2013 Navigation Hack - Bad News

[Se7enLC]

I have Good News and Bad News regarding the Navigation Hack on the Fujitsu-Ten Navigation in the 2013 Outback.

The Good News

I was able to locate the wire that carries the Parking Brake signal to the head unit. 12V indicates that the parking brake is not on. 0V (GND) indicates that the parking brake is on. I cut the wire and attached it to a ground point. The info screen now shows that the parking brake is on all the time!

The Bad News

The Bad News is that it doesn't matter. The Navigation doesn't seem to actually use the parking brake signal for anything - the speed sensor overrides it. If you are going > 5mph, the navigation is locked out, even if the "parking brake" is on.

Unless other information about the navigation unit comes out with how to disable the lockout, it's not going to be a simple matter of tricking the parking brake.

More Bad News

While looking for the parking brake signal, I figured I should look for the reverse signal as well. There isn't one. At least, not a direct line from the reverse lights. The only wires I didn't check are the antenna + video connectors on the back of the unit. Best as I can guess, the only way this can work is if the reverse video turns on when a video signal is present. If that's the case, the hack to see reverse video when not in reverse would involve hacking wiring elsewhere to turn on the reverse camera, not at the navigation unit. This is conjecture, though, taken from the fact that I checked every normal wire going into the navigation unit, and none of them changed from 0V to 12V when reverse was activated.

Summary

Don't cut any wires, it won't get you anything.

[OBnube]

I was hoping that was not the case. I wonder if Subaru went to the speed sensor after seeing all the sucessful hacks around here??

[statueim]

I am unfamiliar with the situation here, does the navigation system completely lock you out if you are travelling faster than 5 mph and you want to be able to enter new coordinates?

If that's the case, my guess is they are using GPS coordinates to calculate your speed given that is what every GPS does these days, so what happens if the GPS loses signal? Does the GPS unlock because it does not know if the car is in motion?

[Se7enLC]

Originally Posted by OBnube

I was hoping that was not the case. I wonder if Subaru went to the speed sensor after seeing all the sucessful hacks around here??

I'm guessing it's a Fujitsu thing more than a Subaru thing. Fujitsu uses the speed sensor and a gyrometer to improve dead reckoning when the GPS signal is lost. I did read a forum post about somebody with a Toyota Prius that disabled their speed sensor with a switch so that they could enable/disable it at will. The navigation kicked out a scary error message, but the hack worked to disable the speed-based lockout.

[statueim]

Nevermind. The simplest workaround is therefore a Garmin.

[OBnube]

Originally Posted by statueim

I am unfamiliar with the situation here, does the navigation system completely lock you out if you are travelling faster than 5 mph and you want to be able to enter new coordinates?

Yes, It also locks out manual phone dailing and the phone book.

[jogosub]

Fujitsu-Ten (Torrance,CA) responded to my email advising to contact SOA for wiring diagram.
Speed sensor it is, after all....I am checking with Toyota/Lexus telematics div. (also in Torrance, CA) to see, if they have similar units in their vehicles although they seem to be busy with i-phone apps and voice recognition issues linked to their units (as I have described elsewhere on this forum).

[digdah]

This is not good news at all. As much as I respect safety I hate the lockouts they put in Navigation systems. The major problem is some of the functionality to me is not much of a hazard and more of an annoyance.

Keeping fingers crossed someone figures out how to disable the speed sensor.

[jogosub]

Yep - I have put back my 1490T Nuvi on the windshield and wired it down to the fuse box below.

[Se7enLC]

Originally Posted by digdah

Keeping fingers crossed someone figures out how to disable the speed sensor.

You CAN do that, but you probably don't want to. The Navigation uses the speed sensor for dead reckoning, so you'd be disabling functionaility