rbm

I ordered one of these boxes this week and will tell you if simultaneously playing through the USB and charging will work. I own an iphone XR. No headphone jack here.

850csi

Hey — any updates on your end? Thanks!

rbm

Yes, I do have an update. I received the unit in the mail the day before yesterday. I installed the unit today and tested it with an Apple Iphone XR as well as a 16GB SD card.

I can confirm that it is possible to connect an Apple Lightening USB cable to the USB port on the Mr. 12Volt and the phone will charge through that connection. If you have the phone paired over Bluetooth, then you can simultaneously play music at the same time you are charging the phone. What I was not yet able to confirm is whether it is possible to simultaneously play music and charge the phone using only the Lightening cable (no Bluetooth). I'm not very Iphone-saavy so it's my lack of knowledge as to how to get this done. I somehow have to make the Iphone look like a USB drive to the unit and I have no idea how to do that.

rbm

Ok, this is weird. The Mr. 12Volt unit was working when it suddenly stopped. I now cannot see a CDC entry in the COMAND headunit list of audio items. Somehow the COMAND has forgotten or lost the CDC. Any ideas how this can be corrected?

Pmarino

see posts 42 through 45

rbm

Heh Pmarino. That was very helpful. Very surprisingly this morning, everything in the car audio was back to normal and I hadn't touched a thing in the meantime. The CDC device was again available and the Mr. 12volt was able to play tunes. Still, I'm going to visit the dealer to get the firmware upgrade seeing that you found it to be a permanent solution.

Update: There is an extensive discussion of the La Power LP1603 over on the forums on a German site, www.motor-talk.de. The La Power is equivalent to the Mr. 12Volt. In any case, the proposed solution to the problem of the CDC device appearing and disappearing is solved if the unit is hooked up to switched 12V instead of unswitched 12V as suggested in the installation instructions. This is a link to the particular post that details this fix: https://www.motor-talk.de/forum/blue...3#post53979006. (hint: Google Translate makes the text accessible for non-German speakers like myself)

I'm going to do some testing this week and see if my problem clears up. My Mr. 12Volt unit is playing hide-and-seek with me all the time - disappearing and then reappearing - and it's frustrating.

Leej

I installed this in my 2004 E320 that had the CD changer, below are a couple of comments:

1. I suspect this may vary depending on your radio and/or options, but I couldn't figure out how to use the optical cable that was included with the Mr. 12 Volt and the CDC optical connector; the included cable connectors did not match the CDC changer cable (I'm sure there is a way to add an adapter, pigtail, different connector or something?). This meant that I needed to plug the CDC optical connector directly into the Mr 12 Volt optical connector, which worked fine BUT the stock CDC optic cable was VERY short. This meant I had to plug the CDC connector into Mr. 12 Volt, and then insert the Mr. 12 Volt in through the back of the compartment while holding the compartment in place. To do this, I had to remove the back panel of the compartment (that part that holds the fan in place). This was not easy, and I would have liked to leave the fan and back piece of the compartment in place (I probably wasted at least an hour trying to get the cable in the compartment before simply opting to remove this back piece and fan...)... But as long as you don't look into the back of the compartment, you wouldn't notice that the back piece isn't there... It's hard to tell from the video below, but seeing how he inserts the Mr 12 Volt into the back of the compartment, I assume he has done the same thing (removed the back cover/fan) otherwise there weren't any holes big enough for the Mr 12 Volt or the connector to fit through...

2. the wire connecting the CD changer compartment (which I assume controls the open/close, hazard lights, etc) is very short, and was hard to disconnect.

3. I couldn't get the compartment door to open/close unless everything was hooked back up (optic loop and connector for door...)

4. phone paring on my Samsung Android was easy

5. All telephone functions worked as expected (my car originally said "telephone not installed") including dialing from phone, dialing from buttons on COMAND, steering wheel buttons all worked, etc. With radio playing, incoming calls showed up on COMAND screen, once call was ended it went back to radio, etc. Phone contacts have not yet appeared on COMAND, but I only tested it briefly last night, and I suspect they may download with time.

6. Streaming music worked well also. I did not try plugging in music to USB or aux in on the Mr. 12 Volt (I won't use this anyway)

Hope this helps.

Lee

Pmarino

rbm

SECOND UPDATE: I have a solution to my problem of the Mr. 12Volt (LP1603) Bluetooth A2DP USB adapter acting up in my MB E300.

It turns out that the original unit sent to me was defective. The Ebay seller provided me a replacement unit after I contacted him with a description of the symptoms that I was experiencing. I did a part swap / replace the LP1603 in my car and all the problems appears to have disappeared (knock on wood!). It was not necessary for me to update COMAND firmware or to swap to a switched 12V supply as others had written.

When I did the part swap, I also set DIP switch #4 ON so that bluetooth telephone would not work. That way I will continue to use my MB factory Bluetooth for answering the telephone and making calls. I have not yet attempted to pair my Iphone XR to both the factory Bluetooth and the LP1603 Bluetooth in an attempt to play music from the phone and receive calls on the head unit. I'm satisfied to listen to music through the SD card or the USB drive. Also, I added a MOST fibre extension as suggested by Pmarino above, which took some strain off of the factory fibre cable.

Pmarino

That's a great tip! I'm going to utilize that with my W164 ML.

850csi

Was anyone ever able to figure out whether music can be played from a phone through the USB cable alone without a Bluetooth connection?

Thanks!!

Pmarino

What type of connection, android, apple or other? I have used the Aux in with male to male mini jack with both apple and android.

850csi

It’s an iPhone. I don’t have a headphone jack so hoping to connect it to the device by lightning cable and play music through the cable without using Bluetooth.

Pmarino

http://osxdaily.com/2018/02/03/charg...me-time-again/


I think you're going to need one of these....

850csi

Oh that's actually a really good idea, thanks!

Now just to figure out how to install this thing in place of the CD Changer. I'm trying to figure out if I have to route the cable all the way back to the COMAND unit or can just use some sort of adapter from the CD Changer's MOST cable.


EDIT: I thought MOST plugs were standardized but maybe I bought the wrong model?? Backside of the device I bought looks like this:

Pmarino

That little grey piece pulls off of the Mr 12V and allows you to plug the CD changer fiber optic cable directly in the MR. 12V device.

rbm

I tried to get music to play through the lightening port on my Iphone XR, but wasn't successful. The phone was not recognized as a USB audio source by Mr. 12 Volt. BTW, I've turned off switch 4 on the Mr. 12 Volt which disables bluetooth, meaning I can't connect the Iphone for bluetooth audio or telephone use. The only inputs that work for me at the moment are SD card and aux in.

Pmarino

Did you buy a lightening music adapter? It will play music through the mini headphone jack and the USB is used for charging. http://osxdaily.com/2018/02/03/charg...me-time-again/
I have dip #4 ON in my ML500 and I can still play music via bluetooth with my V20. My iphone se connects to my factory installed MB phone.
Dip switch #4 only cancels bluetooth to the factory installed phone. If you watch my video with the W211, I have my 2 phones functioning independently with Mr.12V Bluetooth. One phone is dedicated to music. The other phone is dedicated to be a phone to function through the factory system. That car does not have a factory installed phone.

850csi

Well, I’m an idiot...


Thanks for giving that a shot! I guess I’ll get the cable that PMarino suggested above.

Pmarino

Nah....you didn't break anything..it's all good

rbm

No, I didn't buy a lightening music adapter and I guess that is my problem. I thought that the Iphone would somehow appear as a music source on the USB similar to an Ipod. I'll have to invest in one of those adapters. Besides, the original ask by 850csi was around the ability of the Iphone to play audio through the lightening connector to the USB of the Mr. 12 Volt. That was the purpose of my testing.

My car has a factory Bluetooth adapter and so I disabled Bluetooth to ensure that my phone was paired to that factory device to provide my phone functionality. If I left switch #4 as is, the phone could send audio through the Bluetooth to the Mr. 12 Volt but then I'd not be able to use the factory Bluetooth adapter for call functionality. I would have to have 2 phones as you have - one paired to the factory adapter and another paired to the Mr. 12 Volt and I didn't want that.

Pmarino

If you turn #4 on, Mr 12v will not pair with Bluetooth to the factory phone. So then you can pair a single phone with bluetooth to Mr 12V and the factory phone.

850csi

So, I’ve got everything hooked up, but my COMAND doesn’t seem to be properly interfacing with the box. Any ideas?



And yes I know I need a new LCD...

Pmarino

What car is it in? Are the lights lit on the Mr 12V ? There are 2 small pin holes next to the re-set, one should be red (power) the other blue (bluetooth). I would check for power first. If you got power then try the re-set button.

850csi

I’ve installed it in my SL55 in place of the CD changer — used the CDC’s MOST plug and tapped into its power line.

It’s weird because most of the time the COMAND isn’t even recognizing anything is plugged in (CDC disappears from the list). But the blue light (and not the other light) is on and my phone connects to the device.