ROLLNNN

Hey guys,
I'm asking this question for a friend. He has a 2005 CLK with the command. I tried to convince him to go aftermarket, but wants to stay oem. It looks like he is going with the mcar kit on ebay for bluetooth but is there a way to add a rear view camera to the command?

Thanks!

jbondox

yep, 2 ways, 1 is to pull the COMAND check resistance on pins 1 and 7 or 8 on the 14 or 16 plug if it has 80 ohms, then it has the video portion built into it to allow video input, you will populate those 2 pins with an rca and then find someone that can program it on. I believe both navtv and midcity have a kit with programmer to do this.

note, I think those are the pin numbers, I forget which ones but know it by looking at it, one is above the other. Further, there were only a very small number of COMAND that had that option so you might not have it.

Next would be a video ribbon modification. I can do it in a few minutes as I did many many many basically you interrupt the ribbon that is attached to the screen. it is pretty simple if you know how to manipulate ribbon harnesses. basically you replace the factory with another ribbon and there is a convertor box that takes a composite video to RGB which displays on the screen (not when navigation is being displayed though) you can add a backup camera then, and you can add other video to it also like the crux piece that will mimic your iphone or android smartphone. If you cant do it, then navtv.com can do the conversion for you, just send them the COMAND. derek@navtv.com would be a good contact. THE DIY kit from them with the ribbon harness is a bit tricky due to the small circuit board that is externally mounted. I usually cut the plastic out under the COMAND where it slides in so i can just double side it to the bottom and still slide the COMAND back into the cavity without damaging the circuit board.

hope that helps ya out. if you are in Ohio, www.access1alarm.com are pros at it, I showed them how to do many of them. G, C, ML, GL, and R class are all similar COMANDS

I

MacVidMB-V8

Hi, I don't know anything about video in, I wish I did and in fact if you follow the above poster and are able to enable it I may follow you.

I just want to post that when looking for a Comand, your friend needs to stick with 2005-7 models. The easy way to tell difference is it will have a "SERV" button instead of a "SYS" button. If you use a "SYS" model in early car you end up with clocks always being off time and unable to fix.

I am going to copy and paste now from my other post:

Hi, I realize that this thread is old and OP has likely solved issue/moved on but I recently figured some things out about Comand in W209 and am posting the info here and there to help out community.

I am only knowledgeable on 2005-2007 cars as that is what I have. When I got my 2005 it came with Audio 20 and HK system. I purchased a Comand for W209 on Ebay and installed it. Sound was good but as I didn't have Star I was unable to code dashboard. I thought that this was cause of my inability to set time on the Comand. It was always off by 1 hour and didn't care what the dashboard clock was set to.

Was a minor irritant but bugged me.

Recently I got a STAR system set up on a Dell 630 and finally coded dashboard to "Comand=Present" I was surprised to discover that instead of 1 clock wrong and 1 clock correct, I ended up with BOTH clocks off by an hour. "Timeset" was an option on Comand but only lit up when car off. If you pushed it it would tell you to turn on ignition. If you turn on ignition, then it would grey out the "Timeset".

I was confused by people's posts about time zone setting. I eventually found numerous posts from other people with MCS2 units having similar problem. I have now come to realize that there were 2 different MCS2 systems for W209. There are a variety of part numbers but the important and easy to spot difference is the early ones have a "SERV" button that leads to a soft key "SYSTEM" while the newer ones have a "SYS" key where "SERV" was.

Using newer (2008-9) in a 2005-7 car leads to the inability to set time. So for perfect function in a 2005-7 car, you should use a MCS2 with "SERV" key. I was also unable to find a way to get into "Engineering Mode' in the "SYS" one while "OK", "7", and "MUTE" works on SERV model.

I can verify that the above is true in that I sourced an earlier "SERV" model and installed it in place of the later one. I am now able to set timezone and have perfect function. A mild loss is that the later model shows time on screen, nice for passengers as the older one only shows current time on the Speedo clock area.

As a consequence, I have the later model for sale. I will post the official sale in the classifieds section and add a link here later. I don't know what happens if you use the early model in a later car.

In the bad news section, when I first installed the proper one, there was no sound output. Apparently the original owner had different set up on MOST bus. All I had to do was reset MOST bus and all was fine. But this means it is possible that anytime someone buys a used one from Ebay they may get one that doesn't match their MOST config and they will need STAR to reset. A drag really.

So, I would be happy to sell your friend my 2008 model but it would most likely give him the same problem. He would be better served to find a 2005-7 model with a "SERV" button. I will be happy to do a Star MOST reset and "Comand=Present" once you install his. As I stated before, i know nothing about Video in, I did see some STAR entries about DVD video but didn't mess with them, no idea if it can help in any way.