Blue & Me: Map - Fiat's integrated SatNav

[FlyingTeapot]

I had a postcard from Fiat offering me the fitting for £199 all in- with a free remote control model 500.

Does the fitting of these require drilling holes in the lovely dashboard though? I don't fancy that.

[Tino]

Originally Posted by FlyingTeapot

Does the fitting of these require drilling holes in the lovely dashboard though? I don't fancy that.

My thoughts exactly, although it does look quite a neat arrangement.

I fix my satnav to the dashboard like so (with the sucker attachment) ... see photographs. The dashboard is curved in places, and the sucker is quite large, so finding a fixing point nearer to the driver was quite a challenge. You can see where I eventually fixed it.

Also, you'll see that I "played" with the installed satnav splash screens to display a picture of the 500 when it powers up

PS Apologies for the naff quality photographs.

[Tino]

The Fiat 500 Satnav style docking attachment is similarly adopted across the Fiat-Alfa-Lancia range.
The attachment looks like this on an Alfa Mito ... click the link

http://www.automobilismo.it/edisport...ddyeu-(14).jpg

[FlyingTeapot]

The Fiat system looks good when the screen is in position but I still think it spoils the aesthetic having an empty stand in the middle of the dash when not in use and I wouldn't want the screen there everytime I use the car . I haven't seen one in the flesh yet so maybe it looks OK in reality.

From photos the new V4 TomTom with a windscreen fixing attachment that folds into its body looks a simpler approach and appears small enough to put in a pocket when leaving the car. Can anyone recommend this ? (it's apparently a vast improvement on version 3 and below)

[csabaszalma]

2 pictures about my Blue&Me MAP preparation on the dashboard. Sorry for the poor quality.
So this is what you have if you remove the nav and the stand as well.
And you can find 2 more pictures about the stand (copied from the italian user manual).

[gumball]

Interesting, I thought the uk were suckers?(so to speak)

[Tino]

We're not just suckers, we do mounting in a variety of ways ...

Here's a link to a company that sells vent mounts, A-pillar mounts etc. for the 500.

MountOnUs - Product List for "Vehicles - Fiat 500"

[Tino]

The big problem with all of these aftermarket sat navs and mounts is the trailing power lead, hence the Blue & Me Map preparation looks a good idea. It would be interesting if you bought just the prepartion kit, then were able to purchase an adaptor that plugged into the socket and could be used with any aftermarket sat nav. Am not sure if the Blue & Me is actually a fully integrated system e.g. can you use it to select music tracks off your USB memory stick, provide voice guidance through the audio system etc.???

[j3bnl]

Originally Posted by Tino

Also, you'll see that I "played" with the installed satnav splash screens to display a picture of the 500 when it powers up

Tino you have a NavMan satnav don't you?
How did you change the default picture on power up?

[Tino]

Originally Posted by j3bnl

Tino you have a NavMan satnav don't you?
How did you change the default picture on power up?

Quite easy. .. but if you do it I accept no responsibility if you cock it up

You'll need to hook up you Navman to a PC through the USB connector.
The Navman will appear as two mass storage drives - in my case E: and F:
One of the drives is accessible - in my case E: - and you can browse to the folder called:

E:\Program Files\Navman\SmartST_CE\UI

In this folder are two files called splash.png and maploading.png which are the two images to be changed.

I have the NAVMAN S30, and the images are 320 x 240 in size. If you have a Navman S50 I think they will be bigger. In any case you need to create two new files of the same size and type but with the images you want to appear. I called my files 500splash.png and 500maploading.png. You'll need to leave a space in the bottom left hand corner of the image where the bargraph appears when loading. I also changed my bargraphs, but you don't have to.

There is another file called splash_image.xml in the following folder

E:\Program Files\Navman\SmartST_CE\Data

And in it you will see the reference to the files mentioned above. Edit the file in notepad and just change the names of the two respective files to suit the names you have called your new image files.

Like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<resources>
<resource name="splash_screen" class="image" transparent="true" src="ui\500splash.png" />
<resource name="map_loading" class="image" transparent="true" src="ui\500maploading.png" />
<resource name="loading_progress" class="image" transparent="true" src="ui\loadingprogress.png" />
<resource name="loading_progress_bg" class="image" transparent="true" src="ui\mysplash\loadingprogress_bg.png" />
</resources>

That's it!