nosaJ-11C7

Fantastic!  Thank you Ron!

Does anyone happen to have a saved copy of the product information for the map update?  The link on the official website is unfortunately dead.

AVIC-Z110BT, AVIC-Z120BT, AVIC-X920BT         CRD5009A.pdf

I'd like to find out what other software changes might be included in the update before I purchase it myself.  Thanks!

I'm afraid it's the same process for cell phones and basically all consumer electronics these days - the manufacturer releases updates for a couple years, and then eventually discontinues maintenance on that product.  I think there are a few factors involved:

1. Continued updates may require additional licensing (from NAVTEQ)

2. The user base on older products grows smaller over time so there is less overall benefit

3. Any software update requires significant engineering resources to produce

It seems that Pioneer doesn't roll these costs into the initial product price (for better or worse), which means they need to charge for updates, and that makes the potential user base even smaller.

On the positive side, roads don't really change much over time.  I don't know about where you live, but around me even the 2011 maps were still plenty accurate.  I bought the 2013 update more for the AV feature changes than the maps.  So probably the maps you have are fine and you don't even need to spend the $120 on new maps

Hi Deemorz,

Sorry to hear of your troubles   Just to make sure, you tried inserting an SD card with TESTMODE.KEY before turning on the radio?  If you see that something is running on the radio, I would expect it should check the SD card on boot, although maybe not after the update program starts (unlike during the normal radio application).

Ok, after some tweaking, I got my script running.  My active software is in PRG0, so I put the MortScript files from Condi's HackMode into \USER\PRG1\APL: Av.exe, commctr1.dll, coredl1.dll, killproc.exe, MortScript.exe, toolhel1.dll.  Then I created the following Av.mscr in the same folder:

# VR database rebuilder script

ErrorLevel("warn")

Delete("\NAND\RW\VBT\EN\EN_US\FINISH.db")

Run("\NAND\PRG0\APL\Av.exe")

Exit

Finally, I added PRG.FLG into \USER.  The VR database rebuilds every time now.

I tried my alternate idea of copying a known working copy of the VR database every boot, but it didn't work - the VR stopped working immediately.  I had assumed VBTEngine.exe was launched by Av.exe, but perhaps it is launched by something else (HMIManager.exe?) and therefore it doesn't like me replacing the files while it's running.

I also learned some interesting things in this process - I wondered why Condi used the second PRG folder for HackMode instead of just renaming Av.exe in the same folder.  So I tried just renaming Av.exe to Av1.exe and having the script call it, but Av1.exe would hang during boot.  So I put (Pioneer's) Av.exe in a subfolder, but the same result - the system hangs during boot.  So apparently (Pioneer's) Av.exe must exist with that name in either PRG0 or PRG1 - it won't work from any other directory or any other name.

Another interesting thing I stumbed upon is the infamous "There is no applicable program" message during boot.  When I put Mortscript in PRG1, this message started appearing.  I thought about why simply changing from PRG0 to PRG1 would make any difference, and I realized that the OS images in PRG1 were older than PRG0.  So basically I was booting an older Windows image (PRG1), and then trying to run Pioneer's Av.exe which was designed for a newer image (PRG0).  I suspect Condi never saw this because by coincidence he had the same software in both PRG0 and PRG1, or at least very similar.  In my case I had the AVIC-X940 firmware in PRG0 and AVIC-X920 firmware in PRG1.  The solution was simple - delete PRG1 and then make a copy of PRG0 and name it PRG1 - this fixed the problem.  Now the OS image is the same in both PRG0 and PRG1 and only the application (Av.exe) is different.

As a side project I thought about the bug where the XM station logos don't apppear sometimes after boot.  I thought that maybe Av.exe is loading before the P920XM tuner has a chance to gather all the station data.  To test this theory, I added a 20 second delay to the script to give the XM tuner plenty of time to gather everything.  Unfortunately this made no difference, so I guess it is not a race condition with Av.exe.

I think it will be too hard for me to reverse engineer the VBTEngine.exe interface.  I don't have IDA and it seems to be very expensive software so I decided to focus my efforts on forcing the VR database rebuild.  I downloaded Condi's HackMode and spent some time understanding how it works by looking over the scripts and the forum posts.  I realized that I can use a similar idea to accomplish my objective:

Replace Av.exe with Mortscript, just like in Condi's HackMode, except modify Av.mscr to delete FINISH.db and then run the original Av.exe.  This way the VR database is rebuilt every boot.

As an alternate idea, I can keep a good copy of the VR database in a different folder and use the script to overwrite the working copy every boot.  This would be faster but I'll have to see if the database corruption is still avoided...

I used testmode to investigate the issue further.  I found that the VR database is stored in \USER\RW\VBT\EN\EN_US.  In this directory, I noticed a file FINISH.db.  I discovered that if I delete this file, it causes the system to rebuild the VR catalog properly.  So I can carry an SD card in the car and delete this file when the problem occurs instead of resynching the iPod.  This is better, but I'm also trying to find a nicer solution.  By deleting FINISH.db and letting the system build a new VR catalog, I was able to compare a working copy of the VR database files to a non-working copy - the contents of the files are very different, so it seems the database is corrupted by some unknown software bug.  As far as I can tell, the VR processing is done via third party software called VoiceBox, which is \USER\PRG0\APL\VBT\VBTEngine.exe.  So the question is, how does VoiceBox know to write the VR database to \USER\RW\VBT\EN\EN_US?  There is a file VoiceBox.cfg, but the paths listed in this file don't exist on the system, so I don't think it's actually used.  Instead, one of the Pioneer processes must pass the location to VBTEngine.exe.  So I went to work with a Hex editor searching all of the files in USER\PRG0\APL for any of the path or file strings, but unfortunately I cannot seem to find them in any file.  My thought was to seperate the VR cataloging and recognition databases into two seperate folders - the system would catalog to one location (which it would invariably corrupt), and then I could keep a second, untouched copy of the database in another location for VR usage.  Whenever I resynch the iPod I would need to copy this folder, but I figure that's better than the current behavior. 

The other option would be to have some automated process delete FINISH.db on every startup.  Unfortunately I don't see any existing scripts in the file system which could be adapted for this purpose.

Hmm, maybe after some time I can think of another solution...

Hello everyone,

I have a strange problem that I was hoping that somebody might be familiar with   I have an X920BT upgraded to X940BT using the official 2013 map update.  I have a 160 GB 4th gen iPod classic with about 8,500 songs.  The headunit builds the VR catalog fine and iPod voice commands work for around a week, then suddenly it seems to forget all the song/artist/album VR information.  Any iPod voice command causes it to respond with "what was that?" or "i didn't understand you".  The workaround is simple, but annoying - resynchronize the iPod with iTunes, then the headunit will rebuld the VR catalog properly...for another week.  So far I haven't been able to figure out a particular event or action which causes the VR information to disappear.  Anyone else have this problem?  The original X920BT software had the same problem, and in typical pioneer fashion, all the bugs from the X920BT software are still there in the X940BT   The same issue occurs regardless of whether the nag screen bypass is used, and toggling the VR cataloging option in the menu doesn't help either.  If anyone knows a better solution I would appreciate it!  Thanks!

I have the X920BT with the GEX-P920XM and it has the exact same problem. Sometimes the logos show up, sometimes they don't. Sometimes half the logos show up. If I switch to FM for 30 seconds and then back to XM they usually show up again. Very annoying. I guess they didn't fix that bug on the X930BT. If you figure out a solution let me know

If the password is missing from the sd card packaging, you might be able to contact Pioneer and have them reissue it.

I thought that the new map update also added spoken street names to the navigation. Instead of saying "Right turn ahead" it would say "Right turn ahead on Main Street". The 2010 software could only speak freeway numbers. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Thanks!

Vandal, thanks for the great tool and all your effort creating the new logos - it definitely is time consuming! Attached is an updated pack for the Zxxx series that includes the logos for KIIS, Z100, and WLTW. This pack works with the AVIC-X920BT as well. I've also attached the photoshop source files for easy resizing to the other receiver types in case someone is interested. The PNG logos inside are from the XM channel guide PDF captured at 800%.

Edit: On second look, I'm not sure if photoshop saved the images at their original resolution, so maybe the photoshop files aren't so useful for the other receiver types.

AVIC Zxxx 7-6-2011 Logo Update.zip

Photoshop Sources.zip

I tried to splice in the Onstar mic to my AVIC-X920BT but I was unsuccessful. The sound was very quiet. Searching the internet, someone suggested that it is a powered mic and needs to be biased with 6 volts. I tried constructing a simple voltage divider to bias the mic but it didn't seem to make any difference. Also the mirror is glued shut so I couldn't open it without fear of it breaking. In the end I spliced into the Onstar mic wires under the center console and then spliced in again right behind the mirror and connected the Pioneer mic. It makes for a pretty clean installation.

Hey thanks for the great info. I do have a question. I can crop my image to 800x424 in Photoshop, but I don't know what you mean when you say vertically stretch the image to 800x480. How do you vertically stretch an image? Thanks!

Every photo editor is slightly different, but usually there's a resize menu option where you can specify the new dimensions. You may have to uncheck "lock aspect ratio" or something similar.

Sorry, I'm not sure about the pixel ratio for the AVIC-X910BT

I have an AVIC-X920BT and I have preset up/down assigned to two buttons on my steering wheel and it works well. Note however, that there seems to be no way to switch between preset lists using the steering wheel buttons. If anyone figures out how to do that let me know

Hello everyone,

I didn't see any posts that talked about the pixel aspect ratio of the AVIC-X920BT so I thought I would share this information:

The AVIC-X920BT display is 5.3125 Inches x 2.8125 Inches = 1.889 Aspect Ratio

The AVIC-X920BT resolution is 800 Pixels x 480 Pixels = 1.667 Aspect Ratio

In other words, the pixels are NOT square like on a digital camera or computer monitor. If you simply crop an image to 800x480, it will look vertically squished on the AVIC-X920BT screen.

To get the aspect ratio correct, resize your image to 800x424 keeping the original aspect ratio. Next, vertically stretch the image to 800x480. Now you're ready to drop the image into the "Pictures" folder on your SD card and enjoy it on your AVIC-X920BT!

XM recently changed the station name for channel 80 from "Area" to "Electric Area" and now the logo doesn't show up anymore I was hoping there was an easy way to update logos as mentioned for the other headunit series in this forum, but I can't find anything that seems to apply to the X920BT. Anybody had any luck updating the logos on the X920BT? Thanks!

I don't think this has anything to do with the antenna. I think it is a software or hardware bug. I'm using the GM factory installed XM antenna and I still occasionally experience the 1 second alternating silence problem I never had the problem when I was using the factory head unit.

Here's a known issue that VBlue mentioned in another thread where you cannot use voice commands to dial contacts:

"The problem is related to the BT connecting before the map OK button is pressed. In this case, when you get in your car, just go to the BT contact transfer screen and re-transfer your contacts. That should clear up the issue."

I have an AVIC-X920BT. If the unit was previously on the XM source, the next time you start the unit sometimes the station icons do not appear on the presets on the right side of the screen. Instead the default satellite icon is shown. Rotating through XM1 -> XM2 -> XM3 seems to fix this.

While these are not known issues, I would consider them annoyances:

1. There are no voice commands to change presets or preset lists for any radio source

2. You cannot change preset lists in quick succession. If you press XM1, you have to wait maybe 5 seconds before pressing XM2 or the unit will ignore the second button press.

3. If you are listing to an XM station and then bring up the list of stations, it always starts from the beginning. It would be nicer if the list started from the station you are currently on.

4. Unlike the iPod lists, the XM station list can only be scrolled exactly one page at a time, and each page takes about 3 seconds to load.

5. There is no way to scroll the album, artist, or title displays.

6. The FM tuner has RDS support, which is great; however, it is pointlessly jammed into a tiny space on the screen. It rotates through the station ID and song. Unfortunately the FM presets also update with this information, so instead of having a preset which says "KISS FM" it will randomly say "Nirvana" or "Pearl Jam" or whatever happened to be playing the last time you tuned to that station.

7. The navigation voice does not announce all street names, even if it knows the street name.

8. The balance controls do not seem to affect either the phone or navigation voice.

Not that I regret buying the unit, but I wouldn't complain if Pioneer created an update to fix these

I have an AVIC-X920BT with XM radio. Does anyone know if there are voice commands to switch stations or presets? Something like "play XM preset 1" or "play XM 20 on 20"? The manual didn't mention anything about such commands so I'm worried there are none ...but I'm hoping someone can tell me I'm wrong. Thanks!

I agree with tom411. There seemed to be mixed opinions on whether the Onstar mic could be used as an input for the Pioneer head unit, so I cut the Onstar mic wires (at the Onstar module behind the center console) on my 2004 Grand Prix and spliced them into the AVIC mic plug. Unfortunately the signal was way too low and it was barely audible. Someone suggested using a 1k/1k resistor voltage divider to bias the Onstar mic at 6v. I tried that as well with no luck. Eventually I decided to splice the Pioneer mic into the connector on the rear view mirror, so at least I could use the existing mic wires.

Ok, I've finished my install and I can confirm the VSS wire is the green one pictured above.

I'm also looking for the VSS wire. Here is the engine compartment with the engine cover removed. I think the TAC module is the black box on the center right of the photo, which falls between the air intake and the supercharger. You can see that I pulled back the wire cover going to the harness.

Based on cntrylvr79's description, I think VSS is the green wire in the picture below. Can anyone who has already done a Grand Prix install confirm this? Thanks!

I have listened to both Sirius and XM in various cars and in all cases I find the sound quality is worse than FM; no static, just too much compression. It pisses me off...but at the same time I like the selection, so I guess I will keep my XM subscription for now...