Does anyone know how to hack the NAV to disable that annoying caution screen that always comes on first? I would love to not have to always press the enter button everytime i start my car. Thanks!

 

ditto

 

bump

 

I'm in the process of modifying my NAV DVD at the moment..

I'm trying to figure out what each file represents.. too bad there is reference data for this particular program.

I did acquire the SDAL format specs, which specified the *minimal* file requirements..

which consists of a database pair of files (any name.sdl) and a series of voice files.

On the disc are 8 different languages, even though the program itself only accesses two, English and French.

I'm in the process of searching for the resource which contains the lame warning however for all I know it's probably built into the hardware.. I'll check that later when I try out my newly burned SDAL disc with new voices (UK English, female, will sound cool)..

 

awesome, I'm sick of that warning screen

 

That would be so awsome if you could have your own special grafic instead. I can't wait to find out how it can be done. Since this is not a Mazda only product there must be other hacks out there on the Navitech software. I guess I know what I am doing once I get off the forum.

 

bad news... the nav system doesn't read DVD+RW drives..

I'll try DVD+R next...

BTW, I'm not sure if I can pull this off, since there are some clear challenges here.

1. the NAVTech system requires the DVD to be in the following format: SDAL format, ISO 9600, UDP file system, Joliet

2. The files contained on the original disc exceed that which can be written by a regular DVD burner. It is over 4.6GB, while a DVD burner can only burn approximatey 4.5GB.

3. The graphic and sound resources on the SDAL format is compressed using various compression schemes, chosen by the developer. It's primarily LZH compressed in most files. Figuring out the offsets of the compressed data in each file will be a challenge.

4. Figuring out what dependencies are programmed in the system.. I can either simply leave some files out to burn the dvd, or figure out the resources within each file and trim them down manually without disturbing the offsets of each data segment.

 

How does one remove the DVD from the Nav Player? I could not find the eject button..

 

once you pull center console piece up, press down on the dvd player and it should open

 

It it doubtful that you could turn off the nag screen without some kind of serious hack. The NAV software isn't on the map DVD. It's loaded into the unit (from CD) at the factory. My RX-8 was shipped without the software loaded and nagged to insert the upgrade disc. Rather than send out a disc with the software on it, Mazda elected to send another NAV system...and thus I have a working NAV setup.

 

Where have you gotten. I can't figure out how to read any of the files so far. I'm not an expert in this kind of stuff at all, but I think having the other voices would be cool. Keep us posted on what youve figured out.

 

bump
anyone done this yet

 

sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys.. I have been super busy with ... my girlfriend..

Anyway, it didn't work.. the DVD+R wouldn't read either.. Now I'm thinking it might be that I'm removing a necessary file.. sigh... gotta think about this a little more.

perhaps removing a different file... or simply chopping the end of one of the files... dunno.. there's really no other way since I can't burn all of the files on a single DVD recordable.

any programmers here? maybe you can make heads or tails what file does what.

otherwise I'll keep experimenting.

 

Have you tried DVD-RW or DVD-R. I think I have one of each at home and will give it a try. I'm guessing that you just renamed the files to change the languages?

 

sorry no luck yet squidward
but thanks for responding

 

Maybe you can scratch it off?!!! :D

 

I'm a professional programmer, been one for 15 years. I'd be very interested to know what you've learned so far. I'd love to be able to hack my NAV system to do other things besides NAV.

jtdwab's suggestion is a good one: if the drive can't read +R/+RW, try -R or -RW.

martin, if the software is loaded from CD, any idea what sort of persistent storage the unit uses? I'd guess some sort of flash memory, but...

Also, anyone know what interface is used from the navigation unit to the LCD display? Anything standard?

Anyone know who manufactures the hardware? NavTech appears to be a software company. Information on the hardware specs (especially processor) would be really useful.

 

bump

 

good points... I unfortunately don't have a -R/-RW.. only +R/+RW.

Does anyone know the manufacturer of our NAV system?

 

I contacted Mazda, and they said Panasonic. I have my doubts. Any souls brave enough to pull out the drive and look for an OEM's badge?

I've also contacted NavTech about maybe getting their SDK. We'll see how that goes.

 

thank you
seems just a matter of time now

 

How about eliminating the french word data to make space?

Any word on DVD -R?

Vince

 

Could save a lot more space by eliminating the other languages. There is a total of 23 languages on the disc.

I haven't had much of a chance to play with this lately. I've got the audio file format pretty well cracked. Unfortunately, the different languages have different numbers of audio clips in them, which leads me to think that the software has some rules for grammar in it. Changing languages wouldn't be as easy as renaming one audio file to another.

UK English and US English have different numbers of audio clips, which I don't really get.

 

I looked at removing the extra voice files to save space and it wasn't enough. You still need more room on a recordable format. I guess what we need is to filter the database and remove the records for areas of the country you don't plan to be in. If you do go on a long trip you can put in the original disc.

How are the audio files cracked?

 

I haven't tried this but I'd assume you still get the nag screen even with the CD out...if so the nag is built into the firmware of the panasonic unit....good luck hacking that without MAJOR risk of killing the unit.....I work on alot of IT hardware everyday and firmware hacks are very risky...hell firmware upgrades from the manufacturer can be risky...I've killed alot of equipment over the years just upgrading firmware.