Honda Goldwing 2006-2008 Navi GPS Firmware Update Versions 4.60 & 4.70

I have no experience with cross-flashing EU fw to a US unit and until your post above I hadn't previously read a report of it being done so i cannot say for sure what the outcome will be i.e. it may not flash successfully (you may get 'system software missing' message, or it may hang on boot for instance), or if it does flash the unit may still not 'speak'. It will be at your own risk if you proceed following my uncertain suggestions, however the general principle with most Garmin units is that if you use the unit's original fw boot.bin combined with the other fw's fw_all.bin, then you should be able to successfully flash back to full original fw.

This is how i would attempt it: Do the general override of the HWID to 0265 in RGN_Tool. The HWID override is essential. I would also do the SW Version override to match the EU version, but i don't think that will matter. You might have to use the [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] to make it flash the modded gupdate.gcd, but try doing it normally at first. I would also use US v4.50 boot bin for the combined gcd, because if you have to flash back to full US that might make it easier to flash back using full V4.60 fw.

Good luck, and please let us know the outcome if you decide to attempt this.

Unfortunately boot.bin is the same in v.4.5 USA and v.2.60 EURO. Same Section, same RGN Region and same Size. The only difference is the HWID.
In this way I can flash directly v.2.60 but this don't solve the problem.

So, now the question is: where is 'the voice'?

In my opinion I need to create a temporary gupdate.gcd with the original boot.bin in the first Section and, in a second section, the right package containing the voice. But I don't know where to find this, its 'Section', its RGN Region' and how to build this Section.

I don't have access to my own PC to check the hash files of the 2 boot bins, but even if they are in fact identical that does not indicate anything regarding voice. Safest to use the US boot bin with EU fw_all and HWID overrides. The functions for voice etc are contained in fw_all.bin, but then you will maybe need to load a voice file to enable your specific language. Without a US unit to test this on, I cannot give you any further specific help, perhaps someone else can comment and help.

In goldwing firmwares voices are not included.

The voices are recorded in the EPROM of gps
so when you change the GPS firmware is dumb

Spanish:
En los firmwares de goldwing no vienen las voces incluidas.

Las voces estan grabadas en la eprom del gps
por eso al cambiar de firmware el gps se queda mudo

saludos

Hi ErMonter, your experience with this may be valuable to solving this issue. It's clear that the individual fw [be it US or EU] does not contain voice files [as such] of course. What is needed by ppl wanting to use US units with EU fw is a method to load the voice file/s. Without them any Garmin device will be 'mute', including all modern units and older ones closely related to GW navis such as StreetPilots. Those can be flashed to the correct region [region 11 of nv?] with voice files made as *rgn files via updater.exe or even further packed as *.exe. That isn't possible with GW navis afaik, but is there a EU 'language pack' of some kind, issued as an update perhaps, that could be flashed after the EU fw has been loaded? If such a pack exists, It was probably issued as a gupdate.gcd, just as carlinux mused in Post #99 for loading voices using a 'temporary gupdate.gcd'.

To my knowledge, Honda has not released an update of voices ever, it has only been 2 updates 2.30 and 2.60.
The 2.30 update I have not been able to find to see if there are voices in the.

regards

Spanish:
Que yo sepa, Honda no ha sacado nunca una actualizacion de voces, solo ha habido 2 updates 2.30 y 2.60.
El update 2.30 no he sido capaz de encontrarlo para ver si hay voces en el.

Saludos

Thanks ErMonter, that would explain why someone is able to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] for a fw mod to enable voices for US>EU convert units. Without a 'language pack' to flash, serious work would need to be done on the fw.

Can anyone show me the guy who sells that Honda Goldwing firmware mod? I'm curious..

Hello,
@ErMonter, what you say is right, but the point is that 'voice' is not an official upgrade nor an update. I hope turboccc can confirm but IMHO GUPDATE.GCD is only a container (as you can consider 'autoexec.bat' in your old PC), bootstrapped by the unit when you need to send in spcific RGN to the eprom. 0800/0C is the bootloader, 0E is the main firmware aka navigation software and so on. There is no needs for Honda to release the voice as update. I think someone has found the way to flash mylanguage.VPM to the eprom or to clone the entire eprom. This is what i am looking for, and I want to share this for free with all Wingers all over the Europe, because a very high number of bike in EU come from USA.
I hope to see you in Brignoles, my road name is Charlie from GWCI.

@kunix, the guy is located in the N/E of Italy and sells this mod via the two biggest italian resellers. May be he is not a professional. I don'know.

I don't understand why Neil was talking about voices saved inside region 0x11, probably it's a standard region for these purposes. But after looking at the firmware linked in the first post I can definitely say that it reads regions 0x11 and 0x13 and verifies if they start with "AUDIMG" or "AUDPKG". So, yes, region 0x11 most probably contains some voice data.
If we want to use localized Honda Goldwing 2006-2008 firmwares we could make them ourselves (which is lots of PITA), or we could dump that 360€ firmware mod. Personally I prefer the latter way.
So I will try to make a specially patched (update.txt is not supported, so I would have to add this functionality) boot.bin which would dump (when executed as a part of GCD file) a few first megabytes of all readable regions to files, which could be later flashed to other devices. It's not so dangerous as it may sound, guys, as Honda Goldwing 2006-2008's boot.bin doesn't flash the bootloader, so it can't actually screw anything up.

It would be great if someone here were able to find a guy with that 360€ mod willing to participate.