboard app, but you will need a stylus pen)
- and GQviewer for viewing an SD card full of photos.
- Also, I’m choosing not to show the date because it toggles to the next day 5 hours ahead of me since I am GMT -5. I’ve also choosen not to use the 24-hour format clock, but instead use the AM/PM format.
11/5/2007
I was hoping that the miniUSB port on the C230 had been upgraded to a “extUSB” port which is 11 pins, since Mio eliminated the headphone jack (the C220 has a headphone jack), and if this was true, then this device, which I ordered today,
and currently selling for $7.99 on eBay would have proven to be very useful. There is a cheaper unit, but I chose not to purchase it since I didn’t think the windshield mount would be usable at the same time, nor would you have access to the SD card slot.
This would have allowed you to charge the battery while listening to stereo audio or feeding audio to a FM transmitter or bluetooth. Thanks to Julio, it appears that the Mio uses a regular miniUSB, vs. the extUSB which looks like… 
As he states in his comment, plugging in a regular miniUSB cable into this port will align with pins A,C,D and E (B isn’t used) so it will act like a regular USB port without audio capabilities. Since Mio doesn’t use the 11-pin version though, I will probably be reselling the adapter. Regular USB uses two pins for power (charging, etc) and two pins for data transfer.
Note: The C230 is capable of hi-speed data transfer as it meets the ver 2.1 USB standard, vs. the C220 which was ver 1.0 <Confirmed on 11/20/2007 that this device isn’t compatible with Mio units.>
11/9/2007
Canada maps
Two different version 2007.1 Canada maps are available that work great with a Mio C230 purchased in the United States regardless of whether you unlock it or not and they are covered under the same North American license that you’ve purchased when buying the C230 (Europe and other regions of the world – you gotta buy additional SD disk(s) that come with their own licenses). If you are using a SD card, go for the large map file, which has many more Points of Interest (POIs) than the smaller version. Create a MioMap folder on your SD card and within that folder create another folder maps where you’ll save your additional fbl file(s). Otherwise you’ll have to make room on the flash drive by deleting the California map file or a couple of other states you are unlikely to visit, and should use the smaller file. Remember you can always copy them back using your MioMap DVD.
http://uploaded.to/?id=la0ztg – Canada – 2007.01 – 070705 – 3M POI yES ]ga m*
http://uploaded.to/?id=fog23c – Canada – 2007.01 – 070705 – 12M POI EvF
A Canada map probably would have been included with the United States and Puerto Rico maps had there been space on the internal 1GB flash drive (that also includes the WindowsCE™ OS, the MioMap software, and the additional files needed for Text to Speech), as would the 3.5 million POIs that were originally released with the updated maps. Now there are less than 1 million POIs included.
There is a big plus to Mio not putting all of the map data on a SD card though – Now you can use the slot for adding more map data, MP3 files, movie files, viewing your camera photos, etc. And don’t forget this an entry-level PND priced below $200!
11/12/2007
Taskbar
After spending hours trying to getting the Taskbar to appear on demand*, I’ve stumbled on a method that seems to work consistently, atleast in conjunction with all of the other tweaks I’ve added to Amida’s R1 build. It seems that running Windows Explorer from File Manager (you will find it in \Windows\Programs) not only fixes the icon associations in File Manager, but it resolves the “Unable to find taskbar window” that so frequently appeared and voila - a hidden taskbar pops into view. I tried adding “Windows Explorer.lnk” to “Windows\Startup”, but that doesn’t seem to take. I believe that the reason my Mio runs so nicely is that rather than running MortScript once from the MioMap folder (as many of the other Mio unlock scripts for other models do) and then calling MortScript to run again (from the Script folder) after a soft reset is causing a problem. I stumbled on this observation after using a menu approach after the hard reset instead.
Using a stylus at the far right side of the hidden taskbar and selecting “Desktop” and – you’re good to go! I’ve added a toggle taskbar shortcut to the desktop (underneath the mouse).
Other tweaks so far…
- The 2007 changes for DST work correctly now for the EST time zone**
- The default time zone is GMT-5 (EST)**
- Key clicks and screen tap sounds are automatic
- File Manager font is Tahoma 7, which works much better on the 3.5″ screen
- Created a hard reset menu to automatically run AUTOPATCHER or proceed directly into MioMap.
* When googling for these taskbar issues, use “HHtaskbar” as a search term, as that is the taskbar window that your Mio is often unable to locate. Mio probably hides the window to put the unit in “Kiosk” mode to insure that the taskbar doesn’t interfere with MioMap.
** Added instructions in the script file so that using my code as an example, you can adapt the script to a time zone other than EST.
11/13/2007
SD Card
According to the manual, the Secure Digital (SD) slot in the Mio C230 also supports SDHC cards, which are the faster Class-6 high capacity cards (4GB and up). You can get a lot of music, audio books, and videos on a 8GB card! Speaking of playing media, the Core Pocket Media Player is loaded with features and options that aren’t realized until you click Options\Settings\Select Page and explore. The current version in this build is TCPMP version 0.72RC1 and it will play flash videos as well.
Unlock
[UPDATE] Version 3.3 Released Dec. 28, 2007
I had previously stated that I hadn’t planned on “competing” with Amida regarding the releasing of revisions of his great initial unlock package, but today he has given me the go-ahead and so I will proceed.
[BEFORE YOU FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES TO MODIFY YOUR MIO C230. YOU KNOW THAT YOU MIGHT RENDER YOUR C230 UNUSABLE AND YOU MIGHT VOID YOUR WARRANTY. YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISKS.]
Installation procedure
- Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a 5-pin Mini-B USB 2.0 cable (not included in the package).
- C230 will show up as a flash drive in My Computer as Mio Device. Mine is assigned as F drive. I’ll use F drive in the following steps. Substitute it with the actual drive letter of your system. If you have a SD card in the slot, it shows up as well – in my case as G drive.
- Rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap to F:\MioMap\MioMap2.
- If you are using a SD card, create a MioMap folder and within that folder a maps folder so that the path appears as G:\Storage Card\MioMap\maps. You will have alot more flexibility if you then choose a map file from F:\MioMap\MioMap2\maps and move it to the maps folder on your SD card. MioMap will see it after a hard reset as if nothing happened. Or one that you won’t be using (Puerto Rico perhaps?) can simply be deleted, since it’s easy to explore your MioMap DVD and copy it back later, if needed.
- Download MioC230_NXT_R1.zip from this site.
- Extract the files from your download and find the two folders MioMap and Script.
- Copy MioMap to F:\MioMap\ and copy Script to F:\ as in the screenshot.
- Disconnect Mio C230 and do a hard reset by sliding the switch on the rear of your C230 to OFF and back to ON again.
- Rather than having to find a stylus pen, engaging the brain circuitry to try to remember what program gets clicked on and then locating it using File Manager, you will be presented with two menu options (and Cancel):
Unlocked C230 Desktop which automatically runs AUTOPATCHER, does a soft reset and then presents you with the C230 desktop pictured at the top. When choosing MioMap from the desktop, you will be able to return to the desktop using Amida’s BananaPC option.
GPS Only (MioMap 3.3) which takes you right into MioMap directly as your unit does automatically as shipped from the factory. You will not have the BananaPC option of exiting MioMap – if you wish to do so you will need to do a hard reset.
Cancel, rather than choosing one of the first two actual options. This will take you into File Manager as Amida’s script does, giving you the flexibility to explore further prior to running any scripts.
Note 1: If you hard reset your unit, you will be presented with the step 9 options once again.
Note 2: If you wish to undo the enhancements and return the Mio C230 back to factory condition:
- Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable.
- Rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap to F:\MioMap\MioMap3 (or delete) and rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap2 to F:\MioMap\MioMap
- Copy back any map files you may have deleted or moved to your SD card
- Disconnect the cable and hard reset C230 using the switch on the back.
Note 3: Remember, every time you disconnect the USB cable linked to your PC, you will need to do a hard reboot and choose the default menu option that reruns the Autopatcher program. The time and date will also need to be reset, unless you are going right into MioMap with autosync enabled. This is why you should use a SD card for adding programs and storing media files once you’re happy with your unlocked Mio setup.
Note 4: Mio has not left too much room available on the Flash Drive, but if you are using a SD card, it is easy to free up some space by either installing programs on the card, or moving a map file or two to \Storage Card\MioMap\maps (explained earlier in this blog). Puerto Rico is 4MB; California is 66MB as examples. MioMap will see the files in both locations. The largest file by far in the Unlock download is the GPS Calculator at 1.6MB and should you find the flash drive getting too close to full, this program could be moved to the SD card Script folder instead. In this example, the Command line in \My Flash Disk\scripts\gpscalc.ini would need to change
- from >> Command = \My Flash Disk\Script\gpscalc.EXE
- to >> Command = \Storage Card\Script\gpscalc.EXE
11/14/2007
Using your unlocked C230
You’ll note that the MioMap icon and the Media Player are larger than the rest. My reasoning for this is that they will probably be your favorites and you are likely to access these without a stylus. The other icons starting clockwise from the top left corner…
- MioTool - hitting the small “ab” box with your stylus will reveal a virtual keyboard for entering data. To turn the keyboard off again, just hit the icon again.
- Time – current time
- MioUtility – quick access to adjust Backlight, Volume, Screen calibrate, Power, Date/Time and Language. This is the program that older units like the Mio C220 used to exit from MioMap into, but MioMap 3.3 has been written such that these choices are all available from with the program now.
- WR-Tooks ResInfo – Quick access to status info on battery, program memory, storage memory, Flash Disk useage, Storage Card useage, tasks and processes currently running, system information and settings. Most of this information is also available from Control Panel as well.
- Restart – soft reset button. This comes in handy when you;re stuck in program like FreeCell_ARM (which works by the way) that don’t have an exit button.
- Battery – indicates battery status kinda backwards; 10 color-coded bars from right to left
- Move Any Window - the mouse icon, is used when you anticipate needing to drag windows around or gaining access to the right mouse function by opening this program window beforehand
- Taskbar toggle - toggles the taskbar on and off in whatever state it is in (hidden or revealed)
- Suspend – suspends the C230 in sleep mode, using some power though – so don’t use this in place of the actual orange power button
- GQ Photo Viewer – GQ is easier to use for viewing multiple photos than media player, and it has a zoom function
- pNotepad – viewing txt files and for creating quick txt files with the virtual keyboard
- GPS calculator – a simple 4-function calculator that is large enough to use without a stylus
- FileManCE2 – Two-pane File Manager application alternative to Windows Explorer
- MioMap 3.3 – a scripted shortcut to the original program that came with your Mio C230 along with BananaPC, which has three small icon squares that each act differently depending on whether they are tapped or held down. Remember about where they appear while MioMap loads up as they hide themselves after a few seconds. The first icon is an X, which if tapped will close MioMap and soft reset. If held down it will present you with several options, including switching to other programs running in the background. The second icon puts your currently program in full-screen mode, which doesn’t apply here, because MioMap already runs in full-screen mode exclusively. The third icon, if tapped toggles the mute function and if held down – presents you with a volume control panel. Amida’s primary purpose for this program was to serve as an exit door back to the desktop to avoid using the hard reset option. MioMap version 3.2 had an exit button built in to the home window and we all wish they’d left it there.
- TCPMP Media Player – described earlier in this blog. Ok, you want to play a music playlist or an audiobook while using the navigation functions of your GPS? That will be tomorrows blog.
11/15/2007
Playing music while navigating
Yes, it works!
- Bring up the taskbar in your desktop (discussed earlier) either hidden or exposed
- Click Media Player icon and start up your music (or you can start it later if you wish)
- Tap the far right area of the taskbar and select Desktop
- Click on MioMap icon and observe the location of the BananaPC icons
- By tapping and holding down the X icon, you’ll be able to select TCPMP Media Player (or any other running app) and bounce back and forth.
The audio settings for MioMap are independent of your other programs, so if you hit the mute icon in MioMap so that you don’t get 15 reminders that you are approaching your exit, the music plays on! Life is great!
I’m finding quite a few programs that I’d like to try out, like GPSimply (straight-line GPS Navigation, as in boating and flying) that installs via .cab file. My experience is that the C230 doesn’t have WCELOAD.EXE loaded that is needed to process the .cab file though, so that is the next challenge. I have come up with the registry change needed to switch the USB connection between the PC and the Mio C230 from Mass Storage Class to Serial, which in theory should prevent USBconnect from grabbing the port and allow ActiveSync to instead govern the connection. Haven’t tried it yet though: #RegWriteString (“HKLM” , “Drivers\USB\FunctionDrivers” , “DefaultClientDriver” , “Serial_Class”) Can anyone offer their experience in finding a solution? First thing to try - locating a copy of WCELOAD.EXE and hope all the needed drivers are already present.
11/16/2007
Back-Up Camera Monitor
An idea I had last night – Wouldn’t it be great if the GPS could also serve as a color monitor for a rear license plate camera? After all, you don’t need the GPS function when you are backing up and think how convenient it would be when hitching up to a trailer, not to mention making sure there are no unseen children or obstacles before proceeding to back-up. Anyways, I found WindowsCE USB 2 video drivers that might have served nicely, but it turns out the mini USB port is a function port only, not the host port needed to attach USB devices.
Now for those GPS units that have Bluetooth built in…
11/19/2007
Saving your routes
Normally you don’t need to save a route on your Mio, since you can just create a POI for the destination and regenerate the route dynamically when you want to go there. If you want to see where you actually drove along the way, you can record a track log. However, there could be times when you have created a more complex route with multiple waypoints, and you want to save it. This could be because:
- you imported the route as a set of waypoints from an online route planning site, and you don’t want to lose the effort of setting it up on the Mio
- you set up a complex route for a destination that you don’t go to very often, perhaps in a different city from where you live, and you want to save it for future re-use
- you want to share your route with another Mio user
In that case all you need to know is that the current route is stored in the file “route.dat”. Using File Manager, this file can be found at \My Documents\MioMap\ and you can copy it over to your Storage Card so that you can save the route by saving the file with another name like “route_to_vacation.dat”. Just copy the saved file back to “route.dat” to restore the route.
Backup / Restore
When you back up your Mio (saves your POIs, favorites, Recent Cities and other History lists as well as your preferences within the various settings menus) within MioMap 3.3, it saves the data as iGo_backup.db in the root of your SD card so that you are able to restore your settings. You might be interested to know that iGo software is the basis for MioMap, so if you find your Mio C230 manual lacking, you might find answers your looking for here. Even though there are differences in both the software and hardware, there are a lot of good extras in this manual – for instance, when in fly-over mode, by pressing the tilt down button, you are supposed to be able increase the speed of the flyover considerably. I cannot veify as I changed a setting so that flyover is always fast.
Track Logs
If you enable Track Logs, you will find that they are stored at \My Flash Disk\MioMap\MioMap2\iGo.db and there are programs to convert this data. You can also export the track log into a gpx file directly, however on the Mio C230, the export button to .gpx file is missing, but can be restored by removing the word “hide” from \My Flash Disk\MioMap\MioMap2\data.zip\mio\320_240\ui\tracking_320_240.ui and zipping the file back up. When it came to zipping the file back up I choose “best” compression but I’m not sure if really matters. The exported track logs are stored in \Storage Card\tracks. You will find more here.
Working on my next release
Along with the improved desktop appearance of Amida’s R2 package , I’m incorporating more reg tweaks for my next release that so far looks like this…
Looks like Amida had trouble getting the time display to behave in R2 so he spec’d a thin-weight font that’s a little harder to read. This is because he’s calling out its location from the left edge, rather from the right edge. By changing the [time] section in main.ini using a -X, you specify the distance from the right edge instead.
TIME
x = -3 << right aligns the display
y = 18
Color = FFFFFF
Format = h’:'mm’:’ss tt << gets rid of leading zero
Size = 20
Weight = 700 << strong weight font can now be used
For an english translation of the online manual to learn more. The new SystemInformation he’s incorporated works so much easier and has a much improved battery display built in. I’m finding the unlocks to be very stable and reliable thus far with the exception of Amida’s R2 execution of \MioMap\MioMap\Startup after a hard reset vs. my menu approach.
Any comments or wishes thus far?
