Tool to import speedcams in COMAND

[johncook109]

Hi There. Its me again, I have tried it all again and it just not save to the SD card only to the inbuilt hard drive. All S Classs will have this problem I think but it looks like a project you could look at in the near future please.
P.S. Did you enjoy your holiday as the weather here was c?????p.
Regards JC

 

[MBSpeedCams]

If it saves to a built in drive, then there's not much I can do unless I would get my hands on an S class where I can rip out the console to see how it works

Holidays were fine, thanks. I had good weather, 28 degrees and sunny. Was a bit depressing to come back home in grey, wet, and cold weather

 

[Village Guy]

I tried your file this morning, and it doesn't load in my car, so that could be a good thing for you. Meaning there's something wrong with the file and it might work after all if I can find what the problem is.

Give me a few days to investigate this

Alternatively, would you mind letting me have a copy of your file that works for the UK? I could then verify if it is compatible with my E Class.

 

[MBSpeedCams]

Alternatively, would you mind letting me have a copy of your file that works for the UK? I could then verify if it is compatible with my E Class.

Sorry my bad. I renamed your output file to .xml to verify syntax etc. Obviously the car navigation will do nothing with that. After renaming it back to .gpx, the speed cameras were loaded without any problems.
So the file is working in my car.

If you want to try with a copy of the file that I'm using, you can download it here.
It doesn't contain cameras for the UK, but the file should at least load. So you should be able to bring up the personal POI screen and see a category "speed cameras".

 

[Village Guy]

Sorry my bad. I renamed your output file to .xml to verify syntax etc. Obviously the car navigation will do nothing with that. After renaming it back to .gpx, the speed cameras were loaded without any problems.
So the file is working in my car.

If you want to try with a copy of the file that I'm using, you can download it here.
It doesn't contain cameras for the UK, but the file should at least load. So you should be able to bring up the personal POI screen and see a category "speed cameras".

Thanks for the offer but now you have confirmed my file it working I guess we can conclude the adding POI's is only possible with 2012/2013 vehicles

Oh well I will have to wait on my new SL350 delivery to test the facility. Fingers crossed it will work on that.

 

[MBSpeedCams]

Let me know when you're able to test on the SL350, always good to know which models support this method

For info, my navigation software version is Europe 2011 (v4.0), so any version after that should work I guess.

 

[Village Guy]

Let me know when you're able to test on the SL350, always good to know which models support this method

For info, my navigation software version is Europe 2011 (v4.0), so any version after that should work I guess.

Absolutely, Will do.

FYI My E350 is the new 2011 model with navigation for Europe v7.0!

 

[MBSpeedCams]

That's strange! Maybe the approach changed in later versions?
I should be getting a new car (latest C model) in January, so I'll have to wait another 8 months before I can verify.

 

[Village Guy]

Just finished test driving an SL350. During the test drive my SD card fell into the socket and started loading POI's

After it finished, cameras started to appear on the map and were also AUDIBLY notified with a beep

 

[kamalpatel12448]

Great to see someone doing this. I will try it at some point and share feedback.
Kamal

 

[MBSpeedCams]

Just finished test driving an SL350. During the test drive my SD card fell into the socket and started loading POI's

After it finished, cameras started to appear on the map and were also AUDIBLY notified with a beep

That's great! We've been waiting for the audible warnings for a long time

Just to verify because my version does not support audio warnings, the tool generates a file which gives audible warnings or did you change the file in order to get this enabled? Or is it a configuration setting in the navigation to enable sounds?

Damn, and I have to wait another 8 months to get this update

 

[m1br]

Interesting.
I have the new E Class with COMAND online, and I use the PocketGPSWorld cams database.
It loads fine and has categories with tick boxes for each type of camera to be displayed.
It doesn't however have any audio alert AFAIK. How have you enables this as I'm sure the forum over there would love to hear it.

 

[Village Guy]

That's great! We've been waiting for the audible warnings for a long time

Just to verify because my version does not support audio warnings, the tool generates a file which gives audible warnings or did you change the file in order to get this enabled? Or is it a configuration setting in the navigation to enable sounds?

Damn, and I have to wait another 8 months to get this update

There was a sub menu that offered audible alerts within the navigation options menu. I just checked it and it worked. I used the exact same file that you down loaded from me earlier.

The alert was simply a loud beep, it actually became quite annoying as it seemed to beep occasionally for other items that were not obvious to me in the short time I spent with the car in spite of un-checking all other POI's.

Initially I thought the camera function was screwed up and then I realised that the database was still showing cameras that were temporarily installed last year during motorway maintenance. I then tested it in known camera areas and it gave an audible beep 4-5 seconds before passing the camera as well as displaying the small graphic on the screen.

My experience was that unless the warning beep was enabled, the chances of spotting the camera on the display would be quite slim due to the small size of the graphics. Is it possible to make the graphics larger?

In respect to waiting for your next update, I fear you may have the same problem as me, that is that when maps are updated, that is all that is updated

The navigation menu structure did not change at all when I had my 2011 E350 updated from V4.0 to V7.0 hence I am unable to even load the cameras let alone receive audible warnings.

To fix this issue I guess we need to understand how to access the navigation control firmware to at least be able to know what revision is installed and of course ultimately find a way to update it.

 

[Village Guy]

Interesting.
I have the new E Class with COMAND online, and I use the PocketGPSWorld cams database.
It loads fine and has categories with tick boxes for each type of camera to be displayed.
It doesn't however have any audio alert AFAIK. How have you enables this as I'm sure the forum over there would love to hear it.

Please see my earlier post, I'm not sure I can offer any additional info.

 

[m1br]

Thank you I'll take a harder look tomorrow and report back.

 

[johncook109]

Hi There. Its me again, I have tried it all again and it just not save to the SD card only to the inbuilt hard drive. All S Classs will have this problem I think but it looks like a project you could look at in the near future please.
P.S. Did you enjoy your holiday as the weather here was c?????p.
Regards JC

Hi There. I could let you have a copy of the softwareNTG3.0 v10 is it possible to add the file to the program and create a new disc so it loads when the software up dates. Regards JC

 

[MBSpeedCams]

Thanks for the detailed info on this.
When you activate those beeps in this way, you also get beeps when you reach a fuel station etc (all the POIs you enable in the settings screen).
Maybe by adding properties to the POI syntax in the speed cam file, we can enable it only for those POIs, but I would have to get my hands on an audio enabled version first to investigate that. Another option could be that you can enable/disable the audio warning for each POI category. Or maybe we'll have to wait for another update to get to that point.

In the file there is an option to tell how to treat the POI, either as a warning or as an information point. I would guess that warnings give an audio warning, and information points just show on the map. That's why it doesn't make sense that all the POI categories would be audio enabled by one setting. I would expect this setting to be per category.

If your file contains speed cameras that don't exist anymore you can report them to scdb.info, to remove them from the database, so everyone gets a clean database

The pictures on the map cannot be displayed bigger. It's using the built-in icons from the COMAND system. I couldn't find a way to use custom icons, it only worked when specifying one of the built-in icons (using an icon ID).
That's why the audio warning was/is important. I also miss a lot of camera warnings if they are just shown on the map.

I noticed indeed that I could only find the map version, not the system version. Somehow I'm sure it's possible to get into the system, but without any inside know-how I have no clue where to start. My hacking skills are not that great to crack open an unknown operating system. My car is a company car, so I'm not risking to break the console system either Perfect would be when there is some emulating tool available to run the COMAND software on a PC, makes it much easier to investigate all this.

There was a sub menu that offered audible alerts within the navigation options menu. I just checked it and it worked. I used the exact same file that you down loaded from me earlier.

The alert was simply a loud beep, it actually became quite annoying as it seemed to beep occasionally for other items that were not obvious to me in the short time I spent with the car in spite of un-checking all other POI's.

Initially I thought the camera function was screwed up and then I realised that the database was still showing cameras that were temporarily installed last year during motorway maintenance. I then tested it in known camera areas and it gave an audible beep 4-5 seconds before passing the camera as well as displaying the small graphic on the screen.

My experience was that unless the warning beep was enabled, the chances of spotting the camera on the display would be quite slim due to the small size of the graphics. Is it possible to make the graphics larger?

In respect to waiting for your next update, I fear you may have the same problem as me, that is that when maps are updated, that is all that is updated

The navigation menu structure did not change at all when I had my 2011 E350 updated from V4.0 to V7.0 hence I am unable to even load the cameras let alone receive audible warnings.

To fix this issue I guess we need to understand how to access the navigation control firmware to at least be able to know what revision is installed and of course ultimately find a way to update it.

 

[MBSpeedCams]

Hi There. I could let you have a copy of the softwareNTG3.0 v10 is it possible to add the file to the program and create a new disc so it loads when the software up dates. Regards JC

I guess adding the file to the software image would be possible, but it's not very handy when you have to update your entire software every 2 months, because you want to have the latest speed camera file during navigation.

It goes way out of the scope of what I'm doing with the tool, and I don't know how or where to add POIs directly into the software image. The tool is just automating something that everyone can do manually. Adding extra info to the software image is modifying what Mercedes gives you, and I'm sure they prohibit altering their software, so it would put us (me) in a grey (or probably very dark) zone.

 

[m1br]

I can confirm that I get sound with all my POIs too.
This is the latest facelift 2013 E Class with COMAND online (all oem).

As above, they all 'bong' and are determined by proximity radius rather than 'on route'.
The bong is similar to an aircraft passenger cabin 'Fasten Seatbelts' alert
There is no option I can see to disable it, nor to enable only for certain POI groups.
If the group is ticked (active on map) it gongs when nearby. A little irritating as it picks up camera POIs on adjacent roads of course, not ideal.

It would suggest this is hard coded in the car software rather than a result of scripting the POI file then.

I have a mix of POIs - the cameras I downloaded from PGPSW, the other POIs also but coded using your new tool.
I dropped them all into the 'PersonalPOIs' folder on an SD card and they appear in my named, selectable groups accordingly.

On another note, I know the earlier OS was QNX CAR (owned now by RIM), and is most common with BMW et al.
I work with QNX Neutrino RTOS in the nuclear business, but just as a user and can't help much with coding I'm afraid.
Maybe it's still the same OS?

 

[MBSpeedCams]

I think I would need a copy of both the QNX Car software and the navigation software.
The navigation software is a seperate software I believe, which just runs on the QNX Car operating system. Or does the QNX Car platform include everything (so also the navigation?)

If they are seperate, then the bong sound is probably hard coded in the navigation software, not in the QNX Car OS. I would like to test if there are properties that I can set for the POIs in the POI file, that will force the bong sound, even if you disabled it in the navigation settings. Chances are low, but worth trying

I'm won't try to reverse engineer the software or hack into it to alter the way it works. Beause I'm not that skilled, and because I like to keep it within the scope of "normal use", so everyone can benefit from it and it keeps things easy. And also because I don't want to lose official support when I break the COMAND software in my car