Changing the fonts/colors thread-PICS

[skicrave]

You need to ground the parking brake wire (which means that the unit will see it as being connected to a ground). So disconnect it from where it's connected to the car, and connect it to a ground source instead. That could be another ground wire, a bolt that goes into the skin or chassis of the car, or even directly to the negative terminal of the battery.

 

Doing that will make the F-Series think the parking brake is engaged (which is half of the bypass process, the other half is the mute wire or software bypass).

 

And the F500 must have a ground wire, any electrical component that runs on DC power must have a power and ground connection in order for the circuit to be complete. It's almost always the a black wire, so take a look at your install guide.

 

Stephanie and I are saying the same thing, we just posted at the same time.

[pancho_pantera]

Alright, I am going to try and connect it to the negative terminal of my battery, seems this is the most reliable option. Hopefully that will work. I'll post my results when I am done.

[skicrave]

Unless that's easy, I wouldn't go through that much work. Virtually any screw, bolt or nut will work, as long as it goes into a metal panel.

[pancho_pantera]

IT WORKS!!!!!!

 

Stephanie was right, I wasnt grounding it properly. I first connected it to my negative terminal on my battery to be sure and it worked. Then I found another bolt nearby and it worked too!!

 

 

I am so happy.!I am such an idot, I should have checked to make sure it was receiving a proper ground, bolts can be decieving.

 

I need to re-edit some of my posts. Bypass for thie AVIC 500BT involves software mod and properly grounding the parking brake.

[skicrave]

Please don't edit anything, leaving the trail of posts the way they are is education for other people following the same path.

[wyatterp777]

Okay, lots of q's to answer here...

 

Dont know what your asking in the last question, its very hard to read.

 

This is my setup:

 

Before the software bypass I had my parking brake wire from the unit connected to the parking brake wire of my car, (this is how its supposed to be installed). After I found about this software bypass I tried the bypass on my unit with the parking brake wire connected. Well that didnt work. Then I was told the software bypass only works if the unit's parking brake wire is grounded. Sooo....I tried this too and it didnt work. Hope that answers your question.

[/b]

 

if you still have doubts, I think you should attempt it as well. Then if yours doesnt work we can be certain the software bypass only works for the other units. However, I am pretty sure I did everything correctly and that it will not work on the 500BT.

 

Wow, I just re-read my "last question" in that post. You are right, it didn't make any sense. I think I was in a rush when I posted.

 

 

Reading your later posts, it seems you figured it out! So exciting! I was getting nervous that I would be pulling my dashboard apart to no avail tomorrow. I plan to ground the p-brake wire to a nice bare metal screw bolted hopefully to some bare-metal on the chassis. I also plan to load up the mod'd data.zip file I have already prep'd. I may up the value to a higher number as well (instead of 128). I have a nice fully integrated install in my Mazda 3, so I want to actually be able to use the darn thing!

[wyatterp777]

You need to ground the parking brake wire (which means that the unit will see it as being connected to a ground). So disconnect it from where it's connected to the car, and connect it to a ground source instead. That could be another ground wire, a bolt that goes into the skin or chassis of the car, or even directly to the negative terminal of the battery.

 

Doing that will make the F-Series think the parking brake is engaged (which is half of the bypass process, the other half is the mute wire or software bypass).

 

And the F500 must have a ground wire, any electrical component that runs on DC power must have a power and ground connection in order for the circuit to be complete. It's almost always the a black wire, so take a look at your install guide.

 

Stephanie and I are saying the same thing, we just posted at the same time.

 

I too, expected a ground wire, but the F500BT does not have a ground wire in the wire harness! You have p-brake wire, amp wire, reverse wire (for rear view camera), +12V wire, and then stereo output and the cig lighter power input. I think I am missing a wire here, but I know I specifically looked for a ground wire and didn't find it.

[pancho_pantera]

 

Wow, I just re-read my "last question" in that post. You are right, it didn't make any sense. I think I was in a rush when I posted.

 

 

Reading your later posts, it seems you figured it out! So exciting! I was getting nervous that I would be pulling my dashboard apart to no avail tomorrow. I plan to ground the p-brake wire to a nice bare metal screw bolted hopefully to some bare-metal on the chassis. I also plan to load up the mod'd data.zip file I have already prep'd. I may up the value to a higher number as well (instead of 128). I have a nice fully integrated install in my Mazda 3, so I want to actually be able to use the darn thing!

 

Yeah, it was a pretty gratifying moment. But rest assured and dont worry it does work. Its so convenient to be able to access the settings, like screen brightness, etc.. I didnt really do it for the videos.

 

Maybe the ground for the 500BT is connect to the ground of the cig/car holder.

[skicrave]

I too, expected a ground wire, but the F500BT does not have a ground wire in the wire harness! You have p-brake wire, amp wire, reverse wire (for rear view camera), +12V wire, and then stereo output and the cig lighter power input. I think I am missing a wire here, but I know I specifically looked for a ground wire and didn't find it.

 

Ah, the ground wire is in the cigarette adapter. They don't honestly expect people to plug that thing in to their 12v power port, right? Surely you're going to hardwire it to make the install as clean as possible?

[pancho_pantera]

I too, expected a ground wire, but the F500BT does not have a ground wire in the wire harness! You have p-brake wire, amp wire, reverse wire (for rear view camera), +12V wire, and then stereo output and the cig lighter power input. I think I am missing a wire here, but I know I specifically looked for a ground wire and didn't find it.

 

Ah, the ground wire is in the cigarette adapter. They don't honestly expect people to plug that thing in to their 12v power port, right? Surely you're going to hardwire it to make the install as clean as possible?

 

Actually they do, but you can make it looks as clean as possible by using a female cig adapter. Just splice it into the car cig adapter. Thats what I did and I place it inside the center console to hide it. Worked out great!

[wyatterp777]

I too, expected a ground wire, but the F500BT does not have a ground wire in the wire harness! You have p-brake wire, amp wire, reverse wire (for rear view camera), +12V wire, and then stereo output and the cig lighter power input. I think I am missing a wire here, but I know I specifically looked for a ground wire and didn't find it.

 

Ah, the ground wire is in the cigarette adapter. They don't honestly expect people to plug that thing in to their 12v power port, right? Surely you're going to hardwire it to make the install as clean as possible?

 

Actually they do, but you can make it looks as clean as possible by using a female cig adapter. Just splice it into the car cig adapter. Thats what I did and I place it inside the center console to hide it. Worked out great!

 

Pancho is right, they expect you to use the cig-lighter for power. I think the +12V is just a trigger for something else. I am not using it. It's a weird setup for the F500BT. It's like they make this option with the huge tangle of a wire harness for embedding the nav unit, but the harness itself doesn't facilitate a super clean install. I am also annoyed by how cheap the stereo wire is - it's very thin. As another negative, the wire harness doesn't provide a line level output, but rather is tied to the independent "volume" on the unit. I thought it would be similar to an ipod, where you have a stereo jack for amplified output, and then the "dock" - or wire harness - providing line-level output. Luckily, i am routing the power and stereo to the hookups inside my arm-rest storage in my Mazda 3, which makes a cleaner install.

 

A big plus though; because the F500BT has a battery, the unit doesn't fully shutdown when you turn the ignition off. The next time you start up your car, it only takes a few seconds for the unit to power up, and maybe 10-20 for the ipod to resume playing. From my understanding of the F700BT, F900BT, and F90BT, you have to wait for a full boot cycle?

[wyatterp777]

Well, i just grounded the p-brake wire, and uploaded a slightly mod'd "Vorian DATA.ZIP" file. And.............

 

BAM...everything works! Complete bypass complete. This makes me super happy! Fully installed AVIC-F500BT. Looking good.

 

Oh yeah, Vorian's ZIP file is such a better way to display info on the nav screen. Love the new default view when you aren't actually using the turn-by-turn, and I love the stop/cancel route button straight on the home screen. I also like being able to tap the street address to go to the route functions.

 

Thanks for the hard work Vorian (and others who have helped). Any chance that you caught my previous question regarding an on screen option for shutting the LCD off?

 

-E

[pancho_pantera]

Glad to hear yours worked Wyatt! Hopefully newbees with the avic 500bt will read our success and be able to bypass through the software since the hardware mod is non-existant in this unit. We really have to be greatful for such an informative forum with excellent hackers!!

[a2thejay23]

is this skin made my vorian/stephanie 2.0 compliant?

[Maverickster]

is this skin made my vorian/stephanie 2.0 compliant?

 

The pieces I lifted out of them are. Granted, I didn't take there data.zips wholesale, but the components I "borrowed" work fine.

 

--Mav