I just had a client come in with the new Iphone, great little phone by the way, but we could not get it to work with his S550. Any of you guys try this yet? We can get it to pair with the car, but there is a "lock" symbol beside the phone's name that I cannot get to go away. Ive tried mb4wireless, but they arent any help.

 

There are several posts about successful operation of an iPhone in an MB. Can you confirm that the S did have a BT puck installed and you tried to pair the iPhone from the BT puck, with a long press on the puck button? Makes me a bit confused when you talk about the lock symbol beside the phone's name, do you mean on the Comand display?

 

Mine works fine. Did you initiate the pairing from the puck? You don't want to pair the iPhone to the other bluetooth radio that is part of the COMAND system. So you don't want to do this pairing through COMAND at all.

But you probably know that, I guess.

 

Mine works fine meaning you have paired it and can use the speaker and send and end keys, or does the address book, dialed calls and received calls lists download so they are accesible through Command?

 

Recent calls upload (or download or however you want to say it) to COMAND.

Incoming calls are automatically routed to the car when I use the steering wheel buttons to accept/end calls.

My address book from the iPhone is available in COMAND and in the speedometer to make calls. I can cycle through those with the COMAND wheel or the steering wheel buttons.

If I'm talking on the phone when I enter the car, the call switches over when the MHI activates.

I can't think of anything else right now, but basically all the features that MHI normally supports.

EDIT: plus, of course, if I plug the iPhone into the iPod connector (factory kit) I can use it as an iPod also. If a call comes in, and I take it from the steering wheel button, the music or podcast will pause and then when I'm done with the call, the podcast resumes.

 

Hey I drove the S for the first time in a few days just now and I'm pretty sure I know what you did wrong.

I think you paired the phone with the COMAND system. You don't want to do that, you want to pair it with the puck. The phone should not even appear as a bluetooth device on the COMAND interface.

 

Just a couple more notes from using it again today.

Recent incoming calls and outgoing calls are both uploaded to COMAND.

SMS does not work through COMAND (Does this work with other phones?)

And unfortunately street addresses are not copied into the address book. Only names and phone numbers. That really sucks. I wonder if this is the case with other phones and MHI?

And in the speedometer display, address book entries that came from the phone are marked with a phone icon to distinguish them from the ones that you may have entered into COMAND directly (or in my case, ones I transfered from my laptop when I got the car)

 

I thought there were issues with the MHI unit due to the infrared winshield?
Eric...

 

The issue is that if you use the bluetooth puck, your phone cannot use the car's antenna. So, you need to be able to get good reception with the phone's antenna inside your car.

For me that was an issue with my blackjack, for instance, which got terrible reception inside that S-class glass.

But for whatever reason, the iPhone gets far better reception inside the car, so that's why I'm selling my wired V600 now. Those wired MHI adaptors (like the one I'm selling) actually uses the car's rooftop antenna so reception is excellent, and obviously totally unaffected by the glass in the S/CL class cars.

So if reception is an issue for anyone, here is the solution that I'm selling in the classifieds.

How's that for a shameless plug?

 

What do you mean actually? The IR windshield and other windows (I thought those were standard on an S550) are an issue with the phone to cell base communication in the BT HF set-up. With the cradle option the IR windows don't make a difference (the BT SAP equals the cradle option in this respect).

The IR windows would not affect the BT communication between the phone and the car, like downloading address book or audio HF which is the primary functionality after all.

Edited: sorry for "double posting", eddietr was quicker.

 

Actually the MHI bluetooth puck we get in the US does not use the BT SAP protocol. I don't know if yours in Europe does. That's actually pretty cool.

But ours in the US uses a headset type profile. So the calls are made through the phone, and therefore dependent on the phone's reception inside the glass.

 

I know, and I said "The IR windshield and other windows are an issue with the phone to cell base communication in the BT HF set-up." To me the two posts were essentially the same. Of course "BT HF" could have been confusing, I meant BT HF profile. BT SAP is BT hands free operation in a way too.

I just wanted to add that the BT SAP that we use, behaves like the cradle in this respect, although it does not help a lot US forum members.

 

I believe I have the older MHI puck because I purchased that in Sept. of last year... I used it for about a week in my C55, but removed it and replaced it with a cradle phone because the reception on the other end was absolutely abysmal. I had to repeat myself many times to everyone I spoke to, and they told me that it sounded as if all the windows were open while driving on the highway. I was using a Motorola Razr at the time... I'm wondering whether it's worthwhile installing my old MHI in the S550 and pairing it up with my new i-phone....
Eric...

 

What is the part number of the puck you have? Of the top of my head, I believe the old one ends in 39 and the new one in 78 (or was it 87?)

I don't believe anyone on the board has reported trying the iPhone with the old puck yet. Not that I've seen.

 

Apparently that is what he did, now we're just trying to figure out how to get rid of the phone on the command w/out wiping out his other stored info.

 

You can just deauthorize the phone from COMAND (from the bluetooth device list where you saw the lock symbol. Select it there and choose deauthorize)

Then pair it to the puck instead and that should be it. In my case, I had to restart COMAND also before the car would initiate the address book transfer. But after that updates have been automatic.

 

Thanks for your help and I guess I'm **** out of luck...
B6 787 5839
Maybe wireless4mb can cut me a deal on the new one if I send this back...
Eric...

 

Well, maybe we'll get a definitive picture soon of what works and doesn't work on the older puck.

But, for the record, the puck I have working successfully with the iPhone is B 6 787 5878, and that's in a March 07 production S550.

 

got it squared away...thanks for the help guys...didnt even realize he was trying to pair through command first...one of those dumb days I guess

 

Update: Just tried to link it up and it works perfectly and interestingly enough the horrible reception I was getting while linking it to my old Razr has disappeared... Other forum members have had the same issue when using their "old" MHI pucks in the past and now I realize that the issue was with their phone and not their MHi units.... thanks again
Eric...