GDGR

More research, answered my own question. Despite info to the contrary from a couple of sites (including Crutchfield, who is always on top of this stuff), PAC has instructions for how to use the SWI-PS in this vehicle.

http://76.12.243.71/swixprogramming/sho ... cles&ID=78

I am considering moving my F700BT from my 2008 VW Passat to my 2004 Chevy Suburban. The Suburban is the "LT" model with the Bose/XM/Onstar/etc with all the bells & whistles.

I want to make sure that I will still be able to use the steering wheel controls. I have a PAC SWI-PS unit in the VW, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with the Suburban. So how do I maintain steering wheel controls with my AVIC in the Chevy?

I am also aware of the Metra VT-GMOS-04, which appears to be necessary to maintain a lot of the GM radio functions including the warning chimes and Onstar ... it's just not clear if that buys me anything with respect to the steering wheel controls.

Thanks!

For the best and only real fix in the 3.0 update - just update WinCE for free and legitimately (at your own risk of course)

 

1. Download the 3.0101 update here: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... port?tab=B

This link does not seem to work anymore. Is anyone willing to send the files to me, or host them elsewhere?

Thanks!

Same issue here. My guess is that the software doesn't have the new (2007) daylight saving time. In 3 weeks, it'll probably start working right ... that's when daylight saving time used to start prior to 2007.

Just yet another example of software that's not ready for prime time.

GDGR, I have played with the F700BT in the store, it takes 2 button presses to go from FM to AM. Granted it's more than in my stock radio, but not that bad compared to some aftermarket radios that have to go through FM2, FM3 then get to AM. I think it may take 3 if you're using navi which could be improved but is similar to its competitors.

Yeah, 2 SLOW button presses if you are already on a audio screen, or three if you are on a nav screen. After a while, you miss the quick press of a real button on a factory radio.

Ps. When you're on the phone, wouldn't a press of the MAP button to the left of the screen bring up the map?

You'd think so, but ... nope. When a call is active, the only things you can do are hang up or change the speaker volume. That's it.

But if you have the actual handset do something else (in my case, I can switch it from bluetooth to the handset and back to bluetooth), then the AVIC returns to its previous mode, but the call stays active. It also does this if I receive another call while the first call is active. Of course at that point I can't use the AVIC to hang up the call, but I can still use the handset for that. Or I can let the other side of the call disconnect.

I wouldn't buy it again. The boot time isn't the issue; I've gotten used to that. It's a little annoying that I have to wait so long to change the music source, but assuming that I like what's on when it starts up, I'm okay. I mostly listen to AM/FM and the previously-selected station starts playing very quickly. It's all of the niggling little other bugs that drive me batty.

The music app (that is my #1 use of this thing, being used 100% of the time I'm in the car) is just plain slow and hard to use. Button presses aren't responsive enough, and just to change the source from AM to FM takes way too many "button presses."

The phone app, my #2 requirement -- lousy sound quality, it takes over the screen when a call is active (although I've figured out a workaround to be able to use both the map and the phone at the same time), and voice activation doesn't work well ... just not a "win." It's functional but lousy.

Navigation, my #3 requirement -- lots of drawing bugs, etc. People here have figured out how to fix some of these and I've done some of those fixes. But I just shouldn't have to. And even in that app, way too many button clicks required to do simple things. If I want to go to somewhere in my history list, I have to click way too many times. If I click a destination, it should just go there, not require two more clicks after I select it!

I actually really like "north up." Always have, it's the mode I've used on all of my nav systems. I don't like the whole thing rotating for just slight turns. Yuck.

Pioneer rep was in yesterday and told us that a new update will be tuesday or wednesday. I have never got bad info from this guy before so hope it is true he said it will boot 10x faster , that sounds drastic but anything will be a improvement.

He probably meant 10% faster (in other words, not particularly noticeable.) I'm hopeful but pessimistic.

Just bypassing Pioneer's system in not reason for a lawsuit.

 

Ever hear of the lawsuit involving a winnebago? This woman bought a winnebago, and while she was on the highway, she put the bago on cruise control, and left the driver's seat to go in the back to make herself a sandwich. The bago went off the road and flipped over several times...you'd think it'd be her own fault? wrong..

 

Not only was she awarded a new winnebago, but also 1.75 MILLION DOLLARS, because the manual didn't say you cannot actually leave the seat while on cruise control...if people can pull off lawsuits like that, I'm sure Pioneer can be sued for not having a safety lock on their units.

 

And if were Gremlins that did it, well you shoulnt've fed them after midnight

I assume that last sentence means you know this already, but just in case someone else believes you ...

This is an urban legend, never happened. Two links:

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/14 ... ortmyths14

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp

Select the Gas Stations POI category, then click Search button on the bottom, enter nothing in the name field, and click done... works for me.

 

But they did not do it as easy as it shulod be...

Phew, thanks! I'm glad there's a way, awkward as it is. Never would have occurred to me.

Not out of the box, but it can be added to the map screen without much work.

Actually, there is one out of the box. It's on the screen that shows the satellite signal strength, as I recall.

So if I clean out my address book on the iPhone (or on the computer and then sync to the iPhone), can I make it work? Seems crazy that I have to do the edit in the Pioneer copy to make it work, then I'd just have to do it after the next time I sync to the F. Would like to do it just once ...

Do you have an external remote or steering wheel controls hooked up?

I think something in the steering wheel control box (probably an SWI-PS) is getting confused by some message on your CAN-bus. It was probably programmed incorrectly. Take it back to your installer if you had it professionally done and have them re-program that part of the system (it's external to the F-series.)

I've found that "triple-clicking" when in WinCE mode works much better than "double-clicking" anything.

That's because the double-click speed is set very slow. Just slowly press twice, doing it too quickly will register as a single click.

I've got an F700, no MSN direct (and I'd be too cheap to pay for a subscription anyway.)

I actually tried to do this for the first time today. Is there really no way to get a list of the closest gas stations without first picking which BRAND of gas I want? That's pathetic.

You have to turn all A/V sources off first before you can change that (who knows why, it sounds like another bug to me).

What does it mean to turn them off? My only A/V source is AM/FM. I don't have any of the add-ons.

 

press the menu button. hit the big orange note. press off. then change the setting

Duh! I was about to reply with "What the #@^%@ are you talking about?" but I decided to go outside and actually look first -- never noticed that "off" button before. And I suppose that was in the manual too.

Anyway, thanks.

You have to turn all A/V sources off first before you can change that (who knows why, it sounds like another bug to me).

Why? If you want voice guidance over the top of your audio just set the unit to attenuate the audio output when giving instructions (it's under Settings -> A/V Settings).

For whatever reason, this setting button has always been disabled for me. Of course the physical mute connection in the wiring harness is disconnected (because I moved the wire for the bypass), but I can't imagine that's the reason.

Am I the only one who can't access the mute items in the settings?

But really...I tried several things last night. Ended up having to revert back to the original...twice.

 

After copying the data (no ".zip") and rebooting, how long should it take the thing to finish loading? After three minutes, I was still looking at a "Please wait" message...

 

Am I forgetting something? I shouldn't have to "reset" or anything, right?

 

@ski:

 

THANKS!

 

I highly recommend that you change it so that you can see the filename extensions. It'll help you make sure that you've got the filenames right.

To do that, in Explorer, select the "View" menu, and somewhere under there, you'll find a checkbox to show the filename extensions. The world is a lot easier to operate in if the system doesn't hide things from you.

I didn't have a chance to test this out, but there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't work (famous last words).

Well, that actually looks simpler than I thought it would look.

Anyway, I'm going to keep playing with the approach I started today, just because I think we'll all learn something in the process. One thing I'm certain of is that some things are drawn without any evaluation from navigate_map_800_400.ui. My best guess (without testing, just grepping through files) is that the scripts (both the res-specific one in the 800_480 dir and the others in common) are probably calling the shots. I notice that the sprite in question is drawn from scripts_800_480.ui, in a function called "sc_ChangeNormalScreenMode".

I've only been looking at this for a couple of days ... Stephanie is probably way ahead of me and already knows that I'm totally barking up the wrong tree

I have a blue box update as well.

I tried the obvious approach that seems to have only worked for giessen, but not for all of the regulars on this thread.

Well, it didn't work for me either, but I didn't have time to do more playing as I had to hit the road. So, I left it in there.

While on the road, I played around a bit with the system, and discovered that when I canceled a route, guess what? The blue boxes disappeared! So, the initial drawing of the boxes must be coming from somewhere else. But then once navigating, then canceling, they go away.

When I get a little more time with the car (tomorrow), I'll play a little more. I do like this straightforward approach a little better than the more complicated approach that skicrave and stephanie have been thinking most recently, if I can get it to fully work.

Has anyone figured out the magic incantation to make things visible only when there is NO route active? I'm trying to make the three numerical boxes appear when routing (distance left, time left, etc), but replace those with speed/altitude when not routing.

Yes, it's 45 seconds from boot to do anything other than volume. The system will work, but is sluggish, at that point, for at least another minute.

The phone connects in another 45 seconds.

The knob is a joystick, a button, and a volume knob, all in a single control.

I don't have any of those external things. I use AM/FM, bluetooth, and navigation, but no other features of the device.

I hear the radio very quickly (<5 seconds) after putting my key in the ignition, and can control the volume of it at the same time. But you can't change the station.

It takes 45 seconds before the system even offers any functions on the touch-screen (the only way to actually control anything), and even at that point, it's still pretty sluggish because boot-up activities are going on in the background. But you can't really tell when those finish, I can just say after a couple of minutes the system is noticeably snappier than it is right after the screen comes alive.

It takes about 90 seconds, BTW, for the phone to connect via bluetooth (1st-gen iPhone).