Voice Quality on MB Bluetooth - review of RAZR V3 cradle

[rob13572468]

Originally Posted by Skylaw

Thanks, Rob - that's in direct contrast to what AWS told me on the phone, but is consistent with the printed instructions that came with the RAZR cradle. As to marketing a system with such a limitation, I completely agree with you.

I'm also not enamored of the fact that (at least with the RAZR cradle) you have a choice to make regarding use of your voice dialing capabilities. If you program names into your car's voice control unit for voice dialing, the names disappear from the COMAND display and MFD in your downloaded Bluetooth phone book, and the numbers associated with those names appear as numbers only at the end of the phone book list. The names and numbers remain in the phone - but this seems a rather stupid conflict that should have been resolved before marketing the device. Of course, one can still speak a number and dial it without problems - but I find it easier to recall names (gee). Film at 11 (see http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...ownloads.html).

My plug-in V710 worked without that limitation and has much better signal strength when undocked than the RAZR does. I may revert, and just carry the bulky V710 when I need to. The BT "convenience" isn't worth the hassle.

yes, i have had a number of clients complain directly about the phonebook issues as well... its unfortunate that the bluetooth implementation came out as goofy as it did but i can understand why. remember that MB is really playing catchup on the bluetooth/phone capabilities in comparison with alot of the other manufacturers of even less expensive vehicles. the mistake that they made was (IMHO) going with AWS in the first place. what many people do not realize is that AWS is a phone dealer and wants to sell you a phone/ bluetooth puck or cradle and do a contract activation for the residuals all at once. thats the reason for their only supporting the AWS sold phones initially. of course many people quickly realized that other phones would work with the kits and complained and now AWS is backpedaling and saying that they will make an effort to approve other phones that they do not sell.

finally, i definately agree with you on the reception issues. i have particulatly found big problems in cars like the new 221 s class which does a very good job of shielding the RF in the interior. one of the solutions that i have been pursuing is to modify the standard bluetooth puck to give it an antenna jack or an inductive patch so that the phone can be placed in/nearby the center console to help fix the reception problems.

[Diesel Benz]

Originally Posted by rob13572468

yes, i have had a number of clients complain directly about the phonebook issues as well... its unfortunate that the bluetooth implementation came out as goofy as it did but i can understand why. remember that MB is really playing catchup on the bluetooth/phone capabilities in comparison with alot of the other manufacturers of even less expensive vehicles.

The first pucks are a bit incomplete, you seem to have inside info, would you know if these are serviceable? I'm after a SW update.

The Euro pucks are made by Peiker but their service just gives me an MB phone number (to another country) and my MB dealer is absolutely clueless. I'm going to catch some contacts from MB in my country but meanwhile I would be interested on any information.

I assume the connection between the phone/phone cradle and the car being too slow for a SW update (would take too long to download the data through a slow interface). It would be nice if DAS had the SW update files and it would be sufficient to have the puck installed in the car and let DAS update the device.

[rob13572468]

Originally Posted by Diesel Benz

The first pucks are a bit incomplete, you seem to have inside info, would you know if these are serviceable? I'm after a SW update.

The Euro pucks are made by Peiker but their service just gives me an MB phone number (to another country) and my MB dealer is absolutely clueless. I'm going to catch some contacts from MB in my country but meanwhile I would be interested on any information.

I assume the connection between the phone/phone cradle and the car being too slow for a SW update (would take too long to download the data through a slow interface). It would be nice if DAS had the SW update files and it would be sufficient to have the puck installed in the car and let DAS update the device.

the chipset on the puck is flash updatable but as nice as having it update via sds would be i dont believe they thought to implement that. if they decide to offer updates (and thats a big if) i would imagine your local dealer would have a programmer that it would be plugged into to update it.

keep in mind that there has no word that any such update is or will be available.

[benltc]

Originally Posted by Skylaw

I don't know, Ben - but based on the information I have provided so far in this string you should be able to peruse the phone bulletins on Paul's website and make the determination. It means opening them one by one and finding the cradle/kit number and seeing which cars it was used with and which PSEs it is compatible with, but that's what I'd have to do to answer the question.

Thanks for again for your help. I wil Paul's website to see what infor I can get from there.

[gfuller@doctor4u.com]

My puc device , for a motorola 815, in my ML 320 CDI operates fine..when turn the bluetooth on in my S550 2007 ,which is for my wifes razr, it detects my phone but my phone will not pair with it..is the same old story that it wont work because it is a puc for a razr and wont work with any other model phone ???

[Skylaw]

gfuller, if your S550 has the RAZR cradle, I believe that's the problem. If you used a non-RAZR puck, you could probably pair more phones, but you would lose signal strength and charging capability with the RAZR.