N0XAS

Yeah, what he said. I can't find them either.

So does the nag remover fix your problem or otherwise?

Yes - works perfectly!

Pioneer should design the stupid thing with a internal timer, like after 30 seconds or so in OFF, next startup would be cold boot.

Actually -- you'd think they could suspend to FLASH so it wouldn't need to use any battery power. You'd just use battery for a few seconds after engine stop to do the save, then resume when the car is started again. Why cold boot at all?

I know that worked for me. No more nag screen - yay! Now if only the boot time were a little shorter. Or a LOT shorter.

I was trying to figure out why once in a while my unit will still show the backup camera half a block from home. Well, if I have it on the map when I shut off the car, I'll get the backup camera image about 10-12 seconds after engine start. After I shift out of reverse, though, it wants to flip to the nav screen -- but of course it can't until Windows finishes booting. Duh.

It's really too bad they didn't design the system to suspend/sleep when the engine is shut off, rather than cold booting every time it's started. There's battery power provided, so it could be done. But, there are a lot of design decisions that were made that just leave me scratching my head. Like no RDS - WTF?? Not even on the Z110!

I'm sure glad I never listened to anyone who told me things weren't possible. I'd never have the job, house, toys or kids I've got now.

Obviously it's possible, given enough knowledge about the underlying programs present on the AVIC. The unit mutes and switches various audio sources all the time now, all under program control. So obviously there is a programmatic way to do it, we just haven't figured that way out yet.

As I noted in a post in the F hacks forum, reverse engineering Windows EXE files is a little out of my range right now - at least until I've got some time to figure out how to do it. Eventually I or someone else will get far enough into it to figure out and document the methods for doing what needs to be done.

I'm more of a hardware guy. I can write my own C code and scripts, and develop products using embedded processors with code I write myself. However, ripping apart code compiled for Windows is a little beyond me at the moment.

I guess I'll have to wait and watch for some of the software pros to do some further digging - or wait until I've got the time to figure out how to reverse engineer the stuff on the AVIC.

OK, fair enough. Next question: Does anyone know, and have a few minutes to tell me, how switching audio sources is done? Is there a (known) command already on the system to do it, as I suspect, or is it done at a lower level by the programs themselves?

Has anyone documented any of the the WinCE commands used on the AVIC? I'm interested specifically in how to switch audio sources from a script. From what I have read, I think av.exe can do that given the proper incantation. I want to be able to (for example) watch for an event, like a COM port line changing state, and switch to a different audio source. One example of a use for this would be to detect the signal from an external source (ham radio, CB, scanner, radar detector) and automatically switch to an aux audio input. Putting some sort of visual indication on the screen and sending an audio cue would be nice also, but switching the source would be the win.

Getting an alert signal into the unit looks to be fairly simple; there are FTDI virtual COM port drivers for WinCE on ARM processors, so a common USB to serial converter will probably work. I say "probably" because I haven't tried it yet, but hope to do so in the next few days.

So - what say ye, AVIC software folk?

Wow... this nailed my problem exactly. I edited my phone contacts and re-downloaded them, now I can dial entries by voice commands.

THANKS GUYS!!! That was bugging the hell out of me.

The hardware is not a problem... at least I don't think it would be. I'll have to look and see if my favorite USB solution has drivers for WinCE on ARM... yup, drivers do exist.

So... the next question is, is there a documented API or some tribal knowledge regarding how to control the audio functions from Windows? Mute, switch inputs, etc? If I can find that and get a small app doing what I want it to, I'll see about hacking together some hardware. Rather than use the squelch signal, I'll probably just use an audio detector (think VOX) so it could be applied to other audio sources as well - like scanners, CB, radar detectors, whatever.

Warning message, p. 185 of the manual. Don't know if it keeps you from using the nav or not, but I'd bet it does. This is my first AVIC and I did the bypass, so I can't tell you for certain.

The unit will function exactly as the manufacturer intended it to. Some features are not available when you're not parked... like finding an address with the nav system, etc. Since there's no DVD player on a 710, that's not an issue, though I believe it will play some video formats (haven't tried yet). Those probably won't work unless parked, either. It's all in that fine operation manual, should you care to slog through it all.

There are a lot of people who will just plain go off on people asking about bypassing the unit's reluctance to enable all features while moving. While I personally have zero interest in having video playing on the screen while I'm driving -- and it's illegal as hell to boot -- I don't understand why some nav features are disabled. I don't punch in addresses while I'm driving, but my passenger certainly can. My Garmin, and all other nav systems that I have seen that are not in-dash, will very happily let you do anythign you want while moving. It seems that all in-dash systems want to cripple themselves. My wife's new Fusion is the same way, though it will at least let you do stuff while stopped and not actually parked. So, I did the bypass modification on mine, and if I could find a way for the Fusion (not involving adding a switch somewhere) I'd do it to my wife's car as well.

I got my X710BT installed -- FINALLY -- in my truck. Took the install kit a while to get here, but I'll have it finished up tonight and start with the Dynamat. There are a couple of things I want to do, though, if it's possible. I don't know how much control WinCE has over the audio hardware, but it seems I should be able to do this stuff.

First off, I want to change the "iPOD" designation for the AV1 input to something else. Neither I nor anyone else in the family use one, and I'd just like to change the text to read, for example, "HAM". I want to connect the audio from my ham radio transceiver to AV1 and call it that, not an iPod.

Second... is it possible to have AV1 or AV2 either mix with, or better yet mute and override the selected audio source? I like to keep said ham transceiver on while I'm on the road, but often will go for hours without hearing anything. I'd like to listen to music and still hear the VHF/UHF audio when it's there. I have a squelch signal from the rig I could use if needed

Just trying to get rid of one little external speaker foam-taped to the dash.