U310BT Parking Brake Bypass

[cmason100]

I can access the menus when stopped at a red light, engine running. Just seems odd to me. Some functions are "dim" when the car is in motion, and full functionality (as far as I can tell) comes back when the car stops. Those functions that were "dim" are now "bright". Hope that makes sense.

[sıɹɐʎ]

I can access the menus when stopped at a red light, engine running. Just seems odd to me. Some functions are "dim" when the car is in motion, and full functionality (as far as I can tell) comes back when the car stops. Those functions that were "dim" are now "bright". Hope that makes sense.

Have you used the GPS menus when the car is stopped, or just observed the buttons light up? In the "Important Information" flyer than comes with the unit it states the following:

To prevent such functions from being used while the vehicle is in motion, there is an interlock system that senses when the parking brake is set and when the vehicle is moving. If you attempt to use the functions described above while driving, they will become disabled until you stop the vehicle in a safe place, and apply the parking brake.

It reads as though even if the buttons aren't dimmed it will lock you out if you try to use them. You ought to check into that and let us know. If it continues to work while stopped without the brake connected then that would be great, since it gives you a little more flexibility and saves you the trouble of hooking up the brake. I suppose you do risk a future firmware update breaking that functionality (so do bypassers!), but it's not like you can't hook it up the brake as intended if that were to happen.

[cmason100]

yeah, so I checked this afternoon on the ride home. The buttons are dim when the car is rolling, but as I come to a stop light they become active and I am able to use them. I typed addresses, searched POIs, etc. It all appears to work even with the green wire disconnected. As soon as the light goes green and the car is rolling the lights go dim again. Strange I know.

[sıɹɐʎ]

yeah, so I checked this afternoon on the ride home. The buttons are dim when the car is rolling, but as I come to a stop light they become active and I am able to use them. I typed addresses, searched POIs, etc. It all appears to work even with the green wire disconnected. As soon as the light goes green and the car is rolling the lights go dim again. Strange I know.

Strange but neat. I'm sure this will help someone else down the line who is thinking of leaving the brake wire unconnected. Thanks for sharing!

[tbone]

I installed my U310BT about 2 weeks ago and have the same situation. While driving there are operations of the Navi system that are dimmed out and will not function but as I slow down and reach approx 5 mph they come to life. I have not wired the safety wire to anything at this point but after reading the info here I plan on trying the grounding trick. Not sure how the system knows (what it is monitoring) when I get down around 5 mph but the unit has done this from day one. Still trying to figure out the AVIC Feeds program I downloaded but not having much luck to this point ... but something to mess with.

[1loudls]

Not sure how the system knows (what it is monitoring) when I get down around 5 mph but the unit has done this from day one.

well the unit is using GPS to track your movement, and is accurate enough to know exactly how fast you are going.

[tbone]

well the unit is using GPS to track your movement, and is accurate enough to know exactly how fast you are going.

Whoops ... sorry about that one ... I guess I didn't look at the obvious. I was thinking more mechanical.