News & True RV Stories

With the recent sale of a new Country Coach Affinity to my friends and past customers Gale & Glen, I am always in for a long exciting adventure.  Glen is one of the extreme minority who reads through every single manual, a few times...  As Gale explains "If I am going to purchase linens or rugs Glen has no interest is coming with me, if I say I am going to purchase linens and rugs for the motorhome Glen cant wait to leave". 

With the new Kenwood DDx6019 fixed screen stereo's we started using in 2008 model year coachs, the optional Garmin GPS he choose can be updated very easy, according to the manuals...  So with the a little help of our in house factory rep. Mr. Louis Courtemanche we found out it can all be done online.  Together Glen and I found out he currently had Garmin software 2.80.  I located the update page at Garmin using the GPS model number "KNA-G510" and found out the latest software is 3.60, a big difference (history listed below).  Here is the software update link:   http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00495-00

I took the SD card out of my camera (must be 2gb or less), followed the instructions carefully (the 2nd time) and updated Glen's GPS.  I took these pictures of Glen's 2008 Affinity, his GPS brain was located inside the coach on the firewall in front of your left foot if you were driving.  Magna's are probably the same.  I will look at the remaning models with the optional GPS and update this article with there location.  They could all be in the same area.  Tools needed, flashlight and a blank SD card. There is a little door on the Kenwood brain covering the SD card insert, this needs to be open for the SD card to be inserted (lesson 1, flashilight).  Below are the update installation instructions and update history.  Enjoy!     Total time to update, 10 minutes.  There is no SD card in the brain now, and once you have completed the update you can remove your SD card and use it elsewhere.  The update is saved in the brain.  If you have any questions please let me know.

Installation Instructions

1. Create a 'garmin' folder on an SD data card (must be at least 16mb space available on the card).
2. Download the appropriate self-extracting archive file onto your hard drive.
3. Run the downloaded executable file.
4. Click on Browse and select the SD card reader in the list, then select the 'garmin' folder.
5. Click Unzip to save the files onto the 'garmin' directory on the SD card.
6. Wait for the message that the update was unzipped successfully and close the updater.
7. Safely remove SD card from PC.
8. Make certain Hideaway Navigation System is off.
9. Insert SD card into Hideaway Navigation System. If there is already a card there, temporarily remove it.
10. Turn on Hideaway Navigation system.
11. Your Hideaway Navigation System will ask if you would like to update software. Answer 'Yes'.
12. The update will begin. Do not power off unit while the update is in progress. When finished you can verify the update by checking the version number in Menu->Settings->About->Software.
13. Remove SD card.

Change History

Changes made from version 3.50 to 3.60:

• Fixed a problem where some SD map cards fail to unlock.
• Fixed a problem that made some roads in Australia show road numbers instead of names.
• Fixed a problem where the unit could speak incorrect names when using Middle Eastern maps.

Changes made from version 3.40 to 3.50:

• Fixed possible shutdown when receiving XM weather.
• Added Canadian XM traffic support.
• Updated Daylight Saving Time rules.
• Added Canadian RDS-TMC support.
• Corrected shutdown associated with some custom POIs.

Changes made from version 3.20 to 3.40:

• Optimized off-route recalculation method.
• Changed off-route recalculation default to Auto( Silent ).
• Added functionality to allow turn-arrow on map page to repeat the next turn instruction.
• Improved address search functionality when using City Navigator Europe NT v9.
• Improved ability to pre-load current region as an option when searching for addresses.

Changes made from version 2.90 to 3.20:

• Added key beeps on screens with no internal beep function.
• Changed Autozoom to zoom out gradually.
• Improved better route available feature.
• Corrected some British English translations.
• Made airport icons smaller to declutter map.
• Added Turkish text language.
• Changed volume and map text size defaults.
• Improved map drawing performance when using Thin or Wide Map Data Fields.
• Add custom map data field for time and distance to next destination.
• Corrected problem that made traffic not work with SD card map updates.

Changes made from version 2.70 to 2.90:

• Added hardware beep functionality for displays that support it.
• Added QWERTY keyboard option.
• Fixed various shutdown problems.

Changes made from version 2.60 to 2.70:

• Allow recovery of failed software update.
• Corrected problem that caused traffic recievers to not powerup.

Click any image to enlarge.