Flame me for posting without finding my answers via search (I've tried, believe me), Flame me for posting a REALLY long message (So many problems, how do I keep it brief?)... But PLEASE help me...

I'm at a complete loss with my f90bt. First of all, I'm upgrading from a bypassed D3. I probably should have looked into it further, but I used my existing bypassed wire harness from the D3 without changing any wires. The D3 bypass was working... but my f90bt tells me there's an improper connection made on the brake wire, and I can't type stuff into GPS while moving. Apparently, the D3 bypass isn't the same as the f90bt. I'd check the wires again, but I stripped a screw putting everything back in, and haven't found a tool to get it back out to disassemble. Plus, my car is NOT radio-friendly... I can't believe I was able to finally get everything stuffed in there without pinching any wires.

I'm familiar with the FACT that there are mods and patches and stuff that people have made... I just don't know how to start. I've downloaded the 2.0 firmware from Pioneer... but my unit supposedly already has it installed. (It said so on the box, and I've confirmed the version on the screen) And... how do I get into TEST MODE? Every result for TEST MODE searches just come up "put your unit in test mode" and never say HOW. And finally... How do I make a backup of my unit before doing any mods? Is the information that's on the flash memory of my f90bt any different than the information in the 2.0 update? I presume the maps aren't included in the update... The download would be huge. And, while we're on the subject... how do you update/download new maps? I've seen mods that allow you to install Garmin and/or TomTom software on your F-series. Sounds awesome, but does everything else work? (radio, XM, iPod, phone...? I use it all)

In other words... just tell me everything you're willing to share, and I'll soak it up like a sponge.

Anyway... Here are my problems:

>The F90bt is slow... starting up, after each button press, etc

>In between button presses, there's constant static (this was the same on the D3... but not as bad)

>I can't sync my contacts from my Storm... My phone says "completed" but I never have any contacts on the unit.

>When I get a phone call, the volume is LOUD, and when I press the VOL- button, it's muted, but when I turn it back up one notch, the volume is finally at an acceptable level

>There are grammar mistakes everywhere (not a big problem, but raises a flag - I got it on Amazon from 6ave)

>My iPod classic will hook up and I can play the first song, but it continually says it's updating the VR.

>If I try to use VR for the iPod, and I say "Play XXX" it just says "playing all XXX" and plays the first song on the iPod again. (VR worked at first... but only for about the first half of the alphabet)

>It doesn't recognize anything I say when I want to call someone (even though the contacts never transferred, it still calls random people in my contacts when I try to use VR)

Do anyone have solutions for ANY of my problems? Please say yes... I'm at my wit's end... I'd say I'm intermediate with electronics like this, so you don't have to spell EVERYTHING out... just the stuff that's specific to the F-Series radios. (Please don't just say "put it in test mode"... Tell me how, please)

Please help me... I'm ready to rip this f90bt out and trade in my car so that I never have to think about this stuff again.

Thank you for your time and any help you can offer.

Anyway... Here are my problems:

1. The F90bt is slow... starting up, after each button press, etc

2. In between button presses, there's constant static (this was the same on the D3... but not as bad)

3. I can't sync my contacts from my Storm... My phone says "completed" but I never have any contacts on the unit.

4. When I get a phone call, the volume is LOUD, and when I press the VOL- button, it's muted, but when I turn it back up one notch, the volume is finally at an acceptable level

5. There are grammar mistakes everywhere (not a big problem, but raises a flag - I got it on Amazon from 6ave)

6. My iPod classic will hook up and I can play the first song, but it continually says it's updating the VR.

7. If I try to use VR for the iPod, and I say "Play XXX" it just says "playing all XXX" and plays the first song on the iPod again. (VR worked at first... but only for about the first half of the alphabet)

8. It doesn't recognize anything I say when I want to call someone (even though the contacts never transferred, it still calls random people in my contacts when I try to use VR)

1. Yeah - I guess we deal with it.

2. I can't say I've noticed this...

3. I think we resolved this for you in another post?

4. Check the volume not only on the head unit, but also on your phone. There's probably 3 different places on your phone to set volume that would affect this - hands-free volume, call volume, master volume, etc....

5. Other than the "active iPod" thing (which is objective anyway) - what else is there? I'm a grammar Nazi and nothing's bothering me yet...

6&7. I don't have an iPod - sorry.

8. I have the same issue - I think I'm finding that there may be phones that just don't support this. I'm going to try my wife's phone tomorrow to see. However, if I actually SPEAK the number to call, it works amazazingly.

1. Yeah - I guess we deal with it.

2. I can't say I've noticed this...

3. I think we resolved this for you in another post?

4. Check the volume not only on the head unit, but also on your phone. There's probably 3 different places on your phone to set volume that would affect this - hands-free volume, call volume, master volume, etc....

5. Other than the "active iPod" thing (which is objective anyway) - what else is there? I'm a grammar Nazi and nothing's bothering me yet...

6&7. I don't have an iPod - sorry.

8. I have the same issue - I think I'm finding that there may be phones that just don't support this. I'm going to try my wife's phone tomorrow to see. However, if I actually SPEAK the number to call, it works amazazingly.

1 It's pitiful that we have to "deal with it" Don't you think?

2 Maybe my installer messed something up

3 It's not resolved... I did what I was told - let it sit there until the CANCEL screen disappears, and I still have no contacts. Well, sometimes when I turn the car off, then on... I have a few, but only about 10 of 111

4 There's one inherent problem with this suggestion... my volume was fine on my D3 the day before I installed the F90, as well as on my bluetooth headset. That narrows the issue down to the F90bt. Also, changing the master volume on the phone has no bearing on the in-car volume. There is no other volume control. If you know of any on Blackberry OS 4.7.113, then please let me know.

5 Most of the grammar errors I found were in error messages... I may have exxagerated "everywhere" because I saw a few during the first few hours of use.

6 I have to turn on the car with the iPod selected, and let the VR dictionary finish by itself. You can't press any buttons... it will eventually finish

7 After completing #6 above, it seems that everything but "play the song/track" works now. I can use voice prompts to play a specific artist, album, or genre... but if I want to hear a specific track, it won't play it... it just goes back to the song that was playing before trying to use VR

8 I've heard updating your contact list from the phonebook db file on the AVIC helps... something about making everything last name, first name or vice versa... For instance, if you want to call John Doe, you may have better luck saying "Call Doe John" if you have not reorganized the phonebook db file that the AVIC creates. I haven't tried (because my contacts won't all transfer), but if you announce a contact last name, first... it may help.

8 I've heard updating your contact list from the phonebook db file on the AVIC helps... something about making everything last name, first name or vice versa... For instance, if you want to call John Doe, you may have better luck saying "Call Doe John" if you have not reorganized the phonebook db file that the AVIC creates. I haven't tried (because my contacts won't all transfer), but if you announce a contact last name, first... it may help.

...you mean to say "Call Doe John" even if it's stored as "John Doe" on the contacts screen? I'll give it a whirl, but that would be REALLY odd...

8 I've heard updating your contact list from the phonebook db file on the AVIC helps... something about making everything last name, first name or vice versa... For instance, if you want to call John Doe, you may have better luck saying "Call Doe John" if you have not reorganized the phonebook db file that the AVIC creates. I haven't tried (because my contacts won't all transfer), but if you announce a contact last name, first... it may help.

 

...you mean to say "Call Doe John" even if it's stored as "John Doe" on the contacts screen? I'll give it a whirl, but that would be REALLY odd...

I haven't confirmed it on mine... but, some phones store your contacts on a last name, first name basis by default... And this is how it gets transferred to the AVIC, and stored in the database file as such. This is why people edit this file on their AVIC to correct the problem. Your phone may DISPLAY your contacts on a first last basis... and it may even be smart enough to recognize this order for voice dialing... but if the file that the AVIC gets is last name, first name... then that is the audible string it listens for. It doesn't know the difference between first and last name... If you have a Best Buy as one of your contacts... (with a space), you may have to say "Call Buy Best" Unfortunately, that's just the way it is... I'm not happy with it either. I think Pioneer needs to reengineer their product - software AND hardware... make it more intuitive, make it work better, and make it faster.

6 I have to turn on the car with the iPod selected, and let the VR dictionary finish by itself. You can't press any buttons... it will eventually finish

7 After completing #6 above, it seems that everything but "play the song/track" works now. I can use voice prompts to play a specific artist, album, or genre... but if I want to hear a specific track, it won't play it... it just goes back to the song that was playing before trying to use VR

Once you let the VR Catalog acquisition run once through the iPod, you can set the VR Catalog Mode = OFF so it doesn't run every time you start the system. Voice commands will still be available. You don't need to turn it on again until you update the content/data on the iPod. The iPod Track forward/previous buttons are available while the VR cataloging is running, but no others.

Pg 145 of the manual

"Play the song/track" is not an available voice command.

Pgs 149-151 of the manual for available voice commands

Once you let the VR Catalog acquisition run once through the iPod, you can set the VR Catalog Mode = OFF so it doesn't run every time you start the system. Voice commands will still be available. You don't need to turn it on again until you update the content/data on the iPod. The iPod Track forward/previous buttons are available while the VR cataloging is running, but no others.

Pg 145 of the manual

 

"Play the song/track" is not an available voice command.

Pgs 149-151 of the manual for available voice commands

I admit that I didn't read the manual... I would have it it wasn't on CD... I can't be in my car and at my computer at the same time... Also, I guess I'm spoiled by the SYNC my fiancee's Mercury Milan... She plugged her iPod in and within 20 seconds, she was listening to a specific track from a voice command. I figured I could expect the same... guess not.

Update: I tried multiple contacts yesterday, saying them both "Doe John" and "John Doe"... And then I got to thinking - "Home" can't be accidentally backwards...

But it was worth a shot! It just doesn't work. Maybe in 3.0?

Update: I tried multiple contacts yesterday, saying them both "Doe John" and "John Doe"... And then I got to thinking - "Home" can't be accidentally backwards...

 

But it was worth a shot! It just doesn't work. Maybe in 3.0?

Yeah... I tried it too, and it didn't work for me either... (First,Last and Last,First) But, the first day I had the unit installed, the voice commands did work. Well, when I say "work" I mean it made a call based on something I said. I gave the name of my fiancee Krista, and it called my cousin Doug. I said "Call Krista Gxxxx" (name omitted for privacy) and it said "Calling Dxxxx Doug" So, it thought Krista's first and last name sounded like Doug's last and first name... It also displays all names last,first on the screen. This is what led me to the assumption that everything was stored last,first. Also, at that point... only my contacts A-D had transferred... so, Doug was on the list, but Krista was not. (initials of KG and DD) Did I confuse everyone yet?

Anyway... I was successful in transferring all of my contacts yesterday. I started the contacts transfer, and left my phone in the car for about an hour after the "transferring..." window disappeared. I finally got A-Z transferred... but that didn't affect voice recognition.

I'm wondering if the bluetooth update actually BROKE voice recognition, because I'm thinking that I did the bluetooth update AFTER the accidental call to Doug in attempt to fix the contacts transfer... and I haven't gotten VR to work since. Isn't that a b**ch!

I'm going to try to pull the phone database off of the unit and post it somehow, or at least give some information about the syntax in the file. I do know that others have succeeded in getting the contacts and VR working after modifying the database file.

Hey doc, I just wanna make sure that you know that I resolved this issue (was documented in another thread). I had to remove all characters in my phonebook that were not letters or numbers. Give that a shot and let us know if it works for you now! Mine works flawlessly...

search for the thread "phonebook edit software". my phone would not tranfer contacts so i had to make my own list

they are all very slow

the static is normal

do you use Itunes? if not that could be your problem with the ipod, and the unit having problems with the VR

you need to make a SD card with the testmode files (i was able to find the ones i use thru the search)on them to get in to testmode and then from there you can back up all the files and go to town with moding

the Bypass wires are different,with the F series, you need to move the mute wire to a different pin the with the D series (if you search you will be able to find pictures with the correct pin) or you can do the software bypass

Hey doc, I just wanna make sure that you know that I resolved this issue (was documented in another thread). I had to remove all characters in my phonebook that were not letters or numbers. Give that a shot and let us know if it works for you now! Mine works flawlessly...

If you leave the phone in the car long enough on the "CANCEL" screen during the phonebook transfer process, the transfer will eventually finish. (For my phone at least, Blackberry 9530) I left the phone in the car after I got home from work, and came back a half hour later to find all of my contacts had transferred... however...

I pulled the phonebook db file from the unit and opened it with SQLite Manager (firefox plugin)... and found that I had two of each contact; one First,Last and another Last,First. For instance, I had John Smith and further down the list, I had Smith John. Using SQLite Manager, I took out all of the contacts that were A) backward and people that I didn't care to have on my contacts list in my car... and transferred the file back onto my radio. I then went into CONTACTS, and the unit alerted me that I had none... So, I don't know what happened, but it apparently could no longer read my phonebook file.

I did the transfer process again (leaving my phone for an extended period of time), and completed the transfer. I've left it at that... I've come to realize that the voice recognition on my phone and/or using the contacts list in the phone are both easier than using the contacts list on the F-Unit (see what I did there? F-YOUnit) On my D3, I had a quick list of 6 contacts that I could add as speed dials, and this was much easier (and safer) than the way my F90bt handles the contacts list. I guess I should blame Parrot for this epic fail... but I still think Pioneer should handle it better.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also... I've either fixed or learned to deal with the rest of the problems I was experiencing. I've talked to enough people in other threads/forums about these issues to be more confident that the problems are with the design and operation of the unit and not user error or personal hardware failure.

Thanks for the help

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Well, yes...

1. To get your VR dialing working, make sure that there are absolutely no characters other than letters, numbers, and spaces in any of your contacts. They essentially make the F-Unit think that it's a corrupt database. No commas, no periods, no parenthesis, no @ symbols...

2. I don't know what you did wrong with the SQLite file transfer back to the F-Unit, but if you essentially want "speed dial" on your contacts list I've heard that you can load up that very same SQLite app and just put make the top 6 whatever you want them to be. The F-Unit doesn't re-sort them alphabetically, the phone does, and when you transfer your contacts they come over the way that the phone has them. I'll be trying this out myself soon.

1. To get your VR dialing working, make sure that there are absolutely no characters other than letters, numbers, and spaces in any of your contacts. They essentially make the F-Unit think that it's a corrupt database. No commas, no periods, no parenthesis, no @ symbols...

2. I don't know what you did wrong with the SQLite file transfer back to the F-Unit, but if you essentially want "speed dial" on your contacts list I've heard that you can load up that very same SQLite app and just put make the top 6 whatever you want them to be. The F-Unit doesn't re-sort them alphabetically, the phone does, and when you transfer your contacts they come over the way that the phone has them. I'll be trying this out myself soon.

OK... so I'm going to start with a blank database file? I really don't know anything about databases and/or SQLite... Can you give me a quick description? For instance, I have the following columns... ID, chShowName, chPhoneCode, and dwType for each entry... If I just want a quickdial list of X people, how would I go about doing that? How do I make sure that they're not automatically alphabetized? And, will they all be voice recognition-compatible? Thanks.

If you have any contacts on the AVIC at all, I think this thread would be a good read for you:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22601