At first glance - that would imply it's a float to store it. Though often times you can parse that as an integer as well.
is 16.5 a valid value and that is when it pops up? I'm not arguing, just pointing out that it could be parsed as something other than how it's represented. than again, I defer to you (more of an expert on this system) when it comes to conflicts of what we say.
EDIT: I was simply trying to figure out why the software bypass would not work, regardless to the hardware bypass and that is the only suggestion I could think of.
It could, of course, but the fact that people are using values higher than 255 suggests that it is not an unsigned byte, at least (unsigned byte would go only up to 128 anyway). In any case, messing with the Navi at over 255 Km/h probably isn't a good idea.
For the original poster, if it is giving the incorrect connection message at startup, it would seem that the mute wire isn't connected. System seems to throw this warning when the brake sensor wire is grounded and you are either driving over the speed set in pioneer.ini or the mute wire isn't grounded while moving.