My Avic-F90BT was just delivered today. I bought it used off ebay and it looks like a refurbished unit. I am a newbie with these units and that's why I joined here. It has a dummy SD card in the slot. I can oviously go out and get an SD card but what information is usually on the card and what size (gb) card works? Can I just get the missing files/information from the pioneer website? Also can I power up the unit without a card?

My second question is it didn't come with the CD-IU230V ipod control cable. Will a generic one from online or ebay work or will the sound be terrible? Is it actually worth it to spend the $40-$50 for a pioneer brand one? If it makes a difference I will be using an iphone 3G with this unit.

Any help appreciated.

The Blank SD card is just to keep stuff out the unit. You do not need it to use your unit. I think the mamual say's 2 Gb SD card is the max but i used 16 Gb card in my F90BT and work just fine. It's best to get A genuine Pioneer cable or Apple genuine cable for your Ipod/Iphone. I used a cheap pioneer inmitation cable and it had good video and audio but did not charge my 32 Gb Ipod touch, so I replaced it with a genuine Pioneer cable and charged just fine. Yo can put Video/Audio/Avic Feeds on Sd card. As you get more into your unit you can use it for test mode and other mods.

Most inportant is back up your unit before you do any mods. It's only Windows CE so becarefull. Have fun Jeff R.

OK thanks for the info. I just didn't want to power it up and have it lock up because of missing files or something. I have a regulated power supply so I want to bench test it before I install it. As for the cable I kind of figured that the $9.00 cables were that price for a reason. I guess you get what you pay for. Yeah I plan to try some mods so I will definately back it up so I can always have a plan B if something goes awry LOL!

You didn't happen to buy this off of army685 on eBay did you?

See this thread...

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30428

I just double checked and no. The guy I bought it from was in new york and I did know that the ipod cable was missing. I just finished doing a bench test and everything works great. At first some functions were not working but then I grounded the parking brake wire like I saw on here and they instantly worked. Thanks for all the knowledge on here, helps out big time!

By the way in an earlier reply someone mentioned backing up the radio so it could be reloaded if something happens. How do I go about doing this?

I just double checked and no.

You're very lucky.

I'd stay away from the Pioneer cable. There's a bunch of threads around here about people losing 1 channel of audio or the unit not seeing the Ipod after a while with the Pioneer one. I had the problem here and there and eventually I couldn't get the Ipod to work at all. Bought an apple cable off ebay a few months ago and haven't had a problem since.

HOw is the dvd picture on the the F90?

Well I only tried one movie. It looks pretty good, not like an LCD tv but for my truck is shoud be fine. I will probably be looking to add something overhead or in the headrests for the back passengers eventually. I got all the wiring soldered up and ready to go, added the 5v regulator for my factory sub as well. Just waiting to get the rest of my sirius stuff in and will be insalling it. I just reveived my CD-SB10 controller and the SC-C1 tuner is on it's way.