POI Warning - Timeout

Redhotorange · Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject: POI Warning - Timeout

You may have already known this - When CP6 sends out a POI warning it takes 30 seconds to return to the navigation screen and this can be really annoying. I contacted ALK and they said this was how the cp6 was set up. But I found out a couple of days ago, this can be adjusted by modify the "preferences" file. This is how you do it. Locate the "preferences" file under programs/copilot. Copy the file to the desktop and open it with notepad. Under "Messenger/msgtimeout" change the default time (30) to whatever you like. Save the file and copy it back to your PDA.

NigelO · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 39

Has this actually worked on your PDA?

I've just tried it and CP6 no longer runs at all

BMWBiker · Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:23 pm Post subject:

Nigel says "I've just tried it and CP6 no longer runs at all"

When you edited Preferences.cfg were you careful to use a simple text editor like Notepad? You may have introduced some ugly control characters if you used WordPad or MSWord. That would confuse CP on startup.

If so, you can probably find a clean copy of Preferences.cfg on the desktop, so you can start over. I doubt you have done any permanent harm except to corrupt this one file for the moment.
_________________
Doug
CoPilot 6.0.1.24 (USA)
Compaq iPaq 3970, with PC2003
Navman sleeve (3400)
Blue Tooth GPS

KenS · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 25, 2004 Posts: 73

Editing with either notepad or wordpad often causes all the line breaks to disappear from the config files. If you re-edit the file you will see this. Either add in all the line breaks manually or use Word to do the editing. Either way the problem wont come back.
_________________
--Ken

HP iPAQ h2210 ROM 1.10.07 ENG
Windows CE 4.20
Sandisk Ultra II SD 512Mb
Haicom 303MMF and BT-401 slipper
Copilot Live 6.0.0.68

nivek22 · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:49 am Post subject:

I tried this before seeing Nigels comments.

I did notice that the file size shrunk slightly but thought nothing of it.

When I tried to run CoPilot my a701 locked up and I ended up performing a hard reset Crying or Very sad

Be warned.

PONDEROUS · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 10:36 am Post subject:

This is good work by Redhotorange. I had raked through the very same file and come to the conclusion there was nothing there to be found. As suggested by KenS, I've edited the file with MS Word and it has done the trick.

Where Copilot is concerned, it is seldom possible to welcome good news such as this without some qualifying thoughts, and this is no exception. This topic was raised a long time ago, and a patch has since appeared that does not include a fix - which, as we now learn, would have taken all of 30 seconds (the equivalent of one speed camera's worth of delay). Yet, apparently, ALK are now advising, more or less, that that's the way it is and that's that.

It doesn't bode well for the other problems ever being fixed.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

PONDEROUS · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject:

Further to the above, I did a detour to go past some speed cameras this morning (yes, I know, it's sad). This confirmed that Redhotorange's time-lag tweak works fine.

The other thing that it showed was that ALK have altered the speed camera display- assuming that the North American version wasn't like it in the first place. In v.6.0.1.22., the display shows a little picture of a car and a motor bike within a camera detector beam. This makes the story even more curious given that they appear completely to have to disregarded the time lag problem and other functional issues.

Rolling Eyes

_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

Robin2 · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:41 pm Post subject:

I had exactly the same problem as Nigel0 - I edited in Notepad and the file was reduced in size. When I replaced the original Preferences file with the modified one CoPilot wouldn't open. Fortunately I had kept a copy of the original, which I pasted into the folder and all was well again
Robin
_________________
TomTom One v3 Europe, Navcore 7.903, Western Europe 835.2420
TomTom Go 720 Europe, Navcore 8.351, Western Europe 855.2884
Satmap Active 10
Plus a lot of other PDA GPS kit, seldom used

BMWBiker · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:42 pm Post subject:

A hex dump of Preferences.cfg shows that it has an unusual 'end-of-line' sequence, geeks can see details below. Some editors may remove one control character per line since the extra character looks spurious. This would reduce file size by 135 bytes (typical file has 135 lines), and result in a CFG file that CP refuses to read.

If there are editors that use this end-of-line sequence, I don't know about them.

It is also possible that ActiveSync transforms the file during transfer, tyring to 'clean it up'. I don't know.

But still it should be harmless to replace "MsgTimeout"=30 with "MsgTimeout"=5 (or any desired number of seconds to display a camera warning), as long as you don't change anything else, and this should be safe to do using Notepad.exe. Of course it's best to keep a backup copy of Preferences.cfg in case CP won't start for any reason.

The other 13 .CFG files shipped with CP use the standard end-of-line sequence, easy to edit in any simple editor.

If your Preferences.cfg on the PPC is bad, you can replace it with the one on the desktop in:
C:\Program Files\CoPilot\PocketPC6\App

Reference:
Preferences.cfg 'end-of-line' sequence = CR,CR,LF (0x0d0d0a)
Normal, or 'Notepad' sequence = CR,LF (0x0d0a)
_________________
Doug
CoPilot 6.0.1.24 (USA)
Compaq iPaq 3970, with PC2003
Navman sleeve (3400)
Blue Tooth GPS

Robin2 · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:11 am Post subject:

The reduction in file size took place on my desktop, before I pasted it back inside CoPilot using ActiveSync.
I managed to edit it successfully using Word. (Wordpad also changed it in some way so that CoPilot would not start)
Robin
_________________
TomTom One v3 Europe, Navcore 7.903, Western Europe 835.2420
TomTom Go 720 Europe, Navcore 8.351, Western Europe 855.2884
Satmap Active 10
Plus a lot of other PDA GPS kit, seldom used

iankb · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:19 pm Post subject:

Schouten · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:40 pm Post subject:

Good work by Redhotorange. This has been a real pain where there are cameras close together. I contacted ALK when CP6 came out and they said it would be fixed in the first patch! Just looked at the corresponding CP5 file and I can't see a "msgtimeout" line there so it must have defaulted somehow to 5 seconds.

I wonder if this was going to be a menu-driven configurable POI display time in CP6 that somehow got "overlooked" in the release?

They wouldn't do that would they? Wink

neil01 · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:36 pm Post subject:

When I used Word 2003, it ADDED lines - everything was double spaced! However I dont know if this will cause any problems.

Of all the editors I have tried (Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2003, and OpenOffice), only OpenOffice seemed to leave the file structure unaltered.

SupraCoPilot · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 07, 2006 Posts: 7

NigelO · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 39

Update

Having rescued my preferences file from the original CP6 Mini SD card, I started to play around again.

This time, after copying the file to the desktop, I opened it in Word it prompted me to open in RTF format, which i did. Changed the warning to 10 seconds, copied it back, ran the CP6 demo and IT WORKS!

I reckon I can get it down to seven seconds in order for the TTS to recite my lengthened message (I replaced the " AT " bit with " in speed limit " - works fine, as the TTS now tells me something like "approaching GATSO1234 in speed limit 40" - much nicer)

Ain't forums great Smile

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