Thread: Enable TTS Voices in EU nuvi 710

Preamble:

The European nuvi 710 is identical in hardware to US/EU/AU etc nuvi 760. Feature-wise, the units differ by all regional 760s having Text-to-Speech capability which isn't available to 710. However, we can overcome that thanks to Sensis Australia convincing Garmin years ago to load a custom start screen .bpm for many older nuvis downunder, including 7x0s sold here, instead of the familiar Garmin screen usually displayed:

Spoiler: click for more

The same firmware [unit software] is used for all 7x0. The TTS function in 710 is blocked by the standard region 16 [logo/splash/start screen] recognising the unit as a 710 and disabling the TTS function which means that if any TTS voices are loaded to the unit's Voice folder they are simply ignored.

The logo supplied to the AU version of 7x0 has a different splash screen appearance to the standard US/EU logo as shown above.

But there is another very important difference if you're the owner of a 710. Garmin didn't 'neuter' TTS for 710 in the AU 7x0 logo, probably because 710 was never sold here and so it wasn't considered necessary to do so. So by flashing the AU logo to 710 you can enable TTS. When connecting to WebUpdater you'll then be offered all applicable TTS voices.

What you can do:

You can flash 3 different 'versions' of the AU logo. The standard AU logo with the Sensis 'WhereiS' start screen [AU_reg_16], or a modified AU in which i've replaced the start images with the usual 'Garmin' logo [AU_Mod_16], see images above. Both will identify in the unit's Inventory page 'Splash' entry as 'D0826-01 2.00 nuvi-wide Australia Splash Scre Pass' whereas the US/EU splash identifies as 'D0825-00 2.00 nuvi-wide Splash Screen Pass [however, if you've ever changed the start-up pic to one from the nuvi's Picture Viewer i think you'd have 'Fail' instead of 'Pass' until the day the nuvi dies]. If you'd prefer to not have mention of 'The Great Southern Land' in your Inventory page, you can flash the 3rd file [AU_HEXmod_16] a hex modified version of the AU file with the Garmin splash which will identify as 'D0826-01 2.00 nuvi-wide 710EU TTS Splash Scre Fail'. The 'Fail' is because i haven't calculated the checksum in hex [good reason: i don't know how] [Edit: i do now, thanks to Loly, see Post #2] and anyway it doesn't matter 'cos Pass or Fail the start screen still works fine and you'd never know unless you look at the hidden menu's Inventory page [Press Battery symbol on main screen 'Where To? View Map' for ~6 secs>Next>Start Test>More].

One of our helpful Software Experts might like to post to tell us how to do that so that 'Pass' appears instead.

How to actually do it:

First, a reminder that any flashing can carry risks. I have flashed all 3 of these logos to a 710 without problem but i can't and won't guarantee that you will not experience unsatisfactory results. If you follow the instructions carefully and completely there should be no problem, the worst that is likely is for your unit to start without a splash picture and then nonvol rgn16 will need to be re-flashed, but you'd need to royally stuff up to get that problem. In the unlikely event of you having problems, post with the details and i'll do my best to guide you thru.

• Choose which of the 3 logo files you want and download it, all extracted files are named 'logo.bin'. Download the file 'Extract_to_SD_card.rar' [Backup & Flash Kit] and extract it to a small clean SD/microSD card. Open the card in Windows Explorer and then extract the chosen logo *_16.rar to the root so that it's alongside [not in] the Garmin folder.
• Safely eject the card.
• Do a complete files backup of the internal memory.
• Check that you have V5.40 firmware loaded. If it's earlier, update with WebUpdater or your other preferred method.
• Hard reset the unit.
• Insert the card in the 710 and power it on. 'Loader' will appear on the screen in some seconds, let the process finish and then remove the card. Check the file 'update.log' which will have been created in the 0754 folder. It should read 'Success' for the xrgn command and both rrgn commands, also in the root should be 2 new files, 41_backup.bin & 16_backup.bin which are copies of the unit's nonvol region 41 and it's original region 16. Keep a copy of the card contents in a safe place, particularly 41_backup.bin!.
• Hard reset again.
• Connect the unit to WebUpdater and download any of the offered TTS voices you wish to use. They will now appear in the list of voices under Tools>Settings>Language.
  
  Logo Files:
  [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
  
  [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
  
  [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
  
  Backup & Flash Kit:
  [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]