Thread: Convert garmin drive 61 to camper 770

@toninolapo
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The generic procedure to check for cross-flashing compatibility and a brief overview of how to do it if it's feasible is as follows:

Check PCB P/Ns - What's absolutely essential is to first check that the PCB P/Ns have a match in the device and the donor firmware however if devices/firmwares already have matching [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]s the PCB P/Ns always match too. Without matching PCBs there is no chance of a successful complete conversion. Even when PCBs match some original features may not work because they're missing or differently handled in the donor fw or some features of the donor fw won't work because there's no hardware support in the original device. With a close match of PCBs or even with a proper match the device may boot but be missing essential features, i.e. it may have no sound, no touch etc., and at worst with mismatched PCBs it may not even boot at all which results in it being irrecoverable. Read here how to find PCBs both on the device and in firmware: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], not just the initial post but read through the thread to find out how to search for PCBs in potential donor firmware.

If a potential conversion has not already been successfully tested by someone, then doing a 'hybrid' conversion first is good insurance. If problems result, then a return to original device is easy and much safer. If a hybrid fw works, then almost certainly so will a full conversion with HWID change. A hybrid fw is made using the original ramloader (boot.bin/Ldr.bin) combined with the doner firmware but changing its HWID to match the original of the device, unlike a full conversion. The flash might be achieved using an RGN file flashed with [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] in [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] or via TXT commands using [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Using the original device ramloader in a hybrid-flash is dependent on the respective region-layouts allowing sufficient space to accommodate it. In such a case the solution might be to compress a too-large BIN file using [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

Reset/clear nonvol and backup nonvol - In any cross-flashing attempts, it's very important to hard-reset or if available clear non-volatile memory both before and after a flash. It's even more important to back up the nonvol region (dump rgn41 or rgn154 depending on device) before any cross-flash attempt: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. Problems occurring (even much later) in nonvol data can be resolved by converting back and re-flashing the backup bin file via sd txt command.

IMPORTANT: Unless you fully understand what's written above you shouldn't attempt any conversion until you do. Cross-flashing attempts, particularly those of a novel nature, aren't for novices. Any such manipulation done without a solid basic knowledge of the process will likely result in an irreversible hard-bricking of the device.

Hello Neil,
thank you for replying to me.