C230’s Weblog

Tim Rude has put a significant amount of time and effort into a utility that reads the date and time from the GPS chip and relays that to the OS clock (the time displayed in the taskbar of your C230, as well as in any programs displaying the time).  The GPS chip has its own real-time clock that is unaffected by a hard-reset.   Apparently, this RTC gets updated whenever a satellite fix is acquired (by MioMap, SirfTech, BeeLineGPS, etc.) and remains reasonably accurate even when it’s been a while since the last satellite fix.

He has also written a program that installs eVB (embedded Visual Basic) Version 3 runtime files needed to accomodate his utility, and I think I speak for all of us in thanking him for sharing his efforts in this Blog!!!

He writes:

I’ve finally gotten back to working on the eVB runtime installer and have it all put together into a nice little easy to use utility.

You can download the eVB3Setup.zip from here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0aizndbexrm

It automatically installs and registers the necessary dll files so that programs written in embedded Visual Basic 3.0 will run on the Mio C230.

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My GPSTimeSync utility is also ready for download too. It requires the eVB runtime files.

You can download it from here:  [edited by c230 to link to the latest version]

http://www.mediafire.com/?mm2iu3bwbzy

When you run GPSTimeSync for the first time, it needs to find your GPS port so it automatically opens the Comm Setup screen. Click the Auto-Scan for GPS Port button to let it find the correct Comm port and Baud rate for your device. Once it finds it, click OK. You won’t have to do this again.

Then the upper half of the screen will show the GPS time (in UTC or Greenwich Meridian Time zone). Click the Hour + or Hour – buttons to align it with your time zone. Once you’ve set this once, it remembers the hour offset for future use, even after a hard-reset.

The lower half of the screen will show what your Mio’s clock is currently set to. Simply click the Set Time button to set the date and time to match the GPS time and exit the utility.

Since the GPS chip keeps the current time even after a hard-reset, this utility makes it very easy to quickly set the Mio’s date and time after a hard-reset.

However, the eVB runtime files won’t survive a hard reset, since the Windows folder gets purged. That means you would need to re-run the eVB setup after each hard-reset in order to restore them.

For that reason, I keep the install directory on my SD card and the last step in my Autopatcher.mscr is to call the eVB installer.   [See the first comment below for additional information]

Enjoy!

 

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Tim has subsequently provided this link where eVB development software can be (legally) downloaded: 

http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~vip/dev_tool.html

 

Screen choices

 

The long-awaited Version 3.6 update to Ameridan’s (that’s me) Mio C230 Unlock includes many refinements since Version 3.5 was released.   Thanks go out to all who’ve contributed to this release (even if I unintentionally forgot to give credit to you), including hak for submitting the script changes for the large target street font that “sticks”, wildbill for redoing all of the icons, and tim rude for providing the new, improved Launcher program and the storage memory enhancer.

Amida’s Version 4 Unlock may indeed be easier to install (and Undo), but not having ever tried it, I will not attempt to compare the new version of my Unlock to his, other than to state that they each have their own pluses and minuses over the other, depending on your needs.   I simply like this Unlock and appreciate that I too have a loyal group of users that have encouraged me to keep updating and sharing the results.

1. The new C230 Launcher that Tim Rude provided so that Registry settings work, Backlight and Taskbar settings behave, Windows Explorer doesn’t require special handling after a hard reset, and normally, neither a soft or hard reset are required after a USB connection of your Mio to your PC.
2. My CAB installer package is included so that you can install compatible programs that are distributed via CAB file.
3. Storage Memory enhancer is included so that your allocation will be 4MB, rather than the default 500KB, resulting in reliable performance since you should no longer be running out of memory.
4. DST fixes so that you no longer need to manually set your time and date after a hard reset, if the auto-sync option is enabled in MioMap.  After a hard reset, the time may be off by one hour until the second time you have acquired a GPS signal with MioMap or BeeLine.
5. New screens to accomodate additional programs.  Games, Tools, and Apps. along with a “Screen Choices” menu that has been further refined to allow you to select a theme that will be applied to all of these desktop screens in unison.   The Clock screens remain, but the font size of the AM / PM indicators have been reduced.
6. My BeeLineGPS package is included for straight-line navigation and Geocaching.   This is provided on a 30-day evaluation basis, so I encourage you to register your copy here if you like the program. 
7. I’ve also included Metro,  a great non-GPS program that provides you with public transportation schedules and guides for all major cities of the world.
8. My version of a “Skins Choices” menu (based on Mike FFI’s) to manage your favorite skins saved on your SD card and be able to choose them on the fly to further personalize your C230! 
   
    
   
9. A “Settings Choices” menu that now allows you to choose the menu text font size and suppress upcoming cities and communities in the navigation bar.
   
10. The latest version of Ameridan’s (me) C230 skin (an enhanced Mio factory skin) and my QuickSilver CarLocator skin (1.49b1) that has a “Media Player” screen built-in to play audio files from within MioMap (using TCPMP)  (and the large-font feature for target street that has been repeatedly requested) is also included..   These will be installed in the Skins folder of your SD card.    You can add your own additional favorites to this folder as well.
    

    

    

11. A set of document viewers so that you’ll be able to peruse just about any common document type out there.   The set includes:  a PDF document viewer , another Image viewer, a Powerpoint presentation viewer, an Excel document viewer and a Word document viewer.

    

From any of the desktop screens, you’ll be able to access the ”Tools” screen, the ”Games” screen, the new “Apps” screen  or your chosen “Clock” screen.   You might also choose a clock or desktop default screen and never access the others.    All served the way you like it!

The largest advantage is the ability to pre-plan upcoming vacation trips, business trips, delivery routes, etc., save those routes, and activate them at your convenience.

Games 

In addition to Solitaire, Freecell, Klondike, LightsOn, Tetris, Chess, and Shift which are new in this release, the games included in Version 3.5 are all available from the Games screen.

Aquellaballis a JezzBall-like game for PocketPC.

Just draw a line with the stylus to have a vertical or horizontal line spread across the whole screen. If a ball touches the line while it is being drawn, it will be cancelled and you&ecute;ll loose alife.

Cover over 75% of the screen and make it to the next level, with 1 more ball.

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 Test out your reflexes and Stylus control with BallBreaker !All the balls are shooting strait at you, and you just can’t touch them…   The only solution is to explode them against the grey squares…The more balls you break, the more you’ll have coming at you.

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 Caissesis a Sokoban clone that includes 500 levels and 14 different backgrounds and themes.   The original version of Caisses is Caisses DS, a Nintendo DS homebrew coded by Kukulcan.In this game, you are a warehouse keeper, and your mission consists in arranging boxes by pushing them onto their designated locations…Boxes can be pushed, but not pulled, and the controls are simple : either point to the spot to move to with the stylus, or use the directional pad !

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 Pipes is a classic in the puzzle world.Select one of the 6 difficulty levels (actually 12 as for each you can activate wrap mode, making it MUCH harder…) and try to light up all the flowers…Turn the pipes by clicking on them, and try to bring water throughout the whole board in as little time as possible.

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 Skinz Sudokuis a Sudoku game which combines good looks and ease of use…It offers beautiful graphs by Daydream, with 4 different skins depending on the difficulty level.
The game’s particularity is that it offers 4 different input methods for you to select from, to fit everyone’s needs…
- Wheel : Select a number from the number wheel around the tile you touched. You can also set a hint by touching one of the corners…
- Square : Same thing, but in a simplier/more compact layout…
- Bar : Select first which number to plot, and then touch the grid to put it anywhere…
- Writing : In this mode, touch a tile to have it zoom, and just write down the number you want !   You can also add small number hints at anytime, with every input method, using the top right button, or undo if you make an error…All the levels are randomly generated, so don’t expect to finish the game soon

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Additional Games are available here.

Route Management

iGo 8 is reported as having this feature built-in, but I was the first to make this feature available in the C230 (with thanks to Xania for the initial work), by allowing routes to be saved and loaded by menu selection.

With the Route Management menu, you can not only preplan your routes, but by

• Exiting
• Saving your route with a descriptive name
• Restarting MioMap back up again with that route still in memory or loading that route into memory at a later time
• Using the Edit Route screen and reversing the order of your waypoints
• Exiting and Saving once again with a different name representing the return trip
• - Voila – you’ve got your return trip available in the menu without inputing all of your way-points once again.

Use the GPS power button now available in the enhanced skins to temporarily turn off the GPS chip, so that when pre-planning routes not having anything to do with your present location, the Route recalculation will not mess you up your itinerary.

The Ameridan skin (included) for the C230 includes all of the tweaks mentioned in this blog including:

• Exit Door button needed if you are unlocking your C230.
• Revised start screen identifying the source of the modified file.
• Export Track button allowing you to export the track log into a gpx file directly.
• Easy Route option described here.
• GPS Screen with the globe rotated such that North America is proudly shownand the GPS Power button needed for uninterrupted general map viewing and Route preplanning without Auto Route Recalculation kicking in.

Starting with Version 3.3, the menu script creates automatic  entries to the SYS.TXT file needed for this menu to function. You no longer need to run through the setup process prior to using the menu.

I’ve gone through a lot of coffee again on this release ( the best one yet! ) and if you are pleased with the results and haven’t already done so, kindly consider a small donation to my coffee fund.

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Oh, and don’t forget to check out my Mio-C230 StickiNotes in the right column where blog items and other tidbits readers provide will be easy to find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unlock Version NXT-R3.6

[BEFORE YOU FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES TO MODIFY YOUR MIO C230, KNOW THAT YOU MIGHT RENDER YOUR C230 UNUSABLE AND YOU MIGHT VOID YOUR WARRANTY. YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.]

Installation procedure

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a 5-pin Mini-B USB 2.0 cable (not included in the package) like this Belkin USB cable.
2. 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.
3. Rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap to F:\MioMap\MioMap2.
4. In order not to get the message ”destination full”, you may need to free up some space on your flash disk – See Note 2.   Also, it might be a good idea to now make a backup copy of the original DATA.ZIP file in F:\MioMap\MioMap2 (as well as your Routes folder in F:\MioMap\MioMap) to your PC or Storage Card.
5. Download MioC230_NXT_R3_6.zip
6. USA MioC230 users – The enhanced C230 skin as well as Version 1.49 of the Quicksilver CarLocator skin are included in the download.   Owners of the European C230, please review this page and Note 4, before Unlocking for information on using this Unlock on your units. You can modify your DATA.ZIP file yourself – See Note 3.
7. Extract the files from your Unlock download and find the three folders MioMap,  Script,  and Storage Card folders. 
8. Copy MioMap to F:\MioMap\ and copy Script to F:\ as in the screenshot. Don’t speed through this step – it’s got to be done as described!
    
9. Copy the five folders within Storage Card folders which are: BeeLineGPS, Metro, Skins, uBook and Games to the root of your SD card.   If you backed up your Routes, copy them back into  F:\MioMap\MioMap\Routes.
10. If you would rather use the “iPhone-look” icons without the English sub-text, then replace the icons in  \My Flash Disk\Script\Icons  with alternate icons, some of which are available here and within the comments for the Version 3.4 Blog.
11. 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.
12. After calibrating the touch screen, the initial Unlock script will automatically run AUTOPATCHER (no menu selection necessary), soft reset and present you with a desktop screen.   It is important that you select a skin that has an Exit button before launching MioMap, so go into the MioMap Management Menu (first large icon in top left corner) and choose an enhanced MioMap skin (Ameridan C230 is suggested initially), unless you are manually modifying DATA.ZIP per Note 3 below because you are unlocking a MioC230 that isn’t the USA or Canada version.    

Note 1: If you wish to undo the enhancements and return the Mio C230 back to factory condition:

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable.
2. Rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap to F:\MioMap\MioMap3 (or delete) and rename the folder F:\MioMap\MioMap2 to F:\MioMap\MioMap
3. Copy back any map files you may have deleted or moved to your SD card and restore your DATA.ZIP file.   The SYS.TXT file shouldn’t need to be restored.
4. Disconnect the cable and hard reset C230 using the switch on the back of the unit.

Note 2: In order not to get the message “destination full”, you’ll need to free up some space on your flash disk by moving at-least 12MB of map files to your SD card by creating a MioMap folder and within that folder a maps folder so that the path appears as G:\MioMap\maps. Choose a combination of map file(s) you’re not accessing every day (in case your SD card isn’t always inserted) from F:\MioMap\MioMap2\maps and move them to the maps folder on your SD card. MioMap will see them after a hard reset as if nothing happened. Or you could delete them (or copy to your PC) if you choose not to use a SD card at this time, since it’s easy to explore your MioMap DVD and copy them back to the original folder or a SD card later, if needed.

Note 3: Instructions to modify your DATA.ZIP file yourself (from Amida’s Hack #2). 
[Not normally applicable for US and Canada units any longer, because Skins Management will allow you to choose Skins that already incorporate the needed revisions]

1. Make a backup of your original DATA.ZIP file. The file is F:\MioMap\MioMap2\DATA.ZIP .
2. Unzip the original DATA.ZIP to your local hard drive.
3. Edit the file mio\common\ui\default_setup.ui in the uncompressed files.
4. Find the following line and delete it. Note that this is for C230 only. You might need to edit/delete other line for other models.
   runif vDeviceType “MIOC230″ ‘btn_exit_app.hide’
5. Compress the files back into DATA.ZIP again.
6. Copy the DATA.ZIP from step 6 to the F:\MioMap\MioMap2\ directory.
7. If you get a ctype.dat error as has happened with some users, either try again or download the file instead. When it comes to zipping the file back up, it has been learned that WinZip version 11 (10 is OK though) is not compatible with MioMap. I use WinRAR and I choose “best” compression but I’m not sure if that really matters.

Note 4:  A modified version of my autopatcher.mscr file is available here (simply copy over the original file in your MioMap folder) http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dioqutml3ji   that will eliminate the loud Windows startup sounds.

The first (quiet) windows startup sound after a hard reset can’t be changed, but the subsequent loud ones will no longer occur during the second bootup and after soft resets.

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For now, please refer to the Version 3.5 instructions here (which shouldn’t be too much different), as well as the Metro guide here, and the CarLocator manual here.