I'm learning my new car...and admittedly, I am a techie but I've found a few things that are worth noting in a thread here. Please add your own to help future owners. (note: may apply to Comand 4.0 as well...I have 4.5)

1) If you turn your comand system off using the button on the dash (middle of the volume knob), the reverse camera will NOT come on when you shift into reverse.

If you turn your command system off by moving to SYSTEM, then moving to the bottom and turn off the system using your "control mouse", then shifting into reverse will automatically turn on the video (with no radio) and when you shift out of reverse, the display will again go off.

2) Generally, to adjust the volume of a source, you can use the steering wheel volume controls or the volume knob on the dash. But, you can only control Mbrace volume using the steering wheel controls. The volume knob has no effect on Mbrace volume.

3) As has been stated many times, you can not turn the radio off...you can mute it, however as soon as you enter a voice command, the radio will return. If you do not want to hear the radio, you need to tell the system to use another input source.
You can do this by selecting some unused audio input (MP3 player,....) pressing the disc button repeatedly or using the comand controller. Unfortunately, you can't do this using voice commands because the system detects that there is no input on that source and returns back to radio.

4) The option to speed up text (reading) speeds up the navigation voice, but only on street names...no effect on most of the commands.

5) As pointed out before, if you are in navigation and want to see what is playing on your satelite radio, push the # button and it will pop up on your map (until you release the button).

6) If you are playing an ipod/iphone podcast, there is no way to stop or pause it using comand..and if you are cable connected, you can't stop or pause it from your ipod/phone. However, comand automatically stops where it is if you change to another audio source.


And here's my current list of "wouldn't it be nice to do this using voice" commands

a) Turn the system off (as if I did this using the system menu)..e.g. system off

b) Call home using one command ... e.g. call name home; call favorite 1;....

c) Find a route to an address in the city I'm in without having to confirm or enter the state and/or city every time...

d) Find an address without the system asking me at the end if I would like to calculate the route (or whatever the exact words are)....why else would I have been entering that address???

 

>> b) Call home using one command

If you have an iPhone, in the MB Comand Telephone screen, you can press and hold "1" to call the first name in your favorites list (on your iPhone). Press and hold "2" for the second contact on your iPhone favorites list, and so on. I found this very useful and the fast way to call someone that you dial frequently.

 

Excellent ghstudio. I too have new one & the Comand learning curve is steep. I traded a Lexus where touch screen was king & I have to say sooooooo much easier.
BTW I could do ALL your wish list on the Lexus.
PLease keep up the good work its helping me more than any dealer.

 

This only works if you are in telephone. If you are in navigation and push a number button, comand will switch whatever audio you have selected and go to that channel...and take your system out of audio mute as well.

That's not what I want....I want a voice command from anywhere that allows me to say "call home". I can now say Call name...then a menu comes up and I say the number that matches home. Should be one step, not two and if home isn't on that display of names...well then it's three or four steps.

 

make total sense. I think there are a lot of small things MB can improve with simple software changes

 

I agree. I have a BMW and I can do that; however, there are a number of things that I can do with my Merc and not with the BMW ... frustrating ...

 

I will turn myself in...because it's funny.

I sat in my car after reading the voice control manual carefully. I put comand in navigation and said what the manual told me to say (the manual says say call name), so I said call home because home was the name I wanted. I also tried dial home. They didn't work....they both took me to a screen where I could enter or say the number.

I called Mbrace and they couldn't help me because we got into a discussion that i have comand 4.5 in my car and they didn't know if it was different and then they insisted that it was impossible for me to have comand 4.5 in a 2011 e class....but that's a different issue. So I went to my dealer to find out what I was doing wrong or get the programming fixed. He said..the command is "call name"...and then you find the name that you want on the list that's shown or some other way. I hung my head in shame s

I just have to learn to read better....and stop thinking like a logical person.

 

Just to Confirm, COMAND 4.5 reads street names? That is one features I would love MB to retrofit to my 2010 E350.

 

I do not have Command 4.5. My home number is entered into my iPhone as "home". Once my contact list was copied to the Command system, All Ihave to say is "Call home" and that entry is dialed. It is important to note that I have only a single phone number assigned to my Home entry. If I call a friend with more than one number, I can still say CALL JOHN, but, it will ask me which number to use.

 

My home number is loaded in the address book and I have confirmed (listened) to see that it is named home. (I have tried it just loading from my iphone 4 and adding my voicetag so it recognized my voice).

If I say "call home", I am taken to a screen where I can enter the phone number....there is no attempt to find the address book entry with the voice tag "home". I also can't enter "call jim jones" or call any voice tag....

If I say "call name" I am shown a list of names and if home is there, I can say the number of the entry...or I can say "home".

Although I was confused at first, I checked the manual and they even give an example on page 16 of your voice control system manual.

BTW, I would be happy if I could just say "call name home", but that doesn't seem to work either.

Are you saying that in your comand 4.0 system (you have an earlier 2011 then I do), you can go to telephone and just say "call home" and it dials the phone??? If tre, that makes me hopeful that maybe I am doing something wrong....

 

It is not enough to have it in your phone's address book. You must copy your address book to the command system using the menu choice to do so. My Volvo automatically syncs with my phone, the Command has to be manually copied. Also, I have found that Command prefers Last Name first. Try moving your Home entry to the Last Name. I had the same issue you are having now until I copied the address book from my iPhone to the Command system.

 

I did copy my iphone 4 address book to comand using the comand commands to do it....and it worked flawlessly (much to my pleasant surprise).

I just checked my iphone address book and home is entered as a first name....so I will try changing it to a last name (on comand) and then retry saying "call home".

I really hope it works....

 

Does anyone know how many addresses you can store in the system. I have like 3000 in my iphone(corp contacts) but it causes some problems in some cars as that exceeds the limit. So what typlically happens in other cars it pick the first ones until it reaches its limited. No way to pick and choose.

 

You will have to re-copy the address book to command after you change, add, or delete a contact.

Sure hope it works for you.

 

I edited the contact on comand itself....adding "home" as the last name and deleting the first name.

Saying "call home" still does not work...in fact I can find no place in the comand system where I can say the phrase "call home" and it calls home....the system does not recognize "call home" or "call joe". The best I can do is to say, "call name" and then I can select home from the list that comes up or say "home".

 

Continuing:

7) The comand system can be used with the car off...no key required. Just push the button in the middle of the volume knob. (note: I have never seen this before on a car...every other car requires a key and requires you to switch to accessory mode)

8) Normally, when you stop/park the car, turn it off the radio/music continues until you get out of the car at which point Comand is automatically turned off. However, if you turn comand on while the car is off (see item 7) ...and then get out of the car...comand stays ON!!!

9) There is a fan in the control computer for comand that runs any time comand is on. If you park in a quiet spot and turn the car off with no sound playing, you can hear it. Not a problem...but if you hear a whiring when the car is off, that's where it's coming from under the dash.

10a) If you have an ipod/iphone and connect to comand using the iphone/ipod cable, the only way to pause/stop what's playing is to change the media to something else.

10b) If you connect to your ipod/iphone using the bluetooth interface (plug the phone into the USB port so it stays charged, then you can pause/stop it from comand. You then control what's playing mostly thru the iphone although you can jump from track to track using comand...you just can't change podcast categories or albums from comand.

5 updated) pressing the # button will display whatever is playing (if comand knows the title) if you press the # key and are in navigation or any other non media mode. The name will stay displayed until you press # again.

 

That's also true in a January 2011 E550.

 

11) Comand 4.5 supports reading sms text messages received on your phone to you...you can even adjust the speed with which the system reads the messages. In order to use this function your phone must support Message Access Protocol (MAP) over bluetooth. Unfortunately, iphones to date (up to the iphone 4) don't support this protocol. Don't feel that you are being singled out...this function doesn't work on Ford cars either .

12) Comand 4.5 gives you a compass...no, not the little one in the display but a large one including height above sea level and some other interesting info....it's not at all obvious how to get to that page, but it's actually in the new manual...so this is more a RTFM item than a secret hint. Note: the manual says that it shows wheel angle as well, but, at least on my car, it doesn't.

13) You do not have to create your own voice tags for address book entries...the system automatically creates them and you can listen to the system's guess at pronunciation. Of course with unusual names, you might want to override the system's guess at pronunciation...or if your accent doesn't work well with the automatic voice tags, you might have to override them with your own pronunciation.

 

I find that my iPod pauses when I hit the mute button or when an I make or receive a call.

 

How does one determine what version of Comand they have? By build date? I think my build date is January 2011 (can't recall).

 

If your car was built in January it has comand 4.0. The running (and unannounced) change started with builds around July 1, 2011.

Some easy to spot physical differences with comand 4.5:

1) if you change the ventilation temperature, they show at the bottom of the comand display
2) the slot in the center of the dash is now for an SD card (significantly smaller) and offset a little to the left
3) There is a globe at the far right at the top of the display that gives you the option to see sirius weather (for US cars)...(sadly, much more function for European cars)

It has been reported that there are a few cars with the 2012 (more colorful) dashboard that still had comand 4.0...so that may not be a reliable indicator...however all cars with comand 4.5 have the new dashboard

 

ImInPA...that makes sense even though it's undocumented.

The Mbrace folks did not mention using the mute button to stop a podcast...they indicated I had to change inputs. Thanks, I'll give it a try.

 

There's also an "in between" version of Command, maybe just a slight software change to the 4.0. My 2010 had the "first version", and my 2011 has the version that implemented the A/C changes to the bottom of the display, also it incorporates BT Audio Streaming, and gave some slight graphics changes to some of the sections.

 

I think that that's the version I have.I know that changes I make to the fan speed are displayed at the bottom of the screen (I don't change the temp setting) and I also have BT streaming.

 

Listerone: do you have the globe as the right most selection on the top of the comand screen (which lets you get to Sirius weather)?

Do you have the larger slot with button directly below the volume/on-off knob in the center console or do you have a smaller SD slot slightly to the left but below the volume knob?

I'm trying to understand what is a unique identifier of the comand 4.5 system...