Hands free phone kit

[tobeee]

Hello clever technical folk. Spending more work time in the car, so decided to get some sort of cheapish phone kit installed, as I can't be doing with the ear pieces. Anyway, saw that Halfords do a few (Palmer, Parrot, Motorola for between £70 and £100 or so) and reckon I'll go for one of them, as it's free fitting, and by all accounts quite an easy job. Discussed briefly by phone, and chappy asked me if my radio has standard ISO loom... well, does it?! Comments about the loom and general hands-free stuff most appreciated!

[russ_chim]

If you can hear it over the sound of the engine then you're a better man than I??

I struggle to hear the radio unless its turned up loud! If anyone is rude enough to call when I'm enjoying the V8 experience then they are not worth talking to!

Seriously, have never tried one, but would be interested to hear if it works.

Edited by russ_chim on Friday 29th September 14:51

[that daddy]

i have a nokia bluetooth carkit in my everyday driver,and i dont think it would work in a chim to much background noise,the voice dial up certainly wouldent work,cant comment on the parrot,as long as your headunit as a mute input flyer lead then this should work with both options so as you use the phone the h/unit volume is muted.

[little Al]

Hi Mate

Ive got a bluetooth parrot kit in my Chim, which I fitted.

It went in a dream as it plugs straight into the ISO connectors. the hardest bit was pushing all the wires back in behind the stero, I managed to unplug the hazard switch twice before I got it right.

But as for the sound quality: I have a cherry bomb exhaust, and with the top down dont expect anybody to understand what youre saying (too much background noise).

It does get better when you stop, and then you can voice dial eaisly. It also cuts the radio when you get a call, so you wont miss anymore calls through not hearing the phone.

It is handy, but it works no where near as well as the one in my Audi.

but it only cost £40, and your legal

cheers Alan

Edited by little Al on Friday 29th September 21:06

[tobeee]

Thanks for your comments. Had the Parrot CK3000 Evolution fitted. Only tested at very low speeds so far, but sound quality seems really good. Only problem for me is that when I renewed my mobile contract I got a Samsung E900, which doesn't appear to have voice recognition dialling (didn't need it at the time!). So, I still have to open the phone and select the number I want to dial, but at least receiving calls can now be done at the touch of a button. The control panel thingy is tiny, and is stuck to the dashboard near the headlight knob, so no messy wires. The microphone is on the top left of the steering column, so minimal wind disturbance (though I'll test that properly later) and this location means that I can at least lean into it and still see the road if people can't hear me!

[tobeee]

Quick question for the electrical wizzos on here...
The little LED's on my Parrot unit stay on when the ignition is switched off. Obviously this could be a draw for thieves, but more importantly a drain on the battery. On the Parrot forum someone who had the same problem said that their car (not TVR) had a reverse polarity ignition, so by swapping the fuse holders around (red to orange and vice versa) the problem was sorted. Now, I haven't a clue what he's on about, and I've not yet received a response from him, but please could anyone enlighten me before I argue with Halfords about it!

[RTZ62]

Are you having a Jimmy Giraffe with this?

Surely the best thing to do is;
1.drive(fast) and enjoy the noise
2.if phone rings, find a suitable place and stop
3.get out of car
4.ring caller back whilst admiring TVR
5.get back in car, drive fast, make more noise.

It does it for me.And yes,I do drive mine every day.......

[dickkark]

tobeee said:

Quick question for the electrical wizzos on here...
The little LED's on my Parrot unit stay on when the ignition is switched off. Obviously this could be a draw for thieves, but more importantly a drain on the battery. On the Parrot forum someone who had the same problem said that their car (not TVR) had a reverse polarity ignition, so by swapping the fuse holders around (red to orange and vice versa) the problem was sorted. Now, I haven't a clue what he's on about, and I've not yet received a response from him, but please could anyone enlighten me before I argue with Halfords about it!

reverse polarity ignition? wtf?
If there is two lives going into this unit its highly likely that they are switched and constant lives and need to be swapped over,many car radios now have this facility built into the small loom that comes with it for this excact reason.
basically check carefully that you have two lives and try swapping them,red to yellow/orange,and yellow orange to red.

Edited by dickkark on Tuesday 3rd October 20:58

[Flintstone]

dickkark said:

check carefully that you have two lives and try swapping them

I used to do this. They diagnosed it as schizophrenia but we're alright now

Don't even ask me about the voices.

[petea]

Have you thought about one of these...

Just bought a sony ericsson HCB100. It clips to your sun visor or similar and connects via blue tooth to your phone. It has a long battery life, both in terms of standby and in use, so no wires and it can be transferred from car to car (which is the reason i bought it).

It works great in my euro box but must admit i haven't tried it in the chim - no reason why it should be any better or worse than any other system noise wise?

[tobeee]

I had considered a bletooth speaker type thing that you can take out of the car, but decided it'd be a pain to hide it away in the boot whenever I left the car roofless. Actually, I only got the Parrot fitted as I'd dithered for so long! The parrott's working well, so I'm pleased with it. The only issue I had was that the lttle unit's led's are on permanaently. The fitter has just explained that my car has a permanent live, and so they can't anything about that, but I'm not fussed unless it drains the battery.......

[al up north]

RTZ62 said:

Are you having a Jimmy Giraffe with this?

Surely the best thing to do is;
1.drive(fast) and enjoy the noise
2.if phone rings, find a suitable place and stop
3.get out of car
4.ring caller back whilst admiring TVR
5.get back in car, drive fast, make more noise.

It does it for me.And yes,I do drive mine every day.......

LMFAO.... yer a funny man RTZ62.

Nice one! Cheered me up a treat.

Why do I need cheering up?

Still got 4.5 months left of my ban!

Stick to the speed limit folks!!

Fg Ws

I love you!! Officer Dribble.

Edited by al up north on Saturday 4th November 18:37

[bigdods]

RTZ62 said:

Are you having a Jimmy Giraffe with this?

Surely the best thing to do is;
1.drive(fast) and enjoy the noise
2.if phone rings, find a suitable place and stop
3.get out of car
4.ring caller back whilst admiring TVR
5.get back in car, drive fast, make more noise.

It does it for me.And yes,I do drive mine every day.......

So near but so far...the correct version...

2. If phone rings let it divert to voicemail. If you can be bothered find a suitable place to stop

Otherwise spot on !

When I first got a bluetooth headset I tried answering the phone roof up and roof down but no chance...tried stopping and using the handset. Still no joy. Only after turning off the music maker in the front could I actually make myself heard.

Loving it!

Edited by bigdods on Saturday 4th November 22:23

[tobeee]

My hands-free is working fine! 5.0 and sports exhaust, it's even good with the roof off ( though probably not at motorway speeds!).