I have a 2001 MDX with the DVD based GPS navi system. Does anyone know of a way to reprogram it so I don't have to manually acknowledge the disclaimer each time I turn on the ignition? This is real annoying - I'd like to have it start right up to the screen displaying my fuel consumption and trip information.

Thanks,
Tod

 

I think this has been talked about a few times nobodys found away yet. I think you will get use to it after having your MDX for awhile. I wish I had the Navi like your MDX that has fuel consumption. ACURA screwed up on this in the TL & CL models.

 

I am working with a programmer friend of mine and he is developing a HEX editor as a project that will be able to edit or disclaimer screen. We might not be able to bypass it, but we may be able to have it say custom things. Like welcome Bigman, To enter Navigation mode press enter.

 

Bidman,
Did your friend ever have any luck with reprograming the navi?

 

If this helps. I found the files that the disclaimer is in. It's in 3 files named MAIN.APN (found under the ZU200, ZU225, and ZU2FF directories).

I have 2.04, so file/directory names may be different on other versions. The disclaimer text is on line 8797 (+/- 80% of the way through the file).

Too bad I don't have a DVD burner. I'd probably mess around a little more with the files....

 

i knew about the zu200 and zu225 but we havent found the zu2ff. Good looking. i will share this info with him tonight. And i do have a dvd burner so hopefully soon we can get it working.

 

Ya, I had some of these guys at work check it out one day and they said it could possibly be done with a little time. It would only cost around $30 (the price of a blank dvd) to change the settings, then re-burn it back to the new dvd. Keep this thread rolling, I want updates

 

Hey Bigman, I edited the files with custom messages - while keeping the lengths of each field constant. If I email the changed files, could you burn a DVD for me as a test? I will gladly pay for the DVD. I don't mind being a guinea pig on this one!

The three files are about 2.6 MB each....

Again, I have version 2.04. Which one do you have?

 

I tried editing the main.apm files and re-burning to DVD - unfortunately it doesn't work. The reason is this: The messages shown are downloaded from the DVD to the unit's firmware only when a software download is performed. Thus, when I first inserted the edited DVD the messages remained as they were from the original disc. Via the service menu, I attempted to force a software update, but this failed (went through update routine over and over and over....). My guess is that the files include a checksum for verification purposes, and since they have been edited the checksum fails during the attempt to update. Placing the original DVD back in the drive resulted in a successful software update, but of course I was then back to the original software. I know that the DVD I burned is otherwise OK because I can substitute it for the original and everything works except for the forced software update.

- djsteve

 

Thanks for the info! It's too bad it doesn't work...

 

oh well....its amazing they try so hard to stop this kind of thing. With all the peolpe on this board its hard to believe no one knows anyone that works for Alpine so they can tell us what Acura does to their discs once they receive them.....besides take out all listings for other dealers

 

Before any hacking can be done, we need to figure out at least what OS they are using.

It's useless to look where the strings are stored. Most likely these strings are either bundled together (like C strings are), or are part of a resource section of the file. Whatever the case is, it is likely that the actual logic is somewhere else.

As far as the checksum goes, it's usually located either near the very beginning or the very end of the file. It may help to get several versions of the DVD to do file compares with.

Why is your friend using his hex editor to check the file out? You get hex editors with most any software development IDE/editor package, like Microsoft Visual Studio or CodeWright.

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding something here, didn't bigman say that his friend is developing a hex editor as a project? Sure it would be easier to use one that comes with packaged programming software, but hey--to each his own...

Tony