When I first successfully unlocked Mio C230, the major goal was to have a reliable working unit. I didn’t spend much time tweaking it. Here is my first take on tweaking it. Here are what I have done in addition to the first release.

• I didn’t find a good set of icons that I like. I used a program called IcoFx to re-create the icons. The icons now have a uniform look. The button outline is borrowed from torowl’s pack.
• The desktop’s underlying program SystemInformation(StartUp) is upgraded to the latest version 1.6.1. It now supports animation. Instead of having an ini file for each button, now there is only one ini file for everything(main.ini). The performance is better, too.
• Added MyCalculator and CapScrUtil (screen capture).
• Incorporated some registry hacks by c230.wordpress.com .
• Easier unlocking.

BEFORE YOU FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES TO MODIFY YOUR MIO C230. YOU KNOW THAT YOU MIGHT RENDER YOUR C230 UNUSABLE AND YOU MIGHT VOID YOUR WARRANTY. YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISKS. Here are the steps.

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable(not included in the package).
2. C230 shows up as a flash drive called Mio Device. Mine is assigned as F drive. I’ll use F drive in the following steps. Substitute it with the actual drive letter of your system.
3. Rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap to F:MioMapMioMap2 .
4. Download MioC230r2.zip from this site .
5. Extract MioC230r2.zip and find the two folders MioMap and Script.
6. Copy MioMap to F:MioMap and copy Script to F: . The directory structure is like the screenshot.
7. Disconnect Mio C230. The device soft reset automatically. If for some reason, the device didn’t soft reset. Use the switch on the back to do a hard reset.
8. You are presented with this screen. Tap the right unlock icon to run the script to unlock the unit or tap the left GPS icon to run MioMap directly. If you decide to run MioMap directly, you need to hard reset the device to get back to this screen.
   
9. C230 soft resets again. Here is the screenshot of the device after unlocking.
   

If you hard reset the machine again, you will be presented with the screen in the step 8. Just click the unlock icon again and you are good to go.

The top icons from left to right:

• MioMap: This runs MioMap. It also runs a small utility called BananaPC which provides a way to get back to the desktop. When you are ready to go back to desktop, go to the main screen where it says Mio Map v3.3. Tap and hold the top region of second 3 in v3.3. BananaPC shows up. You can tap and hold the “X” and select to exit MioMap. If you still have problems with it, please see the YouTube video I made for the release 1. Note that every time you quit MioMap, the device gets frozen frequently. Therefore, I modified the original script to do a soft reset every time MioMap is closed.
• TCPMP: A versatile media player. It plays various video formats and MP3. It can also be used to view photos. I added the plugin to play FLV video download from YouTube or other flash video sites.
• FileMan CE: File manager for CE devices. You can use it to launch other programs not on the desktop.

The bottom icons from left to right:

• Suspend: Suspends the device.
• DPMS: Puts your screen to sleep. Note that the device is still running.
• Restart: Soft resets the device. You might want to restart your machine every time you disconnect it from the computer.
• Move: A handy utility lets you move some of the full screen applications.
• MioUtility: A control panel like application for adjusting backlight, volume, screen, power, date/time and language.
• ResInfo: It shows you some resources informations for your device. Kinda like task manager in Windows.
• MyCalculator: A simple calculator. To exit out MyCalculator, tap About and then the “X” in the about screen.
• CapScrUtil: A screen capture utility. Remember to store the image to either Storage Card or My Flash Disk for easy access to the screenshots.

If you don’t like it the way it is, you want to undo everything. Here are the steps.

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable.
2. Rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap to F:MioMapMioMap3 and rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap2 to F:MioMapMioMap
3. Disconnect the cable and hard reset C230 using the switch on the back.

Don’t forget the other posts about Mio C230

• Plugins for Viewing Podcast on TCPMP
• Updating SpeedCam file for Mio C230
• Adding Custom POIs to Mio C230
• Adding Exit Door to MioMap 3.3

Note: The original post was viewed 2932 times and the file has been downloaded 338 times in about 2 weeks (11/16/2007). However, there are 0 donations (for me) so far. If you don’t think the information is worth a few bucks, that’s fine. Can you spend a few seconds to visit TheHungerSite and click on “Click HERE to Give – It’s FREE” to help feed the hunger? Thanks.

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Mio C230 Mio GPS Garmin GPS TomTom GPS GPS and Navigation

If you are a regular of my blog. You know that I bought a Garmin C320 last year. I liked my Garmin C320 a lot. I even bought a dash mount accessory for it. Unfortunately, the unit got stolen from my car along with the dash mount!!!I was on the market for a replacement. Garmin C320 is good but there are somethings that I would like to have for my new GPS. C320 is kinda bulky and it’s not truly portable. It uses an old generation of GPS chip which is slow to lock on the satellites. It also doesn’t speak the street name (Text To Speech, TTS). If I have an unlimited budget, I would just buy the Garmin Nuvi 770. I then found my dream unit, Mio C230. It fits my criteria and it’s available for under $190.00!

What’s even better about Mio C230 is that it runs Windows CE Core 5.0. You can hack it to do a lot of neat stuff. The best resource for hacking Mio is this forum. There are different hacks for different models, but there is no hacks for C230. I started experimenting by following this thread for C220. I tried different methods and the one worked is using the Script_3.24r downloaded from this site.

I fixed some of the problems I found. I also modified it to my liking.

• The original desktop’s Mio DigiWalker icon doesn’t actually run MioMap. I found it’s pointing to a wrong location. It’s fixed, but you sometimes might need to tap the icon twice to run it.
• Fixed power button issue so now it works under MioMap.
• The scripting engine MortScript was upgraded to the latest version, 4.1.
• The media player can play FLV files now.
• When you run MioMap, I also invoke a small utility called BananaPC. You can exit out MioMap without hard reset the machine. When you want to exit MioMap, go to the main screen. Press and hold the top edge of the screen in the middle. BananaPC would activate and show the menu. You can then choose to close MioMap.
• MioMap doesn’t usually close cleanly, so I modified the script to soft reset the machine after MioMap is closed.
• The background image was changed to Honda CR-Z.

BEFORE YOU FOLLOW THE PROCEDURES TO MODIFY YOUR MIO C230. YOU KNOW THAT YOU MIGHT RENDER YOUR C230 UNUSABLE AND YOU MIGHT VOID YOUR WARRANTY. YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISKS. Ok, enough of that. Here are the steps.

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable(not included in the package).
2. C230 is shown up as a flash drive called Mio Device. Mine is assigned as F drive. I’ll use F drive in the following steps. Substitute it with the actual drive letter of your system.
3. Rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap to F:MioMapMioMap2 .
4. Download MioC230r1.zip from this site .
5. Extract MioC230r1.zip and find the two folders MioMap and Script.
6. Copy MioMap to F:MioMap and copy Script to F: . The directory structure is like the screenshot.
7. Disconnect Mio C230. The device soft reset automatically and runs the file manager.
8. Use the file manager and browse to My Flash DiskMioMapMioMap . You might need to use a stylus to do it.
9. Tap AUTOPATCHER.exe twice to run the script.
10. C230 soft reset again.

If you hard reset the machine, the changes are gone. However, the hacked version of MioMap directory is still there. It would run the file manager again. Just follow the steps 8 and 9 to run the AUTOPATCHER.exe and you are good.

If you don’t like it the way it is, you want to undo everything. Here are the steps.

1. Turn on C230 and connect it to the computer using a USB cable.
2. Rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap to F:MioMapMioMap3 and rename the folder F:MioMapMioMap2 to F:MioMapMioMap
3. Disconnect the cable and hard reset C230 using the switch on the back.

I have done a YouTube video about what it looks like after unlocking. See it for yourself.

Don’t forget the other posts about Mio C230

• How to Unlock Mio C230 Release 2
• Plugins for Viewing Podcast on TCPMP
• Updating SpeedCam file for Mio C230
• Adding Custom POIs to Mio C230

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Mio C230 Mio GPS Garmin GPS TomTom GPS GPS and Navigation

Original Release

This is the original release that started it all. It is the first unlock guide ever published for Mio C230. The guide has made hacking/unlocking Mio C230 possible and it has inspired other efforts for making Mio C230 a wonderful device to own.

Release 2

In the first release, I did not tweak the desktop at all. The second release is my first attempt to make the desktop more appealing.

Release 3

This is the first release based on what I called iMio theme. People like the look of the desktop very much. A lot of similar desktops are popping up after I published this release.

Release 3.1

I added the Routes Management to this interim release.

Release 4

[Updated: 3/3/2008]

The biggest feature of this release is the SD card based unlock. Thanks to MoonBear, the unlock procedure is the easiest compared to previous releases. With more and more applications added to the package, a single desktop is not enough to hold all the applications. I created these desktops so that it’s easy to switch between different desktops and it’s also easy to add more desktops as needed. The Routes management has also been updated to switch MioMap skins (Mike FFI).

Release 4.1

This release includes the following new features:

• Cab files installation
• .Net Compact Framework 3.5
• Increased Storage Memory
• Functional Taskbar

Here is a list of my other articles related to Mio C230

• Updating SpeedCam file for Mio C230
• Adding Custom POIs to Mio C230
• Adding Canada Map to Mio C230
• MioMap 3.3 Skins for Mio C230 (split screen!)
• MioMap 3.3 DATA.ZIP Tweaks
• Running ScummVM on Mio C230
• Requesting 12M POIs Maps for Mio C230
• Tweaking SYS.TXT for MioMap 3.3
• Wishlist for Unlocking Mio C230
• Accessories for Mio C230
• Getting Programs for Mio C230
• Increasing Storage Memory for Mio C230
• Programs for PNA

An important note about unlicensed maps: The use of unlicensed maps is illegal. Please don’t ask where can you get maps not licensed for your device or how can you get MioMap to recognize the unlicensed maps. Any question regarding unlicensed maps will either be deleted or ignored.

If you like my articles, please consider a small donation. Thanks!

Mio C230 Mio GPS Garmin GPS TomTom GPS GPS and Navigation