F50BT map update

[gabigrigore]

OK, so to start with I am the owner (since a short while ago) of a F50BT unit which I got through a convenient change with someone. Anyway, looking for a map update, seems that the only option is to buy a 2014 map update through the Pioneer's semi/official map update channel - navigation.com.

To be honest, 150€ for an update that takes me from 2012 maps to 2014 maps, now, in 2016 seems quite a lot. I don'ț know for what reason the F50BT seems to be either a rare device (the topics linked to it are very rare even here) either a very difficult to hack/modify one since almost no one ever answers the (few, indeed) questions that are asked about it.

One particular unanswered question is the one regarding the map updates. No one seems to have a clue about this device in this matter. After a few searches I managed to get the right testmode.key (from this site) for F50BT and was able to get into its files. What I saw it's a drives/directories architecture that seems a little bit different from the other units at least from what I have read so far.

The maps seem to be stored in the NAND2 drive and they appear as let's call them "allotments" named with a two character extension - like "10" or "2D" etc.. What I can deduct from this is that the unit only loads 23/33MB files for a certain area rather than a larger 150-300 MB or greater .fbl file corresponding to a country. It's also seeming to be a different architecture (at least from the update SD card format) than on the other F series devices (F30BT, F930BT, F9310BT, F40BT, F940BT, F840BT, F8430BT) that have an archive of around 100 archive chunks that generate when extracted a 3.4GB file.

These being said, it would be of help to find out which other model uses the same "allotment" technique so we could make some progress on the map updates. Please feel free to add any knowledge you have on this matter here as I think there are a lot of F50BT users that could benefit. Thank you!

[tanoli]

2016 European Map Update for Pioneer AVIC-F50BT, F950DAB, F950BT and F850BT is out , did you make any progress? 

 

OK, so to start with I am the owner (since a short while ago) of a F50BT unit which I got through a convenient change with someone. Anyway, looking for a map update, seems that the only option is to buy a 2014 map update through the Pioneer's semi/official map update channel - navigation.com.

To be honest, 150€ for an update that takes me from 2012 maps to 2014 maps, now, in 2016 seems quite a lot. I don'ț know for what reason the F50BT seems to be either a rare device (the topics linked to it are very rare even here) either a very difficult to hack/modify one since almost no one ever answers the (few, indeed) questions that are asked about it.

One particular unanswered question is the one regarding the map updates. No one seems to have a clue about this device in this matter. After a few searches I managed to get the right testmode.key (from this site) for F50BT and was able to get into its files. What I saw it's a drives/directories architecture that seems a little bit different from the other units at least from what I have read so far.

The maps seem to be stored in the NAND2 drive and they appear as let's call them "allotments" named with a two character extension - like "10" or "2D" etc.. What I can deduct from this is that the unit only loads 23/33MB files for a certain area rather than a larger 150-300 MB or greater .fbl file corresponding to a country. It's also seeming to be a different architecture (at least from the update SD card format) than on the other F series devices (F30BT, F930BT, F9310BT, F40BT, F940BT, F840BT, F8430BT) that have an archive of around 100 archive chunks that generate when extracted a 3.4GB file.

These being said, it would be of help to find out which other model uses the same "allotment" technique so we could make some progress on the map updates. Please feel free to add any knowledge you have on this matter here as I think there are a lot of F50BT users that could benefit. Thank you!

[bitmap]

To be honest, 150€ for an update that takes me from 2012 maps to 2014 maps, now, in 2016 seems quite a lot. I don'ț know for what reason the F50BT seems to be either a rare device (the topics linked to it are very rare even here) either a very difficult to hack/modify one since almost no one ever answers the (few, indeed) questions that are asked about it.

 

It shows the 2016 updates have been released for these units*.  The European AVIC-F50BT is equivalent/similar to Canadian/U.S.A/Puerto Rican AVIC-Z150BH.  My understanding is that these maps are updated every two years.  As far as a rare device, I'm not sure that's true; however, it is an older device and the focus is on newer units.  You are correct that there is not much focus on these devices because these were the only series that were released with the architecture on the WinCE platform before being changed to another architecture and OS.  Anyway, you may want to also look for information on AVIC-X950BH (European AVIC-F950BT) and AVIC-X850BT (European AVIC-F850BT), et al.

 

References:

Pioneer AVIC-F50BT, F950DAB, F950BT and F850BT

http://www.pioneer-car.eu/eur/products/avic-f50bt/support

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/uploaded_files/Pioneer%20AVIC-F950.pdf

 

* 2016 European Map Update for Pioneer AVIC-F50BT, F950DAB, F950BT and F850BT:

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/Navteq-NavteqEurope-Site/en_GB/-/GBP/ViewStandardCatalog-Browse?&CatalogCategoryID=I4wKCghBC8oAAAFHxm9tuwHJ&&ShowAllProducts=YES&

 

Upgrade Instructions and Operation Manual Addendum (T1000-24303):

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/intershop.static/WFS/Navteq-Site/Navteq/en_US/documents/Pioneer/CRD4971-A_artwork.pdf

 

2016 Map update post for Canadian/U.S.A/Puerto Rican of similar models (i.e. AVIC-Z150BH, AVIC-X950BH, AVIC-X850BT, AVIC-X8510BT):

http://avic411.com/index.php?/topic/82414-2016-maps-are-out-for-avic-z150bh-avic-x950bh-avic-x850bt-avic-x8510bt/