Thread: Parrot UNIKA compatabitiy

I have a MB SL500 R230 Year 2003. It does not have the MB phone cradle. I am considering installing the Parrot system and was wondering if anyone had any experience with getting the steering wheel buttons to work with the
Parrot UNIKA CANBUS device.

Will it work with my vehicle? I have attached a photograph of the interior center console.

thank you

Don

There are a number of such devices on the market now. The parrot kit is based on a free public-domain canbus project complete with source code. Its nothing more than a relay with canbus reader chip. The other board is a generic Bluetooth kit. Bear in mind you have no integration with Parrot apart from answering the calls from the steering. You may as well consider the following options;

a) 2010 headunit overhaul (a little expensive but well worth it)

b) A proven Nokia Bluetooth kit (may come with canbus box)

c) A factory phone kit with a cradle to match your phone (unlikely to be useful)

Every radio in every Mercedes has a mute function to enable an external audio source to take over such as CB radio or 3rd party phone kit.

Thank you for your reply, Please can you expand on options a.) and b.) above

cheers Don

a) Reinventing the square wheel as I like to call it. It is a major electronic overhaul of the entire car interior. A number of modules including the seat controllers, COMAND, door modules, steering wheel, ignition and cluster..... are redone to 2007 and 2010 specifications. This leaves the car in an upgraded state.

It enables all of the entertainment options of the current R230.


b) Since all Mercedes have MUTE pins (always a green wire) they can be attached to any standard issue phone kit which will then mute the radio.

- comes with its own microphone
- has voice control only if its in the phone kit
- comes with its own speaker or has a piggy-back harness to use the existing speakers in a non-BOSE car.
- May have a small press panel near the radio with green and red button.
- Made by Nokia and a number of other good brands.
- Can be bought to be compatible with your phone brand (i.e. there are motorola kits to suit motorola phones).

Some kits suit iphone or blackberry. Needs to be confirmed how and to what prior to installation.

I notice that not all Bluetooth is created equally. I have heard some shocking sound quality on some designs. The person in the car is hardly clear.

Thank you for your comments,

Can you recommend a website to search for the option b) devices
made by Nokia.

Do you know if the FISCON Pro Bluetooth device will work?
apparently this works with Audio 20, APS 50, COMAND.

Thank you Don

Nokia UK - Nokia Car Kit CK-100 - Overview

Above is one possible comparison to the Parrot.

The car has the D2B system with the Audio 30 system

Originally Posted by Ninguis

The car has the D2B system with the Audio 30 system

None of proposed upgrades using parrot or nokia are bothered by the base install.

Thank you for your reply,

I an interested in learning if the steering wheel buttons can be used to control the telephone.

cheers Don

Originally Posted by Ninguis

Thank you for your reply,

I an interested in learning if the steering wheel buttons can be used to control the telephone.

cheers Don

The steering wheel buttons are just a relay switch into the "pickup / hangup" switching circuit on the phone kit side. The circuit contains a canbus and PIC chip for the inputs and outputs. The kit can be modified so that any of the canbus messages are able to be read into the logic. It is basically a filter.

Any standalone canbus kit can be used with any standalone phone kit. It just depends on the inputs available on the phone kit side and the outputs available on the CAN side.

Note also that a number of phone kits offer voice dialling. I have seen these kinds of boxes around town and the price is ludicrous considering that the inventor made the project plans and code free online.


Drop a message to this team. They are amazing.

YouTube - ‪catch9966's Channel‬‏

I am certain they know of a standalone solution.