My 2006 W209 Comand - How I did it...

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Baron_Samedi

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
1,896
Location
Wiltshire UK
Car
CLK200K
Right,

From all the threads I read on here, I knew that Comand would have to be an upgrade at some point.

From asking lots of dopy sounding questions I built the picture I needed as to the magnitude of the task.

Sites such as www.comand.co.uk and www.mercupgrades.com filled things out as to the feasibility, parts needed to carry out the task and software coding necessary to get the system to match my car.

So...

A bit out of order, owing to not finding a Comand Unit that I was prepared to spend money on I visited Alfie and had an authentic MB GPS antenna installed behind the instrument cluster and the coding needed for the car to understand the presence of Comand.

Next,

I searched eBay for a Comand Unit. To be honest, I looked at other sources but I was not willing to buy a new unit for a car that is only worth around £7k...

This meant keeping an eye on the listings and asking questions of the vendors to fill the gaps in their listings - I asked questions about cosmetics, build date rear connectors and so on. What I should have done is to ask more about the legitimacy of the offered data disk but there you go...

Eventually, I worked out that I was going to need to spend around £600 for a unit and settled on a unit being sold by a chappy from Lithuania.

Knowing that strange things happen, I paid (eventually) for EMS Speed Mail and my unit arrived in around two days!

I mustered all the tools (T20 Torx and Cluster Pulling Tool) and bits and pieces (Comand Unit and DVD) needed to install and settled down to work.

Disassembling the centre console of a W209 is sooo easy once you get your head around the process to remove the upper switch block :thumb:

I needed to find the blue Fakra connector of the GPS Antenna and this required removal of the Instrument Cluster. No problems once armed with the pulling tools and the dutch courage of how to use the tools provided by the kindness of forum members.

With the console apart, I routed the GPS Antenna cable down to the back of the Comand unit and attached it.

Carefully sliding the Comand Unit back into the console, sliding the rear connectors, fibre optic cables and the GPS Antenna cable down to a position in the free space behind the air con controls, I switched on the unit to test.

All fine, apart from the unit thinking the car was some place in Sweden...

Bit of a freak out ensued, followed by a race to the internet to find out what the problem could be. Reassured, I drove the car for about half an hour and lo and behold the car realised it was in Rainy Wiltshire and not the land of leggy blondes...

Further research on here showed that there could well be problems with V9.x disks and... during testing I found that the nice lady in the Comand Unit thought that MB Bath was still in the centre of Bath rather than Peasedown so I invested in a V11 disk and Comand User Manual.

So, satisfied that all is in order I have reassembled the centre console.

Now all I want is an excuse to give the system a bit of a road test.

That said, my first impressions are thus:

Sound quality through MB stock speakers is somewhat better than the Audio 20 (my reference point) in particular when playing CD's.

The Sat Nav system, from my limited experience I find at least as good as Tom Tom, Garmin or Navigon and Google Maps.

Why? Because the driving prompts are very intuitive and information is displayed on the instrument cluster which does not distract my attention from the road or clutter the dashboard / windscreen. This also means that the unit won't be in a drawer at home when I need to use it... or with batteries that pack in on the way home :eek:

I also like the way that telephony is better integrated (not that Audio 20 is particularly lacking) but I like the way SMS is handled by Comand.


Downside?

I flipping hate the California inspired warning on power up about not viewing the Comand screen while driving - grrrrr

So, if anyone wants advice, reassurance or even loan of pulling tools I am willing to help :D
 
I suggest you do it all again with pictures :p

well done!
 
Thinking your right... I tested the machine this afternoon on a run out to the beach and its fine.

So... I shall reassemble everything properly and take some pictures!
 
See - it was easy after all.

The question now is how many times do you think you will have it (the comand unt) in and out over the next year while you tinker with it or think up something else that you might like.

I put mine in around April and the Torx screws are not as shiny as they once were. I think it has been out at least 6 times.
The CD Changer was the main culprit, but trying to get Video working has invoked 2 removals so far...
 
:D

I wouldn't say taking apart your pride and joy is ever easy... especially when it comes to taking off the upper switch block for the first time and removing the instrument cluster by yourself - as ever, a little knowledge can be dangerous and its why I pestered people on here - thanks by the way!

But... I do take your point about shiny torx heads... my console will need to come apart again to install the Green Fakra to RCA lead I have on order from eBay (damned postal delays) and, I think an inline amp for my ipod interface...

What I do want to do... is to enable MP3 playing off the drive in the Comand Unit as I don't see why I need to invest in a CD Changer that is pointless given that I use my ipod - ho hum
 
Can you send me the link to the Fakra connector.
I looked at several but they were all the wrong end on them, and then I got bored.

I put the MP3 CD changer in and for all its limitations and there are many, I think it's brilliant.
So far, I haven't bought any Apple stuff and don't really plan too.

I would like to get my HTC phone hooked up for the video and sound, so let me know how you get on with the Video input
 
Hi br0ke,

Taking your point about CD Changer vs Apple - if I didn't own ipods I would feel the same :)

Now, the cable I have ordered but still don't have.... is:

Radioa Extension cable Fakra E to RCA female 1.5m on eBay (end time 14-Nov-09 07:38:33 GMT)

And I must remember to order this:

AV RCA USB Video Cable for iPhone 3G iPod Touch Nano TV on eBay (end time 21-Nov-09 07:30:12 GMT)

But then of course to split off video I will need to make the cable I talked about earlier so... I would need to get a male and female ipod dock connector :D
 
I must admit I felt the same about the ipods so fitted a CD changer. I then used to make my own compilation CDs up with CD Text on them to display in the command screen. I then got the MB Ipod interface kit, loaded up loads of mp3's on the Ipod, and now I can pick any track at anytime time whilst driving with a couple of presses of the steering wheel buttons. Compilations (playlists) are a doddle on the IPOD too. Trouble is my IPOD lives in the car now only coming out to add more music.
 

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