I was moving the manuals around today and i noticed that the kenwood has a small mini usb jack in the rear.
Being the curious monkey i am i plugged in a mini usb to it and the other end to my laptop. vehicle off, radio off.
Nothing happened. so i decided to turn the unit on....

It took a bit to load a device driver but it eventually read it.
I then hit the nav button on the stereo and it asked me
garmin GPS or USB mass storage.
I hit the USB mass storage and my comp proceeded to download some more
device drivers. It took way less this time and Garmin GPS appeared under the my computer tab.
Upon clicking on it, it took me to the internal GPS drive on the kenwood.
It has two folders and two map files there.
one folder was named vehicles, so i went over to the garmin page of downloadable goodies
and came upon a mass selection of downloadable vehicles!


just pick a vehicle and save it to the comp. Once it is saved, unzip the file and extract the SRF file. Then simply copy and paste it over to the vehicles folder in the kenwood garmin unit!
I couldnt believe how simple it was and i downloaded some pretty cool lookin rides for the nav.
the other folder is a voices folder, so im sure you can add more voices to it too if you like.
My goal was to see if i could hack into the kenwoods internal memory and change the loading page or something but custom vehicles on the nav is good enough for now!

Wasnt many files to browse around in so i couldnt really find anything i could significantly modify. Ill see if i can get pics and some screen shots if any of you kenwood guys are interested.

 

thats pretty cool.

I think i remember somewhere that the loading page on pretty much any indash is impossible to change, unlike the backgrounds which most you can upload or whatever. Thats some cool info tho. thanks man.

 

did a little more tinkering with this. I came across some good boards for info too.
This site has a ton of vehicles,
bmw audi, sports cars, most of the batmobiles, WALL-E and a RED f150 fx4 ext cab.
I took the red ext cab file and modified it to resemble a blue with silver crew cab with ground effects and such. Had to deal with some small file issues but i finally got it all working. Now my kenwood has a crew cab blue F150 that resembles my vehicle quite nicely.
ill get some screenshots of the nav tomorrow.
heres just a preview of the multi PNG file for the 3D rendering of the truck.

 

In that case, you could probably take advantage of the hacked 2010 Garmin update that may or may not be floating around the web

(Not that such conduct is condoned or endorsed.)

 

the mini usb on the back of the dnx 8120? I plug it to my lap top and then turn the radio on but nothing happens at all. See yesterday morning i hit my nav button and all i got was a black screen so i was looking on line and ran across your site and tried to update my nav but i do not seem to know what i am doing. Being in the electrical field i thought i would but i guess i am wrong. I down loaded all the files (update files) from garmin but can not seem to get my 8120 to upload them. Also how do I access the 8120 files from my laptop. If I need to reinstall garmin how do i do it? I really need my nav back up and running

 

After doing a google search I came across your post. The nav on my 8120 is also giving me a black screen as of a few days ago. The rest of the 8120 seems to be working perfectly, but when I push the nav. button I get nothing. Please PM me if you find out anything.

Thanks

 

I have had this same problem and came across your posts, I am currently trying to get in touch with Kenwood to see what I can do. My navigation just went blank one day. I tried updating the software with an SD card, but it didn't even recognize I was trying to update it. The rest of the 8120 works perfectly, just blank navigation, which was my favorite part of the whole receiver. I will post any updates I get, please do the same.

Dustin L. Duggan

 

Hey let me know if you found a fix!!!! Kenwood told me I have to send the unit to them and have the NAV reflashed back to the headunit. There has to be a way for us to do it.....

 

has anyone found a fix for the black nav screen.....

 

Sorry I saw this so late. Mine is fixed and working perfectly again. I called Kenwood and they wanted me to send in my 8120 to their repair facility in West Virginia. I took it out and sent it in and called a week later to check the status and they told me that the nav. software had to be re-installed and the tech was working on it. I asked them if they could update the software to the newest version and they said no problem.

Got the unit back after 2 weeks total and it works perfect again. Sucked having no radio for 2 weeks but all is well again. They have a 2 year warranty on them so you should still be with in that on the 8120's based on their release date. Sucks you have to send it in but at least they fixed it.

 

I ended up calling Kenwood and they told me to send my DNX8120 in to their repair shop in VA Beach, VA. I sent it UPS on Thursday and Kenwood sent me an e-mail today saying that they would fix it and send it back to me. (757-340-1702)If you live in the eastern U.S. call this number and select the number for sending it to Kenwood for repair. The recording will tell you exactly what to do. I didn't have my receipt, so I had to include a credit card authorization form which you can download from www.avsl.net. If your repairs cost more than $115, they will contact you before they charge your card. If you do not live in the eastern U.S. you can call 1-800-KENWOOD and they will give you the number to the nearest repair center. I will post an update as to how long it took and how much it costs when I receive my head unit back.

 

I feel violated. Kenwood sent me an e-mail today that said parts to fix it would be $475 and labor would be $95. Wow! I am trying to get a copy of the receipt from the company I bought it from so that maybe the warranty will cover it.

 

Wow - readn this just scared the **** outof me. Ive got the Kenwood 5120 - clearly an earlier model. So far all works well, but Ihave been wondering about how to upgrade the Nav maps. Several new roads right here in LA and cllose to home in Shreveport that don't show up - Ijust drive off into never land until I pick up a recognized road again.

Any way to upload new maps?? Meanwhile I'm diggin out my receipt from Crutchfield just to be safe.

 

dustin why did it cost 500.00 to repair??? I am thinking about sending mine in. I am tired of the black screen and want it fixed BUUUUUTTTT for 500 thats crazy... Did they give you a explanation?

 

I contacted the company that I bought my receiver from and they were able to provide me with a receipt. I e-mailed Kenwood the receipt and they said that they could cover the repair under warranty. Whew! I don't really know what the problem was with the receiver. I was planning on asking them when I get it back. Being an electronics technician myself, I would imagine that the Nav portion had to be replaced due to a short or a current surge of some sort, which is why it would cost that much. I will find out and post it on here. The lesson of this whole story is: KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS!!!!