Making The MINI's Factory Nav System More Intuitive!
 

Hi All,

One of my biggest frustrations with the MINI's factory nav system is the verbage used throughout its user interface (UI). Most of the language used is confusing for newbies (like my wife), and some of it, just down right doesn't make sense at all. I've always wished that there was a way that we could make the nav system's UI read a little more like that of a portable navigation device such as the Garmin nüvi.

Well... It turns out you can using the NavTweak program that I introduced you all to over in my Drive Your Very Own MINI On The Factory Nav Screen! thread. Using the NavTweak program, you can change ANY of the text strings you wish in the MINI nav system's UI.

I started out my quest of making the UI a bit more intuitive by changing the text on the main popup menu (i.e. the location where you generally begin your interaction with the MINI's nav system) by renaming the following items:

Destination Input --> Where To?
Map Positioning --> Map Orientation
Dest. input map --> Browse Map
Scale --> Zoom

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-23.jpg

Selecting "Where To?" from that popup menu takes you to the following "WHERE TO?" screen where I renamed:

Country --> Country/State (new maps support states as well as countries)
No. Intersection --> House No. Intersection
Directions --> Start Guidance!

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-26.jpg

Scrolling down to the very bottom of the WHERE TO? screen...

Last Destinations --> Recent Destinations
Address Book --> Saved Destinations
Map --> View Map
Information --> POI & Route Info

BTW, if you don't already know... POI = Points of Interest

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-11.jpg

Recent Destinations takes you to the following "RECENT DESTINATIONS" screen where:

Retrieve address --> Retrieve destination
Delete address --> Delete destination

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-17.jpg

Saved Destinations takes you to the following "SAVED DESTINATIONS" screen where:

Retrieve address --> Retrieve destination
Enter address --> Add destination
Delete address --> Delete destination
Memorize veh. position --> Add current location

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-13.jpg

POI & Route Info takes you to the following "POI & ROUTE INFO" screen where:

Travel information --> Points of Interest
Route list --> Route details
Input position --> Change current location

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-16.jpg

From this screen, the "Points of Interest" takes you to the following "POINTS OF INTEREST" screen where:

Info on city --> POI near city/ZIP
Info on location --> POI near current location
Hide map icons --> Hide POI map icons

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-30.jpg

All of these changes make working with the nav system much easier IMHO. Once you've entered in your destination of choice, you simply press "Start Guidance!" to begin your journey. Once routing is under way, the map popup menu now looks like:

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-32.jpg

And

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-21.jpg

With the following changes:

Input destination --> Where To?
Terminate guidance? --> Stop Guidance?
Instruction --> Speak Last Instruction
New route --> Detour
Route map --> View Map
Information --> POI & Route Info
Map position --> Map Orientation
Dest. input map --> Browse Map
Scale --> Zoom

The old "New route" menu item was real confusing. :confused: It's much better being renamed as "Detour". When Detour is selected, it now brings up the following detour popup window:

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-07.jpg

The same goes for the old "Map Position" item which didn't make much sense to me either. It's much better renamed as "Map Orientation" which brings up the following popup menu where these items have been renamed:

Pointing North --> North Up
Travel Direction --> Track Up
Perspective --> 3D View

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-05.jpg

As you can see, you can really make the UI much more understandable just by customizing the text strings. I've made mine fit more to the Garmin "Where To? / View Map" UI style, but you can change it any way you so desire.

Another example is the main MENU screen. The "Emergency" item was just plain weird to me. So, I renamed it to "Where Am I?" (again following the Garmin theme) and adjusted the text within the "WHERE AM I?" screen to make it more useful for just telling me where I'm currently at:

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-24.jpg

http://www.theofficemaven.com/mini3/navui/pic-19.jpg

Note that a big thanks goes out to KrisL over on the X5world forums for leading the way on this one, and also to nomad for his wonderful NavTweak program.

You can check out how all of this started by looking at the following thread over on X5world:

Proposed new menu text

Enjoy! :thumbsup:

-- MIKE

Thanks for the info!
Many of your changes make much more sense than the current wording!
My wife always hits 'directions' when she wants to input an address.:impatient

"Maven" does seem fitting -- this is a fantastic nugget of information. Much, much thanks for this write up.

where can I get NavTweak program?
 

update question
 

So...are you re-installing servicepak v28 each time you make a change in the menu or modify an icon? Can you do that?

My understanding is that you'd have to downgrade and re-upgrade, because the Nav system won't let you reinstall an existing update over the top of the same version.

The other downside, of course, is that your system would be reset to "no location" mode.

Unfortunately, if you already have V28 loaded, you'll have to wait for V28.1 or V29 to use to make these changes, unless you don't care about being in "no location" mode!

actually I do care - I really don't want to deal with yards/imperial gallons and no location mode.

I've been following both of Mike's threads and I suspect that there is a hack to overcome duplicate update version number issue. My suspisions are based on knowing that when it comes to rewriting software - you make mistakes and Mike recently did two Nav projects - how did he test and do his corrections without doing multiple updates to his Nav? Maybe the answer lies in the readme of Navtweak - besides you just don't know until you ask

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay... I've been away from my desk for the last couple of days. Anyway...

I certinally don't want to put my nav system into "no location" mode either (as I've been there and done that with my first MINI). Thus, I'm VERY careful about not allowing the system to do so by simply NEVER doing a downgrade of its nav OS.

There's actually a very simply hack that allows you to advance the version number forward on any update. Doing this prevents the update from being considered as the same version (which causes the nav system to give you the message that you already have the most recent update installed, etc.).

Using this simple hack, I'm actually creating my own v28.1, v28.2, etc. versions of the update CD which allows the updates to install without any problems whatsoever. It's a bit misleading in that my system says that I'm running 4-1/82 (i.e. v28.2) eventhough I'm really just using a modified version of the most recent 4-1/80 (v28).

I've written up the steps you need to take in order to advance the version number of the update CDs and will post them here just as soon as I return home (hopfully tomorrow or Tuesday).

I hope this helps some.

-- MIKE

Very nice! I can only see myself having trouble adjusting to the new words as I am so accustomed to the original words.

Mike,

Ah OK cool... the only possible catch will be if a REAL V28.1 comes out. Heh... but then I suppose you could just modify it to be V28.3...

thanks Mike - I look forward to your writeup

Exactly!


I'll have the small write-up posted by tonight (as soon as I return home). :nod:

-- MIKE

Hi Guys,

Okay, here's the scoop on how to increment the nav update CD's version number (e.g. from version v28.0 to v28.1, v28.2, etc.)...

All that's required is the use of a hex editor program (like HHD Software's Free Hex Editor) to update the version information that is stored within the "lng_rel.tbl" and "sw_rel.tbl" files that are located on the nav operating system update CD (within the "V_2\RR\0101\BMWC01S" folder).

The first 4 bytes in each of the two files looks like '0800' (i.e. HEX: 0x30 0x38 0x30 0x30). This is the nav software's version number (e.g. 0800 = v28, 0810 = v28.1, 0820 = v28.2, etc.). Simply change the version number to '0810' (i.e. HEX: 0x30 0x38 0x31 0x30) in order to increment the version number (in this case from v28 to v28.1).

The Nav-Computer will now recognize the software as being a newer version and will install it without a problem (i.e. instead of just telling you that your nav system is already up-to-date).

NOTES:

1) Only the lng_rel.tbl and sw_rel.tbl files located in the V_2\RR\0101\BMWC01S folder need to be changed (not any others that may exist on the CD).

2) Incrementing the version information as indicated above will prevent your USA coded nav computer from reverting back into uncoded Euro mode (as happens when downgrading the nav computer's operating system).

3) The SW version information shown in the nav system's "Settings" (or "Set") menu will automatically be updated for you (e.g. from SW 4-1/80 to SW 4-1/81, SW 4-1/82, etc.).

Enjoy! :grin:

-- MIKE


P.S. A write-up on how to use the NavTweak program (as well as a pointer to a download link for the program) can be found in the fourth posting of my "Drive Your Very Own MINI On The Factory Nav Screen!" thread.

hex editor
 

just as I suspected - Really appreciate the information of which files to edit:thumbsup: