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Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

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Hotride
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Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Hotride » Tue Sep 21, 2010 2:55 am

After lots of forum searches i could not find one decent install guide for the Parrot mki9200 I wanted to install, so i decided to make one

The Problem: I wanted to add bluetooth and usb/ipod input to my Z. :?

The Difficult Part: I have the Carver DSP in my car, so i needed something that can play usb/ipod through the whole sound system not just the front speakers :cry:

The Solution: The Parrot MKI 9200, it has bluetooth and all of these inputs, with high sound quality, and its the most user friendly unit i have seen :D if your thinking of getting it, I definitely recommend it!!

The Install: Read below, I snapped a few iphone pics during my install to share, and possibly help others!!! :poke:

Step 1. gathering required components

a) i believe there are 2 ways this can be done, you can get the harness that comes with the parrot unit and try to connect every wire to the corresponding bmw wire OR you can buy a BMW specific harness off ebay which is plug and play (does not require the cutting or stripping of any wires) hence i chose to go with the harness option from a seller called complex_solutions in the UK, the part numbers required for my car were MC0441, XC0451 and MC9905.
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b) It was not 1 harness i required but 3. The first harness connects to the other 2 harness's to make 1 that works for the carver unit.

Step 2. Removing Head Unit

a) Turn off battery - i figured better safe then a trip to the stealers. (ps. remember your tools, i think a spanner for battery was my 4th trip back to the tool box... :headbang: )

b) Remove air con vents, this as everyone says is not a simple task. I used a hair clip since my g/f leaves them everywhere and a credit card to pull down the clips and lever out the vents
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c) once you have removed the air con vent, undo the 2 screws above the headunit and pull it out of the dash untill you expose the cables and plugs in the back of it.

Step 3. Installing the parrot/ BMW harness

a) this harness effectively sits in between the back of the headunit and the big plug that is plugged into the head unit. To do this you remove the plug from the head unit and replace it with the identical plug from the new harness, the other end of the new harness has a connector that mimics the headunit, plug the original cable into this connector (as shown below). If your car has cd stacker (like mine) or aux in, then there are a few extra plugs that you can simply remove from the original harness and plug into the new harness. This is good as you can still use your cd stacker after the install is complete
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b) The small white plug inside the square black connector of the cable is the aux plug. to give the parrot aux in, you need to do a similar thing again. First get the white ebay aux in adapter, next unplug the white oem aux in cable and place the ebay connecter where you removed the aux in cable, then join the aux cable to the other end of the ebay aux in (same process as previous cable). this cable has a third small plug, this small plug goes into a connector on the new harness from step a).
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c) This is the last step to installing the harness - the ignition sensor has to be added to the new bmw harness. The BMW harness has a connector that plugs directly into the Parrot Blue box, and near this plug is 2 fuses and a few bullet connectors holding the cables together. this step is relatively straight forward you simply unplug the bullet connectors and join them to the bullet connectors on the ignition sensor cable, once this is done the parrot harness is complete.
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Step 4. Installing the Parrot bluebox, screen, microphone and aux cables

a) The first thing i had to do was find a position for the blue box, i decided the best spot was inside the lower dash panel
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b) Next i decided on where i wanted the screen and stuck it to the dash with the included mounting pad. Then i had to route the cable down to the side of the dash, past the instrument cluster, down to the footwell where i found a gap and passed the cable into the dash and down to the blue box
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c) The microphone is quite big, but as it should be placed 60cm from driver if possible i mounted it on the steering wheel, you hardly see it when sitting, and I ran the cable with the screen cable down into the dash to the bluebox
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d) Finally only the aux/ipod/usb cable remained, i decided i wanted this in the glove box, which allows me to change media source easily and gives some security, being hidden away. Inside the glove box there are 2 small clips used to release the glove box and access the fuse box, i managed to slide the aux cable in beside these clips and up into the dash, which i then routed down to the parrot bluebox, once i had this cable plugged in all the connections i needed to make were complete.
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e) Now i only have the remote left to install (since im a big fan of the idrive i figured a similar position should work well) since it comes with a stick on pad and doesn't require a cable i mounted it on some panel between the hand break and the gear selector, i find it easy to access and doesn't get in my way.
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Step 5. Final Step - make sure everything works... then... put everything back together
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When i tested this the first time, i turned the key to on, and nothing lit up, i was a little freaked out. repeated this process a few times with no luck and some terrible thoughts flooding my head, i decided to turn the engine actually on to check it. So i figured out you need to have the engine turned on and running to power the parrot unit, which turns on a further 10 secs after the engine (breathe big sigh of relief) just before i was about to get :evil: and go to town on that thing.

Now that I have done it, i am very happy with the parrot. It plays usb/ipod/bluetooth very easily, the remote has a click wheel that works similar to iDrive, so it is a pleasure to use, the screen displays song info, album art and contacts in an easy to navigate way. And the sound quality is great, most of my media sounds better through the parrot then from the bmw cd player i have been using up till now. The parrot uses all 10 speakers of the carver and provides great bass.

very happy with my purchase :D

total cost = Parrot MKI - GBP 100
Harness - GBP 50

Instal time - approx 2 hours with coffee breaks included 8)


Moved from General Discussion - AlanJ
Last edited by Hotride on Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

alex85
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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by alex85 » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:16 am

£50 for the harness? I'm sure mine was about £15!

Good write up, I have the older Parrot kit, the one with just the screen and had great fun trying to find places to hide the boxes and wires!
Z4 has gone for now. Was made an offer I couldn't refuse, a straight swap with a car worth £2k more. Give it 12 months and that 3.5iS I have hankered after will be mine. For now, 45mpg will do me just right.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by AlanJ » Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:13 pm

Good write up and pics :thumbsup:
///M tri colour steering wheel, mud flaps and loads of other extras! ZHP illuminated gear lever..... Pre Purchase Checks,Getting the Best out of Dealers http://www.bmwz4roadster.net

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by Hotride » Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:38 am

well it was 50 for the harness because i had to buy 3 harnesses.

one to join parrot to the speakers, one that senses ignition and an aux cable (so the parrot can play music through the stereo)
i think they cost £20, £15 and £15 respectively, which adds up to £50 delivered - i wish i could have gotten away with £15 tho 8)

haha. photos do not show frustration, and threading cables and boxes behind the dash is really not fun or easy on the Z.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by Bishto » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:03 am

Hi,

Out of interest, where did you get the MKi9200 from for £100?? Cheapest I can find is £140.

Thanks.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by Hotride » Thu Oct 28, 2010 2:51 am

i got it from Ebay from a seller in Isreal. cant remember their name tho.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by navid.v » Thu Oct 28, 2010 4:42 pm

question about the microphone,is there any wiring visible?if not,where did you hide it? :)

also,I have the bmw ipod adaptor connected to my headunit,if I want to install this,do I need to remove that or they can co-exist?

appreciate if you can let me know.

cheers.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 - The Install

Post by Hotride » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:15 am

the microphone wiring is not really visible, i found a little gap in the steering wheel cowling and ran the cable down through the steering wheel, into the dash, however there is about 1cm of cable visible if you look closely (cant see it when sitting in the drivers seat tho). ill try to take another pic for you

I have the CD changer in my car, and it does co-exist with the parrot - so if the ipod adaptor uses the same plug as the cd changer then id assume they will both work. im pretty sure they use the same white plug!

The parrot unit is kind of a bypass, you remove the oem cables from the head unit and plug the parrot cables in between. So you still have all of the original functions, but the parrot unit cuts out the head unit and controls the speakers whenever you want it to.

personally id say sell the ipod adaptor in the buy/sell section, as once you use the parrot system, you'll never use the ipod thing again.

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by navid.v » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:05 am

thanks for the quick reply,appreciate it.

one more thing,can you use the buttons on the steering for the parrot with the setup you have got?or do you need extra cables?

re selling ipod adaptor,how would I play my music then?as I don't have an iphone :D

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Mr Whippy » Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:46 pm

Thanks for the link on my iPhone thread.

This looks like a nice solution... will have to have a proper read shortly!

Are all these parts easily available in the UK?


Many thanks

Dave
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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Hotride » Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:03 am

Mr whippy glad to make ur decision easier :P I bought the cables from the uk so I'd say yes! eBay seller called complex solutions, made the job very easy for me

As for the steering wheel controls I've heard it can be done if you buy another parrot cable, but I wasn't interested in that as you can mount the remote anywhere, and I have it in a similar spot to the idrive in the e90 which suits me well.

Ps the iPhone connector on the parrot also works with iPod, and it has aux in also so you can use any mp3 player, I actually run all of my music from a USB stick!

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Mr Whippy » Sun Oct 31, 2010 2:21 pm

Having trouble finding that eBay seller...

Seems ideal to buy these in-between adaptors rather than chopping it all up! Just need to get in contact with the seller who can say what I need for my set up (different to you as I just have 6spkr setup and no Nav etc)

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Hotride » Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:55 pm

Yer yours could be different, I just asked them which cables i needed and they chose the right ones for my setup.

try this link, you should be able to find them and ask a few questions from here :ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MC0441-MC-non-SO ... 4595wt_905

I like the in-between adapter also, as i have the CD changer and didn't want the effort of pulling it out. :exitright:
I wanted to keep it and add all the extra bits in... im not aware of any other device that offers this feature!!

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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by MyNamesNotBob » Mon Nov 01, 2010 12:04 am

You can even get the BMW-ISO-BMW harness adapters in Halfords if you ask them to order them
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Re: Parrot MKI9200 (bluetooth and ipod solution) - Install

Post by Hotride » Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:27 am

errr never heard of Halfords... :oops: is that some kind of auto shop?

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