Mercedes MY17 Garmin Map Pilot - Alerts in Chinese?

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

According to my translation site, your Chinese translates to 'a study on the beginning and the end of the ming dynasty'!!

Kremmen · Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 1:58 pm Post subject:

I just Googled Chinese and copied the first hit. Smile

Something for M to get to grips with.
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

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

Hi everyone.

After a couple more hours of defeat I've found a workaround that gets rid of the chinese language on the red banner. This only works if you dont want to use chinese at all (obviously!) and I haven't tested it extensively but so far its worked for every camera I've passed.

This is how I'm using it now and it works OK for me.

I've downloaded the consolidated files from pocketgpsworld (I dont bother with the mobile ones but I assume it will also work with them). I've deleted all the descriptions of camera locations because I cant get them to show on the banner anyway but replaced them with abbreviations of the camera type - GAT;SPEC and RED for the 3 files just in case they show up one day. I haven't changed the camera long/lat locations at all because I cant get the icons to show on screen anyway when using them with the audible and distance warning.

I've resized the icons to 24x24 in the hope that one day they too will appear on screen! and renamed them to match the above abbreviations.. I've put all those files into a folder called POI and processed them using POILoader in computer and manual mode. For each camera file I've used the proximity alert option at 1900 feet.
I've placed the resultant POI file in the POI directory on the Garmin SD card.

Make sure your SD card is fully backed up before you carry out the next step

To get rid of the chinese on the banner I've deleted 3 files in the GARMIN/fonts folder on the SD card named - 006-D0952-01, 006-D0952-02 and 006-D0952-03. I tried cutting this down to one file but it still left some of the chinese in place. I figured that chinese fonts take up the biggest space in the folder and these are the 3 biggest files.

The banner now just shows the red camera icon and the default distance for sounding the bongs. After a few seconds the camera moves to the sidestrip of the display and disappears once the camera is passed. I've found that the bongs sound at different distances depending on your speed of approach to the cameras.

Try it out and let me know what happens in your case. I'm going to continue to try to get the icons on screen as well but it will probably take me a while to get back to this. I've sent an email to Mercedes customer services telling them about this problem and asking them to pass it on to their appropriate technical team. I'll let you know if anything happens.

Kremmen · Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:33 am Post subject:

So presumably there should be 3 similar files, but in English.

If so, would copying those 3 English files into the 3 Chinese filenames give English banners.
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

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

Hmmm, probably only one, but which one. Maybe make 3 copies of one file just in case. Why 3 files for the Chinese language. Unless one is Mandarin, one simplified Chinese and the other ?. Trouble is I don't know which file is what language. I might try it when I have more time.

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

The other thing I meant to say is that I went on the german www.pocketnavigation.de website last night and the Chinese display is well known about. Apparently it appeared on v6.1 maps/software and several people are moaning about it. Garmin has been told several times and are supposed to be sorting it in the next update but they are having problems getting info. from them.

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

Found the answer - they are special font files as follows:

006-D0952-01.bin | Chinese symbols
006-D0952-02.bin | Japanese True Type Font
006-D0952-03.bin | Korean True Type Font
006-D0952-04.bin | Thai True Type Font
006-D0952-05.bin | Arabic Bold True Type Font
006-D0952-06.bin | Arabic True Type Font
006-D0952-07.bin | Hebrew Bold True Type Font
006-D0952-08.bin | Hebrew True Type Font

Presumably if it cant find the Chinese it uses Japanese ?! and then Korean ?!

Anyway it looks like they can be safely deleted. The English must be built in somewhere else - I cant find a font file for it.

Anyone out there tried the fix set out above yet ??

Toman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 18, 2016 Posts: 3

Toman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 18, 2016 Posts: 3

Hello guys,

I will try to copy the old directory from before the garmin pilot update and see what the red banner will give ?
It worked good before that update !
There were no chinese signs in it !

I let you know.

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

Hi,

By all means - but these are just font files - the program itself uses them to display messages in the appropriate language, Its the software that needs patching to get permanently over this problem (I think).

I've been looking for an English font file to substitute for these files, but cant find one.

Kremmen · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:23 pm Post subject:

From my experience it would be quicker to learn Chinese than wait for the Garmin fix.

It took them 4 years to acknowledge that Smartlink had a problem in heavy urban areas where roadworks filled the buffer stopping live traffic getting through.
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

Toman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 18, 2016 Posts: 3

Damn,

You are correct pbridgeman !

I checked the old directory from the backup with the new directory from V6.1 and they are the same, so it would be not solved within a change.
Garmin\Fonts\...

I see that 2 files are changed : GarminDevice.xml and NaviPnd.so
Also the files : contents.txt and fm_sub.bin are gone now.
These files are in the ROOT-directory.

I don't know if we can do something with these files or if these files have something to do with the chinese characters ?

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 5:34 pm Post subject:

I do hope that you two have a couple or three good backups of your card. Very Happy

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

Yes, no problem there.

I think I'm going to stick with my original workaround which displays a banner with a Red camera and another Red icon with the default distance in it. The space in the middle where the 'Chinese' was is reduced and now looks fine.

I'm confident there's no other effect on the Map pilot program and having a message there doesn't do any more for me - I know there's a speed camera there so I just make sure I'm still below the speed limit.

Seeing a red banner with Chinese characters was just annoying me!! I have a couple of backups so when the next software update comes out I'll just check it again and put the font files back is the problem is cured.

Thanks for your input everyone.

Kremmen · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 6:26 am Post subject:

Can the Chinese file be opened in Notepad and is it readable or encrypted?

If readable I'd be having a tinker....
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

	PocketGPS
	Web