Speed camera POIs in Columbus (a new guide)

[Hozz]

21 minutes ago, Ivan8192 said:

 

What would stop someone using the VIN from a VW they take the VIN from in say, a car park? Since VINs are visible at the bottom of the windscreen?

Good point but I don't know whether each VIN is linked to a specific owner in the VW database.

Could also be slightly awkward if the owner of that vehicle also wanted to register.

[kevin defty]

5 hours ago, NalaRewop said:

Hi Kevin, can you post the link to the VW page you use to convert the files?

The one linked here on the forum doesn't exist anymore

http://www.volkswagen-nav-companion.de/mib/ppoi/ppoi.jsf = not on server!!

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

I’ve only used that site so far. Hoping it comes back on again with the vin number added. 

[Rainmaker]

Oh dear. :( Hopefully we get something that works soon. It's a bit pathetic we have to rely on a hacked VW site anyway to be fair. Skoda refuse to even admit that their POI site is broken. 

[Rifleman]

I've been experimenting on the Skoda My Destinations site. I have got further than I have ever managed before by getting it to import all of my personal POIs ( in gpx format ) without crashing. It also downloaded the composite file without crashing!! That's also a first for me.

 

I don't have time to try to load the files to the car yet, won't be able to do that until the weekend but fingers crossed....

 

As anyone got this far before?

 

The secret seemed to be not using any spaces when entering the collection name in the "Enter a collection name" box.

 

 

[Hozz]

12 hours ago, Rifleman said:

I've been experimenting on the Skoda My Destinations site. I have got further than I have ever managed before by getting it to import all of my personal POIs ( in gpx format ) without crashing. It also downloaded the composite file without crashing!! That's also a first for me.

 

I don't have time to try to load the files to the car yet, won't be able to do that until the weekend but fingers crossed....

 

As anyone got this far before?

 

The secret seemed to be not using any spaces when entering the collection name in the "Enter a collection name" box.

 

 

I got as far as this before but the car would not then recognise the file.

I hope you have more luck, keep us posted.

[MarkUk63]

I tried this this morning and it starts to update then stops and says unable to read files.

[Rifleman]

Sorry to report that it didn't work, same result as MarkUk63.

 

I noticed that the date of the update that the Columbus reports started "2014". I suspected the metainfo2.txt file and tried replacing it with the one that still used to work on the VW site but that didn't work either.

 

Back to the drawing board...

[dasower]

More about the "safety cameras"

 

I had been using the VW site to create Poi's since 2013 when I got a Yeti with Columbus RNS510 (also fitted in VW vehicles)

 

Anyway I have tried various methods to make the CSV,GPX,KML and other files into Poi's but now given up.

 

Found a websit that does the Poi's for "safety cameras) in one bunch.  (SpeedcamUpdates)

 

You can select your vehicle type and model, I downloaded and installed first time and also now I get an audible warning when approaching the position od a camera.

 

So if you dont mind paying 13Euro for a one off download then it will mean no more sleepless night worrying about how to create Poi's

 

Best I can come up with.

[Hozz]

I looked up this website and it looked as though the cameras were not up to date for my area.

There was one interesting piece of info relating to Skoda though and I haven’t tried this yet with the Skoda POI updater site, or rather the composite file you download from the Skoda site.

It might be worth a try.

For your information
If you get an error message when you're updating your device, follow next steps. Insert the SD card into your computer again. Copy the file named 'metainfo2.txt" contained in PersonalPOI/MIB2HIGH folder into the root of SD card replacing the meta2info.txt file that should be already there. Extract the SD card from your computer and insert it into your GPS device again. Repeat the installation procedure.

[Rifleman]

On 31/05/2018 at 09:49, MarkUk63 said:

 

For your information
If you get an error message when you're updating your device, follow next steps. Insert the SD card into your computer again. Copy the file named 'metainfo2.txt" contained in PersonalPOI/MIB2HIGH folder into the root of SD card replacing the meta2info.txt file that should be already there. Extract the SD card from your computer and insert it into your GPS device again. Repeat the installation procedure.

tried that Hozz, no luck I’m afraid...

[dasower]

Back again, I have a subscription with Pocket GPS World which I have used for the past 5 years to create Safety camera files.

 

Now the link to the VW creator site has gone and the SKODA POI creater just does not work.

 

Is there going to be a new way to create the POI ? or would I be better using the ANDROID app  "CamerAlert" fromPocket GPS World.

 

I have tried it and it does work but not with Android Auto.

 

 

 

[cdgamessp]

I have new Polo (2018) with the  Discover Media Gen 2, I try follow steps with:

1 - Download POIs in CSV format

2 - In Skoda Mydestination (VW has down) I import and save PersonalPOI format

3 - Save extracted PersonalPOI in a pendrive (I try with a SD too)

 

In Nav menu I try update but none, I got a message when dont have any file in pendrive/SD to update.

 

Anyone have the metainfo2.txt from old VW site to send me?

 

@dasower can you send the metainfo2.txt generated by SpeedcamUpdates?

 

Tks

[Rifleman]

1 hour ago, cdgamessp said:

Anyone have the metainfo2.txt from old VW site to send me?

 

@dasower can you send the metainfo2.txt generated by SpeedcamUpdates?

 

Tks

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

[NalaRewop]

18 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

 

18 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

Email address?

 

18 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

 

18 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

 

19 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

The old one from the VW site does not work with the poi file from the SKODA MyDestination site. As of this time no one has been able to upload POIs to their SKODA since last weekend as far as I am aware.

eeee

metainfo2.txt

[Rifleman]

??

[NalaRewop]

10 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

??

metainfo2.txt sent to you - again..

metainfo2.txt

[Hozz]

Can I suggest that as many people as possible email Skoda ([email protected]) and complain that their POI site (Skoda-My Destinations) does not work properly.

Maybe if enough people complain they will do something about it.

[Hozz]

Incidentally, I went to the German Skoda site http://mydestination.skoda-auto.com/POIs and I thought I had succeeded because everything worked fine and the POI's started to install but then it bombed out at 79%.

It did however ask if I wanted to install my POI's dated 30-10-2014 when normally it would quote the date you downloaded the POI's, e.g today's date.

It seems that the update.txt files are not working correctly on the Skoda sites whereas they were on the VW site and I think this could be the root of the problem.

[flumpie]

I had a look at the files that the MyDestinations site generates, and it appears to be calculating some of the file sizes and checksums incorrectly. When I manually fix these I can successfully load POIs into Columbus.

 

Some notes, in case anyone else investigates this (or bothers to tell Skoda what is wrong on their site):

• The top level metainfo.txt file is generated correctly.
• Only the MIB2HIGH directory is read by the Columbus.
• Most of the file sizes in the hashes.txt file are incorrect (but the checksums are correct)
• In the MIB2HIGH/metainfo2.txt:
  • The PersonalPOI\Package\0\default\Dir section has an incorrect checksum and filesize (for a directory this is generated from the hashes.txt file)
  • When the file has been edited you need to recalculate the MetafileChecksum

[Hozz]

1 hour ago, flumpie said:

I had a look at the files that the MyDestinations site generates, and it appears to be calculating some of the file sizes and checksums incorrectly. When I manually fix these I can successfully load POIs into Columbus.

 

Some notes, in case anyone else investigates this (or bothers to tell Skoda what is wrong on their site):

• The top level metainfo.txt file is generated correctly.
• Only the MIB2HIGH directory is read by the Columbus.
• Most of the file sizes in the hashes.txt file are incorrect (but the checksums are correct)
• In the MIB2HIGH/metainfo2.txt:
  • The PersonalPOI\Package\0\default\Dir section has an incorrect checksum and filesize (for a directory this is generated from the hashes.txt file)
  • When the file has been edited you need to recalculate the MetafileChecksum

Thanks flumpie that is very helpful in nailing down where the problem lies.

Any suggestions though on how to correct the file size and how to recalculate the checksum for those of us who are not so software literate please?

[flumpie]

5 hours ago, Hozz said:

Thanks flumpie that is very helpful in nailing down where the problem lies.

Any suggestions though on how to correct the file size and how to recalculate the checksum for those of us who are not so software literate please?

 

All the checksums use SHA1. On linux (and probably macOS) you can use the sha1sum utility. Not sure about what is easiest on Windows.

 

When I find some time, I'll knock up a python script which will automatically fix the errors.

[cdgamessp]

@NalaRewop @Rifleman

 

I download a old VW PersonalPOI and try install in Discover Media Gen 2 and dont give sucess, whan I try update the system say has no files to update.

My multimedia central is this:

 

Whell I give up for now, as it is a new system I think over time they will find a way.

 

Have any csv to vcf converter?

[flumpie]

Attached a simple python utility to fix the Personal POI generated from the Skoda MyDestinations portal.

Just extract the generated metainfo2.txt and PersonalPOI to your SD Card. Then run the script with the path to the MIB2HIGH directory. For example:

 

E:\> C:\Python\python.exe poifix.py poilist\PersonalPOI\MIB2\MIB2HIGH

 

You should now be able to load the POIs onto the SatNav without errors.

poifix.py

[flumpie]

2 hours ago, flumpie said:

Attached a simple python utility to fix the Personal POI generated from the Skoda MyDestinations portal.

Just extract the generated metainfo2.txt and PersonalPOI to your SD Card. Then run the script with the path to the MIB2HIGH directory. For example:

 

E:\> C:\Python\python.exe poifix.py poilist\PersonalPOI\MIB2\MIB2HIGH

 

You should now be able to load the POIs onto the SatNav without errors.

poifix.py

 

Updated poifix.py script so it works when you have more than 512KB of POIs

[Hozz]

Flumpie many thanks for that but I am having trouble running the python script on a Mac.

I am not quite sure how to associate your script with the personal POI file running Python3.

Any help would be much appreciated.