satnav functionality

Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Hi All
I bought a 2019 FR model about 6 months ago. However I have found the inbuilt satnav to be pretty useless. The map was hopelessly out of date but I was able to follow the instructions on this forum to download and update it, so that's better but on this forum I see posts about the navigation announcements and voices that I would like to implement but can't find on my unit.
Specifically, I would like to have the navigation announcements pronounced correctly, or in a different voice, or shorter or failing any of those switch them off altogether. Does anyone know if any of that is possible?

My system info is:
part number: 5F0035877A
hardware: H50
software: 0514
nav database: 6P0919866CA
1410
ECE1: 2020/21
Shield: Shield 2016-44 (build 309)

My old Tom Tom could easily do all of that and I can't believe that this system is so lacking.

Any advice/help appreciated.
 

RADIOTWO

Active Member
Mar 6, 2018
486
93
North Derbyshire
Hi All
I bought a 2019 FR model about 6 months ago. However I have found the inbuilt satnav to be pretty useless. The map was hopelessly out of date but I was able to follow the instructions on this forum to download and update it, so that's better but on this forum I see posts about the navigation announcements and voices that I would like to implement but can't find on my unit.
Specifically, I would like to have the navigation announcements pronounced correctly, or in a different voice, or shorter or failing any of those switch them off altogether. Does anyone know if any of that is possible?

My system info is:
part number: 5F0035877A
hardware: H50
software: 0514
nav database: 6P0919866CA
1410
ECE1: 2020/21
Shield: Shield 2016-44 (build 309)

My old Tom Tom could easily do all of that and I can't believe that this system is so lacking.

Any advice/help appreciated.
Sorry cannot answer your problem, I use "Wase" via android Auto and its great, you get uptodate maps, speed cameras and voice announcement
 
Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Thanks Steve
Yes I've looked at that but I would have expected the inbuilt satnav to be a bit more useful.
 

RADIOTWO

Active Member
Mar 6, 2018
486
93
North Derbyshire
Thanks Steve
Yes I've looked at that but I would have expected the inbuilt satnav to be a bit more useful.
I must admit the inbuilt on is fine no issues other than the speed cams, the voice is ok, not used it for a while with not going
out and about, but yes it is more convenient using the onboard one but you get a full size map with wase
 

Yern

Active Member
Apr 25, 2019
625
311
You can go into Navigation/Settings and turn the volume right down.
 
Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Well yes, I guess so. But I can't believe that the inbuilt satnav is so primitive. Are there NO software updates with useful functions available? I suppose I'll have to dig out my old Tom Tom and superglue it to the screen 'cos the rest of the stuff on there isn't much better.
 

RADIOTWO

Active Member
Mar 6, 2018
486
93
North Derbyshire
Well yes, I guess so. But I can't believe that the inbuilt satnav is so primitive. Are there NO software updates with useful functions available? I suppose I'll have to dig out my old Tom Tom and superglue it to the screen 'cos the rest of the stuff on there isn't much better.
So what are you lacking other than the updates?
 
Oct 28, 2020
11
1
How long have you got?
Let's stick with the satnav to begin. Let's assume that I am a sales rep and I go around the country visiting my clients. I have a database of their names and addresses, I want to import them as POIs. No. Can't do that.
I get quite a few SMS messages whilst I'm on the road. The screen tells me my battery strength and signal strength but it doesn't even tell me I've had a message, let alone allow me to read it - even if the car is stationary.
Park Pilot. I live in a rural area so drive down narrow roads quite a lot. The sensors go berserk well before there is any danger of hitting anything. Can I adjust the sensitivity. Guess what?
DAB radio icons. what a hassle it is getting those and installing them. All my phones and tablets just pick them up without me doing anything.
MP3 files. It's easy enough to put albums on an SD card, but once again to get the album artwork is a marathon effort. I lost the will to live!
 

RADIOTWO

Active Member
Mar 6, 2018
486
93
North Derbyshire
How long have you got?
Let's stick with the satnav to begin. Let's assume that I am a sales rep and I go around the country visiting my clients. I have a database of their names and addresses, I want to import them as POIs. No. Can't do that.
I get quite a few SMS messages whilst I'm on the road. The screen tells me my battery strength and signal strength but it doesn't even tell me I've had a message, let alone allow me to read it - even if the car is stationary.
Park Pilot. I live in a rural area so drive down narrow roads quite a lot. The sensors go berserk well before there is any danger of hitting anything. Can I adjust the sensitivity. Guess what?
DAB radio icons. what a hassle it is getting those and installing them. All my phones and tablets just pick them up without me doing anything.
MP3 files. It's easy enough to put albums on an SD card, but once again to get the album artwork is a marathon effort. I lost the will to live!
Let's stick with the satnav to begin. Let's assume that I am a sales rep and I go around the country visiting my clients. I have a database of their names and addresses, I want to import them as POIs. No. Can't do that.
That is a odd ball one, but you can just put a postcode in.
I get quite a few SMS messages whilst I'm on the road. The screen tells me my battery strength and signal strength but it doesn't even tell me I've had a message, let alone allow me to read it - even if the car is stationary.
Whats that got to do with the Satnav? but you can on mine and its a 19plate FR
Park Pilot. I live in a rural area so drive down narrow roads quite a lot. The sensors go berserk well before there is any danger of hitting anything. Can I adjust the sensitivity. Guess what?
again nothing to do with Satnav, but can you not dissable it when you are going down the lanes?
DAB radio icons. what a hassle it is getting those and installing them. All my phones and tablets just pick them up without me doing anything.
Admitting it does not do it automaticly but just download and install, and you only need to do once
MP3 files. It's easy enough to put albums on an SD card, but once again to get the album artwork is a marathon effort. I lost the will to live!
Well I don't what you are doing but when I put files on a card, and play all the artwork is shown
 
Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Thanks
Yes, I realise that only the first of those points was to do with the satnav, and yes I suppose I can put POIs in one at a time, but for 50+ it's just so tedious, and you're right the others are more niggles than serious failings.
Interesting about the SMS messages though. It does make me wonder if there different software versions with different capabilities.
 

RADIOTWO

Active Member
Mar 6, 2018
486
93
North Derbyshire
Thanks
Yes, I realise that only the first of those points was to do with the satnav, and yes I suppose I can put POIs in one at a time, but for 50+ it's just so tedious, and you're right the others are more niggles than serious failings.
Interesting about the SMS messages though. It does make me wonder if there different software versions with different capabilities.
50+ these youngsters ! and are you sure you have not got the SMS in the system, I had a 17 plate and that had it also
 

black_sheep

Active Member
Mar 10, 2013
1,256
585
There might be some POI options for your unit here:


The user manual for the telephone functions is online here:


@Tell is the forum guru for all things related to the infotainment/nav units.
 
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R4CK5

Active Member
Mar 8, 2017
609
85
I must admit I don't use the seat nav at all. So many times it told me to leave a dual carriageway, only for it to then take me back down the slip road back onto the same dual carriageway! Recently did a trip as well, on which I was apparently on the fastest route, questioned it as it's a journey I'd made before but couldn't remember the whole route. I followed my phone (Google maps) and that was over 15 minutes faster!

I just have a phone cradle, plug my phone in and use either Google maps (which links to the main screen through android auto) or Tom Tom amigo app. I typical use the amigo app for speed cameras only as it tells you when you're in and then out of average speed cameras. I like the aerial photo view on Google maps through android auto though.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 

Tell

Full Member
Staff member
Moderator
Mib2 only

There is only one voice on the sat nav, same voice between the standard (which you have) and the high. Pronunciation can be different between the units. Standard is driven by TomTom cartography and high (Seat plus) by Here Maps, so the execution is different, but similar. Same look and feel thou.

The Poi import is how I got my old destinations in, extracted from Co-pilot then imported as x,y coordinates. You take the poi and save in the destination menu (old Skoda trick I was told). I'm at 150 of them now. You can populate two cars this way. Most car parks, stop offs on route which you regularly stop off at.

Way points are also useful, can use them in there as well. The mib2 high also allows you to drag and drop routes. That's not in the standard unit.

If you can get the full address in rather than postcode is better if the street has been house numbered. Most urban areas have. Type that in the search bar not the form bar. That's if you fancy doing it that way.

You always pick a red route if you live in the country although the standard doesn't have these so well executed. Takes you up country lanes. Red route sticks to main roads in general, fast route. But as said can be problematic in the sticks with the standard system.

Radio logos, to populate the icon there is the trick of selecting and holding the button. If transmitted over the air these will then be saved. BBC / RTE works fine. Commercial stations can be patchy. You can use this approach for those:


Your own music on SD card or USB put in by artist and album, graphics art 512x512 no bigger, store in each album folder with the name cover.jpg. There are limits on how much can be saved, see manual on this. Art you can extract via a Google images, checking size or scale down via paint etc. There are Leon threads on getting music in and artwork. It's the same approach as home music servers except you have the limit:

– Playlists in the formats M3U, PLS, ASX and WPL.
– Playlists must not exceed 20 kB or have more than 1000 entries.
– Filenames and paths that do not exceed 256 characters.
– For memory cards, a maximum of 4000 files and a maximum of 1000 files per directory.

People due hit those with their mp3 files... it won't see beyond the limit.

Latest mib3, the face lift models and 2020 late released models, they are on Here Maps cartography, but all change on the rest.
 
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BoomerBoom

Active Member
Jun 1, 2018
690
249
I knew the inbuilt satnav was a joke within a week of delivery, after it directed me down a bridleway (complete with stile) and on a dual carriageway into every layby.

Instead I use Google maps, which still uses the car's own GPS signal and screen, but includes all my contacts, better routing and maps.

The WhatsApp and Spotify apps complete the whole package, writing very well with the steering wheel search button; the onboard infotainment is now only used for the radio and mpg.
 

Tell

Full Member
Staff member
Moderator
It's the TomTom routing in the Standard mib2 that can let you down sometimes. That one that takes me across a local live tank range since they have the tank concrete tracks which they move around on to find their firing position digitised. TomTom will do the same. MOD has notices out saying ignore your GPS take next road... blah. You can report these are wrong and point out corrections on TomTom, Here Maps and Google. Which I've done and have has been corrected.

I put a section in the resource with links so people can improve maps under Cartography.


Selecting the red routes on both systems mitigates it from taking you on wild goose chases which is the shortest distance but not the fastest (The orange route). As said inherently the Standard system is not so good as the high system in finding the fast route, where the high looks further to find a better route. The issue is only in rural settings.

Google is not brilliant with estates yet to be digitised. POIs are proxies and not well placed and you dont get the next turn, lane position on your dash in front of your nose. Doesn't integrate traffic sign recognition if you have that in the car so you get speed warnings, can't use your own POI sets. Google has the edge over TMC but with mib3 connected services that may change, early days on that.

For outdoor activities Google maps is weak since they can't turn a buck from showing POIs which aren't commercial so you have trouble getting those on where TomTom and Here Maps will readily accept car parks to places being listed (Why there are less on Google Maps). Openstreet is the defacto open source community driven maps. You can use the Android app N45, E25 to view both Google and Openstreet maps, toggling between the two. Will generate the cars DMS coordinates which you can dial into a mib2 unit and gives you Street view it cross links to other map applications. You can walk the street much better in that app than the Gogle software :). Handy to check for entrances to car parks ($). Use it for foreign trips to find exactly where the entrance to under story car parks are at hotels so you don't drive in circles on one way systems. For Android that app goes much further than Google in reviewing a location, getting the coordinates and checking Openstreet as well.

($) used it to check where where the Seat Cupra site had been invited to a Cupra launch in the sticks. Was a pub converted into a posh coffee ;).
 
Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Thanks Guys
It seems I'm not the only one disillusioned with the inbuilt satnav.

Tell, currently I have a database of POIs in an Excel spreadsheet. If I try the POI import, what format do I need it to be in, and where do I find the destinations folder?

I found the SMS settings in the online manual (the one that came with the car doesn't mention it), and it logs them OK but still doesn't actually notify me when they arrive (audibly or visually). What am I missing?
 

Tell

Full Member
Staff member
Moderator
I use Poinspector


Export your sheet as comma separated, txt, I rename to Asc then add anything else using the Notepad editor, don't have the quote marks in. That's how I get my destinations in which I want to use often, the ones I ported from Co-pilot originally when I got the car and stopped using Co-pilot. I list the format of them in that link, those ten records... so that's your starter. If you want them to beep, treat them as speed cameras. That toggle is shown on the link.

Note VAG uses the x,y coordinates in reverse from normal form (mention that in the documentation). Basically Poinspector was written by Radas the programmer when VAG pulled the previous RNS web based poi import. They did that again with mib2 several years back so he modified it to take in mib2, covers mib1 and the old RNS model.

The VAG import file is a cross between hash check file and database file. That was worked out by people as to how to format looking at the ones the VW website created.

In the example in the link I provide some test lines which you can try. You can use Poinspector for free to test upto a 100 POIs. Token charge of 10 Euros or something to unlock the program for life so it's pretty limit less on volumes of POIs, although VAG limit user Poi categories to 10 only that can be shown in mib2. I import my destination POIs as one category and four more as the speed cameras from the Pocket GPS World site. That allows you five others to show on the screen, the inbuilt ones. Petrol stations, car parks etc. The forum post show other people do different things.

Some careful attention has to go into setting up the proforma for Poinspector, sizing your icons etc. Once the proforma is set up you can routinely update the contents as required. Quite a few Seat Cupra people use it from the forum and across the VAG brand. I became Radas' unofficial technical author since the forum is listed as one of the documentation links. Basically it's a package distributed as an executable program. Not totally for the faint hearted but does the job. Once set up easy enough to use.
 
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Oct 28, 2020
11
1
Hi
I used Poinspector to create a test database file and export it to an SD card but my system doesn't even seem to see the card. It just asks for a suitable source. Maybe I've got the file/directory structure wrong on the card - does this look correct?
screenshot28.jpg
 
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