How to import a Google maps route to COMAND

[malbry]

Hi,

If you start Navigation on your Comand and then select Destination (bottom right of screen), do you see Routes as an option in the list? If not, then I'm afraid this app won't be any use to you.

However if you have Personal POI as an option then you might still be able to load POIs from Google Maps and other data such as speed cameras. I have other apps to do both of those things if you are interested.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[kjl]

Hello Malcolm,
Thanks very much for your contribution to this thread and for the programme you have kindly provided. After a few hiccups I have managed to get it to load onto my comand on my 2014 E class. I can now get planning my route to Southern Spain next month.
You mention you have apps for speed cameras and POI's. I would like these if you could post them here or email them to me.
Thanks again.

Regards,
Keith

 

[malbry]

Hi Keith,

I'm pleased that you have got it working. I have actually updated the program with a couple of improvements, so perhaps you can use the new version from here:

http://www.freepoc.org/download/Routes103.zip

The program to produce POIs for Comand from Google Maps, which includes detailed instructions, is here:

http://www.freepoc.org/download/MyMaps101.zip

There is some discussion on using the program here:

Creating Personal POIs using Google My Maps - Mercedes Benz SLK Forum

and here:

Using Google Maps with Comand navigation - Mercedes Benz SLK Forum

Finally, to keep things on topic I'll post some details about using the speed camera program in a separate thread shortly.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Flows]

Thanks Malcolm.

I notice that some NTG4.5 systems have the Routes option under Destination but mine does not. Mine is a grey import from Japan with an ECE retrofit. Not sure if that is the issue. The crowd that did it are saying that an upgrade to 4.7 might fix it but we will see...

Hi,

If you start Navigation on your Comand and then select Destination (bottom right of screen), do you see Routes as an option in the list? If not, then I'm afraid this app won't be any use to you.

However if you have Personal POI as an option then you might still be able to load POIs from Google Maps and other data such as speed cameras. I have other apps to do both of those things if you are interested.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[malbry]

>> I notice that some NTG4.5 systems have the Routes option under Destination but mine does not. Mine is a grey import from Japan with an ECE retrofit. Not sure if that is the issue. The crowd that did it are saying that an upgrade to 4.7 might fix it but we will see...

Ah, I see, thanks for letting me know. You might still be able to import POIs from Google Maps, if that's of any interest?

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Skie]

Iphone 4 / 4s or earlier work, it's the 5 and newer they took DUN support off

Hmmm.... Just activate Hot Spot on Iphone5 and everything will be easier....

 

[mbboyracer]

Unless of course you have an iPhone in which case you are stuffed

Not at all!

Took me a few goes to get it working once I realised that the key step is to make sure that your iPhone is configured in "settings" to share the Internet connection. It then activates the HotSpot and the iPhone then acts as a link between the car and your Internet provider; in my case this is Vodafone.

 

[AGEDPEA]

I didn't spot this thread until this month when I was looking to see how to get a route into Command;

I want to put on record my thanks to Malcolm for his excellent program and instructions which work a treat. They have solved the laborious problem of instructing waypoints in the car! Malcolm's contribution really confirms the value of the Club.

 

[malbry]

>>I want to put on record my thanks to Malcolm for his excellent program and instructions which work a treat. They have solved the laborious problem of instructing waypoints in the car! Malcolm's contribution really confirms the value of the Club.

Thanks for taking the time to write this - I appreciate the feedback

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Piff]

Thanks from me too
I've just used your program to plan 5 days of routes round the coast of North Scotland - North Coast 500
Not stopping at the same places as their 5 Day Highlight itinery as we needed to make our own hotel bookings.
Going in the last week of May:bannana:

 

[malbry]

>> I've just used your program to plan 5 days of routes round the coast of North Scotland

Sounds brilliant! I'm glad the program was helpful to you.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[malbry]

Hi again folks,

I just enhanced my free Routes conversion program to incorporate a couple of suggestions from users. Version 1.05 allows the user to set the route names which will displayed on the Comand - either accept the default names from Google Maps or type your own names.

TL;DR: Plan route(s) in Google Maps, copy to SD card, use in your Comand

The latest program plus documentation is available here:

http://www.freepoc.org/download/Routes105.zip

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[Piff]

Thanks from me too
I've just used your program to plan 5 days of routes round the coast of North Scotland - North Coast 500
Not stopping at the same places as their 5 Day Highlight itinery as we needed to make our own hotel bookings.
Going in the last week of May:bannana:

Hi Malcolm
A couple of minor glitches to report back from our trip.
The first to report is that comand doesn't have all the roads installed! Our first trip from Strathpeffer across to Applecross involved a narrow single track road over the mountains. Whilst this road is on google maps, comand didn't recognise it and kept asking us to make a u-turn. Obviously not a fault in your program but a comand maps issue.
The second glitch may be down to the way I created the routes. on the comand screen the route is in blue, with light blue dots at intervals. The light blue dots may be where I dragged the google map route to suit our preference. But as we approached each light blue dot, comand instructed a u-turn in 300yds.
Otherwise, really useful program, thanks

 

[malbry]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback and glad the program was useful. As you correctly say, if the Comand doesn't have a particular road (hopefully rare) then it won't use that road even if Google Maps has it. On the light blue dot question, I will look into that and see if there's anything I can do.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[MartynW]

Just out of curiosity - presumably the preferences and defaults are likely to be different between COMAND and Google Maps - so if one loads a route created in the latter, will the former try to recalculate it? I'm rather looking forward to playing with mine, for example to see how a precalculated route compares to a live route calculated from a set of uploaded POIs.

 

[malbry]

Hi Martyn,

Yes, you are right. When you calculate a route using (for example) Google Maps on a PC and then export it, the exported file contains a number of trackpoints (latitudes and longitudes) representing that route. When you then import that file to Comand via SD Card, the Comand matches those trackpoints to its internal map and displays the route accordingly.

In the majority of cases this works well, especially where you want to plan a specific route rather than rely on Comand's default navigation. As mentioned above, it won't work so well if your Google Maps route uses any roads which don't appear on Comand's internal maps.

The good thing is that you can test this out by importing a route from Google Maps and using Comand's 'Demo' function - all explained in the program documentation.

Regards,
Malcolm

 

[missel]

Always the same trip in Command

Hello,

I have a strange behaviour on my GPS Command.
I used one time the Route program and it worked very well.
I just create a new trip and load it in the SD car's GPS. The title reflects the new trip. When I load it it's always the old trip.

I don't understand how it's possible especially because I have deleted all others old trip on the SD.

So it's somewhere in the memory of the GPS in the car....

Any help we'll be wonderful

Thanks in advance.

 

[missel]

Always the same trip in Command

Hello,

Don't take in account my previous message.
The problem came from the gpx file who wasn't good.

For the moment I don't know why.

 

[Cropperty]

Is it me? My maps programme seems to be totally different to your instructions.

 

[Redcar56]

Garmin Basecamp

Does your program work with Garmin Basecamp. I have hundreds of very good routes created for my motorbike Garmin which uses Basecamp not mapsource