When Roberto bought his Mini Cooper, he opted to forgo the factory GPS system as it. Posted in gps hacks, Transportation HacksTagged gps, retrofit, tomtom. If you own a TomTom GPS system for your vehicle and would like to extend its use, there are various hacks that you can apply. This particular hack will show you how to change the vehicle icon that displays on your screen when you are going to your destination.
When [Roberto] bought his Mini Cooper, he opted to forgo the factory GPS system as it was over priced and didn’t have the best of reputations. He decided that he still needed GPS in his car, so he committed himself to install a TomTom unit in a way that would not detract from the car’s interior.
He dismantled the driver’s side sun visor, taking measurements of the original plastic housing that contained the mirror and lighting. He then drew up a 3D model of a replacement housing that would allow him to fit both the GPS unit and the speaker in the same amount of space formerly occupied by the mirror.
He gutted his TomTom unit, removing any extraneous parts he could find. A smaller speaker was sourced due to size constraints, then everything was mounted in his new housing once it arrived.
The end result is amazing. The GPS unit looks like it was installed at the factory – there is no sign that this was any sort of aftermarket modification. We are sure people will be quick to say that would be difficult to keep your eyes on the road while looking at the navigation screen, but as [Roberto] points out, you should be following the spoken directions once the car is in motion anyhow.
The following is an excerpt from the ExtremeTech book Hacking GPS.
One guaranteed way to personalize your GPS is to update and modify the firmware that controls the actual running of the device. We’ll be looking at how you can modify your GPS at a fundamental level.
Firmware
Firmware is the software that controls how hardware works and responds to inputs. It’s called firmware instead of software because users generally aren’t supposed to play around with it. But you’re not just any old user, are you? Almost all electronic hardware contains some form of firmware. A television remote control contains firmware that controls what signals are sent via IR depending on what button is pressed. A cell phone contains a lot of firmware controlling cell access, phone books, security, and much, much more.
A GPS contains a lot of firmware controlling many of the key functions of the device (as shown in Figure 6-1):
Firmware is the software that controls how hardware works and responds to inputs. It’s called firmware instead of software because users generally aren’t supposed to play around with it. But you’re not just any old user, are you? Almost all electronic hardware contains some form of firmware. A television remote control contains firmware that controls what signals are sent via IR depending on what button is pressed. A cell phone contains a lot of firmware controlling cell access, phone books, security, and much, much more.
A GPS contains a lot of firmware controlling many of the key functions of the device (as shown in Figure 6-1):
- Reception of satellite data
- Decoding of positional information
- Processing of data
- Conversion of data into different formats
- Interpretation and display of information
- External communication with devices
- Storing and managing route/waypoint data
FIGURE 6-1:
As you can see, being able to influence the firmware means you have influence on the actual workings of the GPS receiver itself. Not only can you make alterations to the text that is displayed on the screen of the GPS, you can also hide features that get in the way (such as startup screens). You can also add your contact details to the GPS in such a way that would discourage theft of your unit and encourage its return to you if it were found.
But you have to be careful . . . Continues…
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