Maestro 3100 update is here

[Bill Kunert]

Magellan has released an update for the 3100 Maestro. This is what they say about improvements. It's about 900meg download. Liink to download page. http://www.magellangps.com/support/notes.asp?supportID=537
Maps

Added Hawaii and Puerto Rico maps.
Arrival / Distance / Time Remaining


Easily toggle between arrival time, distance to destination, and time to destination on map screen when routing



Improved Map Screen

New images and icons
Smoother updating of the map while driving.
Split TrueView is disabled when AutoTrueView is unchecked in Map Options
Exits without any POIs do not appear
Improved Auto Night view, with smooth day/night switching, adjusted brightness, more colors and ON by default
Improved vehicle position icon in 3D view

Delete Previous button

Additional functionality enables user to delete previous destinations and previous cities

Trip Planner

Added user selectable optimization of trips.
Improved Address Handling

Previous City list increased to 10
Addresses outside city boundaries are more easily located
Address resolution, especially in streets where gaps exist in numbering, is improved
General fixes, including the display of long addresses
The country (region) name is displayed in the address entry and POI entry
Street list display includes the City name at the bottom of the screen
City list found by the Zip Code, now includes the state name
Home Button can now be set to the current location or an address
Delete an entry from entries on Favorites list

Points of Interest (POI)

Removed duplicate entries for Restaurants
Added new Restaurants
Coffee moved to top of POI list
Search radius changed to 50 miles. If no POIs are found the radius can be expanded to 100 miles.
Added POIs for Hawaii and Puerto Rico

Fixes

Navigation

Route list does not reset after it is viewed
Improved Maneuver List
Removed line between position and destination
Changed “You Have Arrived" timer from 30 seconds to 10 seconds
Improved route calculations
Eliminated unnecessary reroutes
Reduced number of U-Turns calculated
Removed “Ding" sound while rerouting
Spelling/ grammar corrections

General Improvements

Trip Computer UI given a new look
Text balanced, centered and constrained throughout
Dimmed checkboxes used on Navigation Instruction Option screen

[gregst7]

Has anyone tried this update and if so your comments?

[Bill Kunert]

I loaded it last night and have no complaints. Works like it did before with some enhancements like time of arrival. text in that area is still small but even my old eyes don't have trouble with it. I think it's worth the down load unless you're on dial up.

[gregst7]

I applied the update and am happy with the added POIs, and time to destination. For those who are interested, Hawaii & Puerto Rico are added.

[patruns]

2 immediate red flags (for me at any rate). 1st, it is not Vista compatible. Now why would they do that? (Note, not Mac compatible either.) 2nd, you have to go out and buy an SD card if you do not already have one. Asking you to have one and make a backup makes sense, but requiring one to update the GPS? Oh yeah, it also wipes out your address book. What's wrong with simply downloading files and then copying them over the existing ones on the unit?

Thanks again for the great customer support Magellan!

[Bill Kunert]

It didn't affect my address book. The files are apparently copied to the card and then uploaded into the GPS. I had a SD card because I'm running a POI file of 6million on mine and the memory isn't large enough for it.

[patruns]

Thanks for the feedback Bill. It seems Magellan's website is not entirely accurate. (It warns you that this erases the address book.) Even though I am running Vista, I may give it a shot after I get and SD card. I had been meaning to get one anyway to store my own POI info. I would like to hear from anyone else who may be running Vista to see if they had any success.

Pat

[ChadJ]

Yesterday (12/26/07) I downloaded the update and attempted the install. Once the install started, I was almost immediately presented with a screen that told me the volume was corrupted, and asked if I wanted to perform a CHKDSK. As my GPS had been working fine with the old firmware, I said no. The install went into an infinite loop, and I had to end it with task manager.

I unplugged the USB cable from my 3100, and it rebooted, finally sitting there staring me in the face with the blue Magellan splash screen and going no further. Several resets did nothing.

I retried the install, using a different (still XP) computer this time. I kept getting an invalid path statement, and another infinite loop each time. I noticed that the SD card now had contents (from the first install), so I wiped it clean again (figuring maybe there was mention of a drive path from the first computer which was causing my subsequent installs to fail).

Now when I run the install, I get the message that no Maestro 3100 was detected. Windows XP still enumerates a drive letter for both the GPS unit and the SD card when I plug the GPS in (and there are folders and files on the GPS unit).

I called yesterday, and the stellar tech support rep told me I needed to wait longer after hitting the reset button. He said the GPS would revert back to the original firmware, but it would take a little time. Once it reverted, I should wait a couple days, and re-download the nearly-900MB update and try again. He said they were making changes to the update and the website would be updated soon. Well, it sat overnight last night with no change.

So I called again this morning. This time I spoke with a lady. There was no trace of my call yesterday (hmm...), so she created an account for me AGAIN. She had me do a couple of resets, and that along with my detailed history prompted her to tell me I needed to send my GPS in for repair, and it would take about a month. She gave me the address for the repair center, but told me it would be 24 hours before their system would generate the return-authorization number (weird...), so she will call me back tomorrow with the RA# so I can ship the unit to Magellan for repair.

She admitted to their being an issue with some of the 3100's and the particular update that was posted on their website (yet it's still there for download). I see some people have had success with it; unfortunately I'm not one of them (and I'm an IT Manager).

We'll see whether I get my callback tomorrow or not. I'm not holding my breath. Likely I'll have to call back, and they'll have no record of my first two calls, and have to go through all this again...

Anyone else share this experience?

[Bill Kunert]

I would go to the Magellan website and get a number for sales support. These are English speakers who reside in the US. I had a lot of trouble getting support on my 3100 a few months ago and tried sales support and got some action. It's worth a try.

[ChadJ]

Thanks, Bill. I appreciate the suggestion. I'll see what tomorrow brings. I was really excited about the update, too, as it seems like it was fairly rich with changes, additions (POIs and ETA display), etc. I'm bummed that I'm not able to see those changes now without having to wait for the whole repair thing.

I've got two more 3100's in our delivery trucks here at work. I was half-tempted to copy the contents of one of those GPS's off to my PC, then hook up my GPS and replace the contents of it with the working-contents from one of the others. Not sure that would solve the problem, though...

I'll keep in eye on this thread. It'll be interesting to see if others have the same update experience as I did.

Thanks, again, for the suggestion...

Chad

[patruns]

Chad, I don't suppose you made a copy of the entire contents of your unit before you started, did you? Also, have you removed the SD card?


Bill, did you do the update before you changed your POIs to the SD card or did you do the "hack" after? I want to make sure I do them in the correct order.

Thanks,

Pat

[ChadJ]

Pat,

No, I didn't copy the contents of my GPS unit before the update. I did run the backup function to back up my stored addresses to SD card (per the instructions).

In my previous post I mentioned that I've got access to TWO other working 3100's. Do you think it would make a difference if I copied their entire file structure off to my PC, then replaced the contents of my GPS with the contents from the working units?

Chad

[ChadJ]

Well, since I've got another working 3100 at my disposal, I'm in the process of trying my theory. I'm taking all the files from the working GPS and putting them on my GPS. Of the four folders on my GPS, here was the state of my non-functioning 3100:

\SYS - folder was empty
\APP - folder was empty
\MAP - folder was empty
\USR - folder contained 6 files

So, my unit was pretty much wiped clean by the update. I made a "before" copy of my 3100, and now I'm copying all the stuff from the working 3100 to my 3100... I'll post back the results when I finish. Right now I'm copying the US48.IMI map data file to the GPS, and it's taking a while...

Chad

[Bill Kunert]

Patruns;
Do the update first then add the big POI file. You have to change a file on the GPS and the update would probably over write it.. Before doing any thing I copied all files off my GPS to a folder on my computer.

[patruns]

Thanks Bill! I will try that as soon as my SD card is delivered.

Pat

[ChadJ]

Hey Bill, do you know for sure whether the POI hack works on the 3140 as well as the 3100? I've got the 6-mil POI file on my SD card for my 3100 already (so all I need to do is grab my 3100 from my car and replace the Media.cfg file). However, my boss has a 3140 and I'm sure he'd love to have the expanded POI database if it works on that model.

I ready through all the pages on the forums.anandtech.com site about the hack, and several people ASKED about the compatibility with the 3140, but I didn't see a definitive answer. Actually, it almost sounded like the 3140 may use a different format for the POI file.

Just curious...

BTW, I did receive the return-authorization from Magellan for my 3100 today (via email). I guess I'll be replying to them to tell them I fixed the problem on my own.

Thanks in advance,
Chad

[Bill Kunert]

It should work on the 3140. The POI file we are using is, I believe from one of the new 3200 series. If you try it and it doesn't work it shouldn't cause any problem since you are reading it off a card. It's possible, if it does work, that the 3140 has enough memory onboard that you can replace the original file with the 6million file and not have to use the SD card at all.

[ChadJ]

Great! Thanks, Bill. I'll try it out (possibly this afternoon) and report back whether or not it actually DOES work for certain.

I just added the new POI to my 3100. I changed the Media.cfg file to point to the SD card, but ONLY for the POI files. Then, just so I knew it was pulling from the big POI file on the SD card, I renamed the US48_POI.poi file on the GPS to US48_POI.poi.sav so it wouldn't be able to find the "original" one on the GPS. It worked great. No problem, and I was able to get away with tossing the POI files (including the HI and PR ones) on a spare 256MB SD card that I had lying around. Worked like a charm. Map data still resides on the GPS itself.

Thanks, again...

Chad

[patruns]

Damn.......... the full POI file link on David's site is no longer working. I don't know if that is permanent or not. Trying to move up through the parent directories are also a no go. I hope it gets posted somewhere else. I didn't have a chance to download it before it went down.

[ChadJ]

I pulled the two .rar files (and downloaded WinRAR to extract/combine them) this morning from here:

http://[no links to file sharing services].com/files/71136036/US48_POI.part1.rar.html

http://[no links to file sharing services].com/files/71139748/US48_POI.part2.rar.html

Worked great on my 3100. I've got LOTS of POI's now!

Also, I just noticed that today a firmware update was released for the 3140 (my boss has one). I figure over the last two days I know what can happen, and how to safeguard myself. So I'm going to download the update for his 3140 tonight (5Meg cable connection at home) and get him updated, along with the addition of the 6-mil POI file...

Chad

[patruns]

Chad,

I was just being lazy and looking to download the whole file without having to download WinRAR first and combining the extractions. I haevn't looked yet to see if WinRAR is Vista compatible. Looks like I will be busy this weekend.

Pat

[ChadJ]

Pat,

I downloaded WinRAR 3.71, and it installed and ran fine on my Vista Business notebook. Interestingly enough, the firmware update for the 3140 says that it's supported under Vista, where the 3100 update specifically said it wasn't Vista-compatible. I'm not really sure how it wouldn't be compatible w/ Vista since all we're really dealing with here are a couple of enumerated drives (the GPS and it's SD card slot).

Chad

[patruns]

Thanks for the info Chad. I noticed that about the update too and assumed they just hadn't tested it with Vista so they said XP & 2000. Guess I'll find out soon enough!

Pat

[ChadJ]

Pat,

Just make sure to pull the contents of your GPS (the TFAT volume) off to your PC before you start the update. You'll be able to put things back in the event you need to. BTW, if you get a message about a corrupt file like I did, I told it NOT to do the CHKDSK, and then I just waited and the update eventually (within 2 minutes) proceeded automatically. My mistake the first time was killing the install via Task Manager. Had I waited I'd bet things would have been fine.

And given what I've just learned, I wouldn't hesitate to try the 3100 update with Vista now. Just my opinion, of course.

Best of luck to you. I'll be checking back to this thread (based on the reply notifications I get), so if you run into a problem be sure to post back here.

Chad

[patruns]

No luck with Vista Chad. (See my other post.) Guess i will just have to wait.........................

[spyhunter]

has anyone tried to use a map from the 3140 on the 3100? I would love to have Canadian maps on my 3100.

[ChadJ]

spyhunter,

Man, I've got my boss's 3140 right here with me (I just updated the firmware on it for him last night). I made a copy of the contents of his GPS before doing the upgrade. So I've got all the .IMI and .POI files right here on my PC.

The US48.IMI file (the map file for continental US), alone, from the 3140 is ~1GB, which is the size of the memory on the 3100. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to pick up a 2GB SD car from Officemax and modify the Media.cfg file to look for both map AND POI data on the SD card, and put all the .IMI and .POI files on it.

Interestingly enough, the 3140 had 4.5 million POIs. I just put the 6 million POI file on my 3100, and it's roughly 200MB. The 4.5 million POI file from the 3140 is roughly 300MB, yet it doesn't have as many POIs as the 200B, 6-million POI, file I just added to my 3100 yesterday. I'm not sure why the dramatic size difference.

I'd put my money on the Canada & AK maps working on the 3100 (though they'd have to be located on the SD card due to their size). I'm not sure if the 3140-native POI files will work on the 3100. I never even though of grabbing the maps from the 3140, so thanks for sparking that idea!

I'll report back my findings if I can find a good deal on a 2GB SD card tomorrow... It shouldn't take but a few minutes to copy the files and modify the Media.cfg file to do this.

Chad

[patruns]

Chad,

Newegg has 2 gig cards starting around $14. I bought a Crucial for $25 including tax and shipping and had it in 24 hours. Would love to hear the results. I always suspected there was a way od adding/switching maps.

Pat

[hkeiner]

[ChadJ]

The password is "activerandomkindness"...

Chad

[hkeiner]

Thanks. It worked fine.

[jgreenwa]

Re: maestro 3100
I want to do the hack but I have a few questions...

Anyone know how old the 6 million POI file is?

I recently ran the firmware update. Does anyone know if the 6 million POI file is compatible with that? Especially since the update has many more categories and subcategories.

Any feedback on what GPS (Magellan or other brand) units have POI files that are compatible with the Magellan Maestro 3100?

Thanks
Jay Greenwald

[patruns]

I don't know the age of the 6 million POI file but I did the firmware update yesterday and it simply replaces the old POI file with a new one with the same name. The larger POI file should work with the update.

Pat

[Bill Kunert]

The large POI file works fine with the update.

[jgreenwa]

Thanks for the info. I did the 6 million update today and it does work with the update. I simply put all of the POI files on my SD card and pointed the config file to it for POIs only. Left the rest of the files on the 3100 as they were.

It does seem that the 6 million has more to do with expanded POI categories, e.g. education than a greatly increased concentration on POIs within current categories. Good as far as it goes, but there are many restaurants and pharmacies (several years old) in my area that aren't listed.

Maybe the POIs are expanded in areas of the country that weren't as well represented before.

Thanks
Jay

[patruns]

Education is an expanded catagory after the update as well. I'm still waiting on adding the larger POI file until I have read some more about how useful it really is.

[ChadJ]

Just FYI, I haven't had much time over the holiday (we had company) to really sit down and work on this, but I did try the 3140's Canada map & POI file on my 3100 (had to relocate maps and POIs to the SD card). Once did the file manipulation, "Canada" did show up as a region in the Region list, however when I panned the map to Canada (I live in Michigan) I didn't see street-level detail shown.

I'd like to spend a little more time with it, perhaps comparing the basemap files between the 3100 and 3140 as well. It might be that I need to do something more than simply placing those Canadian map/POI files in the proper place... I'll report back with anything new I discover.

Chad

[patruns]

Chad, if you are in Michigan I have to wonder how well the unit would function only looking at a map of Canada. (Maybe you are using a map of both Canada and the USA in the same file?) Once in Canada, it would be interesting to see how well the unit works.

[ChadJ]

Pat,

Well, I jumped into the User Options, and set the region to "Canada" (which became a new selection once I added the Canada.IMI and the Canada.POI files). The map was, of course, still centered on my current location in MI, including street-level detail. I live about 50 miles south of the Mackinaw Bridge, so I just panned the map (seeing all the street detail in Michigan as I did so) to the northeast until it crossed into Canada. As soon as my view of Canada came visible, I had no street-level detail visible. Even when I had "Canada" selected as the region, I still had street-level detail in MI (and all of the US, I'm sure). And yes, I was zoomed in close enough to see street-level detail, too, BTW.

Like I said before, I've only had enough time to copy all my 3100 maps and the 6-million POI file to the SD card, copy the Canada map/POI files to the SD card, and modify the Media.cfg file to look to the SD card for POI and MAP data. There's definitely a possibility it's more involved than that -- perhaps there's another file(s) somewhere that contains data about which map files are "installed", and Canada needs to be added to that.

When I get a chance to sit down and really comb through the file structure, I'll look deeper.

Oh, and "jgreenwa" asked about the age of the 6-million POI file. I was told it came from one of the new 32xx series Maestros, which are actually newer than our 3100.

Chad

[patruns]

Chad,

I was wondering about the age of the POIs. I noticed that the new POI from the upgrade I did the other day is already out of date for a few restaurants in my area. I have a hunch that they are always playing catch-up on both the maps and the POIs. I'd like to see a user "Wikipedia" kinda utility for both maps and POIs. At least TomTom has something similiar for the map portion. The GPS wars have gotten so hot recently that I think the survivors will be the ones who can provide the quickest corrections and updates, not the cheapest units. We'll see...............

[moosehead]

Chad, what about copying all the 3140 file to the 3100?
I know that the 3140 has AAA and bluetooth.

What do you think about loading the 3140 update 2.16 to the 3100? Think that might work?

I am real interested in getting Canadian maps loaded onto my 3100.

[moosehead]

Yes, the 6 million pio file works with the 2.18 update. I have it working on mine with no problem.

[ChadJ]

[moosehead]

bump

[dm1113]

Hello..!! I have a Magellan maestro 3100 I wanted to upgrade it but it ask the date when I bought it I really do not know because it was a gift and that person does not remember, what can I do? also where did the person bought it, he does not remember if it was in best buy or circuit city so is there other place to update it?? Pleasee help...

[patruns]

It's out of warranty anyway. If you are just registering now, make it up based on reasonable guesses as to the date and store.

[dataminer]

Hi everybody,

I too am having an issue with the 3100 update. I accidentally tried it using vista, it came back with a loop of chkdsk commands and such, I went to task manager and ended the process.

Now when I turn it on, I get the magellan screen and a big black bar, and it freezes. I can still access it over USB, but it doesn't do anything else.

The only items I backed up were the map (forgot to grab the rest, bad nerves), and I didn't back up anything else. I've tried pressing the power button, holding the power button, same with the resets.

I know somebody is going to say google this, google keeps bringing me back here. How do I get the factory software back into this gps so I can try the update again?

Keep in mind all I backed up was the map portion.

Please don't tell me to look on google, I did, alot. I need this device, I'm unemployed and I need to be able to find places that are willing to give me an interview.

Please help me. My email address is dataminer [at) atlanticbb [dot) net

Please.

B

[grocerygetter]

Sent you the recovery files and a link to another thread in this forum where I discussed how I "unbricked" my 3100 under Vista. Link also below. Hope this helps.

Maestro 3100 Update to 2.18 Success with Vista!
Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:32
http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=15702

[i79andy]

need recovery files and help to "unbricked" Maestro 3100 i79andy@gmail.com

[ultralightron]

pls help. same common problem for 3100 tried to update it and now i cannot get it past the main screen. pls email files to ultralightron@hotmail.com thanks alot