Thread: VDO PN 6000 Unlock

Originally Posted by spoon1

Hi, there is a way to run sd 4gb on PN 6000 ?
because i made an sd with igo and oreiginal program as i can watch tv.
so can pn 6000 read sd from 4gb ?
thanks

Midnight Blues's advice is absolutely correct, but of course it's getting more difficult to buy 2GB SD/microSD cards now and they seem to cost as much or more than 4GB cards. Although, there's a trick that i found to work on old Garmin devices which could only see FAT16 media cards up to 2GB. Most of them have now had their fw updated so they can read larger FAT32 formatted cards even if they can still only see files up to the FAT16 file size limit of 2Gib minus 1 byte, but some really old Garmins are like these VDO units, still stuck with FAT16.

You may like to try this with your 4GB card: Using [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], create a partition of 2047MiB [thus keeping it under 2GiB] and format that partition to FAT16. It's referred to as simply 'FAT' in Windows properties of course. Although 4GB cards are factory formatted as FAT32 usually, they are really only up to 3.8GiB or so [2GB cards are around 1.84 to 1.86GiB] and even the built-in Windows tool will let you format any 4GB card in FAT but it isn't so easy to create an under 2GiB partition using Windows as it is with RMPrepUSB. There's other 3rd party tools available as well though. If those VDO units are like old Garmins they will simply see the partition as a smaller card. Just follows these settings and leave the rest of the space unallocated:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

As an experiment i created an under 2GiB FAT partition on a 32GB CF card and even that works in an old Garmin StreetPilot 2610, so you can probably use any size card for this.

Great advice Neil, worth trying, but one more thing, about VDO dayton devices,
They DO NOT work with HC or XC versions of SD card, so it should be only SD, not SDHC nor SDXC
I know that from my own experience

It should be like this:

and NOT like this:

And if You get some of those, before reformating, just try it, maybe it will work

The old Garmin devices such as SP2610 don't differentiate between SDHC reformatted FAT16 and 'original' SD[SC] factory format FAT cards. But that may not be the case for VDO units of course, so trying an original 4GB SDSC FAT16 card would be a very good idea, although it's very difficult to get hold of them now.

In the case of Garmin 'old' units it's probably more correct to say that they don't work with FAT32 or exFAT formated cards [which of course implies SDHC & SDXC cards respectively], but afaik the 3 types of cards are electrically the same and the newer cards can 'adapt' backwardly to mimic the earlier cards depending on how they are formatted [i.e. a SDHC will function as an SDSC when formatted as FAT].

Here are, as I promised, long, long time ago
ALL VDO navigation firmwares that I have, which can (not always) repair system errors, and sometimes even unbrick Your device.

Spoiler: VDO Firmware download:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Just UNRAR content, than in folder with device name You'll have ZIP archive, which should be be UNPACKED directly to EMPTY SD card.
Put it in device, restart device and wait until finished.
You'll be prompted to remove SD before restarting device after firmware upgrade.

If You messed up with unlock, it will bring You to the BEGINNING, so You can try again.

Here is content VDO Service card content

Spoiler: Download:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

UNRAR directly to EMPTY SD card, restart device.

With it You can determine exact device model, test device, test GPS, calibrate screen, ...

GOOD LUCK

Originally Posted by Neil

In the case of Garmin 'old' units it's probably more correct to say that they don't work with FAT32 or exFAT formated cards [which of course implies SDHC & SDXC cards respectively], but afaik the 3 types of cards are electrically the same and the newer cards can 'adapt' backwardly to mimic the earlier cards depending on how they are formatted [i.e. a SDHC will function as an SDSC when formatted as FAT].

I don't have any of those devices anymore, but I've worked lot with them all, and I know that they don't work with HC nor XC versions, because I did lot of testing, and I experienced that cards with same capacity and formatted equally, HC were NOT recognized by system, old (slow SC) were working good.

Maybe it's not only software (windows), but I's maybe hardware problem too, because they have different communication speed, and hardware couldn't handle faster protocol, or something else ...
Don't know real reason, but I know it is the way it is.
I think I'll need something to cool me down now

And here are contents of two UNLOCK card, I used (once upon a time) to unlock VDO, and many other Win GPS devices.
On these cards You'll see examples how to run different nav programs: Primo, iGO8 and Garmin

One is for old devices with 320x240 (inside old moded Primo too),
and other is for 480x272 devices,
so they cover all mentioned VDO devices

Just unpack and copy content of folder to empty SD card (not folder itself)
Restart device

Spoiler: Download:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Maps are not complete, but it's just as an example.
These SD card were used to do unlock from first post, so i think, all files are already inside.
Don't have too much instructions, but those who know what is this all about, will find the way to use it.

I know it should be separate thread, but there are not so many members using this devices.
If it will show up as needed, thread will be opened.

GOOD LUCK

P.S.
Sorry, I forgot it is password protected, which is as always
password --> gpspower.net

Thanks navigator for reminding me.

Here it is:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (unRAR, unZIP and copy to SD, restart device)

Good luck!

And here are my original completely automatic unlock and install SD (1GB) with iGO 8, Primo (all devices) and Garmin (only 480x272):

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (RAR 59.7 MB)

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (RAR 133 MB)

This is for checking actual model, screen calibration, ...

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

1. Run VDO Service, check model, calibrate screen
2. Install firmware
3. Unlock and install navigation

If anything goes wrong, go back to 1.

Only thing I do remember about unlock SD is that you can use them as "demo" and also do actual installation.
Everything is done with menus.
I do not have devices to test it again, but it was actually tested on all devices.

Good luck!