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Alternative firmware for Medianav?

90K views 67 replies 28 participants last post by  chrisl300 
#1 ·
Hi,

Has somebody already tried the new alternative Menavrus firmware for Renault and Dacia cars Medianavs? This firmware can also accept video inputs, as rear camera views.

http://www.menavrus.com/
 
#2 ·
The only real problem I have with the Medianav is being asked to shell out for maps when I could buy a stand alone SatNav system for less money so I have been looking for a Medianav hack since I got my Stepway back in September 2013 ( my motto has always been " If it aint' broke fix it till it is !!") and this Menavrus one seems to fit the bill.

I have just purchased it along with a wireless rear view camera( not the one supplied by Menavrus but similar) and will post results when I can find time to install it.

The following comment was taken from the email that accompanied the software download instructions : -​
Please read the INSTALLATION MANUAL for installation instructions,
else you can brick your device (and that's really REALLY bad).
It's comments like this that make installing slightly edgy third party software so much fun :D
It takes me back to my days as a system software engineer when RTFM was an acronym much ignored​
by many of us...​
 
#3 ·
Well I installed the Menavrus firmware yesterday without any problems (after reading the installation manual of course).

First impressions are that it appears to be a work in progress project that does have a few rough edges, mainly that most of the interface instructions seem to initially be in Russian . The 7Ways SatNav functions are not the easiest to figure out and seem to be limited, unless you live in Eastern Europe, but again this should improve as time goes by.

Not had the chance to try out the Navitel SatNav yet or the facility to update the original MediaNav SatNav maps. It does however enable me to play video files on the MediaNav which together with the ability to install a reversing camera make it well worth the 30 euro outlay. The wireless reversing camera should arrive next week so we'll have to see how that works out.

If you accept the fact that this software is in it's early stages and should improve as take up increases then I would say try it out, but as always be aware of the fact that you could, if very unlucky, brick the MediaNav. It does make you think why Dacia/Renault/LG don't enable these functions from the get go, oh! wait a minute they want the opportunity to squeeze some extra cash out of us later on by offering us 'extra functionality' at an inflated price. (just like Apple) ;)
 
#5 ·
Well the camera turned up today and it's the exact same one that Menavrus sell on their website ( but a lot cheaper ;) ) , just waiting for the weather to dry out a bit before attempting to install it. Not sure if I want to connect to reversing light circuit or to wire directly as it could be useful as an alternative to the rear view mirror if I have the cargo area piled to the roof as I sometimes do.

Fixed the language problem on the video player with help from Roman at Menavrus who pointed me to the relevant instructions (again a case of RTFM :rolleyes: ) . The on screen file system is in a very small font so you need a stylus and good eyesight to navigate it, but it's pretty easy to use a la Windows.

Going to back up the entire MediaNav file system later and transfer to my PC, have a poke around to see if there are any interesting files on there.
 
#6 ·
Finally the rain stopped long enough for me to install the camera and after a few hiccups (mounting the camera upside down for one :rolleyes: ) it's working fine.

Attached it to the bottom of the rear number plate, as this seemed the logical place, routed the wiring through one of the two holes in the bumper behind the number plate and up through one of the

plastic blanking plugs in the spare wheel well. I suppose I could have removed the rear bumper and routed the wire through one of the holes behind it but as the weather was not particularly good i decided on the quicker option. Wired the live feed for the rear wireless sender unit to the green reversing light wire on the LH rear light cluster and the earth to the screw next to the jack mounting point.

The sender unit sits happily in the spare wheel well and I covered the wiring with black Gorilla tape along the boot floor. I wired up the receiver unit to the cigar lighter socket and the camera inputs to the LH multi socket (pins 10+ & 22-) at the rear of the MediaNav using a couple of cannibalized connectors from an old computer motherboard, this part was a bit fiddly in the absence of any dedicated RCA at the rear of the MediaNav.

I would have posted some photo's but as the installation procedure is pretty well documented on the Menavrus website there didn't seem to be any point.

So for an outlay of £25 euros for the software and less than £10 for the wireless camera and sender/receiver units I don't think that's too bad to convert the Medianav to function as a video player and reversing camera not to mention the facility to run different SatNav systems.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
Picture quality is as good as you need for a reversing camera not exactly HD but acceptable, see below taken from the Manavrus website (mine is in English), I wired mine into the reversing light circuit so it will only operate when reversing, although I may wire it directly to a permanent live feed later to use as a supplement to the rear view & wing mirrors when I've got the cargo area piled to the roof with junk.

IMG_0909-1024x768.jpg
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Got it on eBay just do a search for "Waterproof 2.4GHz Wireless car rear Camera" there a quite a few going from auctions starting at 99p to BIN.s at around £15.

Mine came from this guy if you're lucky you may get it for even less than I did.

It does say that the TV system for this particular camera is PAL and I was told that the Medianav is NTSC only but mine said PAL and it works fine,
 
#12 ·
Looking at the instructions on http://www.menavrus.com/installation/ it isn't very clear how the receiver connects into the MediaNAV.

There appears to be an RCA jack for the received video signal and a red/black cable for power.

Is there an input on the headunit for the RCA jack?

The instruction mentions the red/black cable connecting into the MediaNAV connector but i would assume the red/black cable of the receiver is for power.

Their instructions could do with an update
 
#13 ·
On the Menavrus site it does point you to specific instructions regarding the connection of the receiver to the Medianav here , the translated instructions leave a lot to be desired but you should be able get the general idea.

I will admit that this was the trickiest part of the install as the Medianav does not have a dedicated female RCA socket for video input.

What you need to do is to connect pins 10(+) & 22(-) on the LH connector of the Medianav to the RCA connector on the camera receiver and as the Medianav connector does not have any contacts built in to these sockets to match these pins you will need to fabricate them. How I did this was to cut a wired female RCA socket from my box of old connectors that I have accumulated over the years ( I think you can get them from Maplins or similar retailers) and get a couple of small connector sockets that you can get from internal PC USB motherboard connectors by cutting them out of the plastic casings and threading the wires through pins 10 & 22 of the Medianav socket. This may sound a bit daunting if you are not accustomed to fiddling with computer internals so if you have any reservations then I would suggest not attempting it. You will first need to enlarge the pin 10 & 22 holes in the Medianav socket to enable you to thread the wires through and pull the small metal sockets so they are flush with the end of the Medianav socket and then splice these wires to the ones on the stripped female RCA socket. It's worth mentioning that all the wires involved are extremely thin so you do need to take care. There is most likely an easier way of fitting these connectors into the socket by partially dismantling the socket but I was reluctant to do this in case all of the other wires/connectors came out and without a wiring diagram I would be flying blind.

Again I would reiterate that if you are not comfortable with either the firmware installation or the wiring then leave well alone and forget all about it.

However if, like me, you think, well if the unit has this capability and I can increase its functionality then lets give it a shot.

At the end of the day you're either going to have a much more versatile device for very little money :) , or you are going to screw it all up and be left with an expensive piece of junk :( .
 
#17 ·
Get Linux ! I only use LINUX Mint and its brilliant if you are not a Gamer .I have had mine now for 6 years with not one problem and No Virus worry it has a complete Photoshop complete office and any other stuff you need for nowt

actually its the DACIA of the PC systems Just free

You can download it and run it to try from a USB stick and if you like it do a Full install or make a duel boot ! it also finds everything you have attached and also works with Skype and dropbox also if you have a slow computer this will speed it up

 
#18 ·
Yes Stuart I do hear what you are saying about LINUX and have installed it on various computers I have built over the years. I also have an UBUNTU system running on a partition of my media centre computer that sits under my TV and have to admit it is fairly bulletproof. But being a Windows fan since version 3.1 I have lot of history with the OS and as an early adopter of Windows 8 I managed to get it for only £25 from Microsoft when it launched which was nice . :D

As a paranoid ex system software engineer I always take a full backup of my system disk on a regular basis so I never lose much data if any and although the restore can on occasions take over an hour it is still quicker than a full trousers down re-install and loading all the other stuff on top of it.

Most of my problems always stem from stuff I have done without thinking only to get them biting me on the bum when I least expect it :eek: ! I think this time it was due to me fiddling with the Windows 8 C: drives RAID 0 configuration which must have corrupted the boot sector somehow.

Any way its back up and running now so I will load a few pics later, nothing very exciting I'm afraid but it will give people some idea.
 
#19 ·
The wifes Amilo 1310g Gave up the Ghost yesterday ! it couldn't find mouse or keyboard so i turned it off then on reboot a corrupt screen and no more boot then the next boot 4 beeps and then 3 beeps ! So its Doorknockered it is 12 years old though so cant moan ! well I can she has my Linux PC in the bedroom and I am now on the netbook LOL
 
#20 ·
On the Menavrus site it does point you to specific instructions regarding the connection of the receiver to the Medianav here , the translated instructions leave a lot to be desired but you should be able get the general idea.

I will admit that this was the trickiest part of the install as the Medianav does not have a dedicated female RCA socket for video input.

What you need to do is to connect pins 10(+) & 22(-) on the LH connector of the Medianav to the RCA connector on the camera receiver and as the Medianav connector does not have any contacts built in to these sockets to match these pins you will need to fabricate them. How I did this was to cut a wired female RCA socket from my box of old connectors that I have accumulated over the years ( I think you can get them from Maplins or similar retailers) and get a couple of small connector sockets that you can get from internal PC USB motherboard connectors by cutting them out of the plastic casings and threading the wires through pins 10 & 22 of the Medianav socket. This may sound a bit daunting if you are not accustomed to fiddling with computer internals so if you have any reservations then I would suggest not attempting it. You will first need to enlarge the pin 10 & 22 holes in the Medianav socket to enable you to thread the wires through and pull the small metal sockets so they are flush with the end of the Medianav socket and then splice these wires to the ones on the stripped female RCA socket. It's worth mentioning that all the wires involved are extremely thin so you do need to take care. There is most likely an easier way of fitting these connectors into the socket by partially dismantling the socket but I was reluctant to do this in case all of the other wires/connectors came out and without a wiring diagram I would be flying blind.

Again I would reiterate that if you are not comfortable with either the firmware installation or the wiring then leave well alone and forget all about it.

However if, like me, you think, well if the unit has this capability and I can increase its functionality then lets give it a shot.

At the end of the day you're either going to have a much more versatile device for very little money :) , or you are going to screw it all up and be left with an expensive piece of junk :( .
Great link there showing exactly what i thought - splitting the RCA video signals.

A proper pinout for the MediaNav would be great too as i'm sure that one of those pins may be an On/Off signal for the reversing camera and may supply enough power for the receiver to give a nice tidy solution
 
#21 ·
I have been trying to find some pinout diagrams and tech specs for the medianav but there is not much and what i have found is from menavrus, but i think i have found an alternative firmware which is offical but i cannot test it as the car is being built. To update the medianav you dacia.naviextras.com or renault.naviextras.com and they seem to be rebaged pages depending on if you are renault or dacia and the medianav firmware can be installed on either, well if you type zenec.naviextras.com it takes you to a very similar page and if you choose the ze-nc526 you can download this firmware.
From what i can tell by reading this forum and others the download is similar to the dacia one but it branded zenec. Zenec firmware will have additional items to support the additional hard.

Sorry for the long post i just hope it is useful to somebody. :D

Sent from my GT-I9300 using DaciaForum.co.uk mobile app
 
#26 ·
Hi there,
Really interested in the menavrus ,no problems with medianav but I like to "fiddle"!
Is there enough room in the medianav to have both systems loaded ,different sets of maps etc so that you can select either system and then just proceed.
Plus can you use the same usb loaded with music for both systems without having to do anything extra ?

Love the idea of fitting a reversing camera ....but one step at a time!

I am fully up to date on all my maps , opted for the EU map collection but whilst loading and checking for updates noticed how much some of the updates cost ,always had a garmin with lifetime free updates so paying up to 119Euros for the same thing is a bit (?) steep.

Hopefully these questions make sense!

Thanks .
 
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