Setting up a Chinavasion 5" Gen2 GPS

Mine arrived today. This unit has 8GB RAM installed and "Primo" is already loaded. Pretty straight forward, from the looks of it. I'll have to see about making a route w/S&T and converting/loading on the GPS. I'll also see about moving the Primo files to a MicroSD, along with adding some music files to it.

LINKY TO EBAY

sirepair said:

Mine arrived today. This unit has 8GB RAM installed and "Primo" is already loaded. Pretty straight forward, from the looks of it. I'll have to see about making a route w/S&T and converting/loading on the GPS. I'll also see about moving the Primo files to a MicroSD, along with adding some music files to it.

LINKY TO EBAY

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That's the same unit I have. Interesting that the ad says nothing about Primo and indicates 4GB storage, yet yours came with Primo and has 8GB storage. Did you connect it to your computer and verify it had 8GB?

paulcb said:

Did you connect it to your computer and verify it had 8GB?

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Yep, 8GB installed.

sirepair said:

Yep, 8GB installed.

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Good deal!

Is there any spec on the max sdcard size?

Mine finally arrived today.. Software will be here tomorrow. They told me they would include a MicroSD for the late shipment.. NOT.
I got the IGO8 software... seems pretty straight forward.. We'll see tomorrow night.
has 8gb . ordered an assortment of Ram ball stuff so I can relocate my cell phone holder.
Need to get this up and running, as I'm leaving for New England land Sunday. Be nice to not have to haul my old gps also..

k5mitch said:

Is there any spec on the max sdcard size?

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I think it's 16GB but not 100% sure.

OhioDeere said:

Mine finally arrived today.. Software will be here tomorrow. They told me they would include a MicroSD for the late shipment.. NOT.
I got the IGO8 software... seems pretty straight forward.. We'll see tomorrow night.
has 8gb . ordered an assortment of Ram ball stuff so I can relocate my cell phone holder.
Need to get this up and running, as I'm leaving for New England land Sunday. Be nice to not have to haul my old gps also..

Click to expand...

Did yours come with 8GB or 4GB of storage?

Last time I checked the Chinavasion website it was 16GB on the microsd card.

Getting from the 'internal' storage to a microsd is easy. Hook the unit up to your PC (with the long snout USB cable) and the unit should show up with 1-2 drives (depending if the card is inserted). Go 'folder' searching till you find the level call PRIMO. Copy the PRIMO folder over to your PC hard drive (now you have a backup). Copy the PRIMO folder to the microsd card either in the unit or in a reader. With the card in the unit, power it up, got to SETTINGS>NAVPATH. Press the blue icon on the right in the NAVIGATION PATH. You should see 'Internal storage' and 'SDMMC' (or something similar). Press the SDMMC folders until you see the PRIMO folder. Press it and you should see PRIMO.EXE file (usually in blue). Press it and then back out. You should be running from the microsd card then. The unit will 'execute' what ever you put in the NAV PATH, so that is how you hack one to get to WIN CE - you have to have a WIN CE regedit with the CUSER dropdown and 'on screen' keyboard for setting a value in the registry to allow access to WIN CE. The danger is if you set the wrong registry value on the hack, you have a brick as there is not much hope of recovery at that point.

I'm up and running... 16gb Microsd with IGO8 installed. works good.
Using google earth for route planning. connected direct to my PC with cable provided. download KML files to a new folder you have to create in the IGO8 folder. comes up perfect. routes I planned seem to be very accurate.
I can't get the audio to Bluetooth to my Iphone 5.. so now I need to work on the audio side to my helmet... urggg... money, money,,,

Didn't see a way to use basecamp that I have been using.. besides I don't like base-camp now that I just figured out google earth..

I added and addition ram ball on my Heli riser center plate. for both Cell phone and GPS.. I'll post pics later.

Doug - Sounds like you've got it nailed! Good job, my friend. FWIW, the unit does have an standard audio jack besides the Bluetooth option.

paulcb said:

Did yours come with 8GB or 4GB of storage?

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Paul
8gb onboard storage.
when plugged in to the PC it appears as 3 mapped separate drives.

OhioDeere said:

Paul
8gb onboard storage.
when plugged in to the PC it appears as 3 mapped separate drives.

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3? That's odd... there's internal storage and the SD card. What's the 3rd?

paulcb said:

3? That's odd... there's internal storage and the SD card. What's the 3rd?

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I was fixin' to ask the same question ...

Uncle Phil said:

I was fixin' to ask the same question ...

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I knew you were...

There are 2 settings on the GPS for USB connection: "MS ACTIVESYNC" or "MASS STORAGE". With MASS STORAGE selected (default I think), when plugged in to my Win8 laptop Windows Explorer opens one "Removable Disk", which points to "ResidentFlash".

When MS ACTIVESYNC is selected, my laptop downloaded and installed Windows Mobile. Using File Management from there I see 3 folders: "\", "Network" and "ResidentFlash". The "\" folder is the WinCE install location; formatted TFAT and REPORTED by Windoz as less than 500K in size (43MB of files), "Network" is a 0 byte sized folder with no contents shown, and "ResidentFlash" is FAT32, where PRIMO in installed.

Looks like with the addition of a few WinCE tools, it should be easy to HACK the Windows side of it, but as already stated, easy to turn it into a brick too!

I haven't had any success with adding a SKIN, as it seems that the ones I have found do not support 800x480 resolution. I believe I read that there are ways around that.

I would like to work on a custom skin, kind of like BLRFL had for the Lowrance (I miss my Lowrance!) There are thing on the default screen that I don't really care for. I don't want the house numbers at the top, would rather have a compass. Would like to have a clock and current speed when running a route, yadda, yadda. And the routing "Skip to next waypoint" would be nice too.

So I'll putz around with this and see what I can figure out. Already joined GPSPassion, Motor-Forum, GPS Power and NaviTotal looking for ways to tinker with it!

Well spoke too soon! the hard wire charger that comes with it didn't work... Of course after I get it all wired up on the bike and looking pretty.
removed this and cracked the case on the charger.. Pretty simple regulator circuit.. Bench tests showed cold solder joint on black wire on output side.. re-soldered 2 maybe 4 times, still bad connection.. determined the trace on the board was bad. Installed minuscule jumper.. Looks good now. steady 5.1vdc output. now to put all back together!!

Yes, shows 3 mapped drives?? I don't know why... letters "G" "H" & "I".. they go away when I unplug it.. "I" is the microsd... Not a cuuummmppttterrr ggguurrruu! But I can fix anything electrical man made!

Don't know if its been posted here or not.
I copied this from the web.

There is a way to get Routes into the igo8.
First you have to create the following directories in the ig8-directory on your sd-card: \iGO8\CONTENT\USERDATA\ROUTE
If you now copy .kml (e.g. Google-Earth) in Version 4 or 4.2 into the new "ROUTE" directory then the route will be imported automatically at igo8 starts. Please do not forget to check the optionbox for "saving as route, track and waypointlist", like it is done in the attachment.
The imported rout appears in light grey and it is recommended to open it and to save it as newroute. Then you can delete the imported one.
I tested it an it works fine.

Yes, routing works fine for me too (in Primo, once you have put it into the route folder, access it through: route options>more>load route).

There are plenty of skins available with the correct resolution, some of those GPS forums should have them, e.g. decent skin here:
http://www.igo8navigation.com/index.php?action=forum

Doug - The same works for PRIMO routes, the 'head' folder is PRIMO instead of IGO8. You might want to go to the 'other' thread and read the PDF documents I created about IGO8 and the Rage - most of the stuff works on the 5" also. I don't 'convert' my routes on the GPS, I just delete them when I am done using them. They still load and run fine as .kml files.

Pat - You can also change the 'options' that show on the screen (at least in IGO8 and PRIMO 2.4 MC 1.9.). I have compass, estimated arrival time, distance to go on mine. And the 'street' number thingy can be changed, where the street names show up, the voices you hear (not the ones in your head ...) In IGO8, press the speed/time/etc. in the lower left hand corner. This brings up the TRIP COMPUTER screen. Then you select which features you want to display in that box. In 'plain' PRIMO since I don't have it, I don't know but it would be something similar or buried on a menu somewhere.