Saturday, September 13, 2014

Convert a Korean speaking BlackVue DR550GW-2CH to speak English

Today I installed a BlackVue DR550GW-2CH camera on my car. However, I didn't know that its voice prompt was in Korean until I powered it on. Then I realized the DR550GW-2CH I installed came with a Korean firmware but I don't understand Korean at all. I tried upgrading its firmware to the official international firmware V2.002E but failed as the device keeps complaining "The verision information is different" (in English though) after powering on and refuses to work with this firmware on its MicroSD card.

The list below is a step-by-step guide of what I did to change its language to English (after upgrading its Korean firmware to V2.002K):
  1. Power off the DR550GW-2CH by unplugging its power cord. Wait until all the LEDs are off (and after some Korean voice prompt probably says it's powering off) and take out the microSD card. If its Korean firmware is already on V2.002K, Steps 2-4 can be skipped and jump to Step 5 directly. There is possibility that Steps 2-4 might not be necessary at all, but I did them prior to the conversion.
  2. Make a backup of all the files in the microSD card and then format the card to clean it up. I did the format with Windows explorer as shown in the screenshot below with drive letter K.
  3. Download the Korean firmware V2.002K for DR550GW-2CH from Blackvue's Korean website: Windows ZIP download link and extract the folder Blackvue and all the files within it to the root folder of microSD card (K drive in my case, and there will be a folder of K:\Blackvue after extraction). Inerst the micrSD card back to the device.
  4. Power on the device and it will say "Start upgrading" in Korean to upgrade the firmware to V2.002K. After upgrading, check to make sure the device works properly. Power off the device and take out the microSD card. 
  5. Prepare the conversion files on the microSD card as listed below
    • Download the file upload.rar from this link and extract the folder "upload" to the root folder of the microSD card (NOT under blackvue). In my case, there will be a folder of K:\upload after extraction.
    • Download the file upgrade.cgi from this link and extract the file "upgrade.cgi" to Blackvue\config. In my case, the file is in K:\Blackvue\config after extraction.
    • Inerst the micrSD card back to the device.
  6. Power on the device and push the Wi-Fi button to turn on Wi-Fi. Get on my PC with Wi-Fi connection and connect to the wireless network SSID starting with DR550GW-, the default password is blackvue
  7. Open a web browser on the same PC and copy&paste the following link then enter
    http://192.168.8.1/Config/upgrade.cgi to initial the conversion to English. Upon successful conversion, the following will be shown on the browser

    A critical function of the file upgrade.cgi is setting system_language to English in the firmware to enable upgrade to future versions of English firmware.
  8. Power cycle the device and enjoy its English voice guidance now. If English is all needed, skip Steps 9-11 and jump to Step 12.
  9. If any other language than English is needed, repeat Step 2 to clean it up. Download the English firmware V2.002E for DR550GW-2CH from Blackvue's English website: Windows ZIP download link and extract the folder Blackvue and all the files within it to the root folder of microSD card (K drive in my case, and there will be a folder of K:\Blackvue after extraction). 
  10. Run the program BlackVue\Application\Viewer for Windows\blackvue.exe in the microSD card and click on the setting icon on the right top corner. Select the desirable language and other settings (such as time zone) then save them to the microSD card.
  11. Inerst the micrSD card back to the device and power it on. It will prompt "upgrading firmware" then "restarting" after upgrade. After restarting, it will speak your language.
  12. Take a quick drive, its GPS should pick up the satellites and sync the time. 
  13. Congratulations and it's done.