Ford factory amps use a 5v remote turn on signal. Aftermarket decks/amps use 12. The 12v signal on the factory turnon lead causes the pop. A $2 5v regulator from radio shack will fix you up. You can alos just wire a resistor in line as well. 1/4 or 1/2 watt 1K ohm should do it. Prefer the regulator myself.
Write up...
Thank you for the info... much appreciated. 
no voice prompt while on any screen except map or audio/video. This means if you're looking at MSN traffic reports or movie times, you can't use voice recognition at all until you switch screens.
* Such a slow start up..takes 2 minutes just to resume my music
* Navi seems to freeze a lot during display
* Annoying boxes that say Ipod controls are limited which blocks up a large portion of the bottom of the screen for 6 minutes or so.
* Most annoying : can't change artists on ipod until voice commands are up and running. I can't believe this...
* Sometimes IPOD needs to be reconnected, b/c during boot AV is switched to OFF. Happens maybe 10% of the time during booting the unit.
* Sluggish button reactions when hitting map, multi-control for voice, or menu
* Phonebook transfer only transfers my voice mail #, what about the other 100 contacts that have more significance in my phone?
* Mic has a lot of wind noises during bluetooth use, even when in a car with windows rolled up, not moving, no ventilation.
If pioneer can update the firmware in such a way where it will increase the speed of the Avic F series...this unit would be ideal.
I'm getting audio dropouts when I play cds when the car is moving. It's almost like when a computer is too busy multitasking, possibly when the nav is updating. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's very annoying.
Somebody needs to figure out how to open these units up and put in more RAM lol.
Model: Avic-F900bt
Devices Connected (XM, iPod, etc) : Sirius, Ipod
AV Source (if playing) during issue: ANY
Action that caused the issue (pressed button, search, etc): ANY
Was GPS routing? (yes/no) Sometimes
Was BlueTooth active? If yes, what device? sometimes
Anything else you would like to add:
The unit is generally nice looking, but very poor performing. I called Pioneer yesterday and opened a case. He advised me that they were working on an upgrade, but it was being done in japan. They have stopped shipping and advised their dealers not to sell or install. They are not "BAD" just need a software tweek. I have been able to have a windows screen come up when I crashed the TEL application, I have also gotten the nav to crash. most typically it just reboots.
Wow sounds like you got a much more informed rep that I did. The guy I got didn't even know an issue existed, how about that and he even owns one! I smell some tuna here but owell, what can you do.
I seem to have gotten blue tooth to work better by updating my phone's software, everyone should try that.
Go to your phone makers website and see if they offer a update for your phone. Motorola actually made it extremely easy, how about that?
So I recently got my f90bt installed. I haven't been playing with it that long. So far I have only two complaints.
1. VR Catalog: This thing takes way too damn long. I have an 80gb ipod classic and it takes about 10 min before the "ipod may have limited connectivity at this time" screen goes off. And when it finally goes off, the voice control doesn't even work. I tried saying "play artist, metallica, pennywise, led zeppelin, etc, etc. None of them worked. I really hope the VR catalog gets fixed. When I turn it off, the unit as a whole is so much faster.
2. My second complaint is that the unit is very slow. Like many of you have been saying: it acts like a really slow computer. It is very frustrating when I have to tap a button 3 times in order for it to work. Sometimes after tapping a button it takes about 10 seconds for it to go to the next screen.
Some of the other features:
Bluetooth works awesome (surprisingly). connects to my iphone in aboout 1 min 30 sec. (no bad). Phone calls are clear on the other end when I asked multiple people I called. My only complaint again is the slowness of the screen. When I do contact search it is really frustrating scrolling beteween contacts.
Overall, I am happy with this unit. The nav is awesome, bluetooth is pretty cool, ipod controls and video on the screen are clear and sharp. POI's are pretty cool.
A firmware fix could definitely fix the slowness issue so I really hope they get on this.
Overall, this unit gets an 8 out of 10. This could easily be a 10 out of 10 for me once you eliminate the slowness and stupid VR catalog glitch.
sorry for the probably already answered question, but what is the purpose of the VR catalogue? when i have it on, i get the ipod control may be limited screen and when its off i dont...but either way it doesnt under stand play artist...idk, godsmack, staind, disturbed, even dmx (that should be an easy one to understand) but at the same time i can change the course no problem and dial my house number via voice.
Model: AVIC-F700BT
Devices Connected (XM, iPod, etc) : 5th Gen iPod Video Runnning FW:1.3, Verizon Razor V3C Phone
AV Source (if playing) during issue: Sources could be playing or not and issues will manifest themselves
Action that caused the issue (pressed button, search, etc):
First Issue: all iPod browsing is alphabetical, example : browse to an album or playlist, then the songs listed are now in alphabetical order and not the order authored on the playlist or album
Second Issue: When using POI, they work great if I browse to them directly, however if i use the search function an insufficent memory appears, looks very windows CE ish.
Third Issue: TTS dosent work. when I set it to the english woman that has TTS, there is no TTS, furthermore the says comma instead of point. The male voise says point properly, but has no TTS
Fourth issue: If i put a cursor on the screen the up,down,left,right navigation buttons appear on the right hand side of the screen, to get it to go away i now have to move the cursor to a different location and then hit the map button.
Fifth Issue: Bluetooth is junk. I can hear people perfectly fine, however they cant me for S%!T.
Was GPS routing? Doesn't Matter
Was BlueTooth active? Doesn't matter except concerning issue five
Model: avic f90bt
Devices Connected (XM, iPod, etc) : 5th gen ipod
AV Source (if playing) during issue: all
Action that caused the issue (pressed button, search, etc): unkown
Was GPS routing? (yes/no) no
Was BlueTooth active? If yes, what device? no
Anything else you would like to add: The touch sensitivty on my unt is awful...I adjusted it but no improvement...the responsiveness is foul
Also I'm experience long boot times and poor bluetooth quality
Model: F900BT
Devices Connected (XM, iPod, etc) : USB Drive haven't got my IPOD cable yet so don't know if there are any issues with that.
AV Source (if playing) during issue: Any
Action that caused the issue (pressed button, search, etc):
1.) My unit takes at least 1 1/2 to 2 min to load.
2.) Touch screen are not really responsive (have to press it twice or more).
3.) Slow like others have said like a slow computer.
4.) Music skips when i connect my bluetooth.
5.) Music literally skips every second when i turn to my map mode. I have to keep it in the AV source mode to keep it from skipping.
Was GPS routing? (yes/no) yes
Was BlueTooth active? If yes, what device? Yes
i was really looking to pick up the f90 to replace my d3, but it looks like i wont be changing a thing till all these problems get resolved. if they ever do. the z3 might be in my future now.........
Ok, I am really getting annoyed with this unit (AVIC-F90BT). Pioneer rushed this out of the gate to take advantage of the summer. I bought one to enjoy this summer. The bottom line: This thing is Crap.
My main complaint is the audio dropouts while navigating. At first I thought I had a loose connection. But after checking and resoldering, I realize that it mainly happens when the GPS is running. I thought the whole idea of this "improved" AVIC was that you don't have to tie up the CD slot with a nav disk. Well, if you can't listen to music while navigating it pretty much misses the point. Shame on Pioneer for foisting this product on us car/audio enthusiasts. I paid good money for a PREMIUM
unit. I didn't want to be a beta tester. Pioneer should provide the unit for free if that's what they want us to do. If this supposed patch doesn't work I'm going to return the unit and look for something else. So much for my faith in Pioneer.
Somebody needs to figure out how to open these units up and put in more RAM lol.
SI, I respectfully disagree with you. I appreciate the humor but Pioneer should have put enough RAM in the unit to begin with.
Organized Issues Thread here: http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=104953
Please only post ISSUES in the provided format. Let's keep this new one clean so Pioneer can easily use it and get things fixed.
THANKS!!!
I know we all want to be positive and "believe" that a single firmware update will come soon and will fix all of our problems.
But this is more like H O P E.
And we all know that hope is for suckers.
"Believe" is what you do with your religon. We can't proove which is the wrong or right religion.
With the F-Series time WILL eventually tell.
And from the locks of it Pioneer has not produced one single unit that works as advertised.
I too am full of HOPE and want to BELIEVE that all the F-Series units will come to live to its full advertised funtionality but market experience tells me otherwise.
At this point I just hope that my reseller with take this experimental Alpha stage product back without any issues. There is hope again. At least I just need to make one call to find out if this hope is go or not and don't need to suffer another three months with this unusable NAV.
Pioneer created a lot of demand be announcing the F-Series and is now driving a lot of people to the competittion because they don't have a product to satisfy the demand they created.
i just want to know how long does every1's f900bt takes to load? cause my unit takes 1 min and 25 sec to load, and i just think thats way to long.
GENERAL MAP DISPLAYS: When the map is on and you have no route plotted, Two green boxes remain on the display. A long green rectangular one on the top and a large green square in the top left where the turn by turn icon usually is. When I am simply viewing the map with no route plotted, I want these boxes gone and there is no way to do this.
This is an annoying issue to me as well. Those empty boxes eat up a lot of screen real estate, and look pretty stupid when not navigating. Another thing that can also go away is the "Multi-info Window" at the lower left (distance to go, arrival time, etc.). When not navigating, these all show zeros, so they're just taking up space. I realize it can be turned off by turning "Full Screen Cockpit" on, but then it's ALWAYS off... 
-Eric
GENERAL MAP DISPLAYS: When the map is on and you have no route plotted, Two green boxes remain on the display. A long green rectangular one on the top and a large green square in the top left where the turn by turn icon usually is. When I am simply viewing the map with no route plotted, I want these boxes gone and there is no way to do this.
This is an annoying issue to me as well. Those empty boxes eat up a lot of screen real estate, and look pretty stupid when not navigating. Another thing that can also go away is the "Multi-info Window" at the lower left (distance to go, arrival time, etc.). When not navigating, these all show zeros, so they're just taking up space. I realize it can be turned off by turning "Full Screen Cockpit" on, but then it's ALWAYS off...
-Eric
Agree 100%. I HATE that. It has to be so easy to write code to tweak something like that. "If destination plotted, turn boxes on". "If destination plotted, turn multi-info window on". Come on Pioneer.
GENERAL MAP DISPLAYS: When the map is on and you have no route plotted, Two green boxes remain on the display. A long green rectangular one on the top and a large green square in the top left where the turn by turn icon usually is. When I am simply viewing the map with no route plotted, I want these boxes gone and there is no way to do this.
This is an annoying issue to me as well. Those empty boxes eat up a lot of screen real estate, and look pretty stupid when not navigating. Another thing that can also go away is the "Multi-info Window" at the lower left (distance to go, arrival time, etc.). When not navigating, these all show zeros, so they're just taking up space. I realize it can be turned off by turning "Full Screen Cockpit" on, but then it's ALWAYS off...
-Eric
Agree 100%. I HATE that. It has to be so easy to write code to tweak something like that. "If destination plotted, turn boxes on". "If destination plotted, turn multi-info window on". Come on Pioneer.
I agree also. That large green blank box is very annoying.
so far on my list of complaints I have:
1) VR catalog needs to hold onto the info once it scans the ipod
2) Slow startup time, also more responsive buttons
3) Empty green box please go away
4) When in 2d I want the navigation arrow to always point straight. I'm never in 2d because its too annoying when I'm going straight on a road and look at the map and the arrow is going to the left or the right. Needs to be like 3d and always point north.
4) When in 2d I want the navigation arrow to always point straight. I'm never in 2d because its too annoying when I'm going straight on a road and look at the map and the arrow is going to the left or the right. Needs to be like 3d and always point north.
Many navigation units allow you to touch the compass on screen to change the orientation ... touch once and it's oriented in the direction of the car ... touch again and it's pointing north with the arrow for the car pointing wherever.
The Lexus RX units do this and it's handy. Typically, however, I just set it to point north as it's distracting to see the whole screen moving out of the corner of my eye while I'm driving.
^ the D3 does it.
it seems silly that so many features and tricks went into the D3 that never made it into the F-Series. Personally, as spotty as MSN Direct is, I'd love to have an option to pull traffic data from XM (or Sirius whenever they feel like implementing it).