144 Part II — Software Hacks

It’s not as straightforward to modify the firmware on the Magellan, and as such fewer tools exist. You need tools to modify the firmware because the entire firmware is a special file, which requires you to decode it before you can work on it.

The one available product for modifying the firmware is Magellan GPS Firmware Editing Tools (GPSFET), available from http://cnslab.mb.jhu.edu/~derrick/gpsfet/ index.cgi. To be able to run this software, you need to run it on Linux, so you will need to either install this operating system or find a system that has it. This tool contains a decoder and encoder that can read the Magellan firmware files.

The simplest thing you can do with this software tool is edit the text strings in the firmware. This could be useful and interesting for a variety of reasons:

Add your name and details to the startup screen.

Modify some of the text labels to make them clearer or more concise.

Replace the English words with words in another unsupported language.

Little information exists about the editing tool for Magellan firmware so proceed cautiously and make sure you have an unaltered backup just in case things go wrong.

Recovering from a Failed Firmware Load

This section describes some steps you can take if you do run into problems when reloading firmware. Listed here are techniques for both the Garmin and Magellan units that are known to work and should help you if you get into trouble.

Garmin

Sometimes this problem will mean that you have to send your GPS unit back to the manufacturer to be fixed. However, most of the time the following procedure will get your GPS unit working again:

1.Remove the batteries from your GPS and add a set of fresh batteries or recently charged batteries.

2.Connect your GPS to the computer by the data cable, making sure that the connections are firm and secure.

3.Get your computer ready to install the new firmware.

4.Turn your GPS unit on in the usual manner. At this stage, you may or may not see anything on the screen when you do this.

5.Begin the firmware upgrade at your computer.

If this doesn’t work, get in touch with the technical support representatives and see what they have to suggest. The final course of action would be to send the unit back to them for repair.