Mercedes Comand Online ntg4.5 - Personal POI data support

MaFt · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:48 am Post subject:

Or if you want to buy me a Merc with the Command system then I can do the hard work for you Wink

MaFt

central · Lifetime Member Joined: Feb 10, 2005 Posts: 14

Ok I've got a merc coming in the next few weeks, I'll give it a try

One of the file formats of the camera database is gpx, and the german web page is easily translated into english by chrome. It looks as though you just have to copy the gpx file to a directory called personalpoi, and then it looks as though this file can be imported.

If thats to believed it looks quite easy Very Happy

gyrothex · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 5

I'd like to add myself to the list of wishing for a Mercedes Comand Online format database but have also been doing some playing.

I'm not any good with scripting, code or anything like that but have managed to take a POI file created in the car and amend it so that it reads successfully when put back in the car which I couldn't achieve when using GeePeeEx Editor or Garmin's own utilities.

There is a default "unclassified" category (or folder) for all POIs created in the car, and from there one can create additional categories or folders into which one can then move the POIs. As there are 17 icons available to allocate to a category I have created the appropriate number of POIs and categories so that there is one for every icon available.

Take a look at the files in the zip file I've placed in my DropBox. There is the original PersonalPOIs.gpx, an excel file where I've tried to show the options that can be set from what I can determine so far and finally a Word doc with the contents of the .gpx file broken down into a clearer layout for viewing.

I assume that all one needs to do to create a personal set of POIs is to fill in the relevant items like Lat/Long, icon choice, address, phone etc etc. and I'll have a further play.

If anyone is able to take this information and create a script to create a Mercedes format file from the camera DB then I and a fair few others would be most grateful! Very Happy

Here's the zip file http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21513649/MercedesPOI.zip

Can I also suggest that we (that want it) email the guys at GPS Babel to persuade them to add Mercedes Comand Online as an output option to that program? See https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=28835364

Cheers, Lee

gyrothex · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 5

Oops, meant to add that I've downloaded and translated the German conversion script detailed above. The only problem is that as far as I can see it relies on the import file being in Google Earth format and the camera DB is not available in that format so an interim extra conversion stage will be required. Sad

Not tried this yet.

Lee

paulsmusic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 25, 2006 Posts: 2

shinerlite · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 14, 2012 Posts: 4

I have a 2012 C class with COMAND and I have been playing with POIs.

I inserted an new SD card in the slot under the volume knob. I stored a random POI from the map and then put the SD card into my laptop. COMAND had created a folder named 'PersonalPOI' and inside that is a file named 'PersonalPOIs.gpx'.

From my laptop I overwrote the file with another one containing my company office locations and gave it the same name (created in PoiEdit). Popped it into the COMAND slot but it wasn't recognised.

While the SD card was still in the car I then created a new random POI from the map and stored it in Personal POIs from COMAND.

When I put the SD card back into my laptop and open it with PoiEdit there is the new POI along with all the office locations.

So it seems that COMAND only recognises POIs that it creates itself, even in an existing, apparently valid, gpx file?

MaFt · Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:22 am Post subject:

MaFt · Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:25 am Post subject:

shinerlite · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 14, 2012 Posts: 4

shinerlite · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 14, 2012 Posts: 4

Update to my previous post:

Copied Premier Inn POIs onto SD card as ‘PersonalPOIs.gpx’
Inserted SD card in COMAND
Created two new categories named ‘Cat1’ and ‘Cat2’
Created ‘Heathrow T4’ as POI in Cat1
Created ‘Gatwick’ as POI in Cat2
Moved SD card to laptop
Opened ‘PersonalPOIs.gpx’ in a text editor.

This is what I got with most of the Premier Inns deleted (Note the [ ] replacing the other symbols I'm not allowed to use)

[?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?]
[gpx xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd" version="1.1" creator="PoiEdit v5.2.0 build 212 ©2002-2008 by Dnote Software (http://www.poiedit.com)" xmlns:gpxd="http://www.daimler.com/DaimlerGPXExtensions/V2.4"]
[wpt lat="52.55691" lon="-0.29857"][name]Peterborough (Ferry Meadows)[/name]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="52.60328" lon="-0.26861"][name]Peterborough North[/name]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="51.00667" lon="-1.32694"][name]Petersfield[/name]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="50.84588" lon="-1.09323"][name]Portsmouth (Port Solent)[/name]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="51.29671" lon="-2.94768"][name]Weston-Super-Mare (Lympsham)[/name]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="51.459097" lon="-0.447153"][name]Heatrow T4[/name]
[extensions][gpxd:WptExtension][gpxd:WptIconId IconId="2"][/gpxd:WptIconId]
[gpxd:POICategory Cat="Cat1"][/gpxd:POICategory]
[gpxd:Activity Active="false" Level="information" Unit="second" Value="9"][/gpxd:Activity]
[gpxd:Presentation ShowOnMap="false"][/gpxd:Presentation]
[gpxd:Address ISO="GB" Country="GREAT BRITAIN" State="" City="LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT" CityCenter="" Street="STRATFORD ROAD" Street2="" HouseNo="" ZIP=""][/gpxd:Address]
[gpxd:Phone Default=""][/gpxd:Phone]
[/gpxd:WptExtension]
[/extensions]
[/wpt]
[wpt lat="51.163924" lon="-0.174757"]
[name]Gatwick[/name]
[extensions]
[gpxd:WptExtension]
[gpxd:WptIconId IconId="3"/]
[gpxd:POICategory Cat="Cat2"/]
[gpxd:Activity Active="false" Level="information" Unit="second" Value="9"/]
[gpxd:Presentation ShowOnMap="false"/]
[gpxd:Address ISO="GB" Country="GREAT BRITAIN" State="" City="GATWICK" CityCenter="" Street="LONGBRIDGE WAY" Street2="" HouseNo="" ZIP=""/]
[gpxd:Phone Default="+(44)-(870)-2383305"/]
[/gpxd:WptExtension]
[/extensions]
[/wpt]
[/gpx]

Note the additional line at the top referring to gpxd DaimlerGPXExtensions
Also the Heathrow & Gatwick POIs are saved with gpxd extensions.

I might try adding some text to a Premier Inn and see if COMAND recognises it

8545Allan

I downloaded the German procedure, translated it, tried to understand it (I'm not a softie) and changed it so that it works with N Drive KML files.

NTG4.5 only has two icons for cameras (16 for normal and 6 for mobile). I'm sure there's a way of importing Pocketg GPS World's camera icons but I haven't sussed how to do that yet. Because there ar eonly 2 icons I cna use, I've created two .vbs files, one to convert N Drive pocketgps_uk_sc.kml and a second to convert pocketgps_uk_pmobile.kml. Equivalent .gpx files are created which NTG 4.5 recognises, loads (takes a fair while - about 5 mins) and displays the cameras correctly as far as I can tell.

On the downside, the interactive manual shows an option for acoustic warning for Personal POIs but I don't have that option on my system so I've sent a query to Mercedes asking why.

I've yet to test it fully and to write the idiot's guide so don't bug me yet.

Got to be worth a lifetime membership don't you think? Very Happy

M8TJT

MaFt · Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 5:07 pm Post subject:

if you send me a copy of the working file i can get it added to the download options.

MaFt

shinerlite · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 14, 2012 Posts: 4

cpk1980 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2007 Posts: 7

Hi All,

Any update on this? I've got my new car with Comand being delivered next week and would like to import some speed camera POIs.

I'm happy to act as a test dummy if needed?! Very Happy

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