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Doesn't necessarily require new hardware, just new brains for the software guys at Pioneer. It is slow because the iPod interface adapter is slow. However, they could cache all of the song titles on the hard drive and let you navigate the cached list. That would be a lot faster. You just have to make sure the cached list is properly synched with the iPod. Not hard, the AVIC can tell when it is not plugged in. The programmers do some really stupid things on the Zx, the slow iPod interface is one of them.

The sound produced is very good when it works. HD Radio only transmits with 1/100th the power of the FM station. I can only receive HD radio stations in the "city grade" antenna pattern. This is only for very close stations. There are 6 fm stations I listen to via FM, and I only get two of them in HD. The reception isn't very good.

I just installed one of these too. There is also a list of 6 buttons called "function x", where x is 1 through 6. If you hit the "function 1" button, it will toggle between three text displays. It will show the station, then press the "function 1", and it will display the artist. Press it again and it will display the song. What is completely stupid is that only half of the screen is used for these buttons, and the other half of the screen is blank. There is plenty of room on the screen to display all three lines simultaneously. Instead, you have to hit a button, and you see a

We have a reasonably good approach for doing it, it is just that nobody has found it yet. A synopsys: 1. European version of Z2 is bypassable by grounding the brake 2. U.S. version is not. The hardware is the same, and it is reasonable to believe the software is the same. Both units have the same service manual. We are looking for a setting in the "service mode" to change the region or something similar. We might also find a setting to change something like a region in a user text file on the hard drive that will make the unit think it is the euopean model. If you lo

Eh? I'm a bit confused here. The illumination is connected to the headlight switch? I thought it was connected to that dimmer that adjusts the brightness of the dashboard, so when the dash is set to be dimer or brighter, the Z2 controls also get dimmer or brighter. I guess the difference is that being connected to the headlight switch is just two states. I thought this one was either a pulse width modulation, or a DC level. Please understand that I don't actually have an AVIC-Z2 yet and have not installed one - I made this assumption because the steering wheel controls output the illumin

Be mindful that if you try to make it look like the European version by changing the region setting or something, that you need to ground the brake wire. At least that is what the European Z2 user said he had to do in order to bypass it. Are you going to try to do the illumination grounding as well?

I think we are getting some good ideas now. rjedlich, I think your point #5 is what we havne't done, and one thing that might prove useful to do. For those that have a Z2 it is useful to try and do things that will trigger the lockout, and then look at any existing log files. It is also useful to look through any preference files. Anything ending in .txt. rjedlich, I think you have a terrific idea with finding a service manual. I was thinking about that this morning too. Here is something to add to the service manual idea. So far, we know that the European model is bypassab

Hyperite, brandon is right about my motivation. I'm not trying to offend you, I was trying to prevent going down a dead end. We don't have infinite resources on this forum, and we can reach our goal more quickly if we avoid dead ends. I do not have a Z2 in my posession because there is no face plate yet available for my 2006 Volvo v70. It should be available in another month or so. I was not trying to be too pretentious, or "holier than thou" as Brandon put it. If I came across that way, I am sorry. Actually, I was trying to be more of the opposite. I don't care for it when peo

I AM one of them... what is my opinion and why do I need to weigh it against anybody else's? If you have a good idea, then it should stand on its own merits with full disclosure and complete transparency. If you can address the problems I mentioned with regard to recompiling, then you might be capable of changing the software. If you can't, or don't understand what I was talking about, then you will not succeed. So far, I haven't seen you give any reasons for your objections, I have only read the objections. That doesn't carry much weight. You really don't know what you ar

Okay, great. Why not let them address the issues I posted and see if they can offer a satisfactory answer as to what they are doing. If you happen to be one of them, then your opinion has far more weight if you can address those issues. You don't seem to know what you are talking about. GPS stands for *GLOBAL* Positioning system. There are 24 positioning satellites on six orbital planes that circle the earth every 12 hours. The orbital planes are inclined about 55 degrees from the equator and don't go over the poles. There are a handful of WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation Satellites

London is the last place you want to try to buy one. The dollar is at a 26 year low against the pound, and the exchange rate was over $2 per pound. In addition, their sales tax (VAT) is something like 17.5% right now. They don't believe in taxation without representation. I think you might do better against the Euro. If you bought one in Europe, they might be looking to see if those warranty void seals have been broken when you returned it. It is an expensive gamble. If the cost of the Eurpean Z2 minus the cost of the domestic Z2 is less than the cost of a plane flight and hot

Your effort is commendable, but you all are really headded down a dead end road. Your efforts will not pay off doing what you are doing. Here is one suggestion... If you don't know anything about programming, it is better to ask questions than to act foolishly. First. Do any of you know what a .dll is? It stands for dynamically linked library. It is a set of common calls that can be used by multiple programs (the .exe files). They are loaded by the program at runtime instead of at compile time by static libraries. They save disk space, and make the program more modular - that is

ltl2007, looks like you are really motivated to figure this one out! Before anyone decides to re-compile an exe file, it is better to try to get a picture of what is going on. You mentioned, "statechangebypkbstatus" It sounds like this means State Changed By ParKing Brake Status. What do you think? What do you think the other one means? "drivingstatusbyinterlockchangedevent" What is an interlock changed event? It looks like you found a bunch of ISRs or something. DrivingStateByPkbChangedEvent - It looks at the parking brake DrivingStateBySpeedChangedE

Sounds like good news. The European unit is easy to fix. Obviously, this goes into one of two categories. 1. Hardware (Soldering a jumper as mentioned before) 2. Software (A region encoding settting is different on the hard drive) These are fairly easy to compare. Is it possible to order a replacement hard drive for the European market? whtcrxghst, do you have access to a Z2 to take look if a jumper sets the region? What I find disturbing about this is that it appers you have to void the warranty in order to do the hack this time around. Secondly, why is it that yo

This is what ltl2007 had to say about this on page 8. Did you push down the sensor switch as described by ltl2007??

Can anyone out there unlock the Z2 hard drive and view its contents?? Someone said it has log files in there. Looking at a log file can give clues as to how to get what we want out of the system. Can someone start playing a DVD with the following conditions: 1 The engine running, 2 The Parking Brake on 3 The car is outside with a clear view of the sky and is calculating a position of the automobile. Next Let out the parking brake. Wait for 30 to 60 seconds. Next, put the car in gear, and drive slowly down the street at less than 5mph. Next, after doing this for 30 to 60

A few of you have some good ideas about where the problem lies, but, unfortunately, you are making a few assumptions about the system that will hinder your progress. Consider these to points, they counter the false assumptions I see being made here. 1. You can't just look at the hard drive, and not the flash memory module. The flash memory has the OS, and the Navigation application on it. 2. Don't assume that the preferences haven't changed along with the navigation software. The Z1 hack changed with software updates. It was the flashing light method, then it was grounding som

Wrong answer! Wasn't it ltl2007, or ducatiboy that said a couple of days ago that you could run the unit without the hard drive?? That means that the flash memory has more than just the O.S. on it. It also has the navigation software on it. If it didn't have navigation software on it, then the unit wouldn't show your position if the hard drive was removed. It would only be able to boot the O.S.. The hard drive is for user preferences and log files, and music storage.

I think that ducatiboy and ltl2007 are on the right track. ltl2007, you said that this is a complete software hack, right? Is it possible that you could show us those log files and user files? If the user file is some sort of preference file, it could be that this is where the override goes, although the setting may not appear in the file. It could be that you need to add a line to it that doesn't exist or something. Looking at the log files might give us an idea of what to do. Try to run the DVD when the vehicle is moving, so that any conditions that might trigger end up in the

Hi ltl2007, I honestly don't know that it is a good idea for you to take apart your Z2, I don't want you to ruin it or anything. If the unit is running some variant of Windows, then that narrows down the processor to most likely be Intel. I guess some of the pocketPCs might use an ARM or something. Going through the stuff I mentioned would be a huge undertaking. Personally, I was looking at this to see if I should buy a Z1, or a Z2. Did you get the impression from Pioneer that there is a back door, but they weren't going to share it with us, or that there was no back door at al

I'm hoping the statement would look more like this: if (vss <= 10mph) || (gps <= 10mph) || (lockoutDisabled == true) { playDVD } Where lockoutDisabled is initialized to false, but will be set to true if certain pins are pulled up or grounded at boot time. This would be the back door that they have put into it and it is the back door we are hoping that someone will leak to us shortly. As far as hacking the code goes, it wouldn't be very easy to do. First thing we need to know is what processor is being used. Anyone want to take their Z2 apart to tell us that? It will t

Thanks for trying that stuff, the behavior is useful to know. Looks like it is definetly a software issue. We just have to figure out, or wait for the leak, as to what hoops to go through to get the software to unlock the system when in motiion.

Sorry to give the impression that disconnecting the antenna was a solution. I was asking people to disconnect the antenna, and the brake wire, and the vss wire to find out what happens, to see how the Z2 reacts. I wanted to see what happened when they did those things. By how the unit reacted when the antenna was disconnected showed that it was a software issue. Because it is a software issue, the hack will only work when a certain condition is met at a certain time that opens a pre-programmed back door that unlocks the unit during motion. This back door could be grounding pins, or

Knowing some of the history of other modifications this is great. Do we have a list of what they all were? Is it possible that it could just be a combination of other things? For instance, if you have two wires that were grounded, there are three other combinations. ground, ground ground, pull-up pull-up, ground pull-up, pull-up Are there any other wires that could be tried?

That sounds like a someone going to the doctor and saying, "I don't think I have brain cancer, because that would be really hard to treat." That is why software is such a great thing. You can produce the exact same hardware without any retooling of the production lines, and then load in different software depending on its shipping destination. Right now, the evidence you presented suggests that the hack requires some software modification. It is far easier to engange and disengage the parking brake to see what happens then it is to assume it is the parking brake and then try p