Hello,

First I want to say I'm sorry if this has already been posted. I couldnt find anything listed.

I just purchased a Z1 at circuit city and they did a bypass for me by not setting up the parking break(not sure if they just grounded it or not). But, It seems to work while driivng but as soon as i go over 15mph it goes off. Is there a way around this?

Thanks again

I don't know how you miss it, its only stickied in the Z1 forum and on the homepage of the site

http://www.sminntech.com/z1flash.html

They didn't bypass it right. Follow the instructions.

I couldnt find anything listed.

I saw that post. And, it said 'ground the parking brake'. They did that. When the unit boots up it says something about the parking break not sure. Did they maybe not connect the parking break at all? *confused*

I saw that post. And, it said 'ground the parking brake'. They did that. When the unit boots up it says something about the parking break not sure. Did they maybe not connect the parking break at all? *confused*

This link is to my site:

http://www.sminntech.com/z1flash.html

You need to follow this.

It sounds like they grounded the parking brake and only that. No matter what you have it's wrong. Disconnect the parking brake to ground wire, reset the unit and follow that link and it will walk you through what you need.

I saw that post. And, it said 'ground the parking brake'. They did that. When the unit boots up it says something about the parking break not sure. Did they maybe not connect the parking break at all? *confused*

How is it I was able to get on this forum and figure this out all by myself, without having to make a post about it? and you OBVIOUSLY didn't read that link if you only saw "ground the parking brake"

It sounds like they grounded the parking brake and only that. No matter what you have it's wrong. Disconnect the parking brake to ground wire, reset the unit and follow that link and it will walk you through what you need.

I'm not sure if this has has been posted somewhere else, but in my case, I think that just grounding the parking brake will do the trick.

I purchased my Z1 at CC (after browsing this forum over and over) 3 days ago. They connected the parking brake so, of course, when the break is off (disengaged), I can't watch DVDs or enter nav points. However, when I click my parking brake one notch (not enough to actually engage the brake, but enough to trigger the switch), the functions return. I originally thought that they would disappear after hitting 15 MPH but they are still there. I was able to watch a DVD on the highway (well, I wasn't watching, only testing because watching would be dangerous ).

Now, when they installed the Z1, I don't think that they connected the speed sensor as it always reads 0. I'm guessing that this is why the Z1 thinks I'm not moving when the brake is "on". I guess my question is: Am I losing a lot by not having the speed sensor connected? Should I connect the speed sensor (If I can) and then do the grounding thing?

I just want to add that I think this thing is fantastic! My thanks to all of you for your insight on this forum. It pretty much convinced me to purchase the Z1 (and gave me the motivation for some serious grovelling with my better half). I have a Sirius radio already and had a DVD HU before this. I've also used both a Tomtom and a laptop with MS Streets & trips. I've even had a bluetooth car speaker/mirror. Having it it all in one (still gotta get the sirius radio and bluetooth adapters) will be awesome! I just did the Newark, NJ - Montreal, Canada corridor and the Z1 performed beautifully! Have I mentioned that this thing is fantastic?

Thanks for your info!

It won't work. Period.

If the VSS wire isn't connected, then the Z1 will use its internal sensors and the satellite signal to figure out if you're moving or not. It may work not, but the Z1 will learn, and eventually you'll be locked out.

And if you can connect the VSS wire, I would do it. It helps a lot of the satellite signal is lost. The Z1 uses the VSS to determine the vehicles speed and more accurately navigate the Z1 without a satellite signal.

Connect the VSS and do the proper bypass.

I still don't get why people are trying to fight the bypass. Its proven. It works. Just do it and stop trying to get around it.

It's possible that Action's just one notch on the parking brake trick is working cause the guys at CC hooked up the "secret" wire already in connector 2 and he is just manually completing the last "step" in the bypass.

I talked to someone who's install shop did the bypass for them and they never asked, they just did it as general principle. I doubt CC would do that, but they might have grounded the connector 2 wire just on the good natured side.

But keep an eye out... if you ever get a popup warning message about the parking brake not hooked up correctly, then you need to finish the bypass with the grounding of the "secret" wire on connector 2. This might take a day to show up it might take many days, it depends on the suspension of the vehicle... the rougher of a ride, the quicker it shows up I believe. And having the VSS wire hooked up will speed up the process.

They did not do the "secret" wire trick. There is only one connector hooked up and the other (2) was still in the box. Come to think of it, I do remember seeing the parking brake message a couple of times at first, but I haven't seen it lately (with all of my 3 days experience ).

Anyway, that being said, I have an electrical engineering friend of mine who is going to put an extra pin in the connector so I'm going to wire it the "right" way. I was just going to try and keep it as "legal" as possible ("Why no officer, you can't watch a DVD while the car is in motion, see?" ).

I was just going to try and keep it as "legal" as possible ("Why no officer, you can't watch a DVD while the car is in motion, see?" ).

If you keep the parking brake hooked up like it is, it will still be as "legal" as possible. The only thing the connector 2 wire will do is stop the "hey your parking brake is installed wrong" message from ever popping up.... so you can have the parking brake "on" while moving. You can still keep it like you have it, but with the other wire grounded the Z1 will never yell at you. You can tell the officer that you need the parking brake on to get it to work, and if he says "what about just on a bit" you can tell him you tried it one time and you got that warning message and it ends up not working anyway... I doubt he will want to ride around with you just to see that it really happens.

Just an update:

I did eventually get the warning again. I've now done the "bypass trick" and so far so good. No parking brake message as of yet. For now, I didn't change anything with the parking brake, so I just click it up a notch when I need to do "forbidden" changes. I may just ground it 'cuz it's annoying to have that red light on the dash.

Thanks for the update... see we do know what's going on sometimes

I was thinking that with the parking brake on one notch it's not that bad, but with the red light on the dash it would suck.

You could put in a switch... SPDT, center wire to the Z1, left wire to ground and the right wire to the parking brake connection. That way you could flip the switch and it would be bypassed 24/7 and if you flipped it the other way it would work off the parking brake. Just a thought.

Speaking of being legal...I don't know if it's legal or not to have DVD movie capablilities in the front seat. But I do know it's legal to have the other features available. Therefore, with the caveat of the DVD's, the bypass is legal. Acura's come from the factory with these features possible. (but no DVD video capability)

actually there are a couple of things making things legal or not... for example the DMCA which includes terminology making it illegal for you to reverse engineer or alter software or such without permission of the original creator. Also, for viewing purposes it is illegal to have the dvd viewable in the front while driving. So using the DCMA alone pioneer could make a very heavy case that the bypass is illegal on the mere navi functions alone.

actually there are a couple of things making things legal or not... for example the DMCA which includes terminology making it illegal for you to reverse engineer or alter software or such without permission of the original creator. Also, for viewing purposes it is illegal to have the dvd viewable in the front while driving. So using the DCMA alone pioneer could make a very heavy case that the bypass is illegal on the mere navi functions alone.

Actually they programmed in that if you flash your lights the Z1 would unlock itself. We didn't reverse engineer anything we are just adjusting an input and taking advantage of software and a feature put in, on purpose, by Pioneer. So technically that doesn't fall in to that category.

And I think that the DCMA works off encryption. Not just reverse engineering. You can reverse engineer anything not encrypted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA

It's for copyright infringement. If they encrypted their source code and we hacked their source code or after hacking it we posted a "tweaked" version of it here that we modified. Then yes, that falls under DMCA. If they don't try to encrypt it, then I think it only comes into effect if we make copies of it and/or distribute it.

I don't know the letter of the law, but I know the bypass isn't covered under that. Of course if some of you out there try to reverse engineer my circuit it would and I will punish you under the full extent of the DMCA! I did encrypt the code in the micro for my circuit.

actually reverse engineer is only part of it. You cant alter the copyright material in any way without permission of the creator IN WRITTING. Encrypted or not, it doesnt matter as long as its copyrighted. It is designed for software, period, You cant duplicate, backup, reverse engineer, or alter in any way. so the actual flashing lights is one thing, but the software side of altering the error msg, or even altering the way something functions can be broadly applied.. I for one wouldnt want to be the one to test the understanding either way... would you? pioneer has far more money then us all on this forum added up... could probably afford to pay the lawyers bill lot longer then us.