Hi,

I've got a rather annoying problem with the F500BT. I usually listen to the radio (NPR geek), and my problem is that if I turn off the car and then restart the car the Ipod always turns on (even though it the AV input was "off" so i could listen to the radio). The only work around is to press the power button once before turning off the car. If I forget, it performs a system startup once the car is turned on.

Is this normal? I would have thought that turning off the car would be the same as pressing the power button. Instead, pressing the power button seems to be the only way to "hibernate" the unit, and turning off the car requires a complete reboot at startup.

I don't think i've mixed up the power wiring, since it works fine if I press the power button.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Perfectly (ab)normal pal: another one of Pioneers' strange anomalies......

hmmm, by (ab)normal, do you mean that this happens to you, but it shouldn't happen.....or are you just referring to the fact that tons of people have issues with these units?

Has anyone else had this problem.....i'm wondering if it could be a mixup with the wiring (acc vs. 12 v)......is that possible?

OK guys and girls...i'm still struggling with how to get my F500 to behave correctly when turning off the car.

Let me tell you what I just tried, and if anyone has an opinion as to my next step, i'd love to hear it.

Basically (see above), every time I turn off the car and then later turn on the car, the F500 reboots (i'm using the ND-G500 amp). If I push the power button, then it goes to sleep...then I can turn the car off and when I turn it back on it "wakes" as I think it should (no full reboot).

I was wondering if my power wires (12v and ACC) were crossed in the harness/adapter that I purchased separately to link the F500 and ND-G500 with my factory radio. I had originally reversed these two power wires in the adapter because they didn't match up with the wires on the car and F500 (the 12 v "red" wire ended from the car ended up being connected to the yellow F500 wire after using the adapter, and visa vera....so I originally spliced and switched them. Anyway, yesterday I reversed the wires again (which looks wrong, but I thought I'd give it a shot.)

Well, things work perfectly if I turn the car off for less than 30 minutes. I can just turn off the car and I can see that the unit stays on for a few more seconds (maybe setting a save point), and then powers off. If I turn the car on ~15 minutes later, it turns on just as I turned it off (no reboot). Therefore, I must have it wired correctly now, right???? Well, the problem is that if I leave the car off for over 1 hour, then when I start it again there is a full reboot! I'm wondering if it is relying on the battery for a while (although everything on the unit is off), and once it runs out of juice it wipes the memory.

Any thoughts? I'm totally confused. Reversing the wires from my previous set up seemed to help (i don't recall it ever taking a few seconds to power down before....it used to just immediately shut off with my old power wire configuration), but why does it reboot after an hour of being off.

Do other F500 owners (using an NDG500) have to push the power button to power down the unit before turning it off? Do you just deal with a reboot every time you turn it on? I usually listen to the radio, so it is annoying to have the ipod turn on every time i start the car.

Thanks!

I did not use the ND-G500 in my install.

That being stated, I did do a permanent wire with the yellow 12V+ always on power and the cig adapater behind the dash on an 12v acc circuit.

My unit does a hibernate when I power the car off, it sucks the battery down whiles its off. If the car is off for more than a day or so the unit does a full boot upon returning to the car. I assume thats because the battery pack gives out. Its quirky and a little annoying. Sounds like your battery is even worse than mine.

OK. Thanks! So this isn't an isolated event. Seems like an odd way to design the F500..why do it need to rely on its internal battery when powered down???? Can't it just write to some memory so it can be turned off completely...maybe 3.0!

I changed the wiring of mine back to the oringial (and correct) configuration and a strange thing happened. It turned on this morning (after 12 hours off) without a reboot. It just awoke as it should! Halleluja!

But.... I stopped twice on the way to work and both times (~5 minutes with the car off), the system rebooted. This makes no sense at all. gotta love the solid software of these units!

Mine has done similar things (full reboot after a long period of not driving the car); no add on amp, just hardwired in to the 12 VDC line, and the 12 V lighter plug that switches on and off with ignition.

I noticed in the last few weeks that it was re-booting every time I get in the car now. The annoying thing is it assumes it's 0300, so it takes a few minutes to re-orient itself. That and I have to acknowledge the safety tip screen, AND the parking brake interlock thing.

I think the battery has now died; I charged it overnight off the AC adapter, and that same day it still did a full re-boot. I also checked the wiring in the car, everything still seemed to be working; without a wiring diagram, I can't say for sure, but I found 12 VDC at the plug, and 5 VDC switched with ignition.

A new battery is $48.00; I'm leaning towards going with an in-dash option now. This unit just seems so buggy.