Wireless Wonderland: Parrot 3200ls & Ls430

[jainla]

Well ladies and gentlemen it's finished.

After 4 months+ of research, late nights trolling the internet and two very nerve-wracking days taking apart my car, I succeeded in installing my Parrot 3200LS bluetooth car kit into my LS430. My wireless wonderland is complete.

I am still working up an install doc which I hope to post shortly; it has 30+ pictures and diagrams so I hope it will fit. Consider it a huge thank you for all the info and support I've gotten out of this forum over the last year.

The installation has the following features:

• Voice activated dialing (through carkit voice tags)
  
• Address book sync with my Blackberry 8700 on startup
  
• Sound through the left rear door speaker just like god (and Lexus) intended
  
• Microphone hidden in the overhead module out of sight
  
• Fold-away screen in the center storage box
  
• NO cutting or alteration of the car's wiring harness
  
• A connector for an external antenna (should I find a way to connect one to the crackberry)
  
• A very nice "L" wallpaper.
  

So far I'm pretty happy with it; it's also far more natural than using a headset and far safer than holdling the phone--which I won't be able to do in a couple years anyway (thanks Arnold).

I have had several conversations with it and people seem to be able to hear me; at least as well as the bluetooth headset I use with the phone. I had a 30 minute conversation with someone in London and they didn't notice I wasn't on a regular phone.

The stand that holds (and folds) the screen into the console box is still a work in progress, and I may yet decide to relocate the microphone --I find myself speaking to the dome light when I'm on the phone.

Some hoped for improvements:

• Charging for the phone. I can't find a charging cradle I like that fits into the center armrest; and the bluetooth and cellular radios drain the battery quickly.
  
• External antenna connection. The T-mobile service is ok but not great, however the 8700 does not have a dedicated external connector that I can see although some kits include one, maybe they are using a capacitance coupling method?
  
• Pivot mount that moves the screen up and out of the way so I can stash my garage keytag in the center console box like I used to (currently the box is unusable).
  

There is also a known contacts sync glitch--instead of creating a single contact with multiple numbers the 8700 contacts come in with single phone numbers and multiple contacts (john doe phone, john doe cell); slightly annoying but still usable. I bet the new firmware for the BB will cure this; and other phones seem to work ok.

Many more details to come but I thought I would post in case someone else is thinking about doing this....it's possible! Certainly not for the faint of heart but it can be done!

Some pix:

Update...the doc is up...Click here.

[1990LS400]

I would be very interested in seeing the details on your Parrot installation. Sooner or later I will have to give up on my old Nokia phone kit and install a BlueTooth kit of some sort.

I keep looking for a good place to mount a Parrot or similar control module in my 00 LS. I would like to mount it so that I don't have to look down at a display or move my right hand more than a few inches from the steering wheel. There does not seem to be a really good place to mount it in my car.

If my phone kit died today, I would buy one of the aftermarket navigation products that has a BlueTooth phone function and permanently mount a bracket for it just above the center dash vents. But from the research I have done, only the ones from TomTom can mute the car audio system automatically.

Your "glitch" with the contacts sync may be a "feature" since some (all?) BlueTooth kits sync only with the phone's SIM card and not with the phone's internal memory. When I copy the contacts from my Nokia phone's memory to its SIM card, the same thing happens -- contacts with multiple phone numbers are converted to multiple entries.

The charging and antenna issues are a pain. The coming replacement/revision of BlueTooth uses a tiny fraction of the battery power that the current BlueTooth uses. The same goes for the antenna -- it often takes an external antenna to get decent reception and to prevent interference with the car's radio. Phone manufactures seem to be ignoring many of these issues.

[blake918]

Great job Jain! Ohhhh air ride too...very nice! B)

Charging for the phone. I can't find a charging cradle I like that fits into the center armrest; and the bluetooth and cellular radios drain the battery quickly.

That's the main reason why I've never been that interested in converting my car phone over to bluetooth. I like having a cradle to hold and charge my phone!

As for the mic, I have mine mounted to the windshield near the a pillar. There are probably better methods if you are overly concerned with the aesthetics, but it works 100%. I just speak normally-no head turning or anything, and it works wonderfully!

[jainla]

I keep looking for a good place to mount a Parrot or similar control module in my 00 LS. I would like to mount it so that I don't have to look down at a display or move my right hand more than a few inches from the steering wheel. There does not seem to be a really good place to mount it in my car.

Yes that detail drove me crazy when I was trying to select the kit. The big reason I picked the Parrot was that I knew the display could fit in the center dash box (getting the wire in there was another matter entirely--I had to take the display apart).

I wanted something with a display because I thought setting it up would be easier than using voice prompts, also the Blackberry does not seem to send a single contact over bluetooth--which you need on the Parrot 3000 series to record voice tags. Also I thought the wallpapers might be pretty. :)

The Parrot also allows entirely hands free operation; I say "Parrot Pick up" and then the voice tag and it dials; you can also say "Parrot Pick up" to pick up the phone. The only thing it doesn't do by voice is hang up. If you have recorded a voice tag and that person calls it rings and then plays back your voice tag; as I have time to record the rest of the voice tags I suspect the display will become more of a backup.

Raytel makes a kit with a flat display/control box that probably could be placed on the sunglass holder; the guys at Al and Ed's really tried hard to sell me on it; they claim it works really well but it's a lot more expensive than the Parrot kit.

The Sony Ericsson kits have the controller and display separate; but the knob is much bigger and tougher to mount. They also only support voice tags if your phone supports them internally.

Your "glitch" with the contacts sync may be a "feature" since some (all?) BlueTooth kits sync only with the phone's SIM card and not with the phone's internal memory. When I copy the contacts from my Nokia phone's memory to its SIM card, the same thing happens -- contacts with multiple phone numbers are converted to multiple entries.

Possible; i need to borrow someone else's phone and test it. I suspect it's an issue with the limited Blackberry implementation of Bluetooth.

The SIM sync issue is a known limitation; Sim cards can only store one number per contact. I think the sync data source is a phone-vendor specific feature. My Blackberry syncs with the phone's memory; my SIM card is currently empty.

The charging and antenna issues are a pain. The coming replacement/revision of BlueTooth uses a tiny fraction of the battery power that the current BlueTooth uses. The same goes for the antenna -- it often takes an external antenna to get decent reception and to prevent interference with the car's radio. Phone manufactures seem to be ignoring many of these issues.

Yes, I wonder if the new LS is still pre-wired for an external antenna. Mercedes and BMW still continue to provide that because they still sell wired phones; Bluetooth range and use in some parts of the world is restricted because that part of their radio spectrum is regulated (unlike the US). You could always retrofit one I guess.

THB Bury in the UK has started making a new car kit (Series 9) that has modular cradles that provide just the charging and antenna leads for those using another bluetooth kit or a car equipped with it. No cradle yet for the Blackberry :chairshot:

Despite the fact that GSM provides so many cool features I find their coverage consistently poorer than the old TDMA or CDMA digital units. The GSM radios use less power so they last longer but don't reach as far.

As for the mic, I have mine mounted to the windshield near the a pillar. There are probably better methods if you are overly concerned with the aesthetics, but it works 100%. I just speak normally-no head turning or anything, and it works wonderfully!

I had considered that but I didn't want the microphone turning into a projectile if the side airbag deployed. I was too chicken to attempt taking off the A pillar trim to see what else could be done. I'm getting more used to it, if I speak up just a little bit it seems to work fine.

Word seems to be choking on the pictures so I will probably load the text into Indesign and then PDF the doc; so hopefully I can put it up sometime this week.

The long and the short of it is that there is an 18 lead run underneath the center console box to the trunk of the car; I used those wires to bring the power, mute and speaker leads from the Telephone transciever connection point in the trunk to the console box, where I stashed the Parrot.

The connectors are similar to the Metra 70-8113/71-8113 connectors that go into the back of the Toyota/Lexus premium stereos, and I was able to order the plugs for the 18 wire run from Sewell in Dallas. The tiny little box-shaped connectors from the Metra plugs (order 2) fit into the 18 pin connectors perfectly.

I had to hack up the Parrot harness (sorry Parrot) but I figured it was far easier to replace that than repair the harness of the car. Since I did this someone is now making a harness that provides the Power and Mute leads (www.parrotkits.com) but I don't think it provides the speaker; you still have to wire that yourself.

Making the connectors was the easy part, taking apart the car to put it all together was the part that took forever. I have much more respect for the way these cars are engineered and put together after this project. Also be nice to your installer; they really earn their money!