TomTom How To (PocketPC Emulator)

sama · 05-22-2006, 07:41 AM

For more support, see The TomTom Guide

...

I just downloaded and tried the the new pocketpc emulator from Microsoft. HOLY COW!!! TomTom runs smooth as a **** from a duck's ***. I'm guessing you still need a semi beefy machine to run it, but hey, try it anyway

1. Download and Install the emulator and image files

download efp.msi.

get Device Emulator 2.0.

install them both in their default directories.

go to start menu -> device emulator -> Register Device Emulator

2. Setup the environment

Create a directory C:\Storage Card

The first time you start the emulator, use the following command line switch.

Right click somewhere, create a shortcut and paste this into it:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Device Emulator 2.0 Preview\DeviceEmulator.exe" "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 MSFP Emulator Images\pocketpc.nb0" /s "C:\pocketpc.dess" /p /sharedfolder "C:\Storage Card" /vmname TomTom /video 640x480x16 /memsize 256 /u1 com1

call the shortcut it "Initialise Device Emulator".

you can play with the resolution and memsize to get better performance. Also, you need to set /u1 to the com port that your GPS is plugged into.

double click this new shorcut and be patient (up to 1min to init). This should start a pocketpc emulator for the first time. First thing is first, set the routed network adaptor to connect to the internet (not work). This should get the traffic service working (not tried it yet).

Configure anything you'd like to configure on the virtual ppc, then close it and save the state when it asks you to.

Now there should be a state file called c:\pocketpc.dess. Starting the emulator with this state file will restore the last position you left off. It's basically an image, so make a copy of it and call is something like basepoint.dess. That way, if you mess up, you can just delete your pocketpc.dess file and copy the basepoint.dess to pocketpc.dess and you'll be back to new again.

To run an image directly, use the following command (again, paste it into a shortcut and call it TomTom this time)

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Device Emulator 2.0 Preview\DeviceEmulator.exe" /s "C:\pocketpc.dess" /nosecurityprompt

Test this and you should end up where you were last time.

3. Install TomTom

There are two ways to install TomTom. If you haven't already got TomTom installed on a pocketpc, then use step 3a, otherwise if you have TomTom installed somewhere you can access use 3b.

3a. Use Active Sync to install TOMTom

I'm doing this from memory so may not be 100% accurate. any questions, just ask.

install Activesync. goto connections settings and enable "allow connections to one of the following:" and select DMA from the list.

run the TomTom shortcut and go to start->programs->active sync. click on Menu, then select "connections". Make sure DMA Default is selected. click ok.

Now start theDevice Emulator Manager (from the start menu) and click on refresh, you should see "TomTom" running. right click it and select cradle. Cancel the sync wizard (unless you want to sync your contacts so you can navigate to them).

When they are connected, you should be able to use the tomtom cd to install it. I would recommend that after you do this, you take the steps below in 3b in case you need to do it again.

3b. Use an existing TomTom installation

This is my preffered method as once it's done, you can hard reset the device emulator and still restore. There's no reason why you can't install it the first time using the method above, then take these steps so that you dont' have to do active sync installations every time you hard reset. you'll see what I mean as you read.

Copy the Great-Britain-Map (or other country) to c:\Storage Card\Great-Britain-Map and copy the Navigator directory to the c:\Storage card\Naigator folder.

You'll also need to copy the TomTom directory from the device's "My Documents" folder to the StorageCard directory. This contains a file named currentmap.dat

So now you should end up with this directory structure in the StorageCard directory

- StorageCard
- - TomTom
- - - currentmap.dat
- - Navigator
- - - data05.chk (number may be different depending on voice selected)
- - - data.chk
- - - navigator.cfg
- - - TomTom Navigator.exe
- - Great-Britain-Map
- - - cline.dat
- - - cnode.dat
- - - cname.dat
- - - ...a whole load more files...

open the curretmap.dat in notepad and make sure the line reads "! \Storage Card\Great-Britain-Map\ ". if it doens't, change it so it does but make sure you don't mess with the whitespaces before and after the string.

delete the navigator.cfg file

next, start the emulator and use file explorer to copy the TomTom directory from the storage card folder, to \My Device\My Documents\TomTom

create an empty directory called \My Device\TomTom

now, go to \Storage Card\Navigator and make sure you can see TomTom Navigator.exe

you may want to save the state at this stage by closing the emulator. Make a copy of the c:\pocketpc.dess file so you can restore to that point if anything goes wrong.

start the TomTom shortcut again and click on TomTom Navigator. Be patient, it takes about 10-30 seconds to start

if you did everthing correctly, you should now see tomtom asking you a load of config questions. go through them all. If the orientation is the wrong way up, dont' worry, you can fix this later.

click on the tomtom screen once you see the map, and click on configure. click next page, until you see GPS status. click on configure then select the port serial 1. check that you are receiveing a GPS signal. (a small disc should be spinning, this shows an active data stream, and after a while you should see a position lock).

I would now close and save the state, and back it up.

from this moment on, whenever you launch the TomTom shortcut, it should take you directly into a running TomTom.

djmickyg · 05-22-2006, 07:55 AM

nice write up.
im triing this asap

Scouse Monkey · 05-22-2006, 08:17 AM

what PC specs did you use?

sama · 05-22-2006, 08:32 AM

by the way, this is skinnable. The device emulator takes xml definitions of skins, you can see some of the default ones when you install the rom images

I would work on an installer script, but it would be illegal to host the tomtom software and maps somewhere. In fact, I've just had an idea that instead of using a storage card, everything can be installed on pocketpc.flash file, which can be all zipped up with the pocketpc.dess image. I'll work on that later and then if only this zip file could be hosted somewhere. But that's illegal right?

Scouse, I used a P4 2.8GHz 1GB RAM. This emulator is much less hungry on resoruces than version 1.0. I've set the task to lowest priority (ctrl-shift-escape, right click, priority, lowest) and it's running fine along with Eclipse (a power hungry java IDE) and also running various servers like weblogic, messaging servers and so on.

It will be intersting to see what specs it can run on in a usable state.

Also, there a few more tricks to tweak later. there are some CPU options that are passed to the emulator that I haven't messed with, and there are also other images that may work better (like smartphone isntead of pocketpc).

all this will require more messing around on a need to do basis

ccsnet · 05-22-2006, 08:40 AM

There are quite a lot of options on these emulators... if I get time I'll find the origonal threads discussing this started by Stevieg...

Terran

sama · 05-22-2006, 08:43 AM

this thread?

ccsnet · 05-22-2006, 08:53 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by sama

this thread?

Thats the one...

Terran

proph · 05-22-2006, 09:57 AM

Cant wait to check it out later

bLindmOnkey · 05-22-2006, 10:38 AM

smooth as **** from a ducks *** huh..i'll have to see how smooth it runs on my lifebook with a 800mhz transmeta crusoe heh. that's quite a step down from 2.8ghz but if it works oh man this would make my day.

sama · 05-22-2006, 10:49 AM

I see! I would recommend you use 320x240x16 and a memory of either 64 or 128.

here's a batchfile that you can parameterize (rename to setup.bat). usage is:

setup "C:\Program Files\TomTom" 640x480x16 COM1 128

sama · 05-22-2006, 06:42 PM

here's a video of it in action. please exucuse the wobbling but I was driving. And this is a demo of the route and not the actual live feed as my gps mouse is not being picked up by the emulator. A wired version is on it's way

You may need a player to view these mp4's from my mobile phone

Marvin Hlavac · 05-22-2006, 07:47 PM

Nice, thanks for sharing the video clip. However, I don't see the smooth, fluid movement of 3D map I'm used to on my wife's old TomTom GO. TTG refreshes screen 4 times per second, but the map in the above video seems to jump once per second only.

sama · 05-23-2006, 01:43 AM

yes, as it does on the pocketpc. the ppc version has never been as smooth as the tt go/palm version. this is due to tomtom not coding it correctly for the ppc!

Scouse Monkey · 05-23-2006, 04:59 AM

are you sure it's not because the tomtom go has a 4hz gps module and you are using a 1hz gps module? Maybe tomtom is coded to react to the gps update rate and with a 4hz input will do it.

Marvin Hlavac · 05-23-2006, 05:19 AM

As far as I know TTG has just a plain regular 1Hz receiver, but the 4Hz screen refresh is something the software does. The software actually does one more very neat trick: it anticipates where you will be in about a second and it displays this "predicted" position. This way it masks the one second natural "delay" we see in other navigation solutions. The resulting effect is that it appears the GPS arrow shows EXACTLY where you are even when moving. (In other software you would normally see a one or two second lag.) This is very neat (even though I don't like TTG for other reasons).