Mercedes MY17 Garmin Map Pilot - Alerts in Chinese?

HarryH321 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 12, 2016 Posts: 4

Hi all,

I took delivery of my MY17 A class with Garmin Map Pilot and so far have managed to get the cameras to display by inserting the file into the 'POI' folder and they display if above the speed. However instead of coming up with the text 'Gatso' etc on the banner it comes up with Chinese font (assuming saying Gatso or whatever - I'm not fluent in Chinese) the chime etc works well just not sure how to fix the Chinese writing issue?!

Thanks in Advance,
Harry H

pbridgeman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 04, 2013 Posts: 22

Hi I'm getting the same and so far cant find an answer. I tried substituting spaces for the speed camera names in the CSV files and it still does the same thing. Also tried using gpx files but still does it so can only assume its built into the map system somewhere.

I took delivery of GLA 250 with Garmin Map pilot only a couple of days ago so assume this problem has only arisen on newer systems as I cant find any comments on it amongst the other forums I've looked at.

Have you had any other replies on the problem.

Regards Paul

dpa117 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 12, 2016 Posts: 8

Hi,

I also have the same problem.. just uploaded using POI loader the by zone alerts and the alert messages are in Chinese. Seems to work otherwise, does it make any difference if you upload 'by type' do you know?

My version of Map Pilot is 2016. Be interested in anything anyone finds.

David

pbridgeman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 04, 2013 Posts: 22

I don't think so because the data is essentially the same as the consolidated set.

I've spent a lot of time on this since I last posted. At the moment I can get the correct POI sign showing at roughly the right place for the speed cameras but no notification sound doing the following:(Thanks to NEMESIS1! for most of this).
Download the consolidated set of speed cameras and place SPECS icon and camera locations in a folder called SPEC (not SPECS because Garmin system recognises certain keywords as associated with speed camera alerts and you dont want that for this method) Redlights equivalent in RED and Gatsos in GAT. Open the csv file for the SPECS in excel and in column 4 row 2 (right of the description column) enter the formula '=A2+0.000085'.

You what I hear you ask. I've calculated that a 10 metre shift of the POI is roughly 0.000085 added to the original Latitude and longitude values. Then select all cells below this down to the end of the data and CTRL+D to do the same calc. for all other rows. Repeat using column 5 but with formula '=B2+0.000085'.

The reason for doing this is that the Garmin system seems not able to cope with a POI exactly on a road so you need to move it slightly off position. In practice it makes no difference to the view on the screen unless zoomed right in to the map.
Save the file as a text (Tab delimited) file. Then open it again as a CSV file and delete all the column 1 and 2 values and move the column 4 and 5 values across to make new column 1 and 2. (only quick way I know of breaking the formula link between columns 1 & 4 and 2 & 5.
Change the description of column 3 row 2 to SPEC and again copy down to the last row using CTRL+D. Save the file as CSV (MS-DOS) format. Delete the original poi icon and file. Right click on the SPEC icon and edit it. Resize it to 24x24 pixels and save and exit.
Do the same as above for the Redlights (RED) and Gatsos (GAT) folders.

Now move all the new poi files and icons into a new folder called POI. You should now have 3 poi files with poi positions shifted by 0.000085 degrees in longitude and latitude and 3 icons , 24x24 pixels each.

Run POIloader and point it to the new folder for converting the files and saving the output. Choose manual mode and do not choose speed or positional alerts for any of the files. You should end up with a .gpi file called POI. Copy this into the POI folder of the Garmin Map Pilot SD card and away you go.

You can check it by using the GPS simulator. Turn it on in system option.

Pick a road where you know there is a camera and move the crosshair about a mile away on that road and click to set that as your new location. Pick a destination the other side of the camera, pick go and say yes to use the GPS simulator. Just watch the screen. Beats going out in the car in this weather !

Hope this all makes sense. I've done it in a bit of a hurry. I will carry on trying to sort out the 'chinese' problem but I reckon its built into the map system -please someone - prove me wrong !!!!

I think this solution works OK as the large icons on the map coming towards you in 3D are pretty obvious to spot but prefer the sound as well.

According to the Garmin website if you just use the POIloader distance from POI alert (not the speed one) it should just give an audible alert with these files but I haven't had time to try that today.

pbridgeman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 04, 2013 Posts: 22

The other thing I forgot to say is that the POIs will not show all over the country, only fairly close to your location (10-20 miles or so?). Use the GPS simulator to check around the country (on the M25 for example). Mine seems to be working ok.

HarryH321 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 12, 2016 Posts: 4

Hi mate,

Thanks for this, just running through on my Mac and for some reason when building the file in GarminPOILoader it just fails citing an unexpected error? not entirely sure why but I believe it may have something to do with saving as an MSDOS CSV file.

pbridgeman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 04, 2013 Posts: 22

I wrote the post based on windows but you can save in CSV (comma delimited). I don't think it makes any difference. You can also check the excel file and make sure that the format is correct, ie each line starts with the longitude/latitude values. Does POIloader come up with an error straight away or after a number of lines has been processed?

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:52 am Post subject:

That POILoader error is usually where it's found WAV files but no SOX.EXE to work with.

Search here for SOX, plenty of answers.

That location shift workaround sounds like a right faff. Needs a macro or program to speed that up.
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M8TJT · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:37 am Post subject:

@pbridgeman.
Although it obviously makes little difference in your case, by moving the cam by 0.000085 degrees in longitude only moves the cam by a little over 6 yards at 51N.

1 degree lat - 60 nautical miles = 2025 yards. (By early definition),
Distance in long=distance in lat x Cos Lat
and Cos 51 = 0.62932
so 60 x 2025 x 0.000085 x 0.62932 =6.5 yards

Like Kremmen said, this process would be made much easier by the use of an Excel macro or two. Very Happy

I'll post some Excel macro code for the addition of the offset in a while.

@HarryH321
Please don't quote all of a previous post unless it actually adds something to your post for clarification as it just takes up a whole bunch of unnecessary space in your post. Instead of using the 'Quote' button, use either of the two 'Post Reply' buttons above and below the posts at the top and bottom left of the blue shading that encloses all the posts . Or 'Quote' and selectively edit for clarification if required.

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:50 am Post subject:

The only thing I can find online is a dedicated button in the Becker (not Garmin) Map Pilot menu to toggle the navigation instructions between English and Chinese only.

I'm thinking Chinese could be the default and the POI's are coming in that way.

Switch to Chinese, load the POI's, then switch to English (clutching at straws)
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M8TJT · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:39 am Post subject:

Here you go. Copy and paste this lot into a module then run it and marvel at how quick it is.
Read the comments re. Lat and Lon coluns. You may need to swap them

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 9:02 am Post subject:

That should save loads of time.

Can you write a Macro to convert Chinese to English.

辺決治変初暮埼読景本戦考発。
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pbridgeman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 04, 2013 Posts: 22

Thanks for your posts guys. Very informative. I've spent a few hours more on this now and found out some more 'irritants'. If you put a gpi file as I originally explained above into the POI folder, together with another POI file of the same data but converted as a speed file you only get the speed warnings, no icons again - very annoying. I have to say this satnav system is the worst I have ever used in relation to options for displaying POIs and getting speed cameras onto. Not even an option for displaying different built in pois! I don't want restaurants displayed but its all or nothing with this machine.

The other thing is that if I create a POI file with no description data but spaces only where the description was, the banner appears to say the same message (as far as I can tell) ie I don't believe its linked to the POI info. whereas I think in older versions it said the name of the speed camera.

It must just be saying 'Speed alert' or 'Proximity Alert'. Does this imply that its programmed into the software ? or something similar. I wondered about deleting all the Chinese language related files I can find and see what happens but a bit afraid of recovering the staus quo.

Which file actually runs this satnav - anybody know?

M8TJT · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 10:36 am Post subject:

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 10:44 am Post subject:

The vast majority of built in systems are not POI friendly. My Honda system is totally locked down.

My solution is to leave the built in system alone and I have a standalone Garmin PND for my cameras. I also get the benefit of the superb Garmin digital traffic.
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