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Is your GPS start-up information current?


BlueDeuce

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Many GPSr units allow you to add your contact information so it shows on the screen when first turned on.

 

If you lost yours on the trail, or off the top of your car could the person who found it track you down?

 

Is your cellphone number correct? Have you even bothered to enter anything in?

 

Get it updated now - today, while you are still thinking about it.

 

 

Not sure how? Tell us what type of gsp you have.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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There are 2 ways to modify Magellan Meridians (possibly Explorists and SportTraks also).

One is called appropriately MyMeridian, and it hacks into the firmware. Not something I would suggest that anyone in their right mind do.

The other is just a modification of an ini file that gets used when you create your maps using MapSend.

 

The GPSr displays 2 or 3 initial screens.

The first mostly is related to versions and is what the firmware hack changes. Plus you have to do a lot to make up your own offset files if your particular firmware version is not represented. And you also have to know that if you only change the English message, your message will not show up if your GPS's language is changed to any of the other 40 or so languages.

 

The second is all about your loaded maps, and is what the ini file change changes. Of course if you remove your SD card, then you have no maps, other than the basemap, and this mesage is not displayed. And if you turn off your detailed maps then again this mesage is not showed.

 

The third is the fact that a GPS should not be used for critical life threatening situations and other such Y2k inspired drivel.

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No, the Colorado and Oregon have no ID field when turned on but read on...

 

Frankly, the chances are good that someone picking up your particular GPSr model isn't going to know how or where you have stored identifying data. I would keep it simple and obvious and tape it to the outside of the GPSr or maybe inside the battery compartment.

 

The Colorado and Oregon have an Image Viewer. You could edit your ID info into an image that would stay viewable/readable there when that function was selected--that might be obvious enough to find. You could include a photo ID even.

Edited by Ratsneve
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We probably went a little overboard. Each of our units has:

-- a sticker on the back with name & phone number;

-- a startup screen with name, phone number, and email address;

-- a waypoint called " HOME" with our street address and phone number. This waypoint name starts with a space, so it is always first in an alphabetical listing of waypoints.

 

Well I too have a sticker, but not on the outside, it's on the inside of the battery compartment, and one on the SC card. And I've done that ini file thing which can be bypassed with a memory wipe. I have not done that firmware thing, but should since with my loss of WAAS satellite capability long ago there is no reason not to do it. This can only be bypassed with another firmware push.

Those units that allow one to enter their data right from a setup screen, make no sense to me. The 'new' owner can immediately put his own name right there.

 

P.S. Did you ever find the owner of that unit you found 3 years ago at B H?

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Most units don't have as much room but this works well on the 76 series. This is not for everyone but i used an engraver to engrave my phone number into the back of the unit just above the battery compartment. I then used a paint pen to go over the engraving which allowed the paint to get down to where it wouldn't get rubbed off with normal use.

 

I'm not an artist so mine wasn't pretty but it sure did the job when i accidently left my unit out in the woods a few years ago. We were attending a weekend long event some 250 miles from home, so i called my home phone, listened to my messages and sure enough, had one letting me know that the unit had been found. The cacher who found it was still in attendance and i was able to get it back the same day. :)

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...ways to modify ...Explorists...
The Explorist series has a preference page in the unit itself that lets you put owner information to appear on the startup screen. No need for hacking the firmware or adding INI info to the maps.

 

The page exisits but does not display it on the startup screen. I have a "Home" waypoint on mine also.

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We probably went a little overboard....

 

Not at all. I was going for the minimum effort. Even my memory sticks have a name and address sticker. (cell phone, laptop, the DVDs I loan to in-laws. (especially the DVDs :) )

 

Any other ideas are completely welcome.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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I used to think it was a good idea to put your info on the start screen of the gps, but realized its pretty pointless since if it gets lost I'll probably never see it again anyway.

Yes there are some good people who would try to return your gps, but most people would just do a search online to see how to remove the start up info. You know how many times I've seen people have a first post on this forum asking how to remove this personal info from a gps they "bought" used?

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I used to think it was a good idea to put your info on the start screen of the gps, but realized its pretty pointless since if it gets lost I'll probably never see it again anyway.

Yes there are some good people who would try to return your gps, but most people would just do a search online to see how to remove the start up info. You know how many times I've seen people have a first post on this forum asking how to remove this personal info from a gps they "bought" used?

 

No. How many?

 

I guess if people are thieves or bought previously edited gps's they might want to know how to remove it or update it to their own info.

 

I figure, hey what the hey, let's show that this unit is mine so that I can have some chance to reclaim it.

 

I have no problem with picking up a gps that I can't figure out who it belongs to. Lucky me.

 

 

edit: ,/.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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I used to think it was a good idea to put your info on the start screen of the gps, but realized its pretty pointless since if it gets lost I'll probably never see it again anyway.

Yes there are some good people who would try to return your gps, but most people would just do a search online to see how to remove the start up info. You know how many times I've seen people have a first post on this forum asking how to remove this personal info from a gps they "bought" used?

 

Not sure i've ever seen a post here requesting information on how to remove personal information but there's no doubt that i could have just missed it.

 

But i do know that some sorry people would want to do just that and that's one of the reasons i used the engraver and the paint pen. Getting that off would be difficult so it might make the decision to return the unit easier for some people. Still, if your unit allows it, it's a good idea to go ahead and input youir info on the start up screen. In addition to my name and number, i added this little line in CAPS on mine,,, "REWARD IF FOUND!" I figure this might help even more to get it back safe and sound.

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There are 2 ways to modify Magellan Meridians (possibly Explorists and SportTraks also).

One is called appropriately MyMeridian, and it hacks into the firmware. Not something I would suggest that anyone in their right mind do.

The other is just a modification of an ini file that gets used when you create your maps using MapSend.

 

My MeriPlat was stolen a couple years back. The ONLY reason I was able to recover it was the hack.

 

Apr 10 2007

Long story short, I ran into the good fortune of an honest man living in the same house as the dishonest man. He also involved the Everett Police Department to inspect the rest of his household for any stolen goods. In the meantime, he made an extra effort to get my GPS units back to me last night. Now here's the difference between a real GPS and a toy. The hack to add personal information onto the start up screen is what allowed him to call me and make the arrangements. (The only recommendation I would add is use your cell phone instead of your house phone. It'll alleviate a few worries about testing the phone to see if anybody is home or not.) He surmised if I were getting rid of the GPS as his roommate declared, I would have wanted to remove my personal information. Lucky me he called to verify that and the rest is history.

Edited by TotemLake
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What's the "firmware thing"? Is that Magellan only, or could it be done on a Garmin (vista C or HCx)?

 

Perhaps it can be done in a Garmin, or in any GPS that allows you to upload new firmware.

The yahoo magellan_meridian user group will have the program to do this.

 

Magellan firmware is a big text file of Motorolla S-hex codes.

http://www.amelek.gda.pl/avr/uisp/srecord.htm

 

With an editor one can find the location of the warning messages that get displayed on turn-on. In the case of Magellan there are messages for each of the different languages you can set your GPS to use.

One can go in and manually edit the messages to your message, getting the s-record checksums to be correct. As long as your message is shorter than the original message there is no problem, and even if it's longer (in English) you probably can get away with it by skimping on the messages in other languages.

Then one can upload that hacked firmware to the GPS.

The program called MyMeridian does all this hard work for you, but still this process is not for the faint of heart.

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It's a standard feature on those Garmin units. On the Vista HCx:

 

No, I'd call that the 'menu thingie'. And that can be overwritten by the very next person to find, or steal, your GPS in just about a second.

The other two things are as I have already spelled out,

1. The 'firmware thingie' where you hack your firmware to replace it's default message with your own message.

2. The 'map ini thingie' where you replace the message that occur when your GPS loads your maps, upon turn-on, with your own message.

3. The 'My home waypoint thingie'.

4. The 'stickers on or in your GPSr thingie'.

5. The 'deface your GPSr thingie'. I've actually done this with my MultiMeter. At Raytheon those would get stolen left and right, but I left there in 1993. Mine, which I've had since ~1982 has my name etched and/or scratched into the multimeter all over the place. On the display in such a way as to not impede it's use but so distracting that a thief would be reminded every time he used it. On the big know, and just about every square inch of that Fluke.

6. You could always register your GPSr's serial number with a recovery site and place a reward sticker on it and hope that the finder would go through the steps. But with Magellans there are 2 serial numbers, one on a sticker in the battery compartment. And one that shows up with a menu, about keypress or a secret menu 00 code. This last one is the only official one, and is the one that DirectRoute uses to 'register' that software to a particular GPSr. I.E. I've borrowed someones GPSr that has DirectRoute maps on it. I copies that map file from his SD card onto my computer and then onto my GPSr. It's useless since DirectRoute checks the serial number of the GPSr and says 'Map Security Error', and does not function on my GPSr. Perhaps one can hack that, but it's a binary file and the serial number is not simply encoded there (I tried).

 

All of those are much harder for a thief to undo than the 'menu thingie'..

 

I'm sure there are ways to do those 2 things and perhaps even others for nearly any kind of GPS.

The original intent of this post was to identify how to identify you to anyone who finds your GPSr.

Edited by trainlove
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...I've borrowed someones GPSr that has DirectRoute maps on it. I copies that map file from his SD card ... onto my GPSr ... DirectRoute checks the serial number ... says 'Map Security Error'.... Perhaps one can hack that, but it's a binary file ... (I tried).
Humor at its best. While discussing how to protect a GPS from loss or theft you describe your failed efforts to steal map data.

 

Foiled by those stupid kindergarden engineers! :huh:

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It's a standard feature on those Garmin units. On the Vista HCx:

 

No, I'd call that the 'menu thingie'. And that can be overwritten by the very next person to find, or steal, your GPS in just about a second.

The other two things are as I have already spelled out,

1. The 'firmware thingie' where you hack your firmware to replace it's default message with your own message.

2. The 'map ini thingie' where you replace the message that occur when your GPS loads your maps, upon turn-on, with your own message.

3. The 'My home waypoint thingie'.

4. The 'stickers on or in your GPSr thingie'.

5. The 'deface your GPSr thingie'. I've actually done this with my MultiMeter. At Raytheon those would get stolen left and right, but I left there in 1993. Mine, which I've had since ~1982 has my name etched and/or scratched into the multimeter all over the place. On the display in such a way as to not impede it's use but so distracting that a thief would be reminded every time he used it. On the big know, and just about every square inch of that Fluke.

6. You could always register your GPSr's serial number with a recovery site and place a reward sticker on it and hope that the finder would go through the steps. But with Magellans there are 2 serial numbers, one on a sticker in the battery compartment. And one that shows up with a menu, about keypress or a secret menu 00 code. This last one is the only official one, and is the one that DirectRoute uses to 'register' that software to a particular GPSr. I.E. I've borrowed someones GPSr that has DirectRoute maps on it. I copies that map file from his SD card onto my computer and then onto my GPSr. It's useless since DirectRoute checks the serial number of the GPSr and says 'Map Security Error', and does not function on my GPSr. Perhaps one can hack that, but it's a binary file and the serial number is not simply encoded there (I tried).

 

All of those are much harder for a thief to undo than the 'menu thingie'..

 

I'm sure there are ways to do those 2 things and perhaps even others for nearly any kind of GPS.

The original intent of this post was to identify how to identify you to anyone who finds your GPSr.

All it takes is a firmware update to erase your message. You can use a hex editor and edit the .rgn file and load it to any Garmin unit to change the the bootup message, same problem in any event. Use an engraver if you are that worried.

Edited by coggins
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All it takes is a firmware update to erase your message. You can use a hex editor and edit the .rgn file and load it to any Garmin unit to change the the bootup message, same problem in any event. Use an engraver if you are that worried.

 

If you would like to debate and rank the difficulty rating of any of these methods I'll go right ahead. The firmware would be the hardest one to bypass. The one that Garmin builds right into the menus would be the easiest one to bypass. The others would fit somewhere inbetween. And of course one could use a belt sander or plastic polisher to undo the engraving that you suggest, or even replace the bezel.

 

Again, I'll state what I think was the OP's original intent of this thread.

Listing the various ways that GPS makers, and GPS users use to mark their GPS so that if they get 'lost' how would one hope to get it returned to you.

 

Are there any other methods out there?

No voice from Delorme users? Not a squeak from Lorance users?

I'd mention automobile GPS units but those don't get 'lost', they get 'stolen' and perhaps all of this will not prevent someone from using a stolen unit, just prevent him from being able to easily sell it.

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Foiled by those stupid kindergarden engineers! :D

 

:D yes, if it weren't for those pesky kids, and their dog...

 

But sharing/stealing proprietary map information from a large corporation is a bit different from stealing your $200 gadget that you spent your hard earned money on. :o

 

This is a common rationalization of thieves. The fact is, stealing is stealing regardless of who you're stealing from. :)

Edited by Indotguy
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