NightSea

According to SL55 COMMAND owner's manual ,
it is possible to connect two external devices to TV system(AV1
and AV2).

1. Are these devices RCA jacks?

2. Where are these devices? To see them , should the COMMAND
be disassembed from the car?

3. My car is German model ( only Pal ). Do those devices accept
only PAL video signal?

4. Factory setting of TV is ; you can see only when the car is
stationary. I guess that a electric line is connected with
gear position box. If so, what will happen if I cut the line.

5. Do you know the version of SL55 COMMAND exactly ?
I checked www.megacomm.de and according to that site,
COMMAND 2.0 DX is used for SL class(R230).
But, what they shows for " SL class (R 230)" is different
from that of SL55.

Thanks

Ted Baldwin

..........There have been various threads on this. Your S55 uses command 2.0 which in the USA has Video capability if it is a post 2001 model. Since you are in Germany, I think all Euro commands have video capibilty.........especially sinceit says so on your manual. It is not an RCA jack. To use the video, you will have to instal an MB TV tunner or a Megacomme A/V adapter. These have RCA jacks to your command. You will then need to enable the TV function via the Star diagnosis software which unfortunately is mostly only available to MB dealers. Using the Star Diagnosis software you can also disable the restriction that prevents your TV function from working while in motion. If of course it is legal in your locality. Finally, the earlier MB TV tunners were PAL only but since 2002, thee MB TV tunners are multisignal. The Megacomme AV adapter is just a slave that feeds video input to your command. It does not have a TV tunner. If you go this route, you will need an aftermarket TV tunner installed in series with the adapter.


Ted

NightSea

Ted, Thanks for your post.


My car is SL55, not S55.
Some people say SL55's COMMAND is 2.0 version,
but, other people say it is 2.5 DX.

1.At the site of megacomm.de , there are pictures of COMMAND
2.0 and 2.5 DX , and those pictures are the same .
This makes me confused as SL55's COMMAND has different
appearance.

2.According to the manul of SL55 COMMAND ,
I can have external devices(AV1 and AV2) only when
I have already TV tuner. Of course I have MB TV option.
I think this tuner is connected with COMMAND through
a special jack( not RCA jack).

As I understand , two aux. inputs. are part of the tuner.
Usually this kind of input of tuner has RCA jacks.
And my question is if my guess is corrcet or not.


3. Where is this MB tuner?

4. My car was produced at early 2002 and TV tuner is pal only.
Does this mean the tuner's aux. inputs should be PAL also?

Ted Baldwin

.....................I don't think your car has a TV tunner already installed. You need to purchase separately a TV tunner which connects directly to the back of your command. That Tv tunner then will have two A/v inputs. If you purchase the PAL only TV tunner, the tunner itself will be PAL but the inputs to the Tunner via the two RCA jacks can be NTSC or SECAM. This has been done.





HERE IS THE LINK

NightSea

Ted, thanks again.

I read the thread you made.
Very nice!

I imported SL55 from German market.
Again, SL55's COMMAND's picture is different from those at
megacomm.

The precious information you gave is ;
the tuner's input jacks accept NTSC signals also.
I appreciate your sharing of experience.

Ted Baldwin

..................I understand that the SL55 Command's picture is different from those at Megacomme. MB is currently in the process of switching to Command II in order to have DVD based navigation. In either case, the TV tunner typically does not come with the car and will need to be purchased separately and installed. Sounds like you are saying that your car came with the Tunner already installed. That would be awesome! If you find out, let us know. Good luck. Bad *** car by way. Enjoy it

Ted

NightSea

I just finished reading all posts here ,which include the word
, COMMAND. It took me more than 6-7 hours.

Of course I learned many things especially from your writings
as well as Richard's.

One time Richard taught me about "universal tv tuner" ,
which is attached to MB cars from July ,2002.
Mine is PAL/SECOM only and not DVD version.
I bought my car from a German dealer and it has TV,
Nokia, and Navigation options.
These options are useless here as systems are
differnt , but I selected them to avoid any re-wiring .

Anyway, now I can figure out the mechanism.

Thanks .

Richard

Nightsea.

I cant remember if the SL55 TV tuner is in the rear left
side of the boot, or under one of those storage boxes (left
hand side). Your MB dealer should be able to look it up on their WIS system

Depending on when your car was manafacturered, it either has the newer NTSC compatable TV tuner, or not. (My end June 02 built SL55 has newer NTSC tuner)

If you enter TV mode, and go thru the tuning menu, you will be able to set the country, if you find USA in there (although, I dont think its called USA, it may be called North America), then you have the newer tuner.

The newer tuner has RCA jacks (Video, Audio-L, Audio-R), the earlier tuner needs some special leads that can be bought from megacomm.

"DVD" doesnt come into account yet. MB isnt yet shipping the DVD based COMAND II system

Your SL55 has COMAND 2.0. COMAND 2.5 is only in the S & CL and has the tape player (and it is 2.5 din units high). The SL (and most others) are 2.0 din units high, no tape, with different shaped fronts depending what car they are in)

The later tuner is PAL/SECAM/NTSC, the older PAL & SECAM only. What TV system do you have there if its not one of those ??


Hope that helps

R

NightSea

Richard, you are really a big body to me.

As you instructed , I set the country ...and I found my country
was there! I did not try it before as the English manual , which
Davidgai sent me kindly, says only limited number of countries
, majority of which are European.

Evenmore it does not say anything about NTSC.

All pages of "Selecting a TV standard" , "Changing the TV
standard", "Changing the programme position's standard",
and "TV standards and country allocation" don't say anything
about NTSC ,Japan and USA (major countries using NTSC), or
universal adatability.

So I gave up ......I shoud have tried. ...

Thanks, Richard. Long may you live!

Now my mission is to remove the screen-off during driving.
As there is only one hard dealer , it will not be easy.

Richard

Perfect, never trust the manual :-)

Quote:

Now my mission is to remove the screen-off during driving.
As there is only one hard dealer , it will not be easy.

As of around 06/2002, the dealers can not turn of the safety interlock.

I can do it with a load of test kit plugged into the diagnostic socket, but you need to be familiar with Linux, bits and bytes and buy a computer->ISO9141 converter device ($100 or less)

NightSea

Richard, thanks for your comments again.

It is very interesting to hear that without a star diagnosis
computer it is available to re-program.

I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT!
PLEASE BE MY TEACHER.

As a student , I am not familiar with LINUX.
But I used to make a program with DBase-III ,
and one of my men is good at LINUX.

I checked Yahoo England to find a ISO9141 converter.
There are so many kinds. I don't know know which one is
correct.

Would you please kindly to explain everything needed to
remove the safety interlock ?

Richard

Ok, heres a start.

On http://freediag.sourceforge.net there is software suite for talking to car electronics. In the docs there it talks about various hardware interfaces to make the ISO9141 converter, and gives you some software that you can compile on linux to talk to most car;s (any newish US car, any new EU car) to ask about emissions data.
I suggest you get the "Andy Whittaker" interface, as its a simple cheap interface that you can get ready made.
When you buy this from him, get some extra pins for the ISO9141 connector please, as you have to make extra connection to connect to the COMAND unit diagnostic pin in the diagnostic connector. The car's diagnostic connector is above the drivers feet on the panel under the dashboard, it has a flip down cover on it, its about 2inch * 1inch


Once you get that running, I will send you the further info you need to talk to the COMAND unit, and how to change the settings that enable/disable the 4 different interlocks that could be enabled (speed 2kmh , speed 10kmh, hand-brake on, park)

Cheers
R

NightSea

Richard,

I checked http://freediag.sourceforge.net .

1. software - I believe it is Freediag v. 0.2 .
I will downroad and compile it on Linux.

2. order- I will buy Andy Whittaker's OBD II ISO interface(ready
made) plus OBD II connector with extra pins. (He supplies a
connector with 5 pins and I will order more pins).

3. After I do above two things, I will report.

Thanks for homework.

Richard

Ok, If youre not using redhat, and if you get compile problems, then you will need to grab the latest source code from the CVS source code store (what will become Freediag 1.0 shortly), as it has some "make it compile on other Linux's better" enhancements !

Cheers
R

Ted Baldwin

..............This is interesting. The command units currently present in 2003 Mb cars does not support the info service provided by Mb for year 2001 to 2002 cars. In addition it is not possible to show video while the car is trabvelling at over 20mph even via the star diagnosis. I just spent two days confirming this and yesterday had to swap the command in my friends brand new E320. What is strange is that these are not the DVD based Navigation systems as the DVD ones have not made it into MB cars yet. So the current Commands systems offer no advantages, but have significant diadvantages. I will be taking the car tomorrow to the dealer to see if we can figure out the fault codes to allow the now "old" command to show video while in motion. Intetrested also in finding out what happened with Richard and Nightsea's project. I have looked into the ISO interface and the freediag v. 0.2 but dissappointed that it only works on linux.

Ted

Richard

Thats a change to the star diagnosis (not the COMAND unit) to prevent the tech from disabling all the interlocks, to comply with EU and US recommendations/requirements.
- This means that if a tech reprograms some of the features on your COMAND, you may lose that ability too (if you have it)

I have used my s/w to disable the interlocks on my last car (havent got around to doing it on the SL), and a couple of people I know have used the software (with me there!) to enable their TV watching :-)

As to Linux vs PC - I wrote it for Linux because thats what I knew best. Maybee someone will port it to Windows, which is why I made the source code freely available for all

The "info service" on/off is also a software setting on the COMAND unit done from Star Diagnosis I beleive, but Im not 100% sure about US units ...

You could always just get the tech at the dealer to isntall the MY2001/2002 software update on to the latest COMAND if its actually something missing from the s/w running on COMAND ..

The DVD based system is completely different technology (the D2B fibre ring is replaced by MOST, there are some centralised controllers that everything connects to, etc etc) I really cant see it being reliable in its early years (same as COMAND wasnt)

R

Ted Baldwin

..................thanks Richard. I am pretty certain that the 2001/2002 software can be installed in the My2001/2002 Command units. I was not certain how smoothly it would be to install the 2001/2002 software in the MY2003 commands. Since going to the dealer to do this requires some streamlining before getting there, I decided to swap the commands which is not difficult. As far as the DVD based system, I am aware that it is a totally different system. My point was that the current 2003 command system in MB cars offer no advantages to the 2001/2002 system since you loose certain functions. If the 2003 Commands are the new DVD based sytstem, you may rationalize it as a fair trade off. I was also able to turn off the safety feature in my 2000 CLK and can watch DVD, TV etc while car is in motion. Doing the same for a 2003 car is currently the issue.

Ted

Richard

Hokay, certainly in Europe, as from Star diagnosis 6/2002, the ability to turn of the safety stuff is removed (you can select it in Star, but it leaves it on), so if the dealer fiddles with that area on even an old car, it will turn those interlocks back on.

I assume thats what the dealer is running in to. But of course, MB could have changed the settings in the US version of COMAND aswell as in the Euro Star diagnosis.

I will try (assuming I get time) to turn of the interlocks on my Euro. 2003 SL55 in the next couple of days and report back. I know my dealer cant do it with Star, we tried :-)

Ted Baldwin

Richard,

Did you ever figure out how to get your TV function working while in motion in the SL55?

Ted

NightSea

Richard,
This is current situation ;

I ordered Andy Whittaker's OBD II ISO interface(ready
made) plus OBD II connector with extra pins.
But, according to his website, there is a delay untill 1st of Nov.
I expect to receive them by middle of Nov..

At that time I hope to get compiled one also.

Richard

I know how to do it, just havent done it yet !
R

cone

Dear MB forum People:
I can tell you last week a bougth a new S class 2003 facelift in my country, Spain. It has, new comand 16:9 format display with cd navigation system,new tv tuner for ntsc, pal and secam with 2 av RCA inputs in tv tuner, located in the boot, new rear 16:9 tv monitor with aux av input, cd changer, linguatronic and Nokia 6310i mobile phone. My question is, how to disable tuner off while car is runing.
Best regards

Richard

Hello, sadly the answer is "no one knows how".

From 06/2002, the dealer's Star Diagnosis system was changed so the dealer could not turn of the safety interlocks on the COMAND2.0/2.5 (not 16x9 format) - some dealers kept a version
of 5/2002 Star around so they could do that, and the technical mechanism to do that is known, so it is possible with other diagnosis programs.

However, no one yet knows anything about the new S class
nav system (I suspect it is COMAND II, DVD based and completely different to COMAND2.0/2.5) and there will be no Star diagnosis systems that can turn those safety interlocks off if it is COMAND II

The only hope I can give you is that your 16x9 system may not actually be COMANDII, it may be a deriviative of the old COMAND2.0/2.5 systems.

Can you tell me (a) who makes the navigation map disk and (b) can you watch DVD on the integrated disc player ? (I know you say it has CD maps)

R

cone

cone

Let me tell you, this is my second S class I have (w220), this new comand works much better than 2.5, and faster, it can read audio cd´s it hasn´t tape, but it has an aux input for mp3 or tape type stereo mini plug. Rear tv monitor works very good as well.