Hello,

I'm about to buy an AVIC-F700BT from a co-worker. I know nothing about these units but love hacking/modding all things electronic so I was pretty stoked when I stumbled on this forum!

I'd like to get some clarification regarding firmware updates. The Pioneer site only offers a firmware up to rev 2.01 but I see many comments regarding a 3.0 firmware. Is this 3.0 available on the Pioneer site or is it located someplace else? I.E. is it a unsupported, 'modified' firmware ?

I should also mention I'm in the U.S. and this is a US sold unit, so I'm not sure if the firmware is region-specific.

Also, this guy doesn't know what firmware rev. he's currently running; says he's never updated it in the 1+ yrs hes had it. I don't believe the unit comes with an SD card. Will any SD card work to flash the FW or is it specially formatted for Pioneer?

To get your unit updated to the latest firmware.. you'll need to update from 2.01 to 3.0 (it's actually 3.004 or something like that...), then you can update to 3.0101. My understanding is that the same update works for the f700bt, the f900bt and f90bt. The entire process pretty much changes your f700bt into an x910bt (without the dvd playing ability of course).

The 2.1 to 3.0 update files can be found on this forum. (see info below). You have to do some manual file copying onto your unit to do this.

The 3.0 to 3.010 update files can be found on the "updates" link directly on the pioneer X910BT page. This update is super simple.. just download some files, put them on your SD card and fire up your unit.

---updating from 2.1 to 3.0-------

If you have a unit with 2.1 now.. visit the link below. It will have all the info you will need to upgrade from 2.1 to 3.0. The instructions on the very first post on the the very first page will guide you through the 2.0 to 3.0 update process. The instructions have you download some files, put the files on 3 different SD cards, then follow certain steps. There are links on the first page to download the files but the links may be dead, so you may have to search through the pages on the thread to find download links that are working. Once you download the files just follow the instructions on the first page and you should be good to go.

(2.1 to 3.0 update link)

http://avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=25817

--updating from 3.0 to 3.010--

visit pioneers x910bt update page and download the firmware update form the link. Instructions on how perform the install are on this page as well..

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/In-Dash/GPS-Navigation-Systems/AVIC-X910BT?tab=F

Thanks for the reply!

I had my Firmware version numbers confused in my first post. I said the Pioneer site only offered an update to "2.01", where the actual firmware is v. 2.006.

Regardless, I've updated the unit from what appears to be the stock firmware of 1.xxxx (or whatever it was, I know it was 1-something) to 2.006.

So regarding to the post above can I still update to 3.0 from 2.006? Or does it have to be 2.1?

Also, please confirm that this will work for U.S. models?

It works. This subject is actually talked about dailey if you read through the Hacks/Mods section.

 

So regarding to the post above can I still update to 3.0 from 2.006? Or does it have to be 2.1?

 

Also, please confirm that this will work for U.S. models?

Yep... I believe if you have 2.006 installed on a US model you can update directly to 3.0 using the info on the link I provided in my earlier post. My understanding is that the only prerequisite to preforming the 3.0 update is the ability to fire up your unit in Testmode. If you can do that, then you can update your unit to 3.0 regardless of what your prior version was. The 3.0 update pretty much starts your unit over with a fresh, updated version of everything (including the operating system... windows CE).

After you do the 3.0 upgrade you then visit Pioneers x910BT web page and download the upgrade from 3.0 to 3.0101. This part is a piece of cake and is documented step by step on the web site.

You'll be happy you did the upgrade. There are quite a few improvements that you will notice right away.