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Hacking Omnitech 4.3" GPS - Discussion
So I have put together a basic package so you can work on hacking your own system. Here are some screen shots And here is a video of it in action (note the video is slightly different than the screen shots) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4lAUTx Here is the package that runs this (I believe there is nothing illegal in here, but if there is please let me know): [U]Download basic updated.rar:[u/] http://rapidshare.com/files/22812...pdated. After using this package you will need to apply this patch to resolve a few minor problems. To apply the patch, just copy the folders and files from inside it directly to your memory card that has my package installed on it. It will overwrite desinator.mscr as well as 4 ini files in your skins folder. What this does do: This includes the basic files to get your GPS opened up and accessible, makes it so you can use some apps and play games as well as customize it. What it doesn't do: This includes neither GPS software nor Map files. These are illegal to distribute and SD has deleted posts containing links to them already. Suffice it to say, they are available for you to get on the internet, but not included here. In this package are the basic files for an SD card that will load up your GPS and give you some basic menu screens, some apps and games. This is pretty rudimentary so far and is meant as a foundation to start doing some customizing of your own. If you load it up and run it, you will become familiarized with what the menu screens look like and it will be easier to undersatnd how to work with them. The goal of this package isn't to give you the flashiest skin or the most eye candy but to give you something you can work with and isn't super complicated so you can get an understanding of how skinning this device works. This isn't a one stop fix to get your gps setup with all the other types of GPS software, it's more an educational post. Once you understand the fundamentals, you can make this skin as complex and fancy as you want and add whatever applications you like. What exactly IS hacking the GPS? Basically this GPS is a mini computer. It runs a very basic version of windows and operates very much like a normal windows computer in many ways. It is setup so that when it turns on, it automatically loads windows in the background and then runs a program. The program it runs out of the box is Destinator GPS software and is located on your SD card in the foldre \SDMMC\Destinatorapps\Destinator\Destinator.exe This is very similar to any Windows computer which probably loads many programs at startup (like antivirus or messaging programs). What we are doing by "hacking" it is to fool it into runing some other program that we want it to instead of Destinator. This is done by changing the file that the unit automatically runs and making it run something else. So we remove destinator.exe and put in some exe that we want to run ourselves. In most cases this is a program that handles running "skins". That is a very simplified explanation of what hacking this GPS entails. This is how to use this package: It's best to have a blank SD card, if you use the one that came with your GPS it's best to back it up before erasing it (just copy everything to your computer to back it up). If you don't have a program for opening RAR files, you probably want to get this http://www.7-zip.org/ Once you have downloaded my package, unpack it and put the contents onto your blank SD card. Put the SD card into your GPS and restart it. It should boot to a menu screen that looks like the screenshots in this post. Note: This package is setup to run Igo8 and Navigon but does not include them. If you have copies of this software, simply place the copies in the appropriate folder on the SD card (named Igo8 and Navigon). Then the Icons from the main menu will work to launch them. Otherwise the buttons on the first screen for them won't do anything. Here is a brief explanation of whats included and how to start customizing it yourself: Most important in \Skins\MainMenu\ are a few .ini files. Each of these represents on menu screen. You can have as many as you want. The way they are setup right now, Main loads first and has a link to Apps (little arrow in the bottom left), which has a link to Games, which has a link to Clock which links back to Main. There is a file in the same folder called Template.ini This file is just there so you have a reference to copy stuff out of to make your customizing easier. If you look at it you will see that there are multiple entries that look like: Code:
#Icon A1 #---------------------------------------------------- ICONXPBUTTON x = 40 y = 30 Command = \SDMMC\skins\MainMenu\Program01.mscr SizeNormal = 64 SizePushed = 64 ScaleAlpha = 100 IconNormal = \SDMMC\Skins\MainMenu\icons\Program01.ico IconPushed = \SDMMC\Skins\MainMenu\icons\Program01.ico The y number is how far from the top left corner you want the icon to appear Command is the path to whatever you want to run, in this case it's running a shortcut located in the \SDMMC\skins\MainMenu\ folder. Sizenormal is how big you want the icon to look normally Size pushed is how big you want it to look while pushed Scale Alpha is how big you want accompanying font text (I assume) IconNormal is what icon file you want to see when nothing is happening IconPushed is what icon you want to see while it's being pushed You will notice these are all titled something like #Icon A1 A refers to row A or the top row, B would refer to row 2 and if there were C it would refer to row 3 The 1 refers to the first icon in the row, and the other numbers obviously refer to which icon along that row this will control NOTE THESE DO NOT ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING. Anything with a # in front of it is "rem"ed out. That means it's just a note and has no effect on how anything works. I just put those in there to keep it tidy and easy to keep track of when one of yoru icons fails and you need to troulbeshoot it. This should make it pretty easy to setup your icons and apps. This file comes setup to accept 2 rows of 5 icons per page. Once you fill those up it should be pretty clear how to make more. At the bottom you will see something like this: Code:
#Next Page #---------------------------------------------------- ICONXPBUTTON x = 40 y = 210 Command = \SDMMC\Skins\MainMenu\Apps.ini SizeNormal = 64 SizePushed = 64 ScaleAlpha = 100 IconNormal = \SDMMC\Utils\2desk.ico IconPushed = \SDMMC\Utils\go.ico ShutDownAnimation = FlyLeft At this point I suggest if you want to try this, unpack it to your SD card and play with it a little bit. See what you think and leave any questions here, I will try to answer them. I will post more updates as I get more to work right. ================================= OTHER SKINS MIOPOCKET For those who want to try out MioPocket, I have put together a basic setup which is similar to my other package, however this one runs miopocket. Miopocket has a LOT of eye candy and does some really cool stuff! BUT it was made for a different system and as far as I can tell, a lot of what's on it doesn't work. It's fun to play with but unless you want to do some serious tinkering, it's going to have a lot of options that take up screen space but just don't do anything. Anyhow, because miopocket takes some work to get running, my package should be just a copy paste and go thing (add your own nave software etc) but I can't be sure so let me know if it doesn't work. BTW MioPocket is probably NOT very conducive to customizing and hacking yourself. It's a very complicated skin. While it works on the same basic principles as my menu system above, there is going to be a lot to wade through to find and fix what you want to change. Anyhow, here is a link if you want to try it out yourself (Note: I had nothing to do with making this skin, I only took the legwork out of putting it on the Omnitech. If you have questions with it's functionality you can ask but I am not working much on it at the moment so probably can't answer much): For some reason every time I edit this post the link breaks so here is a copy paste version so I don't have to keep fixing it: Code:
http://rapidshare.com/files/227585926/Omnitech_with_Miosskin.zip http://forums.slickdea Updated basic skin made by Rlgdtime - Thanks to Rlgdtime http://www.mediafire.c AplineMan has updated the Iphone skin to allow you to cutomize the aultoading calibration more easily - Thanks AlpineMan! http://forums.slickdea Last edited by Devedander; 05-16-2009 at 02:58 AM.. Omnitech hacking thread in tech support: http://forums.slickdea
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| 04-28-2009, 11:42 AM | |
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Quote : The battery is connected to the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) through a connector.The battery itself is attached to the back of the casing by a strip of adhesive tape and 2 or 3 drops of some kind of glue. Disconnect the battery and the speaker, by unplugging both from the PCB. Get a sharp knife and cut the hardened glue drops. get a flat screw driver and slowly pry the battery form the back half of the casing. |
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Quote : Got Image viewer to work by editing Skins\MainMenu\Apps.ini as follows:Replace : Command = \SDMMC\Utils\imageviewer.exe With: Command = \SDMMC\Utils\viewers\imageviewer.exe I just used notepad as my editor. PS. Editing \DestinatorApps\Destinator\Destinator.mscr with a text editor and changing all: \SDMMC\Windows\MortScript.exe To: \SDMMC\DestinatorApps\Destinator\MortScript.exe |
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Theres your problem.
The term root doesn't mean a folder named root, it means the highest level folder. If I say put the folder Mystuff in the root of your C drive, you end up with c:\mystuff In the case of your SD card, it means the folder directly off SDMMC So igo8.exe should be in SDMMC\IGo8\ Basically move everything from your destinator folder back up into SDMMC\igo8 then it should work. |
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FAQ:
Many people have contributed to figuring out how to do stuff with this GPS. Some of these answers are based on my experience and many are based on the work and experience of others. Thanks to those who have contributed! ==================================== How big an SD Card do you need? - 1GB will probably hold one app and maps for your state, you may be able to fit 2 (I have igo8 and navigon with california maps and POIs eating up most of a 1GB card. ==================================== What card can you use? - Any non SDHC card (only SD) which pretty much limites you to 4GB. I have seen this one recommended: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...682020808 ==================================== How do I format a 4GB card so it will work (FAT16)? - There are 2 ways: Check out this post on using an HP utitlity to do it: http://www.techsmartti ==================================== Can I brick the unit? - I suppose anything is possible but considering whats being done... it would be very hard. ==================================== Where can I get the software to run on these? - There are obviously illegal sources on the internet that can be found (SD does not allow linking to them however torrents and rapidshare are good starting places to do your own research) or you can purchase the software. Be aware that many companies do not license their software to run on anything but their own product. ==================================== Which software shoud I use? - The most commonly used ones are Igo8, Navigon 7 and TomTom. I prefer Igo8 because I have been using it for quite a while and it has some nice advanced features and a good POI database. TomTom I find to be the easiest to use and probably best for those who aren't tech inclined. I am just starting to try Navigon 7. The choice has a lot to do with personal preference so your best bet is to try and test them all out if possible. ==================================== What software besides GPS can I use on this? - This is basically a Wince Core 5.0 device. You can run a lot of software on it designed for WinCE. If you look at the youtube video above you can see where I am going with it. There are productivity apps (word viewer, powerpoint viewer, notepad etc) as well as games and multimedia apps. ==================================== How do I back up my GPS before I start hacking? - Either use a seperate SD card and just put the one that came with the unit away somewhere safe --- or backup the one that came with it (copy all files to a directory on your hard drive, make a CD whatever you feel like, just copy it all off) and then use the card that came with it. ==================================== How exactly do I hack this? - There are two basic ways: 1 Download a package and stick it on an SD card, add some maps and go with it (My package is linked at the top of this page, near the bottom of the first post are links to some other skins). This will get you to using the GPS as quickly and painlessly as possible but you will be limited to what others have put together for you. You will have to get the maps for yourself most likely and the packages are not legal to distribute because they contain pirated software. 2 Do some reading on the above linked techsmart page and try to figure out how it's done. You can look at my attached menu.ini file to see what's giong on. It's really very straightfoward (if a bit tedious) and I will try to do a simple writeup of how to do some customizing yourself later on. ==================================== How do I modify the wallpaper? - Assuming you are using one of the standard packages to hack your gps, modifying the wallpaper is pretty easy. Find an image you would like and resize it to 480x270 (or close) and save it as a bitmap named "MainMenu.bmp" (no quotes). On your SD card find a file in \SDMMC\Skins\MainMenu\ named MaineMenu.bmp and replace it with your new one (you may want to back up the one on your SD card). Reboot and you should have a new wallpaper. Attached is a sample wall paper. ADVANCED: If you are using my package and want a different wall paper on each menu screen, look at the top of the .ini file for that menu screen. Change the name from mainmenu.bmp to whatever the name of your desired wallpaper is. Make sure that the picture you want to use is also in the same directory as the .ini file. ==================================== My GPS gets stuck on the Loading screen... what can I try?- To verify your device isn't actually broken, press the reset button on the right with the stylus (it's inside the little hole) and then try to load up using your original card. If that doesn't work, format an SD card and copy the files directly to it and try again. SD cards can easily develop corrupt files that prevent the unit from loading. ==================================== How do I add an exit button to destinator? (Thanks to Steveliv for this one) - In menu.ini (this is in the directory your destinator is installed in in \Destinator\Skin\All), find [Frame0.TBButton0] ;ButtonText = IDS_MENU_BUTTON_EXIT_DESTINATOR ;ButtonAction = EXIT ;ButtonBitmap = MENU_EXIT_DEST remove the 3 semicolons, save the file and restart Destinator. ==================================== What should I do if I get GAPI errors? (Thanks to Raj) - Update: I got the Gapi thing working in case anyone else is interested. I found it at http://www.wincesoft.d I download the windows CE cab file (4.03), and I just extracted the gx.dll and gx_hpc.ini files. I dropped those into the util directory where Player.exe lives. When I tried Player, it told me to choose a device. All kinds of HPC devices were listed in there. There's only 1 OmniTech option, but it's the older version. I tried it anyway and it worked fine! Hope that helps someone. Update on GAPI from new_berlin: I was getting the GAPI not supported error and tried your suggestion. I see 2 files with gx and gx_hpc in them although their suffixes are numbers (not .dll and .ini). I dropped them into the utils folder but the error continues. Perhaps the files need renaming. As a work-around, I was able to select a different driver (other than MAPI) from the menu and video plays fine. ==================================== SKINS for IGO8 http://www.igo8mods.co http://artwork-igo8.blogspot.c If you find skins please let me know and I will add them to the list! Last edited by Devedander; 05-08-2009 at 12:22 PM.. |
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to further clarify: practically all 4gb SD cards are SDHC. there was a very short run of 4gb SD cards, because there were problems with it. so they just switched most of them to 4gb SDHC. its safe to assume that this GPS is limited to 2gb SD cards, unless you have a very specific source for 4gb non-SDHC cards. |
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ActiveSync may not be needed as long as you "safely remove hardware" on the SD card reader before pulling that SD card out.
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![]() BTW to give people and idea where this is going, I uploaded a copy of my menu file... this is the one you can see in action in the video that controls the icons. If you look it over it should be pretty obvious how things are done with it so you can hack on your own if you like. The apps are mostly on my SD card under Utils directory. Later when I get the chance I will try and upload the whole filestructure and the freeware stuff so you can see what's going on with it. Last edited by Devedander; 04-28-2009 at 12:18 PM.. |
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<$15 Last edited by Damocles; 04-28-2009 at 12:38 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost |
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thanks for this thread...i need info to get started:
just curious though, since these nav n go igo 8 are for wince, is it possible to load it onto 1) tmobile dash win mobile 5.0 (no touch screen) or 2) winxp laptop thanks...if not, i'll just try first with the omnitech wince |
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I will try to work up a more basic walkthrough as soon as I get some time.
As for the dash, I doubt it and gps software is very touvhscreen dependant. Wince apps will not run under native windows. You may be able to find an emulator but you would probably be better served just getting pc gps software. |
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-li...169&sr=8-1 The lowest I saw was just under $12 shipped. |
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