Garmin ecoRoute HD in W168?

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I am looking for an advice on using Garmin ecoRoute HD in A class W168 facelift. I have a Garmin nuvi 3790T and am wondering if there are any potential problems with using ecoRoute - connecting it to OBDII?
 
Right, the ecoRoute HD is now connected, setup and running. Now I need to enter correct MPGs for the car profile - city and motorway. Shall I put in the 'official' figures of 26.7 and 46.3 or is there any trick to setting up the profile to get a more efficient eco-routing? :)
 
Be warned - my Garmin produces figures in US MPG (it had me worried until I worked it out!)
 
How did you connect it?

Pretty straightforward - plug it in, done :cool:
As I most likely will keep this ecoRouter and Garmin 3790T when this car is sold, I didn't want to use sticky pads to fix it, so I used cable ties - neat and secure; will take some pics by weekend, if anyone's interested.

Just in case you were asking how ecoRouter connects to the actual Garmin sat nav - it's bluetooth
 
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Be warned - my Garmin produces figures in US MPG (it had me worried until I worked it out!)

Well, this one seems to be okay - in vehicle profile it is asking for ££ per litre and so far MPG seems correct too - used fuel is in litres and at the moment it shows 28.2 MPG after a day driving short distanced in town centre.

I was tempted to get sat nav gear from US before coming to the UK, but decided against it for the very reason you mentioned - a lot of stuff sold in the States operate on the premise that world doesn't exist outside the "lower 48 states" :doh: So I bought both gadgets here, and everything seems to be correctly setup (or have option) for the UK :thumb:
 
Pretty straightforward - plug it in, done :cool:
As I most likely will keep this ecoRouter and Garmin 3790T when this car is sold, I didn't want to use sticky pads to fix it, so I used cable ties - neat and secure; will take some pics by weekend, if anyone's interested.

Just in case you were asking how ecoRouter connects to the actual Garmin sat nav - it's bluetooth

Brilliant, I'd love to see pics! :rock: I'm also interested in how/where you've put the actual 3790T. I'm still to mount my phone and my GPS into the car, so all info I can get is greatly appreciated. :bannana:
 
Well, finally remembered to take a couple of pics of the Garmin ecoRoute and a newly fitted head unit, although should've taken one with rear view camera image on it :doh: ... maybe over weekend :)
 
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Oh, apologies to TheJoker - will get pictures of 3790 on the dashboard over weekend too. As far as the phone mounting, I actually keep the phone in my pocket and either use my bluetooth headset with voice control (answer / ignore / end call etc etc ) or the head unit. I don't get that many calls :) and almost never make calls when driving, so having a phone mounted is not a big issue for me.
 
hello

What head unit is it, looks neat

I should be ashamed to even mention this being installed in a Mercedes :ban: - it's Xtrons - cheap [very cheap] generic concoction. I was going to put another Pioneer in, just as in A190 in Nassau, but then remembered my initial decision to get a temp car (this A160) and decided to try and keep the budget under control :cool: Plus, I do not intend to remove it when I sell this car, so no point putting in something I might want to keep...

Anyway, it took a lot of fiddling to get the unit to sit deeper than was intended by design, as I absolutely did not like it sticking out by about 15mm :wallbash: - I had to use pliers on a cage, to bend corners, so I can push the unit in, make extra holes to fix the clips on the head unit, and cut both the fascia and the checkered surround frame myself (well, modified the fascia from C-class one). Quite pleased with the result - the head unit doesn't look out of place and the surround frame matches the trim elsewhere in the car (character, if not exact pattern).

As far as the quality of the unit itself - surprisingly not too bad at all. It takes a second or two to load a 16GB SD card or access a CD/DVD (Pioneer is instantaneous), but once its playing - quite nice. No complaints about sound quality either. Bluetooth works perfectly - both the phone part (mic, speaker, dialling, etc, etc) and playing music from iTunes on the phone, however the music quality is much better, when iPhone is connected directly (via included lead) to the unit. Camera image is excellent, easy to switch between mirrored and direct view. Playback from USB stick is okay too (about same 2sec delay to access the volume), but I mostly just use SD card.

The only irritating 'feature' of this (and I suspect most others cheap ones, whatever the name on the box is) head unit is its inability to handle long filenames :wallbash: I guess our Chinese friends still reside in DOS/Windows land :doh: I haven't seen those truncated filenames ABCDEF~1.MP3 for a long time! As I couldn't stand these I spent about two hours going through the entire collection on SD card and renaming files into 8.3 format :wallbash::wallbash::wallbash:

Will get a couple of pictures over weekend to illustrate the long boring narrative here ;)
 
Thanks did you buy it from China or a UK seller?

I'm considering something similar for mine as it has bluetooth and ipod input but I don't want to spend much as I don't use the car much. It would just be nice to have when I do.

Does the head unit plug into the standrard merc loom?

Thanks again some pics when on would also be good, PM them if you don't want to post
 
I bought it in UK - here: 6

it was delivered quickly, by a courier (DPD if I remember correctly), properly packed and full set of advertised extras.

Connecting the unit did not require any extra adaptors etc, but it was done for me by a professional (ProParkUK) - I only dealt with mechanical part of installation ;)

I will get some more pics over the weekend :)
 
That's very cool! I like tidy installs.
The primary reason why I asked about the phone was/is that I want to keep my phone's battery topped up as much as I can.
Very interesting to hear about your experience with that cheap-o head unit. I always fear buying stuff like that, but I'm pleased to hear that you've got no real problems with it except the slight delays and the 8.3 file names.
And I'd love to see pics of the reversing camera install! Both screen and camera. :D

Finally, on a total side-note; What's the difference between the 1.6l and 1.9l? I'm constantly pondering "what if" I would have gone for an A190 instead of the A160!? :)

Thanks for the info!
 
It's a bit early to conclude that the cheapo head unit will be alright long-term, but so far - so good...

I've had a charger connected to my HTC Desire, which was sitting is a holder, mounted on the inside cover of the drivers side mirror*, but as I now use iPhone, the battery life is miles better, so am not worried about topping up during the day (it was essential for HTC though).

* One of the main consideration in Nassau, when fixing GPS/mobile etc, is the reflection - it's extremely bright outside, you don't want to be blinded by your phone or sat nav.

Here's a pic of A160 with sensors and camera: http://www.MBClub.co.uk/forums/atta...e-camera-comand-ntg2-5-img_0028-2-resized.jpg
Same thread got a picture of A190 with plate-mounted camera.

And here's the dashboard of A190 with Pioneer 3200 and Garmin 1490:
http://www.MBClub.co.uk/forums/atta...-what-could-i-put-here-img_0408-1-resized.jpg
That's before new floor mats and pedals arrived :cool:

As far the difference between 1.9 and 1.6 - can't really tell,- the A160 feels more agile, and I like driving it better than A190, but that might be entirely due to absolutely crappy roads in Nassau, plus the top highway speed limit in Nassau is 45mph :doh: and there are only few stretches of [quiet, out of town] roads where you can take it to 70-80mph, so the comparison base is just not there. Personally I suspect there's no difference :cool:
 
Right, as promised - a couple of more pictures :rolleyes:

It was a bit tricky to avoid reflections, having to use flash didn't help either.
The front cam image is a screenshot of playback, so the actual quality is better.

Incidentally, what are members' preferences as to rear view cam orientation - mirrored or not? I had it mirrored, until I looked at this Bavarian thing parked behind, and now I think it's probably best to switch to direct view, so I can read number plates without getting a typesetter syndrome :crazy:
 
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Here's the the same view, just the screen, to give a better idea of camera resolution. The other one is in the parking lot to show cam working in low light conditions :bannana:
 
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Wow that's impressive! I really think a reversing cam is a good idea. I know the car ends just outside the window, but I still find it a bit difficult to reverse (and I also hate reversing!).
So you have a camera both front and rear?
Where's this thread you're mentioning regarding the rear plate camera?
Do you need to press any buttons to activate the reversing camera or will it just simply switch on when reverse is engaged?

Interesting to hear about the A160 vs A190. I don't feel too bad for getting the A160 now. :)

Thanks!
 
Hello

Thanks for the above looks very neat and for the money very good may suit my needs if its a simple swap for my current Audio 20 (I think) in a 2003 e class.

The A190's are pretty rare few people probably know they are about and then the one we had the A210 Evo even rarer. We had ours over 4 years and I spotted two more...

Great little car
 

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