PsychoMcSatan

PsychoMcSatan, what sort of diode did you use? How many watts was it rated for? I'm just curious, I have a few small 12V batteries which I am considering installing as a secondary system.

Hi Ryar,

Sorry for the slow reply, I've been happily using my 900bt with no issues fort the past few months.

Anyway, I forget the specifics of the circuit that my dad helped me out with, but the details are discussed in this thread:

http://avic411.com/index.php?/topic/19417-ignition-mod-on-f900bt/page__hl__%2Bignition+%2Bvoltage

There's a pdf a few posts in which is what I used. A page or two in is discussions about specific parts and alternatives.

Regards,

-PMS

In near time, I'm visiting a good service and if they find some solution I will inform you about it.

As mentioned before, there are a few discussions in the forums about hooking up small rechargeable batteries behind a diode. I hooked one up with the help of my electrical engineer dad and it works great. That being said, if you don't have electrical wiring experience I wouldn't recommend taking on such a project yourself as car batteries can push out enough current to start fires.

-PMS

 

on a completly diff topic. has anyone tried a newer garmin UI? the one currently used is an older UI from garmin. the newest UI with Ecoroute. since our systems have BT i was wondering if wed be able to get this working. http://gbr.garmin.com/ecoroute-hd/ my gf has one for her car and its pretty kool actually.

 

if someone points me to how to get the UI i would be willing to try it out to see if it would work

Just took a look and while it does look sweet, I think we're limited to Windows CE based software. I believe the Garmins use their own proprietary OS so it'd be very unlikely that this could be made to run on an AVIC.

-PMS

Aha, finally determined that the middle button does start voice recognition, even with CE6, but only when you are on the AV screen(?)

I'm guessing that the modded navigation functions iGO8 in AvicNet block it for some reason. No big deal though as I rarely use it. It's just an extra button press or two to activate it on off the chance I need to make a call while driving, so no big deal.

My next challenge is to start up hobdrive and end up on the map/navigation screen of iGO8 when I start up the car. I modified Ryar's hobdprimo script, but replacing the call to Primo with 'Show ("iGO8")' only brings me to the AvicNet menu. Show ("MainMenu") brings me to the main menu. I suppose I could simulate button presses to get me there, but is there a direct script call that would bring up the iGO8 map after starting hobdrive?

Thanks,

PMS

just tested this with my 700bt and it works fine. i know it doesnt help you much but i figured id try it out.

I don't think it's a hardware issue with my AVIC as I just discovered that if you hold down the middle button for a couple seconds it registers as 'mute'.

Hmmm... I'm wondering if that custom CE6 that disables the gyro for f900bt units may also disable voice recognition. I don't believe the Euro versions had voice recognition and I think that custom CE6 was the work of Russians.

I've actually switched back to using iGo8 for navigation as Primo2.0 has a few issues that are becoming deal breakers. Namely, erratic sound volume issues, corruption of "Screen off", and frequent disabling of the backup camera. I'll switch back to a North American CE5 and see if that does the trick.

-PMS

So does anyone else here use the voice dialing (started by pressing the volume dial) with Ryar's AvicNet2.1 and a f900bt? Currently pressing the volume dial isn't doing anything for me and I suspect it might be a hardware issue, but wanted to confirm that the button does work with AvicNet.

Thanks,

PMS

For your sound problem, I would suggest using ryar's tip by inserting this line in your SYS.txt:

 

[sound]
use_os_volume=1

 

You will be able to control the volume with the knob, in a usual way.

I thought that did the trick when I first added it, however my issue is more about the relative volume between the Primo voices and SD music. I use the volume knob to turn the SD music up, but then the voice guidance blows out my eardrums. And this is with the voice volume slider within Primo set almost to its minimum.

What's interesting is that as I move that slider, Primo plays a voice sample and that seems to get quiet enough. However, when back in navigation and I get voice directions, it very very loud. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure that the slider even affects the real voice directions within the app itself. Are you saying that without that code above, the volume knob should not affect the voice volume? I think I've always had control over Primo volume with the knob, so then it sounds like perhaps I should disable that feature and take out that code. Though I'm pretty sure it wasn't in there before.

Oh well, I'll do some more trial and error and let you know if I hit on anything.

Oh, one other observation. This is a little of topic, but has anyone else ever had issues with the screen off feature under main menu's settings? I'm finding that four times out of five, I'll get the "blank" screen filled with seemingly random lines and sometimes very bright. I've rigged my Avic so that it'll stay on with the car off for short stops, so the screen off feature is useful to me.

I don't recall the corruption issue before starting to mod, so are there different versions of the screen off app, or perhaps could the memory usage be affecting the screen's blankness?

Thanks,

PMS

Please see attached for my copy of SYS.txt.

Hi Chuck88,

I've browsed through your sys.txt and was just wondering if you have descriptions of what some of the settings do. I'm particularly interested in "csv_voice_enabled=1" as well as the [dynamiccompressor] and [tts] sections.

I've been using the TTS Pro voice with Ryar's 2.1 and normally play music from my SDCard. However the voice level is still painfully loud relative to the music even if the voice volume within Primo's settings is almost at minimum. I thought I had fixed it because the volume of the sample voice you hear when adjusting the volume sliders is way quieter than the actual voice when you get guidance running.

My next and previous song buttons seem to work, but the knob press which had brought up the voice dialing in the past does nothing for me now. Do you know what posible alternative settings for the [Keybind] section might be?

And can anyone comment on how the diffferent sys.txt copies interact with each other? I see sys.txt under iGo8 as well as Primo as well as APL2.

Thanks,

PMS

I am trying to setup hobdrive via bluetooth and have an elm327 bluetooth adapter and when I try to choose bluetooth the program just says "No update" for bluetooth, should I be picking a com? I am clueless....

Sorry, I'm not using bluetooth, just a USB elm327 adapter.

Though as I suggested above, I'd see if you can get it working on a laptop so you know that it is indeed an issue with the AVIC setup.

-PMS

Alright so pretty much everything is working for me now except for the OBD stuff. I have it plugged into my car port and the USB port, and when I click on the HOB program it comes up with every reading as nothing. So I tried changing the COM ports and everything but still could not get it to work. Any hints on what I am doing wrong?

Mine started up without much work so I don't recall any configuration that needed to be done, except that I'm pretty sure that it uses COM3. Also, I won't get a reading till I turn the key to the point just before ignition. Engine doesn't need to be running, but I think that turns on the OBD system so it will at least show you stuff like battery voltage.

I played around with my OBD reader via a laptop first so maybe you could use that to confirm that your car works with your reader.

-PMS

PMS, when you say that pressing the volume knob no longer starts voice recognition dialing, when did it stop working? Was it with the 2.1 update?

Couldn't say since I haven't tried to make a call for a while and I've applied a few different mods since then. I did clear MFD before applying 2.1 so I would think I've got a pretty clean slate.

Does it work for you? It could be a physical problem with my button.

Thanks,

PMS

As for your sound issues, there are various sys.txt commands which may help. I would suggest trying:

 

[sound]

use_os_volume=1

Thanks again Ryar! That seems to have equalized the volumes enough so that I can get some control with the sliders within Primo.

I haven't had those memory issues again either so launching into AvicNet works fine again.

I'd be set except I just now found one other issue. Seems that pressing the volume knob no longer starts the voice recognition dialing. The phone works fine for incoming calls, and clearly I don't call out much while driving or else I'd have noticed it by now, but it'd be nice to have back.

Anyone know how to re-enable the voice recognition dialing?

Thanks,

-PMS

PMS, what skin are you using with Primo? Also for HobDrive for that matter.

Haven't played around with any skins so I suppose I'm just using the defaults. I did notice that some of Hobdrive's gauges have coloured dots behind them, I think to show average values. I didn't have those with your default install of the free version. They make the gauges difficult to read anyway so I'll try removing that to see if it frees up memory.

Thanks for the suggestion for the sound too. I'll try these things on the weekend and let you know.

Thanks,

-PMS

So my install of Ryar's AvicNet2.1 and full version of Hobdrive is working pretty stable now. I've just been taking short, infrequent trips lately, but I really prefer Primo2.0 map layout now and switching quickly to see advanced fuel economy stats is awesome.

The one thing I'm still searching the forums for is a way to bring up the volume of the SDCard music relative to the Primo2.0 sounds. I put the SLA setting up to +4 in the main iGo AVSound settings and that helped, but I still need to put "voice volume" in Primo2.0 to almost the minimum so that it doesn't blow out my eardrums when I've turned up the volume for the music. That makes it hard to fine tune.

The main volume slider in Primo2.0 decreases the SD music volume too so that's no help.

One other thing I've experienced with my last couple attempts is "Out of memory" errors when trying to restart into AvicNet mode. Children are preventing me from doing any sort of trial and error troubleshooting, but I have a feeling that I never had issues before upgrading to the full version of Hobdrive.

I'll have some more updates after the next rainy day (I'm riding the kids to school in a bike trailer now that summer's here). Or anyone have a hack to get the Avic running on a bicycle with pedal power?

-PMS

Yea but it won't let me close primo, all I have is the primo screen. Then when I press the menu button it takes me to test mode and I can't close primo from test mode.

How are you starting testmode? I boot into testmode with an SDCard and have never had an issue with other apps starting up unless I browse to them myself.

-PMS

Instructions: Unzip, copy to your unit. Make a shortcut by tapping Avic Net, Settings, Menu, Programs, Add. Choose a program name (I use HobD and Primo), choose an icon, and set the Program path. It is: \my flash disk\apl4\hobdprimo\hobdpromo.exe. Choose "Yes" for Autorun with start iGO. Reboot and that's it! Note for the timing and file names I set it up specifically for my unit (I start at the AV nag screen disclaimer) so some small tweeks may be required. Post back, let us know how it works. Good luck!

***edit***

Figured out the HOBDrive starting issue. The hobdrive.mscr was pointing to hobd.exe instead of hobdrive.exe. So things start up okay now, but even though hobdrive is running (I can hear its connection noises) the engine icon doesn't bring up the interface. The icon for going back to Primo works okay though.

Back to the drawing board, but I'm getting there. I think I'm starting to almost understand how these scripts work. I see some commented out code that looks like it's waiting for hobdrive to start, but it's been replaced by just a delay. Maybe I'll add that back in or extend the delay?

Oh, and I see others are downloading the script so just note, In Ryar's instructions, the proper program path is \my flash disk\apl4\hobdriveprimo\hobdprimo.exe

***edit 2***

Aha. I think I see the problem with the icon. obdbutton.exe.ini has hobd.exe instead of hobdrive.exe in it as well. Can't test right now, but it makes sense.

-PMS

I am also having the issue of the unit starting at the AV screen. I wrote a mortscript file which auto-launches hobdrive then Primo 2.0. I would like to share it, but there are differences in the hobdrive free version and paid version and for some reason the free version slows the unit to a crawl with Primo 2.0 running simultaneously. Also, the task name for the paid version is hobdrive while the free version is /hobd which mortscript simply will not recognize (perhaps the / is messing it up). Anyways, if you find a way to have it launch to the map or main menu screen please share.

 

I believe the reason hobdrive takes awhile to launch and even display after it is running is because it uses .NET Compact Framework. There is no way around this that I am aware

Hey Ryar,

So I purchased the full version and just copied the file contents over my current AvicNet2.1 install as I saw a few Mortscript-type things in there that I'm guessin make it go... and it works great. In fact, it now loads noticably faster. One thing that no longer works (though I'm not 100% that it worked before) is that when I configure HOBD to start with "Hot Button", it does put the icon up in the menu, but it won't initiate the OBD connection till I manually get in and start up the HOBD interface.

My next step will be to copy MyFLashDisk back to my PC and see what Mortscript or config file changes that enabling that Hot Button changed and see if I can slip HOBD and Primo2.0 in there. Though I did notice up there in your quote that you'd like to share your Mortscript (I could help you out with that ).

Is there any way that primo 1.0 can boot as the main gps when the map button is hit?

I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that the physical buttons' are controlled by code within the custom compiled iGo8 code that runs the menu systems and AV stuff. Therefore there's no way to capture those button presses. 'Menu' will always take you to the main menu and 'Map' will always take you to the iGo8 map screen.

-PMS

I believe the reason hobdrive takes awhile to launch and even display after it is running is because it uses .NET Compact Framework. There is no way around this that I am aware

So I paid for the full version and I see there is a Net3.5 version and a standalone version that doesn't need Net3.5. Have you tried both, and if so, which should I be installing?

I've started looking into Mortscript and I'm guessing that I'll need to add some lines into autorun.mscr, but I'm still figuring things out.

It's already too late to be running down to my garage to give it a try tonight. I'll try to sneak some reading in at work tomorrow.

-PMS

Hi Mach1Chris, I noticed if the unit is in the process of booting and then the unit is interrupted (key on/off) it will initialize on the next start-up. Could this be the cause of your frequent initializations?

I think that's probably the issue. Many car ignitions have this bad habit of dropping the accessory voltage when cranking the engine, so the Avic will start booting when you start turning your key, but then if the voltage drops enough during engine crank (I think less than 10V or something) then it'll start the boot process again.

Mine always did that, but I ended up solving it with the help of another Avic411 thread which had schematics to wire up a batch of 10 rechargable AAs. You can find it by searching for my posts as it took me a couple iterations to get it right.

*** found it here: ***

http://avic411.com/index.php?/topic/19417-ignition-mod-on-f900bt/page__fromsearch__1

You might also avoid your issues by turning the key all the way quickly so the Avic doesn't have enough time start that first boot process.

-PMS

 

I am also having the issue of the unit starting at the AV screen. I wrote a mortscript file which auto-launches hobdrive then Primo 2.0. I would like to share it, but there are differences in the hobdrive free version and paid version and for some reason the free version slows the unit to a crawl with Primo 2.0 running simultaneously. Also, the task name for the paid version is hobdrive while the free version is /hobd which mortscript simply will not recognize (perhaps the / is messing it up). Anyways, if you find a way to have it launch to the map or main menu screen please share.

 

I think I'll purchase the full version. Should I just clear out the current HOBD directory and plop in the new version or is there an install process?

I've heard this mortscript thing mentioned on a few different threads, but I usually take that as a flag to let me know the discussion has gone over my head. The struggles are actually kind of enjoyable, especially seeing all the new functionality I hadn't even imagined before buying my unit. But my car is in my co-op's underground garage so the back and forth is killing me!

Anyway, thanks again for all the help!

-PMS

Has anyone got TTS to work with stock IGO ?

Doing a search, several people seem to have complained of the same problem, but there are no replies with fixes....

 

Does it work ?

Mine's working. I'm at work so I can't see what I put where, but I'm pretty sure I followed Ryar's instructions that are in the first post or two. He pulled them out to save space so you need to save them from your backup or someone else's mod. Perhaps make sure that they're in place before you start up for the first time afterinstalling AvicNet?

Also, I'm running a North American unit which Ryar's image is configured for. Check sys.txt to make sure the correct version is uncommented. I know this was causing bluetooth issues for me and Mach1Chris and the Italian version.

Good luck.

-PMS

Also is it possible to bypass or get rid of the stock igo completely?

I can't find where I read it, but I'm pretty sure that the core menu system and AV management is embedded within the custom iGo8 software that Pioneer developed. That being said, Ryar's AvicNet2.1 has something called "hardbutton" I think, that can startup a program (like Primo2.0) directly on boot. To find it, click on settings under the AvicNet menu. It does take a bit longer to boot because it first has to startup iGo8, but if you've decided to use Primo exclusively, it makes things a bit easier.

I'd recommend that WinCE image that disables the gyro. I believe the gyro is supposed to help keep your position if gps is lost, but it never seemed to do a great job anyway. Does anyone know if there's any real useful purpose for the gyro?

-PMS

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm complaining too much, it's just that I think I'm sticking with AvicNet2.1 so I want to fine tune it as best I can. I've solved a couple things, but there are still things that I don't understand yet.

What's under my skin now is that HOBD seems to take quite a while to start up; not only to start up initially, but if I go to navigation and then go to switch back to HOBD via the engine icon that's on the main menu (cool feature by the way). I am going to try replacing with the full paid version so maybe that could change things, but is there any sort of tweaking that might allow me to switch back and forth a bit quicker?

It's clear these mods are very finicky. For example, starting up Primo2.0 with the Italian version seemed to take twice as long as it does with Ryar's version. I've searched thorugh tons of discussions, but it appears that most of the fine-tuning is done via trial and error.

-PMS

I really do prefer Primo 2.0 over iGo now, and AvicNet's abilty to run HOBD to show engine stats is really fun.

That being said, I am still experiencing a few quirks with AvicNet. *** solved the volume issue. found under WinCE 'control panel' a volume control that was set low. putting it to max seems to have equalized eveything ***

Also, no matter where I am at in the menu systems or navigation when I shut down, my unit always starts up on the AVSource page of whatever source it's playing. For short trips I just leave it on iGo so I'd prefer it to launch to map. I figure that's got to be configurable, but my searches are not bearing fruit lately. Is there a good thread that discusses the basic iGo menu configuration?

Thanks,

-PMS

What is the pass for this archive?

I got the password from the first page of the Italian AvicNet2.1 thread. It's right next to the download links. However, I can't seem to access the page anymore. Last time I accessed it, I did a Google search for AvicNet 2.1 and clicked on "translate" for the first Italian looking link. Now it comes up with a login page. I just copied and pasted the password so I can't remember what it was.

In any case, I'd recommend Ryar's on the first page of this thread if you have a North American unit. Not only is it tough to get that Italian one running english, but getting bluetooth working takes some sys.txt editing and I don't think we ever figured out how to get SD music working on an NA unit.

-PMS