tviteri

A couple of years back, the CD Changer – Model MC3010 stopped working. Reluctant to purchase a new one for many reasons (reportedly if will fail sooner or later; cost: between $600 to $800 at the dealer, around $240 on ebay; limitations: plays only CDs, no MP3s) I decided to look for alternatives, and the Dension Gateway 500 (GW500) seemed the way to go. However, the installation has not gone as smooth as I expected.

This document details the efforts I am taking to make it work, which I am not sure if I will be able to accomplish at all. By reporting my findings, hopefully other readers will know what to expect if starting similar projects, or, other readers who already experienced similar situations can contribute with tips and information.

To reiterate, the C320 came with the OEM radio and OEM CD Changer already installed and working. The model and part numbers are as follows:

OEM Model # OEM Part #
Radio CM 1010 A 203 820 10 86
CD Changer MC 3010 A 203 820 90 89

More information and pictures on the attached PDF file.

Regards,

Ted V.

Skylaw

Tviteri, thank you for posting this information on the D2B version of the Gateway 500. I cannot speak to the D2B version with any authority, but I just posted problems with the MOST version on BenzWorld. It details a problem I had, and the solution. The symptoms I experienced were exactly as you describe, even though on a MOST loop. However, I believe the problems have different, but related, causes.

For MOST bus units, the GW 500 must be placed in the fiber optic loop immediately ahead of, and adjacent to, the CD changer (which, in my car, involved work swapping fiber optic connectors in the trunk as well). Otherwise, it will not suppress the wakeup signal to the CDC, and will not replace the CDC on the MOST ring; the CDC will take priority. See the writeup at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/show...86#post2376586.

You don't have any choice about where to insert the D2B version in the loop; there is only one option, if you have a CDC, and another if you don't, according to the installation manual. Have you tried both (since you said your CDC had stopped working)?

Also, I agree that you are probably correct that your F/O loop is OK, because the other components are all functioning. Same happened with mine.

In my correspondence with Rob13572468 (a highly experienced installer working for a company that does Benz engineering installations) over my problem, he mentioned that he experienced wakeup pinouts in a D2B installation that were different from the diagram in the installation manual. You are correct in your suspicion that if your D2B wakeup is not connected to the proper pinout, the Gateway unit will not wake up and join the fiber optic loop.

By the way, my GW 500 was acquired from the same folks who sold you yours, and they were responsive to my requests for assistance - their bottom line was correct (though what they did was to ask me to implement the solution developed between myself and Rob13572468, which I had sent to them).

Also, contributor GW500, who responded to my post, is one of the developers of the Gateway 500. If the people who sold it to you cannot help, you might send him a private message and ask him to take a look at your writeup.

I am going to revise my MOST writeup on BenzWorld and post it on MBWorld, but with less discussion as to puzzlement over the problem - since I did find out what was wrong.

Good luck, and thanks for the quality writeup of your question.

rob13572468

the provided harnesses will not work as the pinouts are different for mercedes. the gnd and constant 12v are corrent on the dension harness but the 12v switched and wakeup are almost certainly incorrect. you will need to clip those two wires from the provided harness and connect them directly to the proper terminals.

if you can take clear pics of the factory radio plugs i can then id which wires to use. also you do not need to keep the changer in the loop, it can be completely removed as long as the D2b optic loop is made to be continuous. this can be done by disconnecting the d2b lead from the changer and pluging it into the provided loop socket ( the socket with the single fiber looping from in to out. additionally if you want you can direcly wire 12v/gnd/wakeup right at the cdc plug if you want. this is sometimes easier when the changer is mounted in the glovebox since all connections can be made there with the exception of the 12v switched.

tviteri

First of all, many thanks to forum members Skylaw and rob13572468, as well as Jay C. from discountcarstereo.com, the information they provided helped choosing the appropriate course of action to get the issue resolved.

As of last Friday, I finally got the GW500 working. The issue seems that it was related to the broken CD Changer interfering with the GW500. As soon as I removed the CD Changer from the loop, the unit started working flawlessly (and continues to work without any issues so far).

Below are the results of my findings:

1. If the CD Changer is broken, it may interfere with the normal operation of the GW500 (in my case, this may have been the situation). I had to remove the CD Changer from the loop (thanks for the encouragement and instructions rob13572468). How to do it?

Locate the CD Changer optical cable behind the head unit, it has optical couplers, 1 says "sound out" and the other says "radio" (and actually goes to the radio optical in). I removed those two couplers by lifting one of the metallic tabs, and then couple them together (the one that says sound and the other that says radio) to close the loop, completely removing (from the loop) the optical cable going to the CD Changer. At this point, I removed the 3 PIN power going to the CD player, turn on the FM radio and VOILA!, I still had sound. When I clicked CD, the USB key started playing music ALMOST IMMEDIATELY! It was very exciting, and I was able to get rid of the CD Changer as well.

If you wish to leave the CD Changer, see note by Skylaw noting that the position on the loop may be of importance and may have to be changed.

2. The wake up cable going to the GW500 is incorrectly pictured coming out from pin #10 or #7 on the GW500 instructions (thanks again to rob13572468 for pointing this out); however, the GW500 power harness wake up cable was correctly connected to the PIN #3 on the Head Unit, same as the wake up cable for the 3 PIN connector going to the OEM CD Changer.

3. Of the three sections + 4 PIN connector of the GW500 power harness, the brown section is not used at all. I only found 2 OEM power sections going to the top and bottom of the head unit. There was nothing on the middle of the head unit; therefore, the brown section of the GW500 power harness is not used at all.

4. The Dension installation instructions mention 2 types of harness: #22 for COMAND units, and #21 for “all other units.” This may be a little misleading since #22 worked (the only optical cable that came with the kit) installed fine although I do not have a COMAND unit.

Well, once again, thank you for all your help and feedback.

Regards,

Ted V.