KTWayman

Hello Club Lexus world! (first post). It's time to give back to a great community from whom I have gained a lot of valuable information. Here is a tutorial on how I fabricated a custom mounted control for my BT remote.

Recently I purchased a 2003 ES300. Soon after my wife was out of town on business and rented a late model Camry. She came home and announce that "Our next car WILL have an integrated Bluetooth system". I thought "Fine. I'll do you one better. Our current car will have one."

After some quick research I decided on a Parrot MKi9000 and found one for a song (read: stole!) on Ebay. The control was pretty worn (as disclosed) so I replaced it, but everything else was fine. Next I hunted around for a wiring harness to make the job simpler and landed on a QCJBL-2 by Quick Connect. I was now all in for a total of only $150.00 self-installed. Not bad. (There are videos out there on how to remove the shift trim panel, lower module of the console and radio so don't ask, just go find them like I did )

Now the only thing I was unhappy about was that, although Parrot make custom center-mounting adapters for a variety of vehicles, mine was not among the ones offered. I did not like the idea of the standard wheel mount (below) and so went about creating my own solution which I will share with you all.



Before beginning, if you wish to view all of the pics together, here is the link for the album/group: https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...68954644361809

The solution I came up with is fixed and solid, but not destructively permanent, and made from polymer clay. I located some polymer clay from Walmart for about $5 (1 lb.) and began shaping the base. Polymer clay is easy to work with, bakes hard (but not brittle) in the oven rather quickly, and the clay was easily sanded for fine re-working once baked. Afterward it can be painted with acrylic paint. I began by configuring the top base portion.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...68979094390562

Next, I scribed a piece of paper to replicate the arc of the column where the piece wound be mounted, traced the arc onto paper, and adjusted the base piece before final baking.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...68997038366578

Of course, without permanent destructive mounting the piece will not support itself, so I next created a support corbel by using the bent part of an old curtain rod as the inner form. I was unsure how much would be needed for proper support and now know I might have gotten away with a little less.
Note: If you should attempt to duplicate this project (or similar) be aware that the rod may need to be bent slightly to match the angle of you column. Don't assume it's 90 degrees or you may end up with your base canted.
I covered the metal form with clay and did some preliminary shaping.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...69020732205394

Here is the rough shape before turning over to work in the other end. I found that it was easier to shape the clay against the work surface, in this case, a pyrex dish. (There is a wealth of information on the web about working with polymer clay so I have not duplicated it here.)

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...69032902010514

Next, I rough fit the pieces together, as seen below. You can see that the first piece has now been sanded smooth. Don't re-bake the first piece as polymer clay should not be over-baked. Remove it and bake the second piece by itself.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...69044551571154

After baking and cooling, the second piece was sanded to its final shape and finish, and super glued to the base. Next a coat or two of acrylic paint was applied. I used Velcro to to attach the mound to the column and double-stick tape to affix the control to the mount. Take the time to trim it up if you want...but no one is gonna look.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...69084839232738

Here is the finished product.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...68971623348322

https://plus.google.com/photos/10668...69065242955362

hypervish

Nice job! That came out great!

vipXjunky

iTrader: (28)

Was wondering, is tha remote battery powered or does it require a charge?

KTWayman

It's battery powered and connects to be base unit by BT. It's one of the things I like about the unit; it can go anywhere. Some people mount it on the center control console or on the center shift console. I just like the idea of making an aftermarket product look like it was meant to be there, completely integrated.

It uses a 3V CR2032 coin style battery (also available from Duracell in a lithium version DL2032).

oardila99

[QUOTE=KTWayman;7609402]

After some quick research I decided on a Parrot MKi9000 and found one for a song (read: stole!) on Ebay. The control was pretty worn (as disclosed) so I replaced it, but everything else was fine. Next I hunted around for a wiring harness to make the job simpler and landed on a QCJBL-2 by Quick Connect. I was now all in for a total of only $150.00 self-installed. Not bad. (There are videos out there on how to remove the shift trim panel, lower module of the console and radio so don't ask, just go find them like I did )



What does this harness allow you to do? or what does it do, apart from the plug and play functionality? How does the Parrot interact with the car's audio system when using this harness? I am looking for a system that interacts with my audio system via the auxiliary input, or via any other way that allows me to use the volume controls in my car (both steering and radio) to control the volume of the bluetooth streaming music and phone calls. Is that what this harness allow me to do?

Many thanks!

KTWayman

Basically the harness allows plug and play functionality. Guys who have the experience installing this unit on 100 different types of cars/models may theoretically be able to correctly connect the various wires (speakers, power, mute function, ground, etc.) so that music can be played/controlled from a paired phone or so that it correctly mutes the radio or alternate music source when the phone receives a call, but often even they use harnesses.

Wiring harnesses are pre-configured according the the make/model of the car with the appropriate wiring setup and male/female ends that match properly to various stock radio systems. (If your radio is not stock, chances are there is already a simple linear harness in place that converts from the stock plug to one matching the back of the non-stock unit.) The Parrot harness is much more complicated because it has to form a sort of "T" connection over to the BT control unit.

You simply unplug the existing (male) harness end from the back of the audio receiver, re-plug it into the appropriate (female) leg of the new harness, plug the new harness (male) into the back of the audio receiver...and plug the remaining ends into the Parrot unit. The effect is that the Parrot unit now intercepts and orchestrates the switching controls as needed for music and phone calls.

Your radio still functions as the master volume control, with the remote control unit covering a variety of features from volume to settings to making/ending calls and advancing tacks (see product documentation). Typically, aux inputs allow you to directly jack into a system through a hard wire, so I'm not really following you there. That's it; hope it helps.

oardila99

Hi. Thanks for your reply.

I understand the plug/play purpose of the wiring harness. I am more concerned about the functionality that you gain/lose or experience by using the harness.

My main concern is that I would like to bypass the Parrot amplifier and play both music and phone calls, or at least music, through the car's audio system using the car's stock audio system, and hence maintain volume control using my car's stereo and steering wheel volume controls.

The basic setup for a parrot mutes the car's audio system, and bypasses the car's audio system by connecting +/- speaker wires to each of the wires that lead to the car's speakers. Since the car's original stereo head unit is bypassed, the volume of the music and phone calls playing through the parrot can only be controlled using the parrot's volume switch. I found this a deal breaker, and I would like a system that connects directly to my audio system using any type of auxiliary input, and allows the sound to be amplified and the volume controlled using my car's stock audio system and volume controls on the stereo and steering wheel, just as what you see in a car that has factory bluetooth installed.

My question is therefore if the $100 wiring harness that QuickHarness sells (QCJBL-2 for my car) allows the functionality that I would like?

are stereo and steering wheel volume controls maintained when using the plug/play harness?

Does the volume **** on your car's stereo head unit control the volume for music and phone calls playing through the parrot? or... perhaps does it control volume for music but not phone calls?

I am trying to decide if I should purchase the QuickHarness, or do a fully custom installation myself which would be a total PITB.

Thank you very much!


OA

KTWayman

I can tell you than on my Lexus the outcome is that the receiver unit's volume **** acts as a master volume control (as stated before), maintaining full volume control of all inputs, while the steering wheel volume then adjusts based on a range set by the master/receiver control. Set the master too low and you can only get the steering volume to rise so high. I tend to compensate by setting the master rather high and turning down the steering wheel as I'm listening to music sourced from my phone, but even that can come back to bite you when the phone rings...and it comes BOOMING in as if (guessing) each signal is set by the master independently. That makes sense in that the remote only takes control of the sound source as it is handed off from the BT unit, which is muting and switching to the new source. Each source starts out based on where the master is set; the remote cannot not "anticipate" the adjusted level as it is downstream so to speak.

So, if I understand your concern correctly, both controls affect music and calls sourced from the phone, with the remote acting dependently on the volume set by your car's base unit, but music sourced directly from the radio/cd player is not controlled by the steering wheel control; it does not pass through it.