]_ us ]-[

I just ordered an 07 S600 and it sill soon be here.

there are 2 things that I would like to do to this US car. First is to connect a large Hard Drive via the PCMCIA (Or Memory Card) slot. Currently I have successfully connected an SD card, a MicroDrive, and a Compact Flash card. I have also tried a portable USB drive and a portable Firewire drive via USB and FW PCMCIA cards. Neither of them worked.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get a say 300 gig drve into this system?

Secondly I would like to add the factory TV Tuner module. anybody know where I can get the parts list for the necessary bits?

Lastly I would like factory schematics of the Command system including all pieces like Phone GPS, etc.

anybody know where to start???

thanks!

rgbyhkr

There could be a variety of obstacles to adding an HDD to the COMAND system via the PCMCIA slot. You could have limitations on how much power you can draw from the slot, what the partition access limit might be on the system, whether the system would properly recognize a PCMCIA firewire or USB host controller, etc. Beyond all that, you may have internal memory limits on how large a directory structure it can "see".

This last item is one of the problems I came across with my current W220 COMAND system when burning MP3 DVDs. The system doesn't officially list support for MP3 DVDs (just MP3 CDs) but it will read them. I've had success with DVDs but run into problems as the track count gets high. At some point, it won't "see" all of them or even all your folders. There appears to be a finite limit in memory about how much directory and filename info it can store (it reads the directory of course before playback to present you with a men list of folders and tracks to choose from). I can't nail down what the limit is, but it certainly exists as discs with fewer tracks read and play fine while larger ones will only show some of the songs on the disc.

There's a hint about this in the online manual for the W221 but it only talks specifically about "File structure on a disc". There's no mention of the same thing for the PCMCIA slot, but that section says:

"When you create an MP3 disc, the MP3 tracks can be organized into folders. A folder can also contain other folders. A disc can contain a maximum of 255 folders. Each folder can contain a amximum of 255 tracks and 255 folders. A disc can contain a maximum of 4,000 tracks."

http://www4.mercedes-benz.com/e/cars...ensystem3.html

That last sentence, if it applies to the PCMCIA slot as well, would seemingly be your hard cap limit for track quantity.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

]_ us ]-[

Thanks for the info! Hopefully there is a way around this track limit, at least with the PCMCIA slot, as samsung is likely to release 32 and 64 Gig Flash cards in the near future. a 64 gig card would be more than acceptable in terms of capacity.

vraa

80gb is roughly 10k songs I'd say.
At least that's whats on my desktop computer right now.

I was under the impression that PCMCIA was in laptops and was obsolete thanks to ExpressSlot?

rgbyhkr

You could probably test this yourself with smaller mp3 files if you had them. you could also replicate and rename a small mp3 clip using some type of batch program to get yourself 4000+ mp3s to test on an existing smaller memory card.

Jeff

rgbyhkr

PCMCIA slots are primarily in laptops but the W221 has it as well below the CD/DVD changer as an option for MP3 playback because there are so many memory card formats that can use adapters to be read via PCMCIA. ExpressSlot has started to become more prevalent but not all adapters and devices that were available via PCMCIA are available in ExpressCard format - yet. So, it's not surprising that they stuck with PCMCIA.

Jeff

johnlovescar

Give us some pictures when you get it. We love to see this new bad boys......

rgbyhkr

I realized I forgot to say something else about this post. If the track limit exists for the PCMCIA slot as well, then there probably wouldn't be a way around it without hacking the COMAND firmware. Even then, the internal memory limitation is a hardware limit that hacking wouldn't help you with. As I said before, the system reads the media and loads the directory structure into memory so you can quickly and easily navigate through and choose which song you want to play. So, if internal memory is a hard and fast limitation, getting it to see 10000 tracks when it's stated limit is 4000 might not be physically possible. I'd definitely test it with something like I suggested first on a smaller memory card before you drop a bunch of cash on a 32GB or 64GB card.

Here's an example app I found:

http://www.ezsoftmagic.com/mp3splitter_joiner.htm

It's one of many MP3 editors out there that will split or combine MP3 files. when you click on the "Split Special" button, there's an option to split the song into an equal number of segments that you specify. The program's maximum is 999. So, you could take 5 different songs and do that to each to give you almost 5000 tracks that collectively should only be as large as the 5 original tracks. It's then a question of sorting the new small MP3 tracks into folders keeping in mind the 255 tracks per folder limitation mentioned in the manual. This particular program is $25 (the demo version caps the number of output splits at 5) but there very well may be others with a similar function that are free.

Jeff

]_ us ]-[

I will give that a shot when the car arrives. It is the obvious first step before going and puchasing a larger CF or SD card. If that is the case, and there is a song limit, maybe coming up with a contact at MOST would be a good place to start the "hack".

Am I correct that mercedes is using MOST for the command system?

rgbyhkr

I think the W221 uses MOST, but I think you'll still be limited by the COMAND system's inherent limitations. You'd still be relying on it to display all the song and directlry info as well as navigation through the directory and send playback commands. That is unless you just wanted to feed it an aux signal and control an external HDD source based system by another means. That does seem like a lot of work and might raise the question about just replacing COMAND with an aftermarket system.

Just out of curiosity, have you completely ruled out an iPod solution? The iPod interface kit is now available for the W221 through MB and Apple just bumped up the 5G ipods to 80GB with certainly larger models to come. Sure, the control is only through the steering wheel buttons and the display is only the one in the speedometer area (no song info is displayed on COMAND), but it's a fairly easy path to take.

Jeff

]_ us ]-[

I will be going with the Ipod solution but it is really lame . its very slow, and not very easy to browse a large playlist. Its fine if you have a Nano or something but I have tested using a fully loaded 60 gig player and it is very clunky.

I just don't understand why they would not fully integrate it into the system. It feels like a complete afterthought, which it probably is.

Brian

rgbyhkr

I too am disappointed that the iPod Integration Kit doesn't work with COMAND. The COMAND wheel controller is a no-brainer for quick and easy iPod menu navigation. They appear to have chosen the to go with a solution that can work across as many models as possible vs creating multiple solutions where each matches the capabilities of each model's COMAND system. We know that not every COMAND system in every current model is equal. Some have more features and capabilities than others because MB doesn't update those until a model changeover or model refresh. So, you might very well need multiple iPod interface designs to accomodate the differing abilities of different COMAND systems. If the iterations were very different from one another, that increases complexity and cost.

Instead, they went with a solution that bypasses COMAND in favor of each model's multi-function display and steering wheel buttons. Those are probably much more similar across models than the COMAND units are. So, you wind up with fewer parts needed to accomodate multiple models for the same option.

Certainly, this wouldn't have been my first choice. However, MB has clearly shown that when it comes to technical creature comforts, they are slow to include them and often go with a more basic solution than other manufacturers. Clearlym they don't see this area as a crucial one for driving sales. However, as the digital generation ages and moves into MB's demographic, they better as those folks want more of this kind of thing.

Jeff

]_ us ]-[

Well said...

So far I have gotten to speak with the Head Technical Manager at MOST. They designed the network that all of the modules for the Infotainment system ride on. but those modules were designed by the Harmon-Becker Group. The guy i spoke with is going to get me in touch with the right people at Harmon in Germany. could be prommissing.

But what is interesting is that the MOST guys are able to decifer the data and are willing to provide me with that information if I wanted to say use an external devce yet control it with the Command Controller. So an auto PC running some form of GUI based MP3 player....

Still not choice number 1 but interesting that they are open to this discussion.

lushtech

BUMP

anyone able to get Schematics? or know the file limitations?