SteveInNC

I've installed this and my euro f900bt just says caution image may be reversed?

This likely means that it thinks you have a backup camera and that the car's reverse gear is selected. I haven't been on this forum in about a year, so I've forgotten all of the details. Since you don't have a camera connected, you get effectively a blank screen with the warning that the view is reversed (since it would be from a rear-facing camera's perspective). As I recall, the headunit has a wire that would normally be attached to the backup lights circuit in the car. That signal is what it uses to decide that you are in reverse. There may also be some sort of menu option to enable/disable that feature. Can you get to the menus when it's in this screen?

I'm having the same issue on my F700BT...it started this week. The SAT. radio will play however the screen is black with the following message across the top of the screen:

 

CAUTION: THE IMAGES ON THE SCREEN MAY APPEAR TO BE REVERSED

 

I've tried several times to reboot the unit to no avail.

 

Anyone else having this issue?? UGH!!

This one actually sounds like it has selected the backup-camera as a source, and you don't have one (does the 700 support a backup camera?). See if you can get to the Menu and disable the camera input. Also, I seem to recall that there is a wire that normally hooks to the backup lights signal in your car to automatically turn this on. If you left that wire loose when you hooked stuff up, perhaps it has moved around in the dash and come into contact with a 12v source.

I've got a stock F90BT with hardware bypass and no other mods. When I was running 2.x, it was perfectly stable. I bought and applied the official 3.0 upgrade. Like many others, I had at least one failure/continue dialog during the process, but the update did complete. Since then, I've had various stability issues, the main one being that when the unit initially boots, about 1 out of 3 times it will do the splash screen and XM audio begins, but it appears to briefly go to the XM screen (where I left it), then blanks out and appears to do at least a partial restart (once), and the audio keeps playing. When it finishes the restart, it comes up in a screen other than the XM source, but I can back-arrow a couple of times to get back to it.

A difference from 2.x behavior, which I suspect Pioneer thinks is a feature, is that if I have a thumbdrive plugged into USB at boot, the unit will automatically select that source regardless of what source it was previously on. In 2.x, at boot it stayed where you last left it. Since my USB cable feeds into my glovebox, this is a major pain in the butt since I effectively cannot leave the thumbdrive plugged in anymore. It's large, so it takes awhile to index, meaning that when the auto-source happens, whatever source I had selected cuts off and there is silence until the thumbdrive comes online, then I can swap back to the original source.

The only feature I really wanted out of 3.0 was the north-up map display; for the most part, this "upgrade" has been a downgrade for me.

Questions: can I reload the 3.0 upgrade, working under the assumption that perhaps something didn't "take" on the first effort, or will the unit note that it's already at that revision level and just punt?

Do any of the assorted hacks (Diaftia et al) avoid the issue with the source swapping at boot-up? I've been debating applying one of them anyway, and this would certainly give more impetus to that effort. I suspect that the swap is due to a WinCE change rather than the nav software though.

No big help, my 1st gen iPhone works fine with my 90BT. Perhaps try tunring on the iPhone Bluetooth after your 900 is up and running. It may not notice if the phone is already there when you have it scan to pair with new devices. I don't remember doing anything special in particular to get mine to pair the first time. Now it just does it whenever I get into the car when it recognises the phone. As I recall, you do have to tell the iPhone to allow the pairing. My 90 is running the Pioneer 3.0 software.

Sirius and XM overlap to a large degree in programming. There are some specific contracts, like some of the sports and Stern, that they don't carry on both.

My understanding from reading here is that the XM module gives more information on the display than the Sirius module. I have an XM module for my 90BT.

Of note, XM and Sirius use different satellites to send you a signal. Where this matters is that XM uses geostationary satellites, meaning that they always appear in the same relative position in the sky from your location. Sirius uses geosynchronous satellites, which appear to be in the same general direction relative to your position, but they move up and down in the sky throughout the day. This means that your reception may vary depending on the time of day. At any given time, at least one Sirius satellite (of three) is above the horizon. When I had both Sirius and XM (different vehicles) the Sirius would drop out at certain times of day. I live in an area of about 500 feet elevation and there are no mountains or similar in the way. XM works better for me.

Before the merger, XM had more terrestrial repeaters than Sirius too, so problematic areas like in downtowns with tall buildings or in building interiors, XM was more likely to work.

Sorry for bumping this thread late (I haven't been on in awhile). I'll add another data point:

With my stock F90BT at 2.x, leaving a USB drive plugged in, the unit would always come up in the last-used source. I typically leave mine in XM. After the (official, paid for) 3.0 update, the unit started exhibiting the described behavior: if the exact same USB drive was plugged in at boot, the unit would switch source to the USB drive (which is a pain in the ass, because like the OP's, it's a large USB drive and takes awhile to index).

Other than the initial hardware bypass at installation, I've made *no* modifications to my unit, so this appears to be a 3.0-related "feature". I've also found that since 3.0, on occassion when I start the car, the display gets into a weird state where the XM detail screen only partially comes up, and the Menu button sporadically works. The display also seems to go through a different sequence when this failure occurs, so I suspect the something in the OS failed to start, and a watch-dog timer kicked it off again.

On other occasions, rather than coming up in the XM screen where it was left, it comes up in the AV Source select screen, although the XM radio is still playing.

In most respects, the 3.0 upgrade seems to be a net loss in my case.

The only 3.X issue I have is that unless it is on the map screen when shut down, if there is a USB flash drive plugged in. It will switch to that on boot. Only happens if not on the map screen. More of a nuisance than anything else.

I just updated to 3.0 and see this problem also. It annoys the frack out of me. I have a 32G thumb drive plugged into my AVIC in the glovebox. I usually leave mine on the XM screen. For 2.0, this worked fine - it stayed on whatever audio source that I left it on. Now, it comes up on XM, then switches to the USB drive after it gets to a certain point after boot-up. This would be moderately tolerable if you could switch back to XM, except that the unit ignores user input until it has loaded the directory off of the drive, which can take awhile, meaning that the audio goes silent until you can switch back to the XM input.

I've also had one or two occasions where the unit booted into the navigation submenu where you'd typically decide to enter a destination, etc., for no apparent reason. I rarely use the nav, and never leave the unit on the map page.

So, if I have v2, I'm essentially screwed, correct?

Kind of... some people workaround this limitation by running in 3D mode, but adjusting the map tilt so that the map is close to vertical. There is a hard limit on the angle, but that can be tweaked in the software by some of the mods described in this forum.

As I recall, without a software mod, the map will reset its tilt when you restart the unit, so this is a less than ideal solution for an unmodified unit. It may be a reasonable workaround for a long trip where you would adjust the tilt at the beginning then leave it for the rest of the trip.

It certainly sounds like a loose wire or connector. If you can, I'd pull the unit out of the dash and reseat the connectors. Hopefully, BB used a direct-connect adapter kit rather than vampire taps into the existing wiring. If the later, you might need to try to squeeze/crimp each of the taps to make sure that it fully-seated into the wire.

You can consider taking it back to BB too, although I don't know how long they warranty their installation work.

I haven't applied my update yet, maybe later today, but the XM display has always had multiple lines for song info, if you are on the XM screen. It does truncate at a seemingly-low number of characters per line though. I seem to recall reading that they've updated the icons for some of the XM channels that default to the satellite symbol. I guess that when Sirius and XM merged and they moved channels around, some of the icon mappings got screwed up.

My biggest complaint has always been that if you click on the channel List button, it always starts at the top of the list, requiring you to scroll excessively, while I prefer that it start at the current channel.

I think that the differences are that the 90 comes with the iPod cable, longer warranty, and has higher-power pre-outs.

Here is a table (bottom of page) from the horse's mouth showing the comparative specs:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... C-F+Series

The GEX-P920XM is the only compatible unit that I'm aware of. It's a pretty simple install, and comes with the necessary cables. The bus cable is a dual cable, with data on part of it and power on the other. You plug it into the back of the F90BT, then feed it to wherever you mounted your XM unit (mine is bolted to a sidewall in my hatchback). At the XM end, you plug into that unit, and attach the supplied grounding wire to some nearby grounding point. Almost any bolt or screw nearby that is screwed into/through metal bodywork will do. Things like seat mount bolts, tie-down bolts, etc. are likely candidates. You then run the XM sat antenna from the XM unit to some convenient place with a view of the sky. Some people have had luck simply putting it on the dash where it can look up through the windshield. I ran mine out through a taillight assembly, then up a rain gutter along my hatch to the rear roof of the car. It has a magnetic mount, and uses a fairly thin wire, so you can probably run it out through trunk or door gaskets without causing any leaks.

You said that "lately" you've been having problems, which implies that you weren't before. If that's the case, and you did already try swapping antennas, I'd suspect that something has gone wrong in the HU itself. Multiple antennas may introduce their own problem, something called multipath propagation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath_propagation

Think of it as causing your receiver to hear echos of the radio signals, which it then has to try to interpret.

Ouch, I stand corrected in regards to the update charge for the iPod touch.

 

Didn't pay anything for my 3.0 firmware update for the iPhone. AT&T doesn't get shit from me as I am with T-mobile.

 

Believe it or not, the distinction (and reason for the charge in the first place) is due to general corporate accounting rules. The iPhone has no fee because it is accounted for differently than the iPod Touch. It has something to do with the fact that the iPhone has ongoing subscription fees and the Touch does not.

I don't think so. The unit uses the GPS tracking data to determine that you are exceeding a designated speed (around 10mph) and will complain. See the thread about the software mod here http://avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17715. You still have to ground the Pbrake even with the software mod. It simply avoids having to move and ground the Mute wire. I'm not sure what your switch would gain you in any case.

ETA is about 4 weeks, with no explanation as to why it is on the website.

Somebody got ahead of themselves in the Marketing department.

I don't remember the specific connector size, but could you try plugging it into an Audio-In jack on your computer to see if it works at all? This might help isolate the problem to either the mic or the headunit.

FYI, Pioneer is pretty explicit about not cutting the GPS antenna wire. I wonder if they did that to feed it through the windshield gasket then resoldered the connector back on? It's a pretty big connector, so I'm not sure how they could get it through otherwise.

A guy in another thread downloaded the 2.7 EU update (he's from the UK) and reports that 2.7 broke testmode - so no more access to hacks for a while if 3.0 does the same. If this is true, I'm guessing all the nice hacks will be gone after 3.0 and no way to immediately get them back!

 

I may be keeping 2.0 if that's true.

A possible end-run to that it is to pick and choose pieces out of the 3.0 version when it hits. I suspect the part that breaks test mode access is likely related to the OS, not the nav and other software, so it may be possible to update just the upgraded nav and audio against the current version of the OS code. There is obviously no way to tell until the someone gets access to that code.

On the F90, and the F900 should be effectively the same, the light green parking brake wire is on the connector that plugs into the left-most lower connector of the unit when viewed from the rear, what the AVIC manual refers to as the Power Cord. This is the same connector that the speaker wires feed into. Any chance that your installers just cut the wire off, because they didn't think it was needed? This same connector should have the pink speed sensor wire and the violet-white reverse gear wire.

The medium green and medium green w/black stripe wires are the + and - feeds for the left rear speaker. You don't want to ground these. By contrast, the light green wire for parking is a very pale green.

I read this total tread, and I'm still not getting it, why are you guys connecting pin4 with ground? What does pin 4 do? I only connected the parking brake wire and it works like a charm. But maybe that is because of the f700 not having dvd?

I can't speak to the f700, but for the 900/90, if you just ground the parking brake wire, it apparently also checks that your speed is still below XX, unless you do the additional mute pin move/ground. If you search, you'll find that the "software" bypass involves increasing this speed limit by modifying the code, thus raising the limit to some arbitrarily high value. In that case, only the parking wire needs to be grounded.

If it's a separate sub/bass unit, perhaps you are overloading the power capabilities of your wiring, depending on where and how you are tapping into the car systems. This would lead to a voltage drop, which could cause spurious problems with the F90. It is after all, simply a purpose-built computer. While a typical starter battery can supply sufficient power for transients like bass, the wiring itself may not be able to carry that power, causing it to heat up instead.

If you are feeding power off of the conventional OEM radio circuit, I would expect the OEM fuse to blow before this would be a problem. If you bypassed or up-rated the fuse, all bets are off. Doing so could also cause a fire...

If you are just using the F90 by itself, the only thing that I could think of would be a loose or partial connection somewhere that gets flaky when substantial power is called for. Driving bass takes considerably more power than higher frequencies since you have to move more air. Check to be sure that all connectors are firmly seated in the radio and elsewhere. It could even be something as silly as the GPS antenna connection has come partially loose, and vibrates enough with strong bass to interrupt the circuit. Hopefully, your wiring harness is soldered directly, rather than attached via insulation-piercing taps (aka vampire taps).

Two related questions: does this vehicle use an amplified antenna (many modern Hondas do, among others), and did the installer hook power up to said amplified antenna? If an amplified antenna is unpowered, it would behave like a weak signal, which would sound like static or drop-outs.

Thanks alot so all I have to do is buy that GEX-P920XM and connect it to the back of the F90bt and get the service and then ill be ready to go? So even though they have merged they are 2 different services. This device is for the XM which in your opinion is the better one CORRECT?

 

Thanks Again!!

1) Although they are the same company (effectively) they had different contracts and licensing deals with Howard Stern, NFL, NASCAR, etc., so the base packages for each original system don't include the "other" side's exclusive content unless you pay extra. They even have different phone numbers to call to activate service. I'm pretty sure that the conventional music channels are now a combination of both sides' content. There was much anguish when they chose one or the other's channel to replace a similar station in the merged environment (e.g. the XM 80's channel over the Sirius 80's channel, etc.).

2) Yes, I think XM is better. The GEXP920XM is the add-on module for the XM service. It comes with a long cable that feeds data and power to the XM module, which you can mount elsewhere in the vehicle (in the trunk, under a seat, whatever), and an XM satellite antenna which feeds from that module to your roof, dash, or similar place with a clear view of the sky. This antenna uses a very thin wire, so you can easily run it out through the rubber gasket surrounding a trunk or hatch lid without too much concern about leaks. I ran mine through an interior body access panel and out through the tail-light assembly on my car, then up along the rear hatch door to the roof. For my truck, I ran it out the sliding rear window in the back of the extended cab.

When you get everything set up, the radio will have signals on channel 0 and channel 1, and possibly on a high-numbered weather/traffic channel. Channel 0 will be a preview channel that will tell you what number to call for activation, and will display your radio's ID (needed for activation) in the upper right of the screen. It's a combination of about eight letters and numbers. When you call XM, they will set up your service, then send an authorization over satellite to your radio. This authorization "ping" can take up to twenty minutes to arrive, but typically happens within five minutes. The radio has to be on the whole time while waiting for this ping, so be prepared to sit in your driveway or whatever. When the radio gets the authorization ping, the other channels will appear in your active channels list and you are good to go. There is a channel "List" button on the XM source display on the radio screen.

For a 09 Honda Fit, in the OEM setup, the stock Honda antenna wiring goes into it's own socket on the OEM headunit, as opposed to being tied into any other harness. My aftermarket Metra adapter connects to this plug instead and yields a blue lead for antenna power and a conventional bannana antenna plug that plugs into the F90BT. I wired the blue lead from the F90BT to the blue lead on the Metra Honda antenna adapter. As I recall, I set the F90BT "settings" to power this when the headunit is powered. You can also set it to power only when the radio source is selected. Note: the true function of this wire is to extend automatic antennas, not power antenna amplifiers. The installation manual indicates that it can supply up to 300ma at 12V, roughly 3.5 watts. I worked under the assumption that if it could drive a relay for antenna control, it could probably drive the electronics that amplify powered antennas. It seems to work for me. I haven't bothered to check the true current draw presented by the antenna amplifier though.

I cut the ring off of the F90BT harness Ground lead and just wired it to the equivalent Ground lead for the Honda OEM wiring. Some argue that you should leave the ring on and screw it into metal under the dash. In my view, the OEM Ground is likely screwed into roughly the same metal within a few feet at most, so there's no reason not to use the OEM Ground.