14cue

The POIs works perfectly.

nickgailloux

Now that I've tested this thoroughly and found it to be working, I'm posting the nav unit for sale again, see https://mbworld.org/forums/mobile-electronics-lighting/258499-fs-hacked-w203-euro-comand-2005-nav-works-na.html. Thanks!

acr2001

I just want to point out that I asked Benz_Addict for the info numerous times and he refused me.

I PM'd him and he ASKED FOR $50 BEFORE HE WOULD TELL ME!!!

But finally he answered my question in the above linked thread.

Great job breaking it down into step by step instructions Nick!

C230 Sport Coup

I like his style.
As such my price list is as follows.

1. How to change your oil- $20
2. Secrets of ASP Pulley install- $50
3. Idler pulley swap- $20
4. One man tranny fluid swap with pics- $100
5. Brake pads- $20
6. BBK kit- $100.
7. Questions regarding suspension- $20
8. Alternator

When asking questions via PM, please paypal me prior to to asking.
greedybasturd@biteme.com

Other info by appointment only-

Additionally send me 10% of any monies saved by using said info.
My representatives will contact you with a Terms and Conditions document to be signed with the blood of a virgin.

All you bee-otches are gonna pay from now on.

wblynch

FKN BSTRD... proves he IS, indeed, a total A-H !

nickgailloux

Does asking for money to provide info on this forum, when you're not a forum sponsor, constitute a violation of the terms of use? I say yes! Ban his @ss, we don't want him around anyways...

pempek

How did you get into engineering mode?

andy_meng1024

I have the North America DVD Version 2005.1 but I have a lot more files than the OP has. Any ideas which file should I change the names on?

Cintoman

Nickgailloux,

Great job BTW. I had a few questions...

While watching your youtube video, I noticed that you have the British Chick voice. Is this thanks to your hacking of the NAVI disk? If so, I'd love to have her voice on my system.

I have the US spec COMAND on my 2005 C230 SS with a newer 2007.1 (I believe) DVD. And for the life of me, I haven't been able to get the British Chick voice, or even get into the Engineering Mode. I know others have posted on how to do this, but it seems to work only with other vehicles' COMAND (E-Class, ML-Class, etc), but not the C Class one.

nickgailloux

Looks like your version is a bit more complicated, but if you look at the file sizes, its obvious that DCA0.AR0, DCA0.AR1, DCA0.AR2, and U0001_02.BAS are quite large so they likely contain the map data.

nickgailloux

The reason I had the British voice is because when I had the European Comand, I was using the European disc with the North American map file. The voice recordings come from SDB1873c.DB which I never modified from the original European disc. All European discs have the female british voice I believe (or at lease mine did).

It may be possible to take your North American disc, and reburn it with the European disc's voice file. There is a massive thread elsewhere on these forums about doing just that, though I haven't ventured into that (yet). I'd be willing to help you or try it out though as it would be cool, and I now have the MCS-II to test with.

andy_meng1024

Do you still have the DVD? Can you just copy one and I will buy it off from you?

Cintoman

Hi Nick,
I'd be willing to give it a shot as well. My ultimate goal is to permanently have the British Chick voice when using the NAV, so if you and I could work on this, I think it would be great. I have Nero on my home PC, but no DVD burner (yeah my computer is >8 years old). But I do have a DVD burner on my work laptop, but no Nero on it. I don't think my work laptop gives me admin permissions to install programs

Here's what I do have:

I have the 2005 redesigned version US-spec COMAND system for a C230 SS. This is the one where the screen tilts and opens up revealing the DVD drive and a CD drive.

I thought I had a 2007 Nav disc, but actually have the 2006 version. Mine is called the following:

Name: COMAND (MCS II) Navigation DVD
For: 2005-2007 C-Class & CLK-Class, 2007 GL-Class, and 2006-2007 M-Class & R-Class
Part #: BQ 646 0220
A169 827 3559
Version: 2006.1

When opening up the contents, the files are all the same names and directory structure as the pic andy_meng posted shows. While my disc has all the files his does, and they're all named the same, many of my files are larger in size and have a more recent date. This is obvious because of the additional street and map data, POI's, etc.

I do have a file that's a little smaller than andy_meng's. This one is named: U0001_02.BAS.

My dates are February 22, 23, and 27, 2006, whereas andy_meng's are dated May 10, 20, 22, and 23, 2005. Like his, my HAWAII, ZD4FF and ZD400 directories were created a little over a month after the main directory files. The files that have changed on my disc (which has a label of: MC207004) are:

File Name Size Date Modified
A0000_00.MNG 2 Kb 2/27/2006 9:17 PM
COMPRESS.OPT 76,313 Kb 2/23/2006 8:48 PM
DCA0.AR0 461,802 Kb 2/22/2006 1:00 AM
DCA0.AR1 909,363 Kb 2/22/2006 1:03 AM
DCA0.AR2 1,689,487 Kb 2/22/2006 1:08 AM
U0001_02.BAS 3,831,657 Kb 2/27/2006 9:20 PM
U0130_02.ROA 138,975 Kb 2/27/2006 9:20 PM
U2001_02.CIT 1,167 Kb 2/27/2006 9:20 PM
U2002_02.SIG 5,350 Kb 2/27/2006 9:20 PM


The files below have not changed on my disc when compared to andy_meng's, however it's interesting to note that the
time stamp on his files is exactly 2 hours earlier than mine. Here are the unmodified files:

File Name Size Date Modified
80000000.BMP 150 Kb 7/16/2003 6:18 PM
EU_SPN2F.VC_ 2,891 Kb 2/16/2003 10:02 PM
FRNCH2F.VC_ 2,273 Kb 4/21/2004 5:40 PM
MATRIX1.SPM 6 Kb 8/11/2004 4:30 AM
MATRIX2.SPM 5 Kb 8/11/2004 4:30 AM
US_ENG2F.BAK 2,463 Kb 5/14/2003 11:40 PM
US_ENG2F.VC_ 2,570 Kb 9/10/2003 7:22 PM


With this said, going back to the main directory on the disc, it seems the changed files I listed in the top group are probably all the updated streets, maps, and POI's, while the bottom group files are ones that don't necessarily have to be changed or updated. For example, the voice files don't have to change; no matter which version you have, the female will still say the same things (eg: "turn right", "next exit on the right", "you have reached your destination", etc). The 80000000.BMP file is just a cool map pic of the US and Canada with major cities labeled. So that too doesn't need to change.


I'm not sure what MATRIX1.SPM and MATRIX2.SPM are. When I open the first one in Notepad, there's a section towards the top which has all the letters of the alphabet in CAPS, then the numbers 0 thru 9, then the alphabet again but this time with the small letter then the cap letter. Then there's a ton of undecipherable garbage for the rest of the file. MATRIX2.SPM is totally undeciperhable.

Which brings me to the next group of files, the .VC_ ones, and the .BAK one. The .BAK seems to be a backup of the same named .VC_ file. Not sure why there's a backup for this one but not for the other .VC_ files.

I pretty sure the .VC_ are the voice files, because in my COMAND language selection screen, I can change the Chick's voice from US English, to French, and to Spanish. So, looking at the file names, this would give us the following description for these files:

Spanish: EU_SPN2F.VC_
French: FRNCH2F.VC_
US English: US_ENG2F.VC_
US English Backup: US_ENG2F.BAK


So, unlike the E-Class' COMAND, where you can hack into Engineering Mode and change the voice from the US Chick to the British Chick, it doesn't seem to be the case with the 2006.1 NAV DVD for the C-Class (CLK, GL, et al).

I also have the HAWAII, ZD4FF, and ZD400 directories just like andy_meng's. HAWAII has the same exactly named .AR0, .AR1, (but no AR2 file), .BAS, .ROA, .CIT, and .SIG files, albeit smaller size than those on the main directory. So, I'm assuming these are the street, map and POI's specifically for Hawaii. Hawaii's directory also has exact copies of A0000_00.MNG (slightly earlier time stamp than the one in the main directory), and the .VC_ and .BAK files, because these voice files wouldn't need to change for Hawaii.

I'm not sure what the ZD4FF and ZD400 directories are for. But they both have the same exact 2 files in them. They are:

File Name Size Date Modified
APL.APN 265 Kb 8/16/2004 2:48 AM
MAIN.APN 5,368 Kb 1/25/2006 2:04 AM


Nick, I'm assuming that both of your NAV discs are pre 2005, right? Since andy_meng's 2005 (and my 2006) versions are totally different than yours in terms of file contents.

So I'm not sure if simply copying the SDB_1873c.DB file from your Euro NAV disc to mine would work, as that file is a .DB file and mine/andy's are VC_ files. What I believe we would need to do is to get ahold of a 2005 or newer Euro NAV DVD, as I'm sure the Euro one was modified and has a similar file structure as andy_meng's and mine does.

Would anyone have this NAV disc available? And does anyone have the expertise to perhaps help nickgailloux and myself?

If we could see the contents of this Euro NAV disc, we could then see what the .VC_ files would look like. It'd be interesting to see if there were any other languages. For example: German, Italian, etc.

Ultimately, what would be great would be to create a Hybrid disc with all the possible languages, and somehow have them show up in the selection screen on the NAV. Right now, my only options on the language selection screen are English, Spanish, and French. We'd have to figure out where this screen gets the data to display the available languages. Maybe that's where the Matrix files come into play. Or it might just be the case where if the file is there (say German), it will automatically populate the language selection screen with "German". Not sure.

Lemme know what you guys/gals think, as I'd be willing to do whatever I can.


Thanks,
Cintoman

USCLK05

Cintoman,


great job! I guess lot's of your thoughts are right.

I have a slightly different problem, but it is related to yours. We need to understand the MCS2. I want to hack my US Comand (Alpine, MCS2) to make it work with a European DVD, but I did not yet manage to do so.

You are aware that the Euro Comand is made by Becker and not Alpine, I assume. Let me show you the directory of a European Chrysler DVD - the Chrysler 300 uses Alpine units in Europe.



The folders ZH3FF and ZH300 must contain something specific to the model the DVD is made for. I read somewhere that a DVD for Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler had folders ZJ3FF, ZD3FF, Zx3FF. Maybe the navigation unit checks for the folder name and uses the content of the "right" folder to load or interpret the data on the disc.

I copied and pasted various files and folders to create a merged DVD for my Comand, but produced only coasters; the Comand would accept the DVDs, but not display correctly my position nor accept the input of data. At the moment I am out of DL-DVDs. I didn't try yet to use the Euro DVD and to only rename the Folders ZH3FF + ZH300 to ZD3FF + ZD300 and else leave the other files as they are, to basically use the complete Euro DVD setup in the US unit.

But my problem is different from yours. Whether the voice files that are contained in the Chrysler DVD would work with you I don't know. They can easily be mailed given their size. Let me know if you would like to experiment.

Hope this info helps somehow to bring the hacking efforts forward.

Cintoman

Thanks for the info USCLK05. Definitely helps us out.

I sent you a PM.

What I'd like to try is make a hybrid disc with all these additional language voice files you have on your disk. Looks like you have the following languages:

Danish(???): DNCH2F.VC2
Dutch: DTCH2F.VC2
European Spanish: EU_SPN2F.VC2
French: FRNCH2F.VC2
German: GRMN2F.VC2
Italian: ITLY2F.VC2
Portuguese: PORT2F.VC2
Swedish: SWDCH2F.VC2
UK English: UK_ENG2F.VC2
US English: US_ENG2F.VC2

I'd be interested to know if you have all these languages in your language setting on your NAV.

I would be particularly interested to see if I copied your UK English file (UK_ENG2F.VC2) over and renamed it to my US English file's name (US_ENG2F.VC_) if it would work. Meaning if I would now have the British Chick instead of my US Chick.

What's interesting is that your voice files are .VC2 whereas mine are .VC_. Usually files that have a "_" at the end tends to mean they're compressed or something like that. But I doubt that would be the case here. Why compress them? They're not a big file, and it would be a pain to have MCS uncompress these files and place them in some sort of memory every time you turned on your car and ran the NAV.

My thinking is that MCS will read both the .VC2 and the .VC_ files the same way. Might just be a Becker vs Alpine thing.

Looks like you also have more .AR* files than me. These might be different areas/regions/countries or something.

You also have the 80000000 bmp (picture) file. It'd be interesting to see what yours is. Mine's a map of the US and Canada. Is yours of Europe? What you have that I don't is a 80000000 BIN file as well as an AR config file. I'd be curious to see what these contain.

Other than that, it seems you have the same types of files I do (.BAS, .ROA, .CIT, .SIG). But you do have a .TCR file that I don't. Not sure about that one either.

Let's keep the efforts going on this. As for me, I'm going to try and install Nero on my work laptop. If I can't, then I'll have to find someone that has a DVD burner that I can do this on their computer.

Regards,
Cintoman

USCLK05

More AR files means more different countries and separate maps for these in Europe, I guess. .ROA= Roads, .CIT=Cities, .Sig=Signature?

In the AR config file I read a lot of POI related terms.


EINKAUFEN COMMERCESSHOPPINGCOMPRASWINKELS)SHOPPINGBUTIKKER SHOPPING,TOURIST ATTRACTION
TOURIST ATTRACTIONTOURISTENATTRAKTIONATTRACTION TOURISTIQUEATTRAZIONI TURISTICHEATRACCIÓN TURÍSTICATOERISTISCHE ATTRACTIE)TURISTATTRAKTIONTURISTATTRAKTION ATRACÇÃO TURÍSTICA,HIGHER EDUCATIONUNIVERSITY/COLLEGEUNIVERSITÄT/HOCHSCHULEUNIVERSITE ET COLLEGE

and so on.

The bmp looks like this:



But as I wrote, I cannot use my navigation system up to now. Still I think it must be possible somehow.

I have to go now, back tomorrow.

neoNr1

Comand would accept the DVD 4,7GB DVD+RW, but not display correctly my position no map no accept the input of data.

First the Us Navigation DVD 6,9 GB but possible to write in DVD+RW 4.7 GB.


I Change the :
DCA0.AR0 to European Disc kT064EU22x06b01g32c.DB_GDB
DCA0.AR1 to European Disc kT064EU22x06b01.DB_XAC
DCA0.AR2 to US Disc /HAWAII/DSCA0.AR2
U0001_01.BAS to US Disc /HAWAII/U0001_01.BAS
U0001_02.BAS to US Disc /HAWAII/U0001_01.BAS

Youtube Video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq4IlZZalNg

USCLK05

The situation changed - I did create a new D-DVD, based on the European Chrysler DVD, and just renamed the Folders ZH3FF + ZH300 to ZD3FF + ZD300.

The result was that the unit went into a loop of rebooting, as if it could not read the DVD correctly.

In the meantime some jerk smashed my passenger side window and tried to steal my nav unit. He didn't succeed, but the HU is locked now and had to be sent for repair, so at the moment I cannot continue with my trials. And I am curious to see whether Alpine will confiscate my 'special' DVD which was stuck in the player!

nickgailloux

Hey Guys,

During my previous hack at the beginning of this thread I was using older discs with a different file structure than yours. I'm not 100% sure of the versions of those discs.

Currently I'm using the 2005.1 disc (BQ 6 46 0213) and it has the same file structure as yours. Unfortunately it looks like this disc is a lot larger and is burned on a dual layer disc. This is going to make burning trial-and-error a bit more expensive, but worth a try nonetheless.

USCLK05, could you send me your UK_ENG2F.VC2 file? I'd like to try it on my disc.

Cintoman, you should check out this thread for someone who has already attempted this, but with the older discs: https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...nav-voice.html

If anyone out there has a Mercedes 2005.1 or better European disc and could send me their UK sound file that would be much appreciated.

Nick.

USCLK05

Just for the records: the US version I use is DVD BQ 6 46 0204, Version 2004.1 and the European Chrysler DVD 56038650 AB, both being double layer DVDs.

Nickgailloux, when you say that you now use the 2005.1 DVD, does this mean before the DVD with the completely different file structure was working in the same navigation unit? Hard to imagine.

Anybody around who has ever heard about a MCS2 unit that successfully navigates in Europe?

neoNr1

My Chrysler European DVD is the 56038650AD year 2006.
Is it a similar file structure all the Mercedes US Disk.



Possible to downloads
http://www.gpsunderground.com/forums...ead.php?t=2443

neoNr1

I inserted the Crysler European 2006 DVD in Comand system (MCS2)
"Currently , a disc has been inserted witch is older than the downloaded program.Please ceck disc version "

The New Crysler European DVD Possible that good ???

USCLK05

I would see this as a first proof that the US Alpine Mercedes system has a lot in common with the Euro Alpine Chrysler one! The firmware is automatically updated when you enter newer DVD versions; obviously there has been an update between 2006 and 2008.

This makes me wonder whether I could update my 2004 US navigation system firmware using a 2006 Euro DVD and thus writing the European firmware needed to use the Euro DVD afterwards?

"A disc has been inserted which is newer than the downloaded program. Do you want to update? Press YES to continue". Not likely but worth a try. Maybe we can find out which file is telling the nav system that an update is needed; hacking this file could be used to force an update of whatever firmware you would like to load?

neoNr1

Possible to play Chrysler 56038650AF European DVD in MCS2 !
No Clear map no no accept the input of data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73fRE9Q-YKw

nickgailloux

Guys,

Finally got around to buying some dual layer dvds to try some copies with this newer disc which is larger than 4.7gb. So far, not so good. For my first test, I copied the files from the original disc to my hard drive, then tried to burn them as is back to disc. The burn failed twice (on two different burners). I only have one more computer with a dvd burner and will try that tonight.

Nick.