Computer Bits

Mio C230 comes with 64 MB RAM and by default only 512KB is reserved for storage memory. The storage memory is for system files, it’s kinda like the system drive for your computer. Because of the limitation, you often encounter error messages when you tried to copy stuff to the Windows directory.

You can adjust it by using the Control Panel. Open up FileMan CE and browse to the root directory. Double click on Control Panel.lnk to invoke Control Panel. Scroll down and double click on System. Click on the Memory tab and adjust the storage memory.

Note that you have to do this every time you hard reboot your unit. I’ll try to see if there is a registry trick to adjust the Storage Memory by script.

Now that you have unlocked your Mio C230, you are eager to try out various PocketPC or Windows CE applications. But where to start? There are a lot of PocketPC freeware sites. I like this particular site very much because it has rating for most of the freeware you can download from the site.

http://pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php

You don’t have to waste your time on those lowly rated software. Most PocketPC software come in three formats.

• Stand alone executable
• Installer package
• CAB file

I will start with stand alone executable. When I find a program I want to try, I usually copy the executable to Script directory and use FileMan CE to invoke it. If it runs, that’s great. If it doesn’t run, I have no clue what to try. I didn’t know what are the required dlls for it.

However, I just found out a way to determine the required dlls. It’s actually quite simple and I am going to share that “secret”with you. What you need is a program that can open binary file in hex format. If you are curious about what I use, I use TextPad. Open the executable using the hex editor. Search the executable for the text string “dll” (without the quote). Here is a screenshot.

We now know that this application requires COREDLL.dll and commctrl.dll to run. Please note that even though you know the required dlls. It’s still possible the application doesn’t run with dlls. I think the reason might be the program is not compatible with Windows CE 5 or the dlls version is not correct. One dll that most applications need is AYGSHELL.DLL. There are different versions of that dll. My release 4 includes one that’s newer than the one from my earlier releases. You can get the older AYGSHELL.DLL from my earlier releases. Some applications run well with the newer AYGSHELL.DLL, some run well with the older one. You’ll need to experiment it to determine what’s better for an application.

The second form of application is an installer package. You can use a program called EXE to CAB Converter to convert the installer package to a CAB file.

When you get a CAB file for the application, there are two ways to use it. The first one is to use wceload to install it directly on Mio C230. Dominique first discovered the correct procedure to do it and Ameridan has a post about the procedure. The second way is to use a program like WinZip to extract the files from the CAB file. This part is tedious and note that the file names are different from the original names. You’ll need to change the file names back to their original names. For older CAB file, look for the .000 file. Use a text editor to open the file and you’ll know what are the original file names. For new CAB file, look for a setup.xml file. It has the info regarding the original file names.

Once you have all the files you need for an application. You could put everything under Script folder. However, I think creating a folder under Script\programs\ and put the required files in it might be a better solution.

If you get an application to work for Mio C230, please kindly share your find and tell us where to get the application and how did you get it to run. Freeware and Shareware only. If you get a commercial software you own to work, please share your experience here too.

I have just updated my skins page with screenshots and downloads for the two new skins contributed by Quicksilver13. Give it a try and tell us what you think. Here is the link.

The major problem when I tried to use Mio C230 to find geocaches is that by default the static navigation is turned on. What is static navigation. Murphyfields has found a great link about static navigation. Here is the quote about static navigation from SiRF.

93. Explain the static navigation parameters.

Since SA was turned off, we now disable static navigation as our default, and we recommend that you do also. When it is enabled, if velocity is below 1.2 m/s for 3 seconds we will freeze the position, and leave them frozen until velocity exceeds 1.4 m/s (so there is a bit of hysteresis in the solution).

123. What criteria are used to enable and disable the static navigation filter?

Static navigation is a mode designed for motor vehicles, which causes the position to become pinned at one location when velocity is determined to be low enough. This is designed to make navigation systems operate more reasonably when the GPS Selective Availability (SA) signal degradation is turned on. When the navigation software determines that the vehicle velocity is less than 1.2 m/s for 3 seconds, the position is pinned to its current position. It remains pinned until either velocity is detected above 1.4 m/s, or position is computed to be 200 m from the pinned location.

This explains why the NoniGPSPlot stopped working (frozen) when I used it on foot. To disable static navigation, you need a utility called SirfTech. You can download it from here. Create a directory called SirfTech under Script\Programs\ and put SirfTech.exe in it. You can use FileMan CE to run it or create an entry on the desktop. Please refer to this post if you don’t know how to add it to the desktop. I have also created an icon file for it.

SirfTech is a powerful and complicated utility. I wish there is an easier way to toggle static navigation, but there isn’t. I will tell you a bit about how to use SirfTech to disable static navigation. Please note that, DO NOT RUSH on doing these steps. Wait for a few seconds before do the next step.

The first time you run SirfTech, you need to set the com port. Click on Com. Set the Comm Port to COM2: GPS_COM . Baudrate to 4800. Click on Open. Wait for a few seconds to let the program connect to the GPS. Click on OK.

Now, we need to switch to SiRF mode. Click on Nmea and then Set Serial Port (Switch to SiRF). If the Baudrate was not set, set it to 4800. Click on Set and then OK.

We can now disable static navigation. Click on Sirf and then Static Navigation. Uncheck the Static Navigation checkbox. Click on Set and the OK.

Before you run other applications, it’s better to return the GPS to NMEA mode. Click on Sirf and select the last opiton Switch to NMEA Protocal. If the Baudrate was not set, set it to 4800. Click on Set and then OK.

Whew! That’s quite a few clicks to disable static navigation. Now you can exit SirfTech and start your GPS application.

When I first attempted Geocaching, I used NoniGPSPlot. I didn’t like it. I used MioMap this time. I entered the geocaches’ coordinates into MioMap using DegDec format. (In MioMap, do: Map -> Menu -> Coordinate) You can find the coordinates in DegDec format when you click on other conversions on Geocaching.com. I then added these location as POIs.

With these preparations, I was able to find our very first goecache! Yea!

After learning about Geocaching, I finally got around to try it out. If you don’t know where to find the information. Here is the site where you can find out all about it.

I went on the site to find nearby geocaches. Surprisingly, there are a couple of geocaches within 2 minutes drive from my home. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t enter the info into NoniGPSPlot. I just wrote down the coordinates on a piece of paper and off we went. I thought I was prepared. Boy, was I wrong!

The first trouble I ran into is that using NoniGPSPlot is not enough to find the geocaches. From the coordinates reading, I knew I was close. But I didn’t know which way to go. We walked in the wrong direction for several minutes before I found out. NoniGPSPlot also crashed several times. In the end, NoniGPSPlot stopped updating the coordinate reading.

I then tried to use MioMap to find the geocaches. However, I quickly found out MioMap uses a different format for the coordinates. The coordinates I wrote down on paper were useless. I finally gave up on searching for them. In the end, we didn’t find any of the three geocaches we set out to find. Fortunately, I didn’t waste much time.

If you have been using Mio GPS to do Geocaching, please share your experience here. Thanks!