yikes

i keep waiting on the argos full blutooth for 2006+ cars. been over a 1.5 yrs now. if i didnt need almost every part for oem retrofit...i would get the oem in a heartbeat. they got a q&a forum that no one answers anything. even the mods there are sick of the waiting.

gvaughn

I'm in the same exact boat as you are.

RW C55

I have a question, on ARGO's website, it states:
Now, my question is:
I dont have a Nav system , but i do have the Premium sound system(that is H/K speakers i suppose). Should i wait for Stage-2, or will Stage-1 work fine for me?

Skylaw

Yikes, gvaughn -

A check of the EuroCarPhone website indicates that they are accepting requests for notices that the AIK Stage 2 is ready. A recent contributor on BenzWorld indicates that he is a beta tester for owner installation of the System 2 in an E-Class. That would indicate that perhaps the MOST unit for cars with premium systems is about to leave the vaporware stage.

RW C55 - EuroCarPhone is probably best equipped to answer your question, since the MOST Stage 2 version isn't being marketed yet.

gvaughn

Skylaw,

That would be great if it were true...but since they've been saying "within a month or so" for probably the last year...I'll believe it when I see it. I'm on their contact list and haven't heard a peep...so I'm guessing it's not that imminent. I hope I'm wrong though!!! Thanks for the info though (in case it is true).

yikes

thanks for the info....

ive been going here.. http://bluecarkit.com/forum/index.ph...fd60b3663e76a4

i not sure who owns and runs this site...it appears to be associated with eurocarphone guys....but if you go there..even the mods there has given up...it appears that forum had been abandoned

husk323

Eurocarphone takes forever to ship, this coming monday will be the 3rd week I have waited for a shipping confirmation from them... They already billed my credit card and I have not received anything. These guys are really slow, I hope their product works well.

RW C55

Aafter a LONG LONG WAIT, the Stage-2 MOST is out- compatible with Audio 20/50 COMAND.
anybody tried it yet?

gvaughn

I'd be interested in feedback from others as well. BTW...there is another thread regarding this in the C32 forum. I'm posting a link here for those of us who are subscribed to THIS thread for updates. Especially for those of us in Cali looking for a BT solution before the new handsfree driving law goes in effect on July 1, 2008.

jbondox

They pretty much made the argos name up for someone elses product. like I buy a few benz's and throw my name on it type of stuff. I have been working with the real company that designs them (navTV), and all the bugs are pretty much worked out, in fact the local Benz dealership is charging $999 installed. Some might think that is expensive, but I guess you haven't priced out the wiring kit!

Anyways there was some flaws, been testing one in an R and an E, both 2007's, for about 4 months.

The rest of the stuff they have on the site is the Parrot stuff... they just make their own names up like it is supposed to be something special... funny

BTW here is my opinion on the E and the R class radio phone integration

MB has the biggest POS radios in those vehicles, take it all out and install an Alpine system. But if you need something to answer the phone for you... the NAvtV piece is nice. Functionality is the same as the factory, though they have to install another mic.

jbondox

actually i heard through the grape vine, that they play with the money first, hope they never go out of business...

They have the product to ship

Skylaw

Hmmmmm, apparently EuroCarPhone has renamed itself InCarTronics. See http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...l-classes.html - a Google search verified this.

Kind of brings back memories of Dension USA (not the same company now continuing as Dension in Europe) becoming DICE Electronics.

gvaughn

As long as you pay by CC you should be covered if they never ship.

Skylaw

There is an interesting discussion going on at the other link I provided (http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...l-classes.html) regarding re-labeling products. Miroj and an engineer from InCarTronics are duking it out. Kind of interesting.

jbondox

yep, pretty interesting... i believe they are a marketing company like was stated. But to be honest, they seem to be a one stop shop for phone interface, from Parrot units with the multican interface to the MoBridge, to the NavTv unit. I think that is fine in the real world and believe in business is business and they need to make money. i am sure if there was an issue with their interfaces someone would be screaming bloody murder on this forum about them. What i heard about them is from one of their suppliers who is a good friend of mine.

2008+ there is no need for that company, but 04-07 definitely. I did a few betas from navtv which is like the Argos system from incartronics but MOST supported.
The problems seem to went away with this last flash update, but when I was updating the parrot chip it no longer allows any BT phone to pair....whooops. I have had no time to try and reflash it but will play around with one later this week. note to self... don't update the parrot chip.

I don't know how I feel about this company (incartronics) I wish them best, I hope they aren't playing around with their clients, I have an email into MoBridge anyways for some tech questions....

benzmodz

Let's reserve judgement for when they have install photos and installer notes. Certainly the prodcut must follow all of the guidelines of a new install.

IF YOU HAVE A PHONE KIT - you can replace it - IF - your car is software compatible

IF YOU DONT HAVE A PHONE KIT - you need Star Diagnose activation and a compatible car configuration.

Then you have to also think about flashing your car modules / head unit and also handling your optical loop. This requires a small level of experience or a whole pile of HOW TO information (none of which was posted online).

Mobridge have a lot of work to do finding out what works and what does not work. Some of these things are car related (flash bios version) and some of these things are module related (defaults and settings).

If it was just a matter of throwing it into your car and driving off then it would be nothing to discuss. But really it isnt. You can't market things like this as plug-and-go.

After 2008 Mercedes is coming with USB ports so then this product only applies to USA cars from 2002-2007 (E, CLS, S, CL, SL). In the rest of world there are more options with UHI systems (not USA MHI) because there are Nokia, Motorola and HFP pucks which cover everything except the most exotic phones.

Viseeo is also very popular with Nokia based cars in rest-of-world.

The big market for this product is the USA but they need to sort out the details and firmware revisions. The bug-bear is the W211 2002-2004. Anyone who knows this car well will confirm that installing UHI-based telematics causes a lot of problems with the old audio-gateway revisions.

benzmodz

The MOST developer world is a VERY small world. You can hardly burp in one continent without it being heard in Stuttgart. Basically, everyone knows of everyone.

The incartronics latest was that they sent the last revisions to production 45 days ago. That means the units are on pre-order as stated by MoBridge. But since InCarTronics claims to have 4000 pre-orders you may have to be patient.

benzmodz

I totally agree. If Siemens made all the radios and COMAND units this would have been made years ago.

By far the biggest problem in all of this is the Becker and Alpine head units. That and the fact that Motorola have a legacy flaw which needs to be patched out of every single head unit. So rather than fix the problem they service pack the head units (most of which run windows).

Creating stability on an optical ring is quite an achievement. It takes a lot of time to do that.

All of these factors cause MOST products to be expensive to develop and they then also have to pay for MOST Cooperation memberships and a fee for iPOD function and another fee for using the OASIS chip on the MOST bus.

I honestly have no idea how engineers turn a profit in such a crowded marketplace.

underwhirled

Well, I've purchased the product for my car and can post to the group how it goes. FYI, Before I ordered I called them and they stated that there would be no "Dealer flashing" or "version coding" necessary.

I've also read the disussion on the other forum (link above). I'm more hesitant now, but will certainly post my experiences with the product. Believe me, if the experience is negative in any way, I'll let the forum know about it. I don't have a problem one speaking my mind.

Lets see what happens?

XJ9

agreed.. The eurocarphone guys are clearly re-labelers as the photos below show: their new kit is just the mobridge kit with a new label slapped on. They also have obviously glossed over the details as far as installation since there is no way these kits are going to be as bug-free and easy to install as they would like to have everyone believe.

benzmodz

One of the nice things about the Mobridge developer team is that they took onboard a whole heap of useful suggestions and design ideas from my company. This includes the flash upgrading function to iron out bugs later on.

Unlike the older technology, this design is actually able to be modified to meet new products which can come later on. So in that regard Fiberdyne (aka Mobridge) did the right thing.

Certainly it would have been more constructive if everyone just presented the product without the BS. At least invite some members for beta testing to make the install HOW-TO and get maybe 30 differing setups and see if bugs come up.

The prototype which I have is also the same as the one in the photos (without the phone board inside it).

robwill54

Hey guys,

I just joined this forum after digesting all the phone related stuff. I just put the Argos in my '03 G500 and am very satisfied with it so far. I am having the instrument cluster encoded in a week or so to enable the display there. Display is fully functional on the Comand, and my buttons (hangup/call) on the wheel work. Encoding should allow paging through phonebook with other buttons on wheel. The people at Argos were extremely helpful during the install. Someone had been there before me with a phone install and found bad fibers under the seat and at the VRM location. Had to run a new pair from behind Comand to under the seat and incorporate into the fiber ring to make Argos work. Bryan explained everything to me and it was really easy with his help. If the fibers had been ok, I would have simply pilled the pass seat and connected the fibers and 25 pin plug. As it happened, replacing the fibers required Comand removal, some carpet loosening, and a little creative routing. I don't know about the MOST setup, but the d2b setup is simple.

Bob

benzmodz

The MOST setup varies according to the car. As of January 2007 none of the USA cars are prewired for everything as they once were. So it depends on your car.

underwhirled

That's my understanding as well. I believe that I've read that the 2005 C class for the U.S. market is prewired for just about everything. The Aux Cable install was a breeze.

I think I also read somewhere that as long as the center console reads "No Phone" on a menu as you're cycling through, no dealer phone activation will be necessary.

I drive the sports sedan now, but I remember in my 2002 C230 coupe, I had the dealer remove the "No Phone" menu. It is my understanding that if I still had that car, I'd have to go back to the dealer so that the menu would be set to "present" again.

In my case it's all guess work. You guys that really do mods are miles and miles away from NW Arkansas.

benzmodz

Let's leave the A-class and B-class out of the general situation because those are a PITA.

So long as you have the phone menu it's much more likely to work. The only thing I am wondering about is which fuse are they using for the kit. Each car has a designated telematics fuse for CD or Phone. Ideally those would get used.

In the R171 you would use the prewired CD stacker cable and put in a CD stacker fuse.

I thought they were going to make a Mercedes >>> Mobridge 3pin to 4pin adaptor so you could insert the kit from a CD stacker to the Mobridge in about 3 seconds and use the MB OEM CD stacker harness but it seems to have gone out the window with the bathwater.

Such small details do matter. I dont know what they are suggesting.