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If I dont get mine returned, I imagine its getting thrown through someones window.

thank you, now I plan on going back to the dealer to install the pink VS wire, and possibly have them install HID's while its in the shop , assuming they don't give me some bs excuse as to why it wasn't done in the first place.

 

Aftermarket HIDs are illegal to install in any country. It's for a good reason, too.

Have a reference for this? And for what good reason? Sure a hack job install is bad, but if you actually do a retrofit and install them correctly then there is nothing wrong with hid's. In fact some of the non-hid bulbs some of the ricers use are way worse than even a bad hid install.

 

Illegal or not, that didnt stop anyone on here from doing the bypass. Didn't stop me from disabling my day time running lights (so i can install hid). So what is your point here?

thank you, now I plan on going back to the dealer to install the pink VS wire, and possibly have them install HID's while its in the shop , assuming they don't give me some bs excuse as to why it wasn't done in the first place.

 

Aftermarket HIDs are illegal to install in any country. It's for a good reason, too.

Have a reference for this? And for what good reason? Sure a hack job install is bad, but if you actually do a retrofit and install them correctly then there is nothing wrong with hid's. In fact some of the non-hid bulbs some of the ricers use are way worse than even a bad hid install.

Have you done any mods recently? Mine was doing the same thing after doing the software bypass. For whatever reason, the system just didn't like my data.zip.

 

You can also try going to a/v source and change the source. When mine was doing that it always booted with the a/v source set to off. After setting the a/v source the system worked normally except that I couldn't use the menu or map buttons from any screen in the navigation menu or from the map screen.

Has this happened at all using just the sd card? I also use a micro sd card for my music, but I am using a sd adapter for playback in my 700bt. I keep the usb adapter on my keychain to use for the computer. I have only been using this deck now for 3 days, but I have yet to see it erase my music.

If the circles are stretched, maybe you can try making the image a bit wider. 800x480 images look ok to me though.

Well, I can't comment on the album art compatibility since I hate iPods, and the unit doesn't display album art from sd, but just as a side note, if you want to quickly tag all of your music and embed the cover art check out the opensource tagger musicbrainz picard http://www.musicbrainz.org/.

 

It will automatically fill in the missing tags on the music you ripped, or the music you got ripped off for by buying from itunes, and it can automatically download the album art to embed directly into the mp3s or save as a jpg in the album folder. Just one of it's many many uses.

 

It is available for Linux and Windows, I don't think there is a Mac client yet, but there are several programs for all platforms that include musicbrainz frontends.

This happens to me on atleast 25% of my songs. I have tried a 1GB SD and a 8GB SDHC with the same results. I have noticed the 8GB loads much faster even though it has about 4x more music than the 1GB, but it still skips frequently. Today I had a song skip about halfway through with over a minute to go. I'm very annoyed with this, more so than the long boot times as I only have that happen once each time I start the car.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the pioneer f-series... The unit is "working as intended".

 

Take a look around the site, you are not alone. The more you use it, the more bugs you'll find.

If you like your unit so much, you can shut the fuck up and ignore the threads of the people that dont. No one is forcing their opinion on you.

The clarion deck he is describing sounds just like the factory installed clarion nav unit on Subarus. The audio sucked (all subaru stereos have sucked), but the nav was perfect in every way. I always imagined aftermarket would be better, but with the f700bt installed I miss my old one. Hopefully some day it or another comparable unit will be available in the us, it truly is a nav done right. Pioneer is a major fail, this thing cant do anything right.

 

My calls are dropping now and the unit is locking up. After the 45 second boot time it still takes another 15 seconds to connect to my phone and start playing music. When I play music, the unit skips to the next song when there is about 30 seconds remaining on the current song. This thing becomes more troublesome and annoying each day.

Well today I removed the t-tap and the mute wire. The tap had gone through the shielding of both wires so there should have been a connection. I crimped it again and re-inserted the mute wire. I also crimped the harness around the mute wire this time. Went for a drive around the block and confirmed it was working before I screwed the stereo back down and reinstalled the dash.

 

The hardware bypass is working now.

The t-mobile g1 worked first try and sync'd my contacts without a problem on my f700bt.

 

I have only tried 3 calls, two were very short test calls. Today I had my first lengthy call and after about 1 minute the call dropped, something that has never happened with my phone yet so I dont know if it was the avic that dropped the call or if i entered a no service area (haven't found one of those yet either).

 

Yet another interesting bug with the 700 is when the call dropped, the call pop-up display froze on the screen for about 5 minutes. I couldn't press the hangup button and the other person tried to call me back and it went straight to voicemail.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the phone registered and transferred contacts flawlessly, but I think this pos f-series is dropping calls and locking up when making calls.

I am in the same boat caveman was in. I soldered the parking brake lead to the main ground. I was getting the parking brake lead is installed incorrectly error message, so I tried the softmod 3 times. I think there is either something wrong with my zip utility or editor, but regardless, I couldn't get it to work and it was messing up the rest of the system. I restored the original data.zip (deleted the softmod), relocated the mute wire and tapped it into the ground with a t-tap. The wire is in there snug, and I am pretty sure the t-tap worked, but still I am getting the error message.

 

caveman: i'm not quite sure what you mean by "pinching the pin together". The pin is definitely in there and I pushed the white tab back down. I think I'll go double check the t-tap and pull the mute wire out and put it back in again with my fingers crossed. Like you I find it very frustrating that I can't get something that is so simple accomplished.

 

Also, would a reset or eject+reset help?

I tried using pkzip and vim as opposed to file roller and gedit with the same results. I was hoping to not use the white rca harness at all, but seeing as how I cant get the zip copied over right and I don't really have access to a windows pc (my home and office are 100% linux), I went a head and restored my original data.zip and moved the mute wire. I will install the harness and ground the wire tomorrow hopefully with better results. Sorry for swaying a bit off topic.

Seeing as how the op has already returned his nav and got the clarion installed, there were a few (myself included) that would support him in a class action. However, I don't think anyone else is so inclined to start the process over.

 

I do not think that 'count your losses' is the correct attitude. Companies shouldn't be pushing this crap to the public. As long as we accept it, they will continue to do it. As the previous poster says, instead of just complaining on a forum no one at pioneer could care less about, we all need to contact them with the specific issues that each of us are experiencing. Hopefully they care enough about their existing customers to release a new update. If not they will just push it to end of life and start on the next version to rip us off with. I will be doing my part, but seriously, this is a very lackluster product and I don't think I will keep it around long enough to see a new update.

 

It's too late to save me as a future customer for pioneer in-dash navigation systems. I know I have their lowest end model, but their highest end model was just as unimpressive. Even for the low price I paid, I feel ripped off and taken advantage of as a consumer.

My 2008 Subaru Impreza was totaled 3 weeks ago. In it I had the factory nav system, and it was absolutely flawless. It was booted up, routing you, phone connected and playing audio in less than 10 seconds of turning on the car. Routing was accurate atleast 90% of the time, Bluetooth worked perfectly, had wonderful graphics, could set it to point in the direction you're driving or north, hacking it for nav/dvd while in motion was simple. I never tried the ipod connection and never added a backup camera to it but based on the rest of the system, I bet those would work great as well. The system was manufactured by Clarion. The only problem with the factory nav was that it was only available as a $2000 add-on to the $2500 premium package which I opted not not to get this time around.

 

I replaced the 2008 Impreza with a 2009 Impreza and instead of getting the $4500 premium w/ nav, I decided to install speakers, heated seats and nav myself. This was largely based on a non-premium being available that day versus waiting 2 months to order a premium in my color and options and insurance refusing to pay for my rental for longer than 3 days after the totaled verdict on my car.

 

I did some research between the kenwood 5120 and the pioneer 900bt. Ultimately I ended up with a 700bt for only $450 shipped as the price and options were great. I had seen several complaints prior to the 2.0 update, and was under the impression that 2.0 made it a decent system. Man was I wrong. I couldn't be any more unhappy with my purchase. This system is a total flop, and I think the only people that think it has improved are those that used it prior to 2.0 and saw the major improvements made. Fact is, 2.0 or not, this thing is crap, plain and simple.

 

$450 is not a lot to spend for a working nav, but this thing doesn't. I bet I would have been much happier with a $200 portable garmin. If there was a class action suit filed, I would be signing it for sure. Not to get my money back but to put the pressure on pioneer, make them loose some stock and warn future buyers.

 

The F-series is not the only one with flaws. Today, my mother-in-law asked me to update her z2 with the latest firmware. I played with the unit for a bit and it was just as bad as the f-series. She had nothing good to say of it either. To top it off, the system would not recognized the update on the cd-r and update. I burned 2 cds following pioneers directions to the t.

 

I own or have owned tons of pioneer a/v equipment (car audio systems, cd players, crt's, plasmas, a/v receivers), but after my experiences with the f700bt and z2 I will never consider another nav from them, and I will definitely be eary of any other car audio or home a/v equipment by them.

Well, I restored the original data.zip and copied it to my sd card. I wouldn't say it worked great, cause frankly i think the pioneer unit is a pos, but it worked(?) as it did when i installed it. With the original data.zip on my sd, i changed the file as i had previously and uploaded it, and the whole thing is screwed up again.

Yeah I read the faq, and I have read all the comments on this topic and the one specific to this hack.

 

I use linux, so I don't have winrar. I use file roller which like winrar, 7-zip, etc can handle just about any format out there. I did not extract, edit and re-compress. With file roller I am able to edit the file directly inside the zip. The only file I edited was project_config/pioneer.ini and only the single line changing the parking_break_speed value from 16.0 to 128.0.

 

I found the the screen was black because it is turning off. If I click the off button, the screen comes back. However, it still does not show the splash screen for the full boot up and the menu and map buttons do nothing if I am on the map screen or in any navigation submenu. My phone still connects, and music will still play. I'll just do a factory reset, recalibrate the screen and start over using the original data.zip file as opposed to the one I downloaded from pioneers website.

 

Getting it working again is one thing, but it is still giving me the warning message that the parking brake lead is incorrectly installed.

OK, well i did what i said above and answered all my own questions. To those doing this for the first time and wondering the same. When starting WinCE the testmode files are not permanently copied. If you remove the SD card, or remove the testmode files from the SD card the unit will function as normal regardless of key position being ACC or ON.

 

Now I do have a problem though. I had downloaded the 2.0 update from pionner, extracted the data.zip file to my desktop. Opened the zip and edited the pioneer.ini file directly. Saved the file and saved changes to the zip. When I was in CE I renamed the existing DATA.zip file to DATA_OLD.zip and copied my new modified DATA.zip over. I removed the card and restarted and everything looked ok but I still got the brake lead warning and functions grayed out. I also couldn't hit the map or menu buttons while the map was displayed.

 

Thinking that I had just copied over a new firmware, I attempted a reset. Now the splash screen shows for a brief second and the screen goes (and stays) black. I can still see the map, but all other screens and menus are completely black. When I get home, I will try getting back to WinCE, delete my modded file, and rename the old one back, copy the old one to sd and start the process over. Just wondering whats going on here, cause the parking brake lead is definitely ground (it's soldered to the ground of the head unit) and now with my new data.zip file the system is not working at all.

Entirely newb question. I haven't tried to boot wince yet so maybe this is a bit more intuitive when actually performing the steps.

 

I installed the 700bt last night and grounded the parking brake lead. Ofcourse I get the warning message that the wire is installed incorrectly and most functions are grayed out. I just downloaded the testmode files, got a new data.zip from the 2.0 firmware from pioneer (the unit came with 2.0 pre-installed). I have edited the pioneer.ini file and copied data.zip (containing edited pioneer.ini), MiTACAP and Testmode folders to my SD card. I am ready to boot WinCE now and transfer the new data.zip, which leads me to my question.

 

How do you exit from WinCE and return to the nav system? Will testmode always start-up from now on when the key is in the ACC position? If that is the case, can testmode be removed when I am finished? Or do I just remove it from the SD card prior to starting the system.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

- Stewart