Forgive this thread if it has been previously covered but I searched and didn't find an answer.. early '05 E55 with iPOD added later by previous owner. Cable in glove box, plugs in and charges my iPOD classic(v5) just fine. Displays MB star logo with OK To Disconnect message. Setting COMAND to AUX and cluster to iPOD displays song titles and plays them back just fine. I can use up/down arrows on steering wheel to scroll through songs of whatever playlist was currently playing on the iPOD. Telephone buttons on steering wheel give only "Function Not Available". They do nothing. Cannot access menu navigation at all, or change playlists, etc. Saw a couple of others here say the same thing. But no answers appeared. Is this normal? My car does not have, and never had, a phone. Suggestions on how to troubleshoot?? thx

 

Nothing to troubleshoot, these cars have limited functions when it comes to what you are trying to do. I'm surprised that your even able to do what you have, but good luck if this is something that will truly bother you

 

The car would need to be coded with STAR after this feature was added. I'm betting that original owner retrofiited the iPod kit but didn't get it coded. The phone buttons are part of the menu mnaviagtion when playing the iPod. Find someone with STAR, it's a 10 minute job to activate the feature.

 

Did these functions work previously but now give you errors, or is this your first time trying to figure out how to use the iPod functionality?

I paid stupid money to install the genuine MB iPod integration kit so that I could control everything from the wheel and see artist/track info in the gauge cluster.... Unfortunately the setup isn't nearly as awesome as I'd hoped.

It took me a long time to figure out how to make selections. The phone buttons are not used for iPod....you use the menu buttons (square icon) which act like the center button of the iPod scroll wheel. It will pull up the menu like artist, or playlist, and you use the arrow keys to change the option in the scrolling list. Once you get to what you want, you hit the square icon button to "select" the option that is showing in the display.

The display will then "drill down" to the next level of the menu. If. You selected "artist" initially, then the next thing you'll see is the top name in your list of artists with an arrow symbol above and below it. Use the arrow buttons on the wheel to scroll throguh that list and when you get to what you want use the square menu button to "select" it...

Each time you select, it drills down one more level in the iPod menu....and will give you the next option to choose. Following the previous example, the next options after artist (assuming only a single album by the artist exists) is "shuffle songs" or you can use the arrow keys to move to a specific song in the list.... Again, use the square menu button to select the item you want.

My "beef" with iPod integration is that I have hundreds of artists and about 11000 songs on my iPod. It takes FOREVER to arrow-down through and alphabetical list of artists to find the one I want, then scroll through several albums by the artist to find the one i want to play. Its not the kind of stuff anyone should be trying to do while driving.... It takes WAY too much concentration and eyes on the display to drill into the menus.

Ideally, I'd prefer a setup that would charge my iPod in a cradle but would allow me to use the GUI on the iPod (and scroll wheel) to make my selections. This would be more fun for long trips too since my passengers could play DJ while I was driving.

If this doesn't make sense, I can try again. Typing on an iPad isn't very efficient or quick.


-G

 

The simplest and best solution is to use the 3.5mm jack, the audio quality will be the exact same and u can control you device using the handheld. Get a 3.5mm monster cable, and route it underneath the carpet and the gear shifter into the center console. You will have paid nothing and have an excellent set-up! That is what I did at least

 

I'm not sure I agree that the headphone jack has the same fidelity as the line-level output provided through the lower connector... It might be a case of "good enough" for most people, but that still doesn't solve the challenge of keeping the iPod charged. For that, you'll still need a charging wire in the lower connector PLUS the headphone jack sticking out the top for the audio. Sounds a bit like a "spaghetti farm" to me!

I'd really like a well-integrated iPod solution somehow, but the MB offering isn't it.


-G

 

I'm willing to bet they make a cable that can fit the aux port on one end and the iPod/iPhone connector on the other that is also powered...

 

Greg, I have to confirm with you... Are you positive the square menu buttons navigate the iPOD? In my car, they do what they always do - navigate in the internal cluster menu. You push the "square" buttons until you get to the iPOD display in the cluster. Then up/down arrow to move between songs. Phone buttons do nothing. So there is no way to move up/down in the iPOD menus without disconnecting it, selecting the playlist you want on it, then reconnecting it. If I'm interested in solving this, I might have to pursue that STAR option grantwoodtx mentioned above. Not familiar with that.

 

I can't recall from memory what symbols are on which side of the wheel.

I know that the buttons on the right side are to do the "Menu" and "center select" button functions of the iPod, and the arrows on the left side of the wheel are to navigate through whatever menu is in the gauge window.

Absolutely, you can get to playlists, podcasts and other sub-menu items using this system. You should not have to unplug the iPod from the cable (ever) to navigate to a different playlist or artist.

NOTE: Whenever you see something in the gauge display with the arrows above and below it, that means that there are more options available.... If you see "Artist" with arrows above and below, you can hit the arrow key to scroll to "Playlists" or "Podcasts" etc. Once you get the one you want, the buttons on the right side of the steering wheel are used to "select" the one that's showing and bring up the next related nested menu....


If you're still stuck, I can try to get into the car later on and take notes on exactly what steps are needed to navigate.


-G

 

sounds like your phone buttons work, and mine don't.

 

I don't use the phone buttons for anything related to the iPod.

Sorry if my descriptions are lousy....it sounds to me like your system is functioning properly, but is just as wonky to use as mine is.


-G

 

Hmm... you should pick up the MB bluetooth puck and forget all the wires. I've been thinking about doing this as soon as I can find one for an 04 E55.

It sounds pretty nice that all the stuff that IS working... IS working.

 

thanks tons !!!

 

Hope it helped.... my original description was a bit off. The phone buttons (right side of wheel) ARE used for iPod selections after all. The "Square" icon buttons are on the left side and are only used to pull up the "AUX" source which is what the iPod uses. The Arrow Keys (left side of wheel) are the ones that get used to traverse the menus..... the Phone Up, Phone Down buttons are the ones that act like the original iPod center button (Select) or the iPod (Menu) buttons.

I will stand behind my previous statements that the MB design stinks.... you can't change a song unless you are in the iPod view of the display, so you happen to be watching anything else and a song comes on that you don't like, you need to fumble through the menus to do a simple track skip. Plus, as mentioned before... scrolling through over 300 artist names in a huge list, then trying to drill-down into a sub menu for the album you want is downright dangerous while driving.

I'm seeing replacement COMAND units (3rd Party) and some small integration boxes that seem to do a better job driving the iPod menus to the center console display and providing a better GUI. Ultimately that may be the way I go next time around.


-G

 

I think Grantwoodtx nailed it above. After some more research, I came upon paragraph j) of this link: http://www.mercupgrades.com/IPOD+Ret...rticle-62.html

which indicates that a tech has to hook up the COMAND unit to STAR and enable the telephone buttons on the steering wheel IF they are not already working (and in my car, they aren't). I believe the next time I have it in the shop I'll get my indie to do that for me. That should enable the iPOD nav functions on the steering wheel. MB electronics are the worst, I agree. Due to this design, it doesn't make any sense to carry around my entire 90 GB music library. I'll probably pick up a NANO and just put a few hours worth of music on it at a time. ...assuming the STAR enabling does the trick.

 

Well, a quick update... enabling by STAR in my car does not work. Since my car does not have the phone kit, the COMAND refuses to recognize enabling the telephone features of the steering wheel. So without the phone kit, it seems that the phone buttons cannot be enabled on the steering wheel without lots of computer error messages. Figures. So I'm stuck with one massive playlist on the iPOD and only can scroll one at a time through the songs.

 

So In Star, go into Instrument Cluster, Adaptations, Special Equipment, and turn the iPod/Telephone option on. Save the coding, and you're done - Until this is done the phone buttons on the steering wheel won't work so you can not control the iPod. Even though the phone is not there it should still allow you to make and update the coding.

 

That's what I would have thought too. But the MB-certified tech who tried to do exactly that and tested with every other mechanic's iPod in the shop (that was pretty funny, actually, he had a mitt full of iPods) told me that they could not get past the "Function Unavailable" error. This was at the place where I bought the car, I'm going to try one more time at my indie mechanic. He may know something they don't.

 

+1 you are correct the 05 06 on, are as you describe.

 

Well this just SUCKS! I installed the factory ipod kit (glad I wasted the time and money doing that!) in my car and have not had a chance to turn the phone function on via STAR.

The Dynavin head unit (or similar) is looking like a better option now.

 

I don't know what to tell you guys about those functionality issues.

My car is a 2005 E500 4Matic, and didn't have any telephone options installed from the factory. I bought the MB iPod integration kit directly from the dealer (about $150 IIRC) and paid the dealer for about 5 hours of labor to install it...

I remember the tech saying that some programming was required, and when he finished my phone up/down buttons definitely work to operate the iPod. I can ask him for any clues about what he did, but I feel confident that there is a solution for you.

That said, the iPod interface (in the gauge cluster) is still wonky even when it has full functionality.


-G