vikikang

I bought a W204 C 300 with NTG4 Comand, made in China. The factory deactivated the navi system. But the navi sys is always in the HDD, just be concealed. I reactivate the navi sys through the egineering menu of NTG4 Comand.
Here come two problems:

1. The car can not recieve the satellite signal. Shown as the photo.The displayed latitude and longitude are totally wrong!



I ran the Circuit Check in Egineering Menu.It shows 'GPS antenna NG', error code 00000100.

What does the code '00000100' mean? Any suggestion about this? I think maybe there is no GPS antenna installed in my car at all? How can I check it? Where is the antenna, in the roof antenna? How the antenna connect to the comand unit head? Which cable or fakra?

Here are more photos from my comand.


2. There is only a euro map, no China Map. I'm thinking that if I can put a China Map, copied from New E-class with NTG4, which have a usable navi in China, into the HDD of mine to make it work? Someone seem to have attempted that, but failed. Should I copy or clone the HDD? Maybe there is a identification code in NTG4, that different car with NTG4 can not share one HDD?

I really need some help... And your help would do many w204 C class and GLK class owners in China a big favour . It's not fair that we pay for the same NTG4 Comand but can't enjoy the Navi~~~~~~ Thanks! Best regards~~~~~~

Diesel Benz

I would not consider it a terrible problem if you buy a car without navigation and then GPS does not work.

Are you sure your car has a GPS antenna installed and connected to the Comand unit? I understand in China you are supposed to use an external navi device (or was it Korea).

vikikang

All the dealers here told me so, making me believe it without a doubt. They said that the factory deactive the navi function because of the lack of NTG4 mapdata of China in the early days. And now, the new E in China already have a usable navi sys, which demonstrate that the map data no longer a problem.

By the way, I have sent a message to you, Diesel Benz

vikikang

Fortunately， I just got a pic of the back of head unit, same as mine.
Here it is:


Could anyone indicate the certain positon where the Antenna should connect to in the pic? Really appreciate~~~ Thx again

Diesel Benz

GPS antenna connector is the one at the left/bottom in the figure, next to the BT antenna connector.

Perhaps you navigation feature was disabled just because of no maps for your region. The W212 DVDs are anyway different from the W204 map DVDs, at least in Europe.

maninblack

is gps legal in china ?(just a question ) because i heard internet are partically not legal etc

imboom

GPS devices are very common in China, actually, even more popular than in the US. However, maps must be approved by the Chinese government to work as there may be areas off limits such as military bases etc that their government deems sensitive.

The main function of the gps(minus the traffic alert etc) has no relation to communication systems like the internet. On a GPS you're just locking in satellites and sending no information. The internet isn't "illegal" and actually very commonly used. It's just a bit more controlled by the government with censoring.

Nuru

You should check and see if the antenna was disconnected from the cable. If they disabled the Nav, maybe they disconnected the antenna

vikikang

Thanks for your advice. There must be some differences in the Navi software, mapdata or version of the Comand.

Good luck~~~~

vikikang

It's totally legal , also internet. However, the gov shield some websites, like youtube.

vikikang

I think so. But in where the antenna is installed? I think it is in the IC? If anyone know the exact position, plz tell me. Many thanks.

maninblack

thanks everyone for clearing that out

Diesel Benz

From factory the GPS antenna would be on the roof, retrofit installations often put it to the cluster area.

I'm not sure if I can get the info for this car with my on-line account, the antenna on top of the roof may not include GPS if the car did not come with navigation support but since it has the navi capable Comand HW, the roof antenna might as well support GPS. You just have to figure out that, and you can always test with a temporary antenna.

Actually I don't have the VIN for this car, can you send it to me via PM?

drifter86

did you mean you can get detailed configurations of each car by it's VIN?

I am having the exact same problem with my GLK300, so would like to ask for your favor on checking this too.

vikikang

Busy week~~~~~Sry for my delay

I have tested it with a temporary antenna and the GPS works fine, as the photo.

obviously, there is no GPS antenna connect to the HU.


Another problem : I dont't have a China Map.



Chinese in this pic mean that OUT OF MAP.

Thx to everyone especially to Diesel Benz I will PM my VIN to you later.

Now I'm trying to put a usable China Map , copied from w212 E which have a genuine navi in China, into my head unit. Any suggetion about this? The map data is installed in HDD. Could I just simply copy the China map data to the HDD, inorder to make mine work fine? Maybe it is not so simple?

vikikang

Some people in China have hacked the HDD of W212 E. The files in HDD are shown as below.

HDD of W212


HDD in my car:


They have tried to simply copy the W212's map data to W204, but failed.
What's the problem? Why?

Any ideas? Thx~~~~~ to every reply

chefjon204

vikikang where did you buy your ntg4 navigation? any website? cause i bought my car w204 c300 without a navigation package also and would like to have one for my car and how much is it?

Peabody

OK, the first problem you will encounter is that the W212 uses a different map disc than the W211 or W204. That's why the head unit is officially named NTG4.212. Secondly, by simply copying the files and not doing a disc-based update, you are only copying the files and missing any instructions that are included with the update software. Thus if there's a configuration file that needs to be initialized, updated, etc. that step will be bypassed. Also I know there's a stage during the GPS startup where the maps are authorized and authenticated, most likely a form of DRM to prevent piracy. That means the files you copy could have something like a watermark or a digital signature from the vehicle it was installed on, and again by bypassing the installation disc, there is a mismatch.

If the W212 is getting China maps, than the next model of W204 should be getting them as well. Once the new maps are out, they should work on your car.

Peabody

Unlike previous models of the NTG which used external GPS modules, the NTG4 features the GPS system built into the command unit. I'm not sure exactly how it works on US models, but if you pull the head unit and there's a GPS antenna, then you should have it. Plug in an after-market antenna, enable the settings in the engineering menu, and load the software. It should only be a few hundred dollars to retrofit, provided they don't manufacture two head units: one with and one without the GPS processor.