Using the MyDestinations portal to get vCards and photos.

[BillyJim]

There is a link/portal called MyDestinations on the Skoda site for personalising/updating the new "infotainment" systems. Whilst the update site is provided for these new systems (not the RCD/RNS devices), the MyDestinations portal can be used with the older Amundsen/Columbus, namely vCards, GPS-photos and PPOIs.

 

As I don't have a "new" device yet I haven't used the updating features, but I thought I'd share my experience when using the MyDestinations portal with my RNS510 Columbus (which I believe applies equally to the RNS310/315 Amundsen).

 

You can find MyDestinations application here.

 

So we have two tabs…

Search destinations - for finding locations then creating vCards and geo-data photos.

List of my destinations - where you download your vCards and geo-data photos.

 

With Search destinations I had no problem finding public venues (i.e. Hotels) but initially struggled to get private residences.

Finally I discovered two methods that work.

By putting the house number and road name in the field "What are you searching" and the town (and country if required) in the field "Where are you searching" it will find the location on the map.

     What = 25 High Street Where = Anytown

It will also find it with house-number/house-name+postcode / country.

     What = 25 AB12 3CD Where = UK

     What = Dunroamin AB12 3CD Where =UK

 

Once you've found the correct location you click on Add to the list of my destinations which takes you to the edit screen. Here you can edit the Name (the "Name" is what will be displayed in your Amundsen/Columbus vCard navigation menu), phone number, website, and upload a custom picture (doesn't have to be a GPS exif embedded picture).

 

When you're finished editing click Save and you return to the destination search page. The List of my destinations tab will have incremented from 0 to 1. You can continue to add more destinations.

 

When you're finished adding destinations click on the List of my destinations tab, then the Save list of my destinations. This will download a zip file.

 

Decompress the zip file to extract two folders: "destinations" and "gps-pictures".

vCards are located in "destinations" and images in "gps-pictures".

You can delete anything you don't want. You don't need to have vCards and corresponding pictures. You can have either/or for each destination.

You can also change the file names if you so choose (changing the name will have no bearing on the Amundsen/Columbus, so long as you don't change the extension, but may assist in respect of the thumbnails issue below).

If you didn't upload a custom picture on the site, there will be a generic 120x80 png picture for the destination in the "gps-pictures" folder, so you might want to delete these...

 

When you're happy copy the two folders to the root level of an SD Card.

Insert the SD Card into your Amundsen/Columbus, select Nav > New Destination and the SD Card should appear as an option. Select this and your vCards are shown, whilst at the top of the screen you can switch to pictures, and vice versa.

 

 

Here are a few issues I've encountered...

 

Pictures are supposed to initially show as thumbnails on the Amundsen/Columbus, but on mine most don't. Just a dark box with the name of the picture file. Selecting a blank thumbnail does then show the picture correctly. I'm guessing this thumbnail issue is related to the picture resolution but I haven't had the inclination to further investigate.

 

If you're using Safari on a Mac it may save a folder called "userPlaces_xxxxxxxxxxx" where the xxxx is just a series of numbers. In this folder the vcf files are saved as "destinations\name.vcf" and GPS images as "gps-pictures\name.jpg". This is the result of Safari automatically decompressing the zip file.

The solution is, before you download, go to Safari's Preferences and uncheck "Open safe files after downloading" (it's in the General tab). If you now double-click the downloaded zip file you will get the correct "destinations" and "gps-pictures" folders.

 

Finally, PPOIs. I use a third-party utility to generate my Personal Points of Interest files (speed cameras, supermarkets, free parking, public toilets) so I don't have a use for the MyDestinations PPOI function.

I did however try uploading different "supported" POI files to MyDestinations, but each time I tried to save the converted PPOI file it generates an error screen. This may also be a Mac/Safari related issue.

[erniem]

Just played with this and found that using the POI import, you need to delete the headings line from the .asc file if you have one

as that generates the error

 

I was using a POI file generated from Pocket GPS world

Edited 30 November, 2015 by erniem

[Aes3]

Just played with this and found that using the POI import, you need to delete the headings line from the .asc file if you have one

as that generates the error

 

I was using a POI file generated from Pocket GPS world

I am trying to upload a POI file but still site gives an error.

Can you send me a file which you mannaged to upload, so i could use it a sample?