Another exclusive tweak ~ Fixing the factory Navigation for Version 70 CarPlay firmware!

Posted on by under Reference

 

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NO MORE LOOKING AT THIS SCREEN!!!  even though you have a valid Nav card

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I had an idea that turned out to be a winner!  Since the licensing routine appears to be built into the compressed jci-linux_imx6_volans-release file, by replacing the Mazda version 70 NNG folder with the NNG folder from our Fiat version 56/59 firmware, the factory Navigation will once again WORK IN HARMONY with our SD card, that is license-linked with our Fiat VIN number.

68wooley modified my NNG tweak that deletes the jci-linux_imx6_volans-release file to create more room in the Version 70 firmware, so that it instead,  accommodates this task, and since the experiment proved to be successful, I am publishing a new tweak that includes his code revisions, along with the entire North American Fiat  jci/NNG folder – for others that would also like to fix their Navigation (assuming you have id7 installed).

This tweak will replace your Mazda NNG folder with the North American Fiat version, which apparently is the solution for not only NA, but EU and ADR regions, as well.

Note1:  For anyone installing Mazda versions of 56/59 firmware, this should get Fiat navigation maps working on those versions too.

Note2:  Japan does not use NNG for Navigation, so this tweak is not applicable there.

If we can write two tweaks that (almost) completely “Fiat-izes” the Mazda version 70 firmware, so that the CarPlay and Android Auto retrofit hubs will function in our Fiat/Abarth 124 Spiders, I don’t know what is holding Fiat back from officially making this available!
♦♦♦
They don’t even have to sell the kits through Mopar, if that is the deal breaker 🙂

Instructions:

You’ll need id7 tweak installed in order to tweak via USB (install with my id7 tweak before upgrading to version 70). 

  1.  Unzip and copy all files to your FAT 32 formatted USB drive.
  2.  Plug in the USB drive to the car and wait for the scripts to run.

If a revised data.zip file is developed so that live HD Radio Traffic (which 68wooley discovered as a now visible app in version 70) works in conjunction with our Navigation (if it doesn’t already), I’ll substitute that file into my tweak routine.

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Start-to-Finish Vehicle Installation Instructions

Since 68wooley has put together a universal Mazda-to-Fiat Version 70 AIO Tweak, I have updated the instructions, and tranferred them to that article, so everything needed to complete the entire process is combined in one spot.

34 thoughts on “Another exclusive tweak ~ Fixing the factory Navigation for Version 70 CarPlay firmware!”

  1. Dan – thanks for figuring this out. My version 70 firmware is now pretty much fully ‘Abarth-ized’. And yes, it’s absolutely shocking Fiat isn’t doing this officially. Maybe you should offer your services for a fee…

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    • I really want CarPlay in my 2018 Fiat Spider and so appreciate all the instructions you put together in such detail.
      One barrier for me is that I have 59.00.563 (rather than 59.00.562), so I’d need to take the more painful process to update the firmware. Is there any risk of messing things up by following these instructions due to my being at a slightly later version than you’d documented?

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      • It is my understanding that they are pretty much the same firmware:

        59.00.562/563-NA (for 2019 Fiats in North America, USA, Canada, Mexico), along with -EU and -4A (this version disables changing the brightness settings of your rear camera to meet a compliance requirement).

        You should be fine.

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  2. This tweak will replace your Mazda NNG folder with the North American Fiat version.

    Hey Dan, what’s needed to make this work with the European Abarth version?

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    • Good question. I’ve addended the sentence with

      , which apparently is the solution for not only NA, but EU and ADR regions as well.

      , since both rsmagee (from the UK) and djpoppy (from Italy), stated that their EU ver 56 NNG folder didn’t work, but an NA ver 56 folder did. Hopefully, the sentence is clearer now, and the tweak works for you as well.

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      • All right, thanks for the response. It didn’t work today – stuck at loading navigation – but I will give it another shot tomorrow.

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  3. Couldn’t wait and did a reinstall of “Fix ver70 NNG”. It does work now, great stuff. How much coffee can you take 😉 ?

    The only remaining oddity – apart from the occasional pop up of a Mazda logo upon start – is that I now have a shining FPS counter at the bottom right of the display. It looks pretty much like debug information. I have no idea how I turned it on. Did you stumble across that one?

    Cheers,
    jayrock

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    • Don’t know where that came from 😉

      I found this by Aikiway (from 2015):

      somehow now I have FPS (frames per second) counter in the lower right corner of the screen.

      It’s because Opera loads all scripts in userjs directory. There is fps.js. To disable it you can simply rename it to fps.js.bak, for example.

      but that file hasn’t existed for quite a few versions now, and I don’t think it should exist in version 70 either.

      Add this routine to your “Fix ver70 NNG” tweaks.sh to resolve:

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      • Thanks, that worked the FPS counter is gone.

        It is still a bit of a mystery why it showed up in the first place. I did test the speedometer app in summer 2018 and removed it after while. Yesterday I upgraded to 70.x and installed the patch from this post plus the Abarth boot logos. After that I noticed the counter, however I cannot say for sure when exactly it appeared as I focused on the upgrade procedure.

        But, whatever, it doesn’t really matter as long as it is solved.Thanks!

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  4. I’ll add it to the tweak if others report seeing the counter, as perhaps it is part of version 70.

    Have to keep that in mind, as perhaps we could use that to display another parameter instead. After doing some research, it turns out modifying that script is how the mini-speedometer in the status bar tweak was developed.

    Here’s another patch:

    I have a tweak to remove the automatic footer signature caption “Sent from my Mazda quick-text system” (in all languages) at the bottom of predefined text message replies. It is the Uninstall of [Option U], but first you’ll need to find the correct file in your Fiat jci backup (option [S]) or in my AIO 1.51Fiat_d Updates Folder. Copy blm_msg-system.xml into the choose/config_org_all/message_replies/jci/settings/configurations folder of the Fiat AIO package on your PC, so that the Uninstall will then function properly, and will replace the caption with “Sent from my 124 Spider” for all languages.

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    • OK, Thanks for reporting that Lou. I’ve incorporated the fix into the tweak today, so just download again and reinstall. If the suspect file exists in your firmware, it will be renamed so that the FPS counter will no longer be displayed, if using my updated tweak.

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  6. Dan-

    After updating to 70 and applying the two other patches, I have an Abarth logo on startup and Nav is working just great!

    The problem I’m having is that all of the tweaks I’d installed the day after I picked up the car are gone, and after trying to redo them (twice) I’m still stuck with the stock system. Is there a trick to get the original tweaks back?

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    • As I’ve mentioned before, except for the Fiat/Abarth oriented tweaks I’ve developed specifically for version 70, you are probably better off using the Mazda AIO 2.8.3+ (which also works with Mac OSX), available at https://mazdatweaks.com/ that is developed to work around the very little memory left in the jci folder.

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  7. After seeing your comments here and on the 124 Spider site, I decided to scrap it all and start over. Reinstalled the Mazda firmware, did the Abarth animation, but when I try the Nav fix it looks like your tweak never loads. I sat for 15 minutes – nothing. But when I pulled the stick, it said “selected tweaks have been installed, press to reboot”… And after rebooting, I just get a spinning “loading navigation” with the SD card in. Don’t think I missed anything, using the file (linked above) that you uploaded this afternoon… Any ideas?

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  8. I have nothing better to do tonight, so I decided to make up a completely new stick with a fresh download decompressed directly to it. Still no “Do you want to install” message, but I left it alone and went inside to start dinner and when I went back out to the car, it had a dialog box that said the patch had been applied and to restart. I did, IT did, and behold! A map! And even better – no FPS counter (I had reinstalled the new version of the OTHER patch first…) Now to go learn about the available Mazda tweaks… Doesn’t look like their AIO supports 7.0 either? (Or is that just because of the need for a serial conversion if you hadn’t applied them earlier?) And thanks again!

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  9. Version 2.8.3+ is written with version 70 (Mazdas) in mind, just study the instructions and be careful which options you select. And yes, id7 has to be installed in order to tweak via USB. Glad all is well. I have to make educated guesses with version 70 tweaks and comments, because I haven’t done the firmware upgrade myself (yet). 😉

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  11. Hi Dan, reading the instructions on removing the the shift knob on an AT (refer to #7) I’m unclear about the comment in the other article that “it is advised that you try to work around removing the shift knob”. Do you mean that in case of AT one should not remove the knob but just lift the center console and rear console so that the front console (13) comes out? Could you please clarify? Thanks, jayrock

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    • Yes, that is correct. Mark Booth was one of the first to do the CarPlay upgrade in his automatic MX-5, and I have included his experience and recommendation in the [UPDATED 11/12/2018] section of my article. I hope he has explained it well enough to proceed…

      [UPDATE] ✅ linefeed reported on 2/14/2019, that the linkage within the 124 Spider’s automatic shift knob appears to be much simpler than the Miata’s, so the (rod) concern that I was relaying based on Mark Booth’s experience may not be applicable. linefeed reports the procedure as:

      Pop off the chrome access panel, pull out the retaining clip and it slides right off.

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  12. Followed the procedure (didn’t see a need for removing the brake boot, the whole thing slid right off) and no issues with the automatic shift knob… Loving my new CarPlay install – Thank you all again! (Has there been any progress on the tweak that changes the Mazda logo to Fiat or a Scorpion?)

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  13. Thanks Lou. Based on your feedback, and linefeed’s, I’ve updated the articles and the comment previous to yours to take the focus off of the concern with the shift knob, which apparently is unique to the Miata. I have no update on the logo tweak yet…

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  16. Am I reading between the lines that with id7 and version 70 (Fiat-ized) it may be possible to activate HD/FM live traffic integrated with factory sd card navigation by adding a file not currently available? What kind of file would that be and where would it come from? (I’m not planning to do the Car Play install) Or – am I just having a wishful thinking experience?

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  17. Hi everyone! I’m the proud owner of an European Abarth Spider, Thanks to this blog excellent contents I have take the step to update my car`s CMU to mazda version 70.00100, prior to do that I installed the Id7 patch.
    After successfully applying the firmware update I used the MazdaToFiatV70 package to re-Abarthize the system and, mainly, to restore the navigation (I have an original OEM card that I purchased with the car).
    I have run the MazdaToFiat package 4 times and I can´t get the navigation to work, I get the “incorrect SD card” message every time I insert the card.
    The rest of the package functions (animations, branding, etc…) work as expected.
    I love the OEM navigation and it’s specially useful to me because it warns you about speed cameras even when you are not in the navigation screen.

    Any Ideas? Any help will be much appreciated.

    Thanks!

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  19. Finally I got it working, although I don’t know exactly how…
    I made a copy of the original SD card and both the original and the copy were valid according to the ‘SD Card Diagnostic’ function in the ‘Map Toolbox’ app, but none worked in the car, I restored the backup that I had from when I update the original card, and still no luck.
    I installed the tweaks several times using diffeent methods, (ie. all the tweaks at once or just one at a time or just the navigation restauration…).

    Finally in plain desperation, I decided to give up and I run the tweaks a final time with the intention to use the backup option in the tweaks in order to ask here in the blog which files should I look for to confirm whether the patch was correctly applied or not. After waiting for approximately 30 minutes or so I took the USB stick out and the system rebooted, then I inserted the original SD card, with no hope at all and then boom! There it was the navigation was working perfectly.

    I just wanted to write this because I think it may help someone in a similar situation.

    Anyway thanks for the tweaks and the great content in this blog.

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