Tell

Updating the inbuilt Mib2 Satnav / Mib2 tricks and Mib1

Tell

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Tell, is your new card part number ending in ‘BJ’ and do you know what the difference is between the ‘BJ’ and ‘BG’ cards? Ebay sellers are showing ‘BJ’ in some of the pictures but quoting ‘BG’ in the description.

I fancy trying one but don’t want to purchase the wrong one.

Jim it's BJ.

The one I got it from had the text of the add correct but the picture wrong in the advert, so when I put the picture up I used someone else's that looked like a fake. This one doesn't. Nicely printed label but no other packaging other than the case and the mailer. Probably how OEM ones come out or someone was stuffing them in their pockets at the end of the production shift.

My picture :).
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Jim45

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Apr 27, 2018
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I've been very quiet on this forum for ages now as I haven't really had much to add, but after not updating my maps since the 1030 release in 2018, I decided to have a crack at updating to the latest release this morning.

I don't have any access to Windows devices so I used my MacBook Air running MacOS 10.15.3 for the map update. It may be interesting for other Mac users to know what I did to get it to work.

Deleted all files from my current SD card in Finder (after taking a copy of course) and emptied Bin, no formatting of SD card carried out.
Downloaded new maps to my hard drive from the link in one of Tell's posts, extracted to my hard drive using Keka application, removed overall.nds file and replaced with my original overall.nds file.

In Finder copied extracted files to SD card and then ran CleanMyDrive2 application on SD card (approx 243mb of trash files removed). I didn't do any renaming as suggested in some instructions on here.

Safely removed SD card from MacBook and loaded into SD1 slot in powered off entertainment unit. MIB2 powered up and reset, Navigation data not found, powered off and then powered on and reset again all working fine.

Many thanks for all those more intelligent than me for all the good work on this topic.
 

Tell

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That instruction is in the middle of the Discover Mib2 update that VW publishes each year which of course doesn't mention the workaround which I republished on the thread. It's the one that causes angst with Mac users although there are other tools for the Mac to get around it but that's the preferred VW way.

Also tells you to stick to Fat32 and a recommended cluster size of 4,096 bytes. If you do a format it preserves the cluster size, can be faster than deleting. The all important CID remains untouched. Thats the only hidden thing on the card. Windows you can do a quick format as long as you have a copy of the all important overall.nds file.

Causes even more chaos on the high since one extra byte causes the import validation to fail. That's why they have the "DiscoverCare" option but the maps are always published late for that.

I'm not a Mac user so just parrot this stuff :)
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Jim45

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I didn’t see the need to format the SD card, just a delete and bin empty which took about 15 seconds, probably faster than a format.

Out of interest I have ordered the new Skoda card from eBay. There is a seller selling the 32gb for £44.99 and another listing from the same seller at £29.99. I messaged him and asked why the price difference, he said that the cheaper one was 16gb but was actually sending out the ‘BJ’ 32gb on all orders at the moment.

There is also an eBay10% discount code until tomorrow evening, so I should be getting the 32gb card for £26.99, so I thought it was worth a punt.

He also stated that there was no need to change any files to get it to work, do you think they are putting V1 of the overall.nds file on all the cards so it will work on any age MIB2?


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Tell

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On the latter, you could try. That guy will be normally talking to Skoda people where Mapcare is for life.

Your car I reckon is over a year old so wouldn't have the one year Mapcare that comes with them. If it works it will be the CID on those cards... If it doesn't just revert back to your old overall.nds file. I didn't try it since I didn't want an ear full from the partner. What you would do in any case is then move the newer overall.nds file to your old Seat card if the unit slipped a map upgrade in.

If it does work on the new card with no file swapping and your car is over one year old I will have a look at the Skoda card CID. I know the run in code is standard across VAG but on one board I did see talk about filling with zeroes at the end as I posted up. Never seen that talked about again.

I did take a copy of the overall.nds file on the card before I overwrite it. Saying that looking at that person's Q on the American unit I deleted it. Reckon the date will define. When you look at that file in a hex editor it appears as a push down list which Exciter noted so it appears that each release drops down a bit which may very well be the sequence of Mapcare. You can't read the rest thou... or rather I can't and nobody in 2017 didnt. That's what Notaben (close spelling) was trying to do till Exciter came along. Exciter's observation was that it dropped across releases in V1 to the one he was looking at. Think that's the feature.

So yes will be interested if it reads it direct. If so try your old card back in. If that doesn't work do the overall file trick. Or may be the guy was giving you the typical dealer speel.

Suppose I better look at the CID on the Skoda card just in case it looks unique.
 

Jim45

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Apr 27, 2018
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Are you saying you didn’t try the Skoda card as purchased?


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Jim45

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Apr 27, 2018
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If my unit doesn’t read it, are you suggesting I might run the risk of my original updated to latest maps not working if reinstalled?


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Tell

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That was what was troubling me but you would copy the 1430 overall.nds back to your old card if that happened accepting thàt the CID on the Skoda card isn't special... I will read mine just to see whether it doesn't end with a load of zeroes, I know the Seat one doesn't.

There was one instance where somebody was trying to be clever and bought a Seat card since they wanted a spare and it tethered to the newer one, that's where I think the year's Mapcare kicked in, they could have done what I said. Although it's all a bit untested territory. What we know is the unit recognises VAG cards by that run in character set on the CID I posted up since I had that as well. Whether there is any other significance beyond that. Don't know. We do know you can use your old overall.nds file with Skoda cards and get the 32 GB space.

I will have a look at the Skoda card just in case the CID shows anything special after the run in characters :). That's why I was being careful since my name would be mud with the partner if they got the Skoda card only :banghead2.
 
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Tell

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Well both the Seat and the Skoda cards run beyond the CID character string with 021 in Post 2074 to give

0941504d49425354021.....

After that the characters merrily continue... no zeroes patterns or anything.

Finishes in a7 if anyone wants to check their Skoda BJ card. I am not going to give out the exact code. Just determine whether each card is unique.

VAG cards are suppose to be defined by the run in string

0941504d49425354

Then the units are happy with zero fill.

I tend to think it's just used to validate that a VAG card is put in the unit and those other codes may not amount too much but I could be wrong. Will put Ubunto back to bed :).
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Jim45

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Does your discovery make it likely that the Skoda card could be installed and not mess up the MIB2?
 

Tell

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Nope. As long as your car is over a year old you can put the card in and not change the overall.nds file and it won't work in any case since you need to do the workaround on that card for cars with Mapcare. That's what I did and Godzzi who first did it with a VW card. I picked the 32gb Skoda card since that is where the all European map is heading to test whether there was a DIY route when the time comes when the all European map won't fit, there is.

Don't reckon there is anything on that card that says bypass Mapcare but you could just put it in and see what happens. I reckon it's the same as putting the card in with the download without the workaround. The small possibility is in that one year period, then you'd have to copy the newer overall.nds file to the old card if you wanted to run with both cards (since Mapcare kicked in).

Nothing special about that card other being a 32GB card and not Seat 16GB. Probably faster since it's a newer card.

I don't think you have too much to worry about.....
 

Jim45

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Apr 27, 2018
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My current card with 1430 map update & original v3 overall.nds is working fine, so I will keep the 32gb Skoda card for future larger capacity map upgrades when presumably the same method of upgrade will work.
 
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