All,
Please don't take this post as complaining or anything remotely negative. It's merely a plea for consolidated information. I've been through dang near every post on these forums which contain the words 'emulator', 'emulate', 'windows cs' and 'emulation', and the one thing that I have realized is that there is not a definitive guide to emulating either the F series or the X series on Windows.
This thread does contain a working emulator, if you can download it:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26673&p=209788&hilit=avic_emulator#p209788
But it only seems to work for viewing the navigation app (iGo) and it's limited even then. I've made several attempts at loading the MainMenu app for both the F series and X series updates. The F series shows the menu, but you can't navigate past it. The X Series just seems to kill the Windows CE taskbar and does nothing else.
The wiki outlines a method here:
http://avic411.com/wiki/index.php/OS_Emulation
This does actually work for the F Series update. But it doesn't work correctly for the X series. This results in a 'We're Sorry...' error message upon executing MainMenu, Navi, etc. The Wiki doesn't state what the 'My Flash Drive' directory it references, should contain (F/X Series backup/update from pioneer, etc). Very nice instructions, and the inclusion of the links are invaluable, but it leaves out important information that I [think] it assumes the user already knows.
I've also not been able to find definitive information on whether we should be using the latest firmware update from pioneer, or an older backup of either the F series or X series software. I've read comments like 'the updates contain a full image of the original, with updates' which would lead me to believe that we can use the latest update download from Pioneer as the image/data to work from.
I'm really, really excited about all the possibilities these units offer in terms of modifications. And I desperately want to start modding and contributing to the community. I'm a Windows developer by trade and feel that I could contribute some great things - if only I could get started.
A thorough and definitive guide for emulating this unit on Windows would be invaluable, and something this community could benefit from greatly. If someone is willing to work with me on this, I will be more than happy to do all of the authoring. I just dont know where the right information is.
This is a call and a plea to those in the know.