yukpo

hi people!
where did you guys hard wire the power source for DVD player or other devices? where will be the best? i need some detailed info.
by doing so, does computer in the car give you some sort of error sign? should i worry about discharge of battery? (i used to have subs and amp in my c220, and had battery discharging problem quite often)
thanks!!

Maff

The power is drawn off the back of the COMAND unit, from COMAND's own power supply with a seperate fuse. The only problem with this is that when use remove the key, power to the DVD is lost thus it does not remember it's settings. The advantage of this however, is that you can be sure no battery drain will occur.

Ted Baldwin

...................you can solve the problem of loss of memory by the DVD player. by using an Alpine DVD system which remembers your last operation and restarts at the same disc location after power is turned back on. This is what I did. No problems.

Ted

yukpo

thanks Maff and Ted..
but Ted, i know you connected more than one video sources... did you connect everything to comand power source? and which one has memory? the one in the trunk or in the glovebox?
does anyone know which plug and pin numbers are for switch and constant??
thanks a lot!

Nav-TV

[IMG]ftp://ftp.nav-tv.com/100MSDCF/DSC03079.JPG[/IMG]

OK Guys, After reading all the posts I felt the need to clarify a few questions regarding US COMAND systems and TV integration.

Many of you know that I offered a video input modifications into early COMAND 2.5 units. others also wondered why there is no factory TV support for those units.
I decided a while ago to accomplish the same with BMW's, and as you may know, I now have BMW TV Tuners available.
I have done some massive research, and spent many hours at the dealership with a STAR Diagnostic computer and a few S-Class, CL's and others. Here are the conclusions:

1. EARLY (2000-2001 US year model) COMAND 2.5 with Q versions up to Q5 units would not accept the TV Programming with the STAR. I suspect that the unit needs to be upgraded via a disc called "SERVICE DOWNLOAD CD", which has a version higher then Q4. I have tried to upgrade with Q3 and no luck.

2. LATE (2002 US Year Model) COMAND 2.5 with Q version Q7 and higher would gladly accept TV Programming via the STAR. the empty button then becomes the TV Button and when there is NO TV Tuner installed, the radio says "NO TV". when the TV Tuner is connected properlly everything works fine!!!

3. ALL US Spec. COMAND 2.0 can be programmed. as far as I know, there are no cutoff years like with the COMAND 2.5.


I Have recently leased a 2002 C-Class with the COMAND 2.0 just for this purpose... and I have completed the TV Tuner install without any major problems!!!
I will post more pictures of a S-Class install next time!


[IMG]ftp://ftp.nav-tv.com/100MSDCF/DSC03168.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]ftp://ftp.nav-tv.com/100MSDCF/DSC03176.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]ftp://ftp.nav-tv.com/100MSDCF/DSC03177.JPG[/IMG]

awiner

Interesting... My 2001 CL, had a COMAND 2.5 Q7 revision lvl from the factory, however has been replaced with a Q8 level COMAND 2.5 unit after the COAMND unit itself went bad.

From my understanding, newer COMAND 2.5 units (Q8) or greater have siglhty different hardware makeups. In a TSB released last year, all COMAND 2.5 units less than Q8 that are in dealer stock were to be retuned to the factory and replace with greater than or equal to Q8

Nav-TV

That's What I said, Q7 and higher works... I am just not sure about the cutoff production month....

Nav-TV

Lat post did not show the pictures, only the links.

Here are some (HQ) pictures of Friday's install - TV Tuner on an S-Class.


TV harness in the trunk, location of TV ground point:



The car half apart showing the euro COMAND playing TV In New York...


Location of CAN wires to tap behind the head unit:


The rear side of the COMAND with the TV harness plugged in...



Now this was a real pain in the neck - Droppong the headliner, replacing the antenna, installing a new one with built in TV Amplifiers....



More to come.....

Ted Baldwin

...............the links are not working. I don't know why. Could you post the pics of the US spec command 2.0 with TV tunner? And what dods you did if any. Thanks.

Ted

Nav-TV

Here are the pictures of my c-class TV install:






Let me know how you like it!
moni

yukpo

i thought euro tv tuner does not work in US due to the signal type differnece..
what kind of tv-tuner is that??

Nav-TV

The early TV Tuners are indeed PAL only. the new TV Tuners are true multi-system (PAL/SECAM/NTSC) And they have two convenient AV input jacks (AV1 and AV2). the tuner works for all comand units 2.0 and 2.5, but with early 2.5 system there still is a problem programming the head unit - please read my previous posts.

Moni

newMBz

Nav-TV, what a nice thing you did for the C-class. Now my questions is how much does it cost to have the TV and DVD installed into the US command sysytem 2.0 in a 2002 C320.
Thanks and good work !

yukpo

ok.. it seems like euro comand (early 2002 model) should not have since problem with installing new tv-tuner, since it loaded with newer software.. do i still need antenna modification like comand 2.5 like you showed before? where did you place the tv-tuner? obviosely there are no space behind comand... right?
thanks.

Nav-TV

Every Mercedes vehicle that came with COMAND has it's own antenna setup in eurpoe. the S-Class and CL have a big antenna amplifier unit under the headlines, attached to the rear window by contact fingers. other vehicle have bumper antennas and glass antennas, but since I did not yet get the part numbers for the antenna for the C-Class, I have installed an after-market, 4 channel diversity antenna in the rear bumper. it works pretty good actually, but I want to try the factory antenna setup as well. the S-Class has GREAT TV Reception, as good as the BMW's I'm doing for over a year now. don't get me wrong, TV reception is never perfect in a car, but compared even to the most expensive after-market systems, its a real winner!

The harness is a modified S-class harness. I'm waiting for the C-Class harness as well.

Richard

Nav-Tv
Where do you get the diversity rear bumper aerial. Theres no TV aerials in the rear window on the ML
Cheers
R

Nav-TV

Richard, Like I said, I have used after-market antennas. These are actually one of the best after-market antennas on the market. it is designed as a thin film strip that stick to the inner side of the rear or front window, and made of four different strips in different length (as appropriate to cover a wide range from about 50MHz to over 500MHz) and have 4 amplifiers enclosed at the base of the strips.

It works pretty well while behind the (plastic) bumper at the rear of my C Class. I would assume it would work as well in the ML. The antenna costs me a little over $100.

Ted Baldwin

Moni,

Good job! I have two questions. The first is, your picture of the C-class command 2.0 shows AV in[put jacks. I imagine that this is actually coming out of an attached TV tunner. But does the TV tunner actually attach to the command in that way. Your picture shows them together as one unit. I have done similar job on a CLK Command 2.0 and it did not fit like that.

Secondly..........I had to have an ALpine TV tunner attached to my Command via the MB TV tunner AV input. The Alpine set comes with a $ channel diversity antenna and the recption is acceptable but not great. I did this becausse my MB TV tunner was PAL only. So I ended up with two TV tunners connected in series. The advantage is that the Alpine Tv tunner has 4 AV inputs, so you can pretty much connect whatever you want to it. I think the dissadvantage is that my TV reception via the Alpine TV tunner is not the best. Are you familiar with the Alpine Tv tunner and is there an advantage in TV reception with an MB TV tunner over Alpine? What is the catalog number for the multi-signal MB TV tunner, and can I use my old wiring harness with this multi-channel MB TV tunner. Thanks.

Ted

Richard

That picture is the back of a S/CL Comand 2.5 unit. The module at the bottom is the Navigation processor including CD (which from memory cant be used to play audio cds). The round silver connector above it is the video input on Comand 2.5 - on 2.0 the connectors are different.

The new tuner is A220 820 08 97, and according to my dealer's electronic parts catalog . the COMAND unit is the same with either tuner. AFAIK, they have added NTSC (which was always in the documentation) and changed the silly Aux connectors to composite video/stereo-audio phonos.

Ted Baldwin

Thanks

Ted Baldwin

just so I understand. The picture at the bottom of page 4 that says "pic of my C-class command install" is actually a picture of an s/CL command?

Nav-TV

These are pictures from my C Class, with the comand 2.0.

The middle of page 4 is s500 install.

yukpo

NAV-TV, where did you place the TV-Tuner in your C-Class?

Nav-TV

I have mounted the TV tuner in the left side of the trunk behind the trim cover. I had to cut and modify the trim slightly, but I have ordered a new trim cover from germany that's built with more space for the tuner. I'll let you know how the new trim fits in.

yukpo

NAV-TV, did you get my PM??