Benz-O-Rama

Installed mine today in under 45 minutes. Seriously, the hardest part is unplugging the stupid little Tele-Aid connector. Oh, and maybe stuffing the new cords underneath the false bottom. It's an easy job for any do-it-yourself'er. Much easier than installing my illuminated door sills, and those weren't hard either.

Ok, so I'm having the same experience as CalBenzo. My phone paired with no problems at all but It's not using the speakers, nor the mic. No biggy, I'm gonna take it to the dealer tomorrow to have it version coded and that should be it. I'll report back.


Was anyone else suprised at how light and cheap the bluetooth puck felt? Feels like a little hollow peice of plastic with no electronics in it whatsoever.

hecdog

Yeah, it's very light. Let us know how the version coding goes. My mic still doesn't work even after version coding, so I'm going back next next wednesday for a thorough phone system check up.

Benz-O-Rama

OK!!!!

My **** works. It took the dealer a couple of tries to get it programmed though. The guy doing it was new and had never even seen a V60 setup before, only the new cradle and puck. He kept telling me that it wouldn't work. My S.A. then got the shop manager involved and before even looking at it, he told me that unless I added a module in the trunk that it wouldn't work but he'd give it a shot. 10 minutes later he comes back and says "you're ready to go" and sure enough, It worked. As soon as the phone paired up, it downloaded my phone book and I was able to place and recieve call with no problems at all. The only thing that's weird is that the signal strength meter always shows 1 bar regardless of what my phone says. At one point I had no signal on my phone, but the COMAND showed 1 bar. At another point I had full signal on my phone and the COMAND only showed 1 bar. Weird, but not that big of a deal.

I'm so glad I started this thread. Just goes to show that if we put our heads together we can do some cool ****. Still can't believe my dealer wanted to charge me 2200.00 for this.

Also, are you guys being charged for version coding your system? My dealer wanted an hour's labor of $115.00 but I just greased the guy $35.00 and called it a day.

Now, time to retrofit the R500. That's a totally different animal. I think Jaime was telling me that the parts alone are close to a grand. Eeesh!

locomercedes

Guys I need some help here. I installed the system on my E500 and took it to the dealer to get activated. They say that they tried activating the phone, but "could not get communication with the system".

They wanted to start to dismantle and try things, at my expense. Obviously I said no. My question to you guys that did this, before you got the system activated by star, what did your comand say?. Mine says "Insert phone". I am not sure if this means the phone is actually activated already and waiting to "see" a phone. Ultimately what I'm trying to determine is if I maybe not plugged something correctly.

aceman

Will this work for an 05'????

Aceman

Benz-O-Rama

Before I got it activated, mine said "phone not installed". After I got it activated and before I inserted the bluetooth puck, it said "insert phone". After I inserted the puck, all was well.

My dealer had a hard time activating mine too. Took them about 2 hours before they got it right.

Good luck.

Benz-O-Rama

Don't think so....

Refer to this document. Looks like a totally different install for 2005 and up. Sorry man.


2005 install

locomercedes

Benzo,
This helps. That means my phone its activated (it said "insert phone" before I took it to the dealer), but for some reason the car is not "seeing" the craddle or BT puck. I took it apart again yesterday and veryfied all connections for the craddle and they are OK.Maybe something is disconnected along the course of the phone wiring or I may have a defective craddle or BT puck.

I wonder if somebody has an schematic of the phone wiring for our cars, so I could look in the specific areas of connection. I may have to take it to an independent MB shop and have them look into it.

Benz-O-Rama

I should restate this. What I really meant was after I inserted the puck and paired my phone, all was well.


After I inserted the puck it still said "insert phone". I had to pair my phone with the puck for everything to play nice.

Have you paired your phone yet?

locomercedes

Benzo,
When I insert the puck nothing happens, the light in the puck doesn't flash. I tried discovering BT devices on my phone and it didnt see the puck. Did your puck light flash after you inserted the puck, before pairing?

Benz-O-Rama

Yes, it blinked slowly.


The light on the puck is also a button. You need to press this button until the blue light starts blinking rapidly (one blink per second). This will put it in "discover mode". You can then search for bluetooth devices with your phone and hopefully it finds it. If the light on the puck doesn't come on at all, it's most likely one of 2 things. Either the cradle is not getting power or the puck is bad. You said that you checked the connections in the armrest so that's not it. Could be a bad cradle? Does your dealer have a spare puck laying around that you can use to test? Or, I'm sure someone there will at least have a V60 phone that you can insert to test the cradle.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

SushDawg

Does anyone know if you can pair up 2 phones to the puck - both my wife and I drive the car, so can either of us would like to sync up to the puck.

What if both of us are in the car - can we both use the same puck - will it work or does it need to be tied to 1 phone only?

Thanks

Benz-O-Rama

Yes, you can pair 2 phones. My wife and I do this with ours. But, both phones cannot be connected at the same time. It will connect on a first come first server basis if you're both in the car at the same time.

locomercedes

Benzo,
I went back to the car, uninstalled and reconnected all connections. I pushed the puck all the way down (more out of fustration) and all of the sudden the puck light starts blinking!! It always is something so simple I appears that the plastic lip(the one that says V60) that holds the puck wasn't sitting all the way down, preventing a good puck to craddle connection (eventhough the actual puck connection looks like it was all the way in/connected).

I was able to pair the phone to the puck, however the comant still says "insert phone" and the phonebook did not download. I was able to make a call and could hear the person but they could not hear me. Also, while on that phone call the radio volume was not muted, and appeared independent of the phone call. Perhaps I still need some sort of version coding by star. Any ideas?

Benz-O-Rama

Now we're getting somewhere, ya big dummy

Definitely sounds like version coding now. The fact that the phone is pairing tells me that you did everything on the install side correctly. The puck and cradle are getting power and the puck is talking to your phone. Great. Take it back to the dealer now and get it coded. They probably couldn't do any coding last time because technically, the phone wasn't even installed. Have them code it with a V60 in the cradle and not the bluetooth puck, that's what I had to do. Keep the puck in your pocket and have them use a V60 that's laying around somewhere. After that, you should be good to go.

Getting close now...

ATS

Read the booklet that came with puck, it states it will always just show 1 bar to show it is connected.

Benz-O-Rama

Another case of RTFM....nice.

Thanks man.


Also, just wondering what everyone is being charged for version coding at the dealer. As I stated, I was told that it should've been an hours labor but I just greased the guy who was doing it $35.00. I wanted to give him $50.00 but I had just gotten back from Brazil and thats all of the American money I had.

What are you guys paying?

hecdog

I'll find out wednesday.

My first run of version coding was done at no charge since they couldn't get it to work...

Benz-O-Rama

How'd we end up, Hector? Good to go?

hecdog

Had to cancel...we're booked solid this week at the studio. I'll be goin in Monday 7:30am. My 2 rear shades started tearing in the corners, so I gotta get them to replace them too.

Can't wait to get BT to work.

locomercedes

Benzo,
Got it version coded and working! Thanks a lot for your technical advice. Everything works except the phonebook download. I didn't have a chance to play with it that much, but I did make and receive phone calls, perfect. I have a Cingular 8125 and tried downloading the phonebook but it took a long time (more than 5 minutes) "Loading telephone book" and had to shut off the car so the process got interrupted. I don't know yet if that function is not supported on the phone. Did yours take more than 5 minutes to download?

Benz-O-Rama

OUTSTANDING!!!

I'm so glad we've been able to STICK IT to MB for trying to charge us $2200.00 for this. Glad I could help.

The first time my phonebook downloaded, it took some time. I can't remember exactly how long but a few minutes at least. I'm using a Verizon RAZR. Just so you know, if you make a change to your phonebook it will not automatically download the changes. You need to either re-pair the phone or simply pop out the puck and re-insert it while you're paired up.

Enjoy!

tashakes

OK, so I'm taking the plunge, found the cradle kit for $145.00 + ship at Duval (http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...siteid=213951), and the puck for $210 shipped on eBay, so it will cost $375 or so, plus the version code. This just keeps getting better and better! Just wanted all to know that without the valuable information posted on this thread and some digging around, this price would not be possible. Thanks to all that posted!

These forums have power that is unimaginable to the manufacturers and dealers, and that creates competition, which in turn creates lower consumer prices. You gotta love the net!

Cheers

Edward

ATS

Anyone know the part number I need to order from OEM for the voice control?

Benz-O-Rama

It's on the last page of the install .pdf that I supplied on page one of this thread.

RTF.pdf

Q6820827 is the number for the complete voice kit