jolands

Thanks for the info.

Got the chance to see it in action last night when my wife and I visited my niece for dinner. Apartment row and the parking was descent when I got there, but when we were leaving I found I was totally wedged in. (person in front left about 1 foot to move forward and I only had about 18" behind me)

Using the cam (which I still have to get used to) and her guiding me forward I did the "unwedge" and made it out.

The picture was pretty darn good. Bright enough to see all I needed to, and after a few "back and forths" to unwedge my car I could start to tell how much room I had behind me.

Upside: I could see my bumper and the front if the car behind me very well. Just had to trust the view a little more. Heck, with the slight "fish eye" look it appeared that the grill was protruding and would hit me before my bumper hit them. Not true, but it looked that way.

Downside: No foot markers displayed. Not that they would have helped at that distance (inch markers?) but having a gauge of some kind might have been nice.

All in all I'm pleased.

And no, I won't change the battery/ground settings. Don't know why you shouldn't, but I'll avoid that one.

And I won't be driving down the road looking at my rear view cam. That would be illegal wouldn't it....??...

Just thought I'd pass along a few items related to the install I did today.

Background: I installed a Z110BT about 7 months ago in a 2009 Honda Civic. I didn't buy a backup camera at the time because I couldn't decided if I wanted to spend over 200.00 on something that might turn out to be a novelty. However I have discovered with this car that it's difficult for me to judge the distance behind me so a couple of weeks ago I started looking into them.

I found the little 1" (or so) square ones but couldn't figure out where I'd put it where it might blend in. Looked to me like it would be a 'wart' on the trunk near the license plate. Then I found the Boyo license plate cameras. (Thanks to a tip from someone on this site) I found the VTL375 would match my car (black), was all metal and would tilt. It was CCD and had pretty good reviews at different sites. I searched for an outlet near me that carried them and found that Al and Ed's carried them so I went to their site. $235.00 - wow! Then I clicked on their "price match" and it came up with Crutchfield at $199.00 so they'd match that price. I looked on e-bay and Amazon and found it for $135.00 from a vendor called Audiosavings - new in the box; so I ordered it.

Just installed it, which meant I had to tear apart the dash again (glad I saved the 'how to' .pdf) and wired up the camera leads for power and ground by tapping into the ACC wire and a ground wire. Then I headed to the trunk and found that the license place was intended to be through bolted into the trunk. I decided to bite the bullet and simply drilled out the threads on the license plate mounting nuts so the bolts would slide through.

Without drilling pretty large holes (for access to the nuts) I decided not to drill for the lower holes. I had some rubber feet about 3/8" in diameter in my parts box. Don't know what they came off of but they were the type designed to fit (like a grommet) into a hole that happened to be just the diameter of the license plate mounting holes; so those got pushed and turned into the lower license plate holes as bumpers.

The Boyo kit comes with a couple of grommets already on the lead from the license plate holder so I measured and found that a hole, slightly larger than 3/8" would allow me to pass the connecting wire through the hole and seal it with the grommet. Drilled up next to the trunk lights (the ones that light up the license plate). Worked out perfect.

I connected everything up and fired up the car. Break on I tested the camera by putting the car in reverse. Hey! It worked ! Hid the camera wire under the plastic on the drivers side, zip tied the routing in the trunk and under the dash and reinstalled the dash. (damn that's a tight fit, and those bottom screws are REAL BUGGERS to get in!)

Seems to work good in the daylight. I'll see what it looks like tonight when it's dark.

It's got the "Caution, image appear reversed" on the screen but it's just like looking in the rear view mirror. Stuff on your left is on the left of the screen, so I'm guessing all is good.

One thing though...

I read here that you could, in fact, watch the rear camera view when driving. I can't figure that one out. It's not in the AV settings (no choice for it when setting up [say] AV2).

Can anyone walk me through selecting the rear camera while in drive?

Also, in the rear camera settings it gives a choice of On/Off (obvious) and another for Battery/Ground. It's on battery now and works fine. Anyone know what happens if you select Ground? Little nervous about doing that in case it might blow up or something .

Also have a "replay" button on the screen in case you miss one.

 

Hit the direction arrow box on the top left of the screen.

Hey ! Thanks !

Did my upgrade a while back (with some insight from TSCAD - thanks !)

First thing I did was to make sure my destination settings were still there. Yuppers! Cool.

Next thing I did was to punch in the address of the destination I was going to. The unit refused to find the street. That really annoyed me as it's a pretty common location in the Los Angeles area. I kept trying until finally I went to the initial settings and found that "Alabama" was where it thought I was. That was quickly updated to California and all was good with the world again... (frustrating though)

1. First thing I noticed was that the navi voice announcements (like "turn left ahead") now also announced the street name! ("turn left ahead onto Jefferson Street") That was one of the things I always griped about in the previous version so KUDOS ! I like it.

2. Navi voice announcements were much faster and tend to 'clip' the end word. Wow, you have to listen up to catch some of these. Their much faster than the old unit and some of the words sound clipped.

3. Gripe #1 - No navi voice option. (male or female, etc) Gripe #2 - no speed control on the navi voice. (I'd like to slow it down just a bit)

4. Plugged in my Ipod and looked at the new screen. ARGGG! I'm old school and liked the old one. Now I have to learn something new again ???? Gripe #3 - Would like an option for the new or old screen format. Forced me to download the Z120 operating manual from the site. Now I just have to print it out.

5. That little eco bar thingymabob....even with the display option "off" it still displays. Would love to get rid of that litte annoyance. (okay, that's Gripe #4 !)

Overall I like the upgrade. Faster boot, street announcement.

Suggestions for upgrade #2. (Z130?)

A. Have two voices available for navi announcements with speed options (slow/normal). Also have a "replay" button on the screen in case you miss one.

B. Give an option for the Ipod "classic" screen setup.

C. Upgrade the voice control for the unit so I can just talk to it. "Rear view please", "kill eco display", "just play what I like". Have it learn and understand me. Have it talk to me once in a while without me saying something first. (Do the "Hal" thing...."good morning Bob".....) However, limit this a bit. Don't have it say things like "you know you're speeding don't you?" or "are you sure you know where you're going?"....

ok guys.. i just received the update SD cards today and finished updating my unit

 

Let me give you a quick tutorial on how to do it (just in case)

 

Go to the settings of the Z110 and write down your device number

Then you have to get the password for the update. You can do it here

https://www.pioneernavigationupdate.com/navigationupdate/

enter the media code included in the package along with the device number of your unit

WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD IN A SAFE PLACE, YOU CAN ONLY GET IT ONCE

 

The main update takes 23 minutes

 

turn on your radio, let it boot up completely, insert SD card #1

it will ask you to do the update, enter your password you got from the website

wait 23 minutes... and VOILA! You have a Z120

 

keep the SD card inside the unit. It includes a bluetooth firmware update from 2.50 to 3.10

 

after rebooting, go to the bluetooth settings and do a firmware update. It takes approx 5 minutes

after bt update is down, power off vehicle

 

turn vehicle back on

 

take SD card #1 out and insert SD card #2

go to the bluetooth settings again and perform another firmware upgrade. This time from 3.10 to 3.11

wait 5 minutes or so and you are done.

 

ENJOY

Okay - I have a couple of questions !

I just received my upgrade SD cards. I also didn't receive the "addendum" and I can't find it on the site with the links I've seen here. I see nav unit install but not the upgrade install.

Second, the bluetooth firmware update instructions are confusing and I can't find where on the pioneer site you find out where to check my phones compatibility.

I have a blackberry 8700. Don't know whether or not to do "both" the bluetooth upgrades or only one.

Okay, yes, I'm a rookie at this crap. I just ordered the 01.0010 (or whatever) upgrade. Don't even know what that is but it'll take three weeks to get here so I guess I'll have time to find out. Is that the 110-120 upgrade deal?

If so, should I wait to do the map upgrade until I do the 01.0010 upgrade?

Will my phone work still???

I'm so confused ! ARGGG !

Sometimes I hate technology ! I just want them to tell me to "insert this thingymabob and hit start". I can deal with that. Otherwise put something like "Hey, check your phone compatibility HERE" with a big arrow. How about Addendum HERE (big arrow). May it easy on us techno-challenged wanna-be propeller heads !

jd

Oh, did I mention that I did the install myself and it worked ! I am somewhat capable !

PSSST.......SHHHHHHHHHH !!!! OOPS, TOO LATE !!

Being aware there are professional thieves out there, don'tcha think they're aware of these? Especially now that you've posted all the pics.....

Just asking...... (and just kiddin as well)

I noticed that the Civic owner had one. Question for ya - did you look into modifying the original radio bezel (with all the buttons and crap) and use that? I have a civic and was thinking of that. I'm gonna check that out tomorrow. If that's out, perhaps I'll join the crowd, but....I think I'll have it delivered to my neighbors house so the don't have my addy (to find my new toy easily).....