carlsbad

I recently invested in the AWS blue tooth set up and am using my Blackberry phone with the Command & Navigational controls in the car. The reception (what I hear) works great with the sound coming through the speakers. Unfortunately when I ask people how my voice sounds they tell me its like I am in a tunnel, very fuzzy sound, and hard to hear me. I asked the dealer today and they said they never receive complaints about the quality of the internal microphone. To be clear, the microphone embedded in the rear view mirror is the one supposedly that is picking up my voice, it is not the microphone built into the blackberry phone as that microphone is disabled when the AWS interface is synced up with my phone and the car's phone controls take over thanks to blue tooth technology.

Has anyone else had problems with the built in microphone in the E500? Is there an upgrade available for a better quality microphone. Its great to be able to dial out and listen to incoming conversation.....much easier than holding the phone to my ear, but if people can't hear what I am saying (the outgoing part of the conversation), its not much of a viable tool to use in making calls, business or otherwise. It's like half a solution

TPAbnz

Same problem here. Dealers says there is no microphone upgrade although they did try to point it away from AC drafts.

unclebenz

how do you set up the phone system, i purchased a used E500 and i would love to hook up my razor with the blue tooth to my car. thanks

konigstiger

This might help:

P-B-82.70/492 MAR06 Poor Quality When Using Phone in Hands Free Mode (211, model year 2005 and later). Vehicles not equipped with a voice control unit for any hands free quality or poor understanding of persons in vehicle update the MHI control unit software to version 31/05 through STAR.

jimbo1mcm

You are a vast resource!!!!! Thanks. Jimbo

edspider

Are these service bulletins posted anywhere that we could see them? I'm having Steve NL add the MHI and BT adapter. I expect he knows all about this particular bulletin, but I'd be curious to see what it says.

konigstiger

Check your PM.

carlsbad

konigstiger, Thanks for the service bulletin. I am having the dealer make the software adjustment on Monday. Funny thing a few days back the dealer service manager tells me he never heard of a microphone complaint and yesterday he says someone came in with the same issue, they made the software change and it was 100% approved.

It occurs to me that this software change is not needed if one has the voice control unit. Is my assumption correct that the microphone would need to be more sensitive to pick up voice activiated instructions?

The cost of installing the modual for a voice control unit is $600 approx.

The cost of tweaking the software witht the service bulletin reference you provided is free.

Dealer is suggesting we go with the free fix first to see if that works and then we can always try the $600 solution which has the added benefit of a new way of using the phone, by speaking out whom I want to call rather than dialing it.

Would anyone happen to know if the quality of the outgoing sound (what the person you are talkiing to is hearing) is better using the software adjustment or with the voice control unit?

The sound quality is extremely important to be as I am often involved with important business calls in my car and the higher the quality of the voice the more comfortable I am using it for this purpose as opposed to waiting until I am on a land based phone line where I know the quality will of course be superior

konigstiger

Certainly you already know that in using Bluetooth you loose the external antenna and your overall signal quality is diminished.

P-B-82.70/492 MAR06 addresses poor quality for vehicles without VCS – software update.
P-B-82.70/338b MAR06 addresses poor quality for vehicles with VCS – replaces the Voice Control Module.

I agree. If the free software upgrade improves your current system to match current VCS standards, why spend the extra coin? Unless hands free operation is important to you.

carlsbad

I am wondering if anyone has already been down this road and can share the difference in quality between the repair software fix and the voice control moduel solution.

In other words, I do indeed anticipate the fix will represent an improvement and it may be good enough. Lets say on a scale of 1 to 10, it improves me from a 1 to a 7

I want to know if $600 more would get me from a 7 to a 10 on the scale.

In my line of business the sound quality of my outbound voice is important because I am negotating deals. I don't know that giving up the external antenna by opting for blue tooth has much of an impact on my outbound voice sound quality as I always have a very strong signal where I drive.

The issue is not so much signal strenght I think as microphone quality.

I just assume that a voice control moduel would need to have a very sensitve microphone pick-up to discern the verbal instructions.

So if by chance anyone has migrated through the steps already and can share their experience...if one were to say, the software upgrade was pretty darn good but the extra $600 improved the outgoing sound to the point that people couldn't tell I was on a cell phone, man it would be worth every penny.

carlsbad

The dealer has now had car for 4 days, the latest software version for the microphone (36 WM93 0.40) was "flashed" and still all agree the quality of the outgoing sound makes the phone almost non-usable.

Several service related personnel wanted to test my phone out, my guess is to see if perhaps I had too high of a bar in terms of my expectations as to how good the microphone should work.

They all agree it is extremely bad quality and in need of being fixed.

They are going to check with manufacturer to see if adding a voice control modual ($600) would ordinarily result in an improved microphone sound or if I would just be out the money with still no noticable difference?

The incoming sound (the voice on the other end of the phone) is extremely high so it does not seem to be a signal strength issue.

Again, if anyone has a solution that could help the dealer, please advise

konigstiger

Has the dealer;
(1) Attempted swapping out the MHI with another?
(2) Attempted swapping out the microphone assembly (211 has four microphones under the interior rear view mirror) with another?
(3) Requested assistance from StarTek?

Found this at http://wireless4mb.com/btfaq.aspx for what it’s worth:

Question #22
Is it possible to adjust the fixed volume levels? Audio gain adjustments- to be used when customers complain about the volume level on the non car side being too loud or quiet. These adjustments do not have any effect on the processing of the audio.

Answer
Yes it is possible to adjust the fixed volume levels by using the key sequences below. 0000#1* SEND- reduces the volume out of the car by one step (non car side or landline) 0000#10 SEND- standard volume level 0000#1# SEND- raises the volume out of the car by one step (non car side or landline) 0000#99 SEND- factory reset The settings made / adjusted by that procedure will be permanently stored in the cradle adaptor for each phone type specifically. Changes made while e.g. a Motorola V3 Razr is connected will adjust for ALL Motorola V3 Razr phones.

MagicO309D

What model year is your E500?

carlsbad

The dealer asked me to bring my phone over tonight and played around with the Star Diagnostic until the sound eventually improved enought to get by.

Its not as good as I would like it but enough to live with

Thanks guys

P.S. Its a 2006 E500 with less than 1300 miles in the odometer.

One last question....is it normal for the command system (radio, etc., to work with the key out of ignition? I have to hit the off switch to turn it off. Seems to me that prior to the phone install it went off with the key being turned off and removed. I am guessing it may work this way, by design, so that if you are on the phone when the car gets turned off, the phone call does not get cut off. Anyone know off hand?

Barry45RPM

It works both ways. If you turn the car off with the key the radio turns off too, but you can push the power button & it will turn on with the key off & out of the ignition. I believe the next time you start the car with the key & then turn the car off the radio will turn off when you open the drivers door to exit.

carlsbad

konigstiger,

I tried the 0000#1*, 0000#10, and 000#1# options you found and could not see any noticiable difference with any of them. I am told the dealer tried all of the other solutions you recommended.

People that I call and hear me well enough to have a functional conversation but when I ask them how I sound from their end, to a person they say it sounds really fuzzy and unclear.

I really be interested to know if this is the norm and as good as its going to get if its due to the bluetooth phone option versus the normal mercedes installed phone?

Welcome comments. Is my bar (expectations) too high?

Any after market microphone solutions out there representing an upgrade in quality that I can install and switch out the manufacturer's standard microphone.

Here is a link to the firm, AKG Acoustics, that supplies Mercedes with its microphones:

http://www.akg.com/akg_structuretree...nguage,EN.html

TPAbnz

The dealer made the upgrades you suggested from the bulletin and the results were incredible - the service manager couldn't believe the degree of improvement.

Konigstiger, check your PM!

carlsbad

TPAbnz, where are you located? Maybe I should try going to your dealer to get this fixed. I would be interested in having you call me from your car to see how your voice quality sounds and vice versa. My microphone was so bad before that any improvement represented a sort of fix. I just think there is room for the bar to go a bit higher yet and am wondering if your fix is "just good enough" or if you might agree that there is still some room. Send me a personal email and if you want we can compare microphone quality.

MagicO309D

One quick way to test the quality of uplink audio is to leave a test message on your answering machine. Try it after each level adjustment to the Bluetooth adaptor. There was also a Rev. change made to the Bluetooth MHI adaptor that helps audio performance a bit with CDMA Verizon handsets. Is Verizon your carrier? On the bottom of the adaptor, there are numbers listed after HW... and SW..., what numbers do you have?

carlsbad

I just tried the test messages and could not perceive any distinquishable difference in the various settings.

I do have a Verizon Blackberry 7250

How do you get the adapter out? I tried pushing the little black button and pulling up but it seems permanently attached....I didn't want to force it out for fear it might snap off. Is there a trick to getting the adapter out?

carlsbad

MagicO309D,

The numbers are HW: 0706 and SW 0706

Steve 90TTZ

Sorry to revive an old thread. I have a 2003 E55 with the newer Comand head unit and a bluetooth puck adapter. B67875855 HW:4006 SW:0306. The outgoing audio seems quite poor. Does this update include the older W211? I have access to the star, is this something that needs to be done when connected to the MB network for updates? Does anyone have a copy of the document P-B-82.70/492 that they would mind sending to me?

Thanks,
Steve

konigstiger

Check the microphone control module (MCM) connections in the trunk note DTB addresses MY05 or later - check your PM.