The MHI system is used in U.S. specification cars equipped with the MOST fiber optic bus from model year ’05 on. This covers all models except for the G-Class and the ML, which remain equipped with a D2B fiber optic bus and continue to use an Autosense PSE. The V60 upgrade path set out above will not work with the ’05 and later cars except the ML and G Class (which use later versions of the Autosense PSE than discussed above). I apologize to R-Class and Unimog owners; I have no information on them.
MHI equipped cars can use either a cradle for a Mercedes-branded plug-in phone that offers full integration; or a Bluetooth puck that replaces the plug-in cradle; and works with different kinds of Bluetooth phones; or a phone-specific Bluetooth/cradle combination that connects the phone (or PDA) to the car’s external antenna. The AWS website at
Home covers all of these options with a vehicle equipment compatibility matrix and a phone compatibility page for your car.
The plug-in phones offered by AWS for MHI are still expensive, because they still use the MB proprietary firmware for integration. Non MB branded plug-in phones still will not work with MHI in a plugged-in mode (non-MB branded plug-in phones such as the Motorola V710 that also have Bluetooth capability can be used with the MB Bluetooth unit, subject to the equipment and firmware limitations discussed earlier).
The Bluetooth puck for MHI can be used with a variety of non-MB branded Bluetooth phones, subject to the same limitations as those discussed for the V60 puck for earlier models. The MHI puck also uses the phone’s antenna, not the car’s, in the Bluetooth mode, unless one purchases either a cradle such as the SmoothTalker (
Smoothtalker Hands Free Car Kits Holders and Cradles for use with Motorola Hands Free Devices) or one of the AWS cradle/Bluetooth combination units listed on their site. The advantage of such a combination unit is that one can connect to the car’s external antenna for greater signal strength (stronger signal, fewer dropped calls, less static, and sometimes better voice quality) than one gets using only the phone’s antenna; but where signal strength is satisfactory, the phone need not be plugged in. The combo units also allow charging of the phone in the car.
The equipment necessary to add an MHI system if none was installed is shown in the phone bulletins (
http://home.earthlink.net/~phdwebsit..._bulletins.htm); they consist primarily of an MHI control module (akin to the PSE in earlier systems), a contact plate for attaching a cradle or puck, and the plug-in cradle or Bluetooth puck or puck/cradle combination, and some minor wiring for final connections. If you are going to use a plug-in phone or a Bluetooth puck/cradle combo, together with Tele-Aid, you will also need a linear compensator and an antenna switch. If you will not use Tele-Aid, you can omit the antenna switch.
The fastest way to determine whether your car has an MHI installation is to check your center console for the "contact plate" into which a cradle or a Bluetooth puck will slide. The phone bulletins have photographs of the console and the contact plate location for each model. If you have the contact plate, you probably have the rest of the supporting electronics. If not, you probably need to buy and install it. Part numbers of necessary equipment is in the phone bulletins (usually).
