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Making Customized Dashboards
equazcion
5 Points
I just got my new Nuvi 3590 and love it, but I miss my old TomTom's status bar with its multitude of info. The Nuvi's "dashboards" have a max of only 4 data fields.
I was able to hack my way into adding two fields to one of the Nuvi's 4-field dashboards, for a total of 6 -- For one of them, I made the "back" button to double as a direction indicator (N, S, E, W, instead of a useless button graphic).
(If anyone wants my hacked dashboard let me know. I would've posted the file here but I can't attach or link to file sharing sites on this forum).
The Nuvi really doesn't make efficient use of that status bar space. There's room for a lot more info, for those of us who like having lots of info there. I can keep hacking dashboards, but it's a slow and painful process.
So, my questions:
Does anyone know of any place to download additional dashboards that already have added data fields? I know it's possible to add them, since I've done it, and I figure I can't possibly be the first one to do that....
Or are there any tools to make customizing the existing dashboards easier? I'm doing it by hacking the code, which is far from intuitive.
Thanks!
I was able to hack my way into adding two fields to one of the Nuvi's 4-field dashboards, for a total of 6 -- For one of them, I made the "back" button to double as a direction indicator (N, S, E, W, instead of a useless button graphic).
(If anyone wants my hacked dashboard let me know. I would've posted the file here but I can't attach or link to file sharing sites on this forum).
The Nuvi really doesn't make efficient use of that status bar space. There's room for a lot more info, for those of us who like having lots of info there. I can keep hacking dashboards, but it's a slow and painful process.
So, my questions:
Does anyone know of any place to download additional dashboards that already have added data fields? I know it's possible to add them, since I've done it, and I figure I can't possibly be the first one to do that....
Or are there any tools to make customizing the existing dashboards easier? I'm doing it by hacking the code, which is far from intuitive.
Thanks!
Comments
We do not generally discuss hacking Nuvi system files here at GPSReview, so I suspect you will get more help on other sites.
Thanks!
Phil
I used TurboCCC's GIR_editor to modify the GarminTiles dashboard, but this technique only allows you to change the images and not the XML code. I played a bit with the XML in a text editor, but any changes made the dashboard unusable (the Nuvi would just show the default dashboard).
I guess I'll try chopping the .dshb file into separate pieces with a hex editor, changing the XML, then re-combining. As equaczion said above, this is kind of a pain. There has been very little written about making your own dashboards. Some discussion of it on another site (where "no man" should go :twisted: ) but not anything terribly helpful.
I will update this thread at a future date if I have any luck. Here's my first attempt. :)
So, in my case, I wanted to create a minimalist dashboard with no data fields. I simply deleted the field descriptions from the XML code in the Garmin "digi" dashboard. I then padded the text portion of the file with whitespace so that it contained the same number of characters as before. I then saved the .dshb file and used GIR_editor to modify the images.
This could be a little trickier if you wanted to add code to the file instead of deleting it like I did. I suppose you could delete some of the comments or other parts of the text to keep the size the same.
It is probably possible to edit the GIR header to change some values and permit a different amount of code as well as changing the size and quantity of images, but that would be complicated.
I am using Notepad++ to edit the .dshbd files, along with the hex editor plugin (although editing them as a text file also works fine as long as you are careful not to change the size). Also note that there are two "flavors" of dashboard files - large and small. The large ones are used on devices like my 3550 that have 800x480 screens.
Anyway, this has pointed me in the right direction for hacking existing files and I will continue playing around. Here's my first try at a "minimalist" dashboard with only two buttons in the style of the Montana. :)
The "digi" dashboard is interesting because it uses a custom truetype font, DigiGarmin.ttf which is found in the Fonts folder inside the .System folder. This should serve as an example of using your own fonts. Color and style are controlled in the dashboard file. But it only appears to be for the data displayed in the fields and not the field titles. Would you need to mess with the .glx files to change the titles?
I confess I don't really know anything about .glx files, are they related to languages/localization?
Perhaps the most intruiging thing about the existing dashboard files is what *isn't* there? Are there other commands that can be executed from dashboard buttons (aside from RETURN and MENU?
Here's a variation of my minimalist dashboard that includes the speed field.
I'll turn the rant lamp off now
Themes are also cool, but not new. They have been around for over three years I think, starting with the 1695. Surprises me that people have not done more with them. Sergey, it's great to see somebody finally working along these lines.
One of my next projects will be to create a "topo" map theme to improve the display of Garmin's own map products and make them more similar to the screenshots I've posted of my own maps.
With even more controls and static data fields on new models, probably there was not much possibilities left for user configurable layout.
It would interfere with other features like the screen shortcut buttons I suppose.
Where did you find the big green bar...doesn't seem to be in the dashboard file?
The green bar is still there. I have just covered it up with a dashboard image component. This is not really a practical solution for anything, it was just for fun.
But I'm sure the green bar is part of a GIR in the firmware. I was able to remove it from my version of Garmin Mobile PC. That program has all its resources in regular files and is therefore easier to hack since no "firmware" is involved.
Who could set it up?
I have the newer 3597, and while I'm loving it as an upgrade to my old 750, I'd like to see how I can customize it like you are doing with your model. Would these themes let me do that? Basically, I'd like to do something as 'simple' as replacing the current speed I'm driving (useless piece of info to me!) with distance to go or some other bit of useful info.
Dashboards modify what info is displayed on the map screen such as speed, elevation, etc and how the info is displayed (circular speedometers & dashboard-type elements, etc) and where it's displayed on the screen.
Map Themes affect how the map itself is displayed (roadway colors, on-ramp/off-ramp colors, land colors, water colors, etc). I have a few map theme comparison screen shots (nuvi 3490) here:
http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/25501/x/p1/#187225
They both involve direct editing of the map theme (in xml) or dashboard files. I'm familiar with the map theme file structure and have modified quite a few map themes making them much clearer with more contrast which of course make things much more visible.
Dashboards OTOH are (from what I've heard) trickier to modify.
From what I know, there are no easy "editors" for either map themes nor dashboard files.
I think it may be hard to find someone to host dashboard and theme files unfortunately. There are concerns about the amount of time needed to administer such an archive - adding new files, making sure none of them contain malicious code, responding to complaints, etc. My inquiries so far have not yielded anything.
And the other thing is that Garmin's software license actually forbids what we're doing (you are not allowed to reverse engineer their software). Now I don't think they care if users do this, but posting the files for download might be viewed differently.
Really, anybody can start their own website for a few bucks a month and put whatever files they like there. There are also free sites where you can share files. So if you feel there's a need, why not give it a try turtle or pillowcase? :)
But, never found how to do it
I played with a 2597 todayh. I do not like it. I think the 2595 is the best and the 2597 is going away from perfection....
The first 3 fields do not function as buttons and you can't change what they're displaying. I had to trade this off for the ability to display and edit the speed limit. But the tutorial will show you how to make your own.
Also note this dashboard is 800x480 and will only work on the Nuvi 34x0 and 35x0 series (maybe the dezl 760?). The other 2012 nuvi's require a 480x272 dashboard. But again, the principles in the tutorial will help you build your own.
More to follow. :)
Of course, six fields is kind of silly when you're just driving around. The bottom 3 can be customized but the only options are direction of travel, elevation and time of day, so 2 of the 6 fields will be duplicates.
Glad you like it Eagle, thanks. We will have to see what happens next. I don't think anyone wants to host dashboard files for download, so you may need to learn how to modify them yourself if you want something different....
https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={58cd6b90-ebbc-11de-ce85-000000000000}
According to this, the nuvi 2405, 2505, 3400, 3500 series and zumo 350 are the only ones that support dashboards. However I know the dezl 760 also does from looking at the manual.
One "interesting" glitch with this layout; in the Nuvi menu where you choose the dashboard, the arrows for switching dashboards don't work if they're covered by a data field! :?
I haven't played with this yet, but there appears to be a dashboard parameter that controls the vehicle position on the screen. So it should be possible to move the vehicle closer to the bottom of the screen with this layout, thereby showing more of the road ahead.
<Car Land="154" Port="206" />
And here is the change I made to move the vehicle closer to the bottom of the screen, as shown below. The value in quotes represents the number of pixels from the BOTTOM of the screen to the center of the vehicle (Land=Landscape, Port=Portrait).
<Car Land="100" Port="206" />
But modifying these files is not trivial, and you can make them non-functional if you change the number of bytes in the XML section.
Sergey: glad you like it. It's not "pretty" yet, but the basic functions are working. :)
<Car Land="90" Port="206" />
hasn't to be
<Car Land="090" Port="206" />
That caused the strange disappearance of back and menu button.
So you had a lucky accident in changing "90" to "090" because it keeps the byte count the same. "90" is a perfectly legal value to use, that wasn't what caused the problem. The problem was the "90" is represented by one less byte than "154".
I suggest that you use a text editor such as Notepad++. I have a scratchpad next to my computer - real pen and paper ;) - EACH TIME I open a dashboard file to edit, I write down the file size BEFORE I make any changes. This is shown at the bottom of the Notepad++ window, such as Length: 72075. Then, before I save a modified file, I either add or delete characters to keep this value the same. The easiest way to do this is create some comment lines as filler, then either add or delete characters from them. For example
<!-- ****************FILLER*****************-->
<!-- ****************FILLER*****************-->
<!-- ****************FILLER*****************-->
<!-- ****************FILLER*****************-->
in the .dshb file. I want to remove them. Have to change Language file(.glx) and then change default to that language to get it to happen.
Every time I use the GIR_Editor for extracting symbols , it changes the files size. I'm using notebook++ for the text.
You can eliminate the title from any field by removing the <TitleDisplay> tag. The easiest way to change the title would probably be to do this, then include the title as a bitmapped image in one of the files and adjust its position to line up with the data you are displaying. This won't work if you allow the user to customize the fields though.
Really, I don't care what the titles say myself so this isn't an issue for me. :wink:
Now note that a route is active, and the Nuvi wants to show the distance to the turn on the screen. Maybe this behaves differently depending on where the next turn is and whether you are navigating a route?