BklynBenz

hey guys:

I won an auction a few weeks back on ebay, http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWN%3AIT for this oem phone kit and VRM for my w208 and yesterday i pulled everything out and checked to see how hard it would be to install it. Heres my observations and if you could offer any advise or tips that would be greatly appreciated:

1> I hooked up the 25 pole D connector from the telephone Y cable to the vehicle harness no problem.

2> I hooked up the 15 pole D connector from the vehicle harness to the VRM no problem.

3> I hooked the UHF connector from the front center console to the linear compensator RF jack labeled Portable no problem.

4> I hooked up the remaining RF lead from the integrated bumper antenna to the linear compensator RF jack labeled Antenna no problem.

5> After looking around and cutting some wire tires I realized that the fiber optic cables I needed were in the wrap on the passenger side and in the center under the trunk liner. There was (1) one orange loop looking fiber optic cable that had (1) one connector with a green cap and labeled "TEL IN" and "TEL OUT". Also there was (1) one orange loop lookig fiber optic cable that had (2) two connectors with green caps and with one labeled "TEL IN" and one labeled "SBS". My question is do I just use the one with the two connectors and connect the "TEL IN" to the PSE and the "SBS" to the VRM? Is the other cable with one connector just to remain capped off? In an email, Scorchie advised me that the fiber cables have to be configured in a way that everything is in the loop. Can someone expand on this?

6> No poblems removing the stalk plug and replacing with the stalk.

7> I checked to see if the Euro COMAND I got from Steve was version coded for the phone using the MUTE, 1, 3 trick and the TV Tuner, Telephone and SBS boxes werent checked. Does this mean they are not coded? If I bring my car to the dealer to get version coded, will they screw up my Euro COMAND? Is there anything in particular I should ask/tell them when I go?

8> The phone shouldnt have to be activated to hook the kit up and view the phone book thru the COMAND, no?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

newspeed

well i can answer question 8 for you. I have the factory phone in my clk and no you do not need to activate the phone to see the phone book. I know that you need to have the command programmed but also make sure to have the cluster programmed. there is a menu where you can browse the phone book and make calls from the buttons on the steering wheel and the display on the cluster, just needs to be activated...

Hopefully others will help on the other questions.

BklynBenz

thanks man thats what i thought, much appreciated for confirming

SUNILP

I don't think your pse and vcs is in the loop. Do a search. There are many threads. Also, check for fuses.

BklynBenz

ok ive searched the forum and read up on d2b on paul ****s website (home.earthlink.net/~phdwebsite) and have a quick question.

am i supposed to actually take apart one of these orange FO loops and connect it to the "ring" that way?

BklynBenz

also i have the WIS program but couldnt find what i was looking for on there (then again i dont really know how to use the program 100%), if anyone can help point out where i can find the retrofit instructions on there that mention / show the fiber optic cables and all that, please advise.

thanks

BklynBenz

ok i found some bulletins that are really starting to make more sense to me. the loop for my car i think is supposed to look like this:

comand > cd changer > phone > vcm > comand

two quick questions:

1> im at work right now and cant look but i am assuming my stock loop looks like this:

comand > cd changer > comand

i should be able to loop everything (comand, cd changer, phone and vcm) without removing the comand, no?

2> what about teleaid? isnt that supposed to be in my loop also? do i configure the loop like this:

comand > cd changer > teleaid > phone > vcm > comand

BklynBenz

got it, all done and working 100%

Vendetta

Hey there, fellow NYer. You're a brave fella - and here I'm flip-flopping over whether or not to install a freaking Dension IceLink in my 01 CL600.

Anyways, congrats on the install - looks from this thread like you got it done mostly under your own steam, too.

Take care man,
-V

splib

Congrats! I just went through almost the exact same story on my 2000 w208 cabrio a couple months back. Even bought the kit from the same guy on eBay!

The install was easy, the hardest part was figuring how to configure the D2B fiber ring. The stock setup seemed to have two (!) rings:

1. Radio out to CDC in / CDC out to Radio in
2. Tel out to SBS in / SBS out to Tel in (apparently this whole ring existed just for the sake of being pre-wired.)

I was surprised to see no connection for TeleAid but I think I read somewhere that my year didn't have TeleAid on the D2B ring.

So, I just combined the two rings so that it went: Radio to CDC to Tel to SBS back to Radio and it worked! Apparently in looking at the correct configuration in the Comand menu I have the phone and VCS backwards, but they both work fine. I didn't need to activate the phone to access the phonebook.

The only thing that I didn't have was the Telephone on the Multi-function display and use of the phone buttons on the steering wheel. I thought version coding would fix that, but it didn't. Finally some MB tech figured out that they just needed to activate the display setting in StarDiagnose (apparently a different setting than version coding.)

BklynBenz

ahhh so you didnt have anything on the instrument cluster display either i see. i thought the same thing as you that once it was version coded it would come up, ill be sure to tell them now when i go to the dealer to activate the display setting. thanks!

are you using the timeport as your car phone or main phone or what? i currently have verizon and was just thinking about switching my plan to one of the family plans where 2 or more numbers can share the same plan, ill keep my cell with me at all times and ill just keep the timeport in the car hooked up all the time and it will just really be a car phone. either that or ill get the mikbox from www.mikbox.com and just have 1 phone

splib

I'm embarrased to admit that I still haven't activated my phone all these months later. It's an v.60 AT&T TDMA which they won't activate for me. I'm just waiting to see if this new "Argos" kit that EIS is developing for Mercedes D2B really does get full integration between Bluetooth and the OEM Mercedes Comand and VCS. They said it was going to be released end of April, but now they are saying end of May. I'll probably get impatient and just go with Mikbox.

One tip: when you go to the dealer, it might help to convince them that you've had the phone for awhile and it just stopped appearing in the instrument cluster. If you tell them a new phone was installed, they'll get spooked and confused. At least mine did. Three trips to them just to get my phone to show in the display!

BklynBenz

ok cool, thanks for the heads up

superflysocal

I could have sworn that my w208 originally came with the instrument cluster having a "telephone not connected" option but now 2 years later i don't see it anymore. So before I installed my phone kit, I went to the dealer to have them reactivate it. The loaner car they gave me even still had that instrument option still there (and no phone kit).

My point is I think during one of the services (A or B), the telephone option on the instrument cluster must have been deactivated. Any thoughts?

And you are right... this has nothing to do with version coding. I got this done before I install the phone kit...they can't version code if the phone kit is not installed.

Trekman

Ohh yah got my PSE and all of the stuff that I ordered today. installed it on my C32. the phone works like a charm. Mikbox works great!