johnfum

Anybody have any additional info on the new Sprint Motorola MB phone? I wonder if it can be retrofitted to older cars.

http://www.sprintpcsinfo.com/modules...rticle&sid=365

2003G55

I have a 2002 G500 which had the MB Timeport phone in it. It was never a good phone and in January suffered a breakdown. Mercedes stated that it could not be fixed and too bad for me, however, I checked the terms of my MB warranty and support for that phone was NOT excluded. The final result was that they put a new V60x in for me (911 compliant). I activated it only yesterday. It has superior reception in areas that I previously thought were dead.
It is my understanding that any recent Mercedes (post 2000 or so) with the fiberoptic "wiring harness" can be retrofitted. The cost would probably be in excess of $2000 if I had to guess. Hope this helps. Note. I have a 2004 600 SL with the pre-911 V60. I docked it in the G wagon and it worked perfectly, installing its own phonebook etc. The cradle also fit. I don't understand this as the MB parts department stated that the cradle had changed and that was the part that slowed down the installation appointment.

SUNILP

don't bet on the sprint phone. I have tried several places but no luck. For some reason, Sprint doesn't contract with Motorola. The last phone was the model 120 they used. There have been no other Sprint Motorola phones since then.

johnfum

From what I have read, Sprint & Motorola have kissed and made up. This is a new sprint/motorola phone for MB. Hopefully more info about it will be available soon.

xtianpel

I have it, it's the V60x and it works great. I took delivery of my car on 2/9/04 and it came with the phone. Since I have Sprint, they had to order the V60x model for me.

paulhdick

This is the press release on Mercedes' "Connected Car" Website about Sprint .....

The V60x - The New Sprint Phone

For the first time, a V60-series handset for Sprint PCS customers will be available. It offers all the great V60x features including E911 functionality.
In summary:
• The Sprint PCS V60x is fully E911 compliant.
• Please see the attached part number spreadsheet for a complete list of handset and cradle part numbers. Sprint PCS V60x handsets will be available for orders starting mid January 2004.
• The V60x handset must be paired with the new i/x/s cradle.


Sprint TDMA V60x Q 6 82 0888
Sprint TDMA V60x SPARE Q 6 82 0890

New i/x/s cradle kit for C, SLK, and SL (Short cord) Q 6 82 0894
New i/x/s cradle kit for CLK, M and G (Long cord) Q 6 82 0896
New i/x/s cradle kit for E Q 6 82 0898
New i/x/s cradle kit for S and CL Q 6 82 0900

Due to limited availability at launch, the above parts have been blocked for direct orders. To order parts, call in to Special Procurement (Steve Langelotti, 201-573-2971 or Luis Diaz, 201-573-2721).

All VPC's will phase the new cradles into production during January 2004. Until the transition is complete, warranty the required new cradle retrofit and field scrap the old cradle whenever a customer selects a CDMA handset with the VPC installed Hands Free Communication System Option.

Paul

johnfum

I would love to get this phone as I currently use sprint. I also have cingular for my startac MB phone on my 2000 c280. I have a great plan with sprint and happy with their service.

Paul-
I think I know the answer to this question, but I thought I would confirm with the master:

If I wanted to get this phone, would I need to replace the whole phone system on my 2000 c280 (PSE, Compensator, Cradle)? If so are their new part #'s?

Thanks
John

paulhdick

Hi John,

It depends upon the system you have now and how much you want to replace. At a minimum, you need to replace the PSE, cradle-cord kit, and phone.

For best reception you may want to replace the compensator, antenna switch, and antenna ... but I think this is unnecessary for most people, especially if you live in a good wireless reception area. I know several folks who did not upgrade to the tri-band antenna hardware (AMPS-800MHz-1900MHz) and have had no complaints. If you have the Star-Tac phone now it shouldn't be a problem. If you currently have the older AMPS only phone you may have some spotty reception, but you can always upgrade the antenna hardware later.

This is an easy DIY and requires no version coding afterwards since you already have a phone installed now. This is a 45min job .... max!!!!

Paul

Mr. Xristo

just purchase one of these when they come out:


http://www.mikbox.com/

paulhdick

I am testing one of prototypes for Mik right now, and it does work!!!! You would still need to buy the PSE and cradle though ... and some sort of P2K compatible Motorola phone ....

Paul

Mik

I don't think the cradle is necessary anymore, you can probably use this with a little cable modification. I will let you know next week.

johnfum

I purchased the Sprint V60x Mercedes phone off ebay. I am just going to use it as a regular phone as my car doesn't support it. Sprint has been having trouble activating it and although the ESN # is on their system, they can't seem to get it to work properly ("no service" reads on the phone). Do I have to go to a dealer to get this activated? Shouldn't I just be able to use it as a regular cell phone the same way I can use my MB Startec?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
John

xtianpel

John: I too had a lot of trouble activating the phone with sprint. Stick with it, if the person on the phone can't help you, get someone else. They DO have it in their system, they just have to look a bit harder.

Send me a private message with your phone number and I'll call you to give you a few tricks (too long to write it here).

DMI+RY

I thought that if you get MikBox you do not need to upgrade PSE...

paulhdick

But, I beleive that if you use a standard V60 you will at least need to use a PSE meant for a V60. I think the initialization string is different between the Timeport and V60. Mik will know for sure .....

Paul

DMI+RY

IMO, The whole idea of MikBoz is to retranslate phone segnal to the PSE format. I asked Mik what I would need to upgrade to v60 - and he only specified craddle/cord and v60 phone (of course, non-MB is going to work fine). No PSE was mentioned in his response...
Interesting, is it really necessary to change PSE?

paulhdick

... but the way I understand it is the phone communication protocol is the same whether you use a Mercedes or non-Mercedes phone. It is only the response to a specific initialization string that needs to be duplicated by the MIK-box to allow a non-Mercedes phone to be used. The reason a Timeport PSE would not work with a V60 phone is the same. It's only the initialization string, and a few other power up and power down issues that are being controlled by the Mik box .... I think .... but obviously Mik is the expert!!!!!

Paul

Mik

The communication protocol btw. the timeport PSE and phone is completely different from the one used by the V60 PSE and phone. The MikBox firmware builds an abstraction layer that can translate the protocol of different phones to the protocols of different PSEs. The current beta box supports only the V60 PSE and the motorola P2K phones.

I will be back in the US on Sunday. Then I will continue working on the integration of the timeport PSE. I expect the StarTac protocol not to be much different from the Timeport protocol, but we'll see...