palidanx

I recently got the parrot ck3100 off vikram on the av forums and installed it last weekend. Some issues with it, but here are the install pics first.



First thing I did was pop off the left panel to wire the mic there. The recommendation on the parrot kit is to wire the mic on top of the rearview mirror. But for the time being..err... it's staying by the side. I used the tsx repair manual as the guide to take out all of the panels.


To wire the mic through the dashboard, i used a special 'chopstick' no-ninjitsu technique to guide it through the left side of the dash.



Picture of the chopstick going up.


The mic successfully pulled up the dash.


The mic mounted with doubletape


This is where i choose to put the parrot kit. Here you can see the number very clearly. Of course in this pic the kit isn't on yet.


Picture of the ignition and the constant power and unsightly legs... a hem anyways, you have to wire one wire to the ignition so the kit turns on when you start the car, and you have to wire one to constant power (wire a9 or a10 i think). The reason you need constant power is that the parrot kit has memory for the numbers synced on the phone.


Here is the old connector that used to plug into the oem amp. I extracted a pin so I can do the mute.


The extracted pin with a bullet connector on it.



Here is the extremely scary part of taking the nav out. The shitty thing about it is you have to take the silver trims out on the left and right side. The left side trim is no problem, but the right side trim (the passenger silver trim), can crack very very easily. You should use a screwdriver and pry it out slowly



Here i took the connector out behind the nav, and plugged in the pin into #a14. You have to open the connector with some force so you can plug in the pins which isn't too hard. If anyone needs a pin for mute, give me a holler.


This is the audio connector for the parrot. What is ghetto about is that it is made for German cars. So you have to manually splice a lot of the wires.

used for relay
yellow - if you don't have the mute wire, they provide an additional relay to simulate a mute. This is the ignition wire that sends +12v to the relay. If you don't have it, you don't use it.
black - the ground for the relay

mute
blue - the mute wire. For some reason I couldn't get it to work. I did verify that my mute worked by giving it a +12v. I think this guy might be send a -12v. Well I never bothered to fix the problem cuz i decided not to do the mute.

line in
green - a non-amped signal for line in on an amp i'm guessing. the + or -. I forget. Not used
brown - The + or - for the non-amped signal. Not used.

amped signal
red - I forget what is exactly coming out of this puppy but you basically can hook these two wires up to a small speaker or choose to tap into car speakers.
white -


the mounted kit with my cell phone holder.



My side panel partially put back on. I've been having a huge problem putting it back on. THere is this one plastic clip which is a bitch to put back on. Possible but time consuming.


Where the speaker was mounted. It's mounted out of the way.

So.. that's the install.. but I'm sure everyone will care about quality.. this is how I broke it down.

+ driving regular road
+ driving freeway


regular road:
So far there haven't been too many problems. But I talked to eldud and he heard some weird buzzing noises. Also, when I talked to a friend, she told me she heard unbearable static noises. Sorta intermitment so far..

freeway:
yikes.. this is where it sucks so far. Everyoen has told me that a lot of noise is being picked up.

Possible solutions

+ flash firmware:
I am on a older version of the firmware so flashing it may make a difference

+ mic placement
I have a strong feeling that on how I ran the mic lines it's picking up some power interference from something.

+ mic placement part 2
Putting it on the rearview mirror may actually be better so it doesn't pick up wind noise when the window is down.

Rationale of not tapping into speakers
I talked to eldud and pretty much realized it wasn't worth the effort to do it since I put in an aftermarket sound system. I heard of other people splicing the speakers for a stock system and it seems to work well.

Rationale of no mute
My view of the mute is that it limits you. When you simply traverse through the phone book, your system would be muted. If I was like on hold, I would want to listen to some background music. What the mute does in my opinion is

+ make it easier to get a phone call (assuming your music is blasting)
+ you don't have to turn down the volume manually

So you might miss a phone call here and there.. but its a tradeoff i'm willing to take. Also the relay tapping business seems fairly complicated but possible.

I'll be trying some of these things out and will update you guys about the static issue

CJams

I know this may sound stupid....but what does this parrot thing do? Is it like a handsfree set for your cell phone?

palidanx

my bad.. its a bluetooth car kit. So if you have a bluetooth phone you can pair up and it will pick up the call.. a hands free solution.

Tsx536

Nice writeup...I like where you mounted the main control unit

The mic for my Nokia car kit on my steering column and my friends said they could hear some background noise too. I've thought about moving it though. I've also thought about putting cascade on my doors to help reduce the road noise. That would also help make my speakers sound better too!

Can you hear people well while you're driving on the freeway?

Tsx536

Is the main control unit backlit?
How much was the kit?

Thanks!

BEETROOT

So you say on the highway, with windows up and stereo off, its still picking up too much noise? I thought it has noise cancelling? Doesn't work?

Keep us updated if you could. I have one still in the box that I am planning to install in my s2000. But a TSX is like a meditation booth compared to the s2k, so if you are picking up too much road noise I won't even bother.

palidanx

yea.. where the stock amp is.. a guy on the forums sold it to me for a 100 bucks.

palidanx

Hmm.. yes it should be noise canceling. In the kit you can adjust the mic volume <oops i guess I forgot to talk about that> which greatly affects its senstitivity to picking things up.

I just flashed iit recently.. so i'll do some tests and get back to you guys.

palidanx

yea the sucky thing for everyone else is the call comes very clear on my side.. just the issue is them hearing me.

Tsx536

Yep...same thing for me. They can still hear me, but if I switch to handset they say it's a lot more clear. It's not unbearable though. I can still call and place food orders and make some quick calls. I just don't like talkin' on it for long periods of time.

I've even though about putting the mic on the visor. That way it will be really close.

elduderino

OK, I got some 3100 and 3000 Evolution kits in today. We are installing a 3100 in the TSX.

Some thing I noticed on inspection: The 3100 control panel cable can come out the back. There is a poput square on the back, and if you take the clamshell apart (jeweler's philliups needed) and pop out this square of plastic, you can route the cable out the back where it can run through a hole and be invisible.

How did you check your firmware rev version level?

elduderino

Oh, and the disconnect inside on the PCB is smaller than the connector at the other end of the cable so if you unplug it off of the PCB you can run the cable through a much smaller hole.

Tsx536

Eld, glad to hear you got some kits!

Do you know where you are going to put the microphone?

elduderino

It's above the rear-view mirror. The mount is between the sungless-case console and the headline.

I had the same buzzy background noise as palidanx had. We lowered the mike gain to 1 click out of 5 or 6 and that seemed to take care of it.

JonDeutsch

Palidax,

So, how does it sound to others compared to how my car kit sounded to you?

Also, any residual rattles or scratches from your install?

Jon

Titand19

damn i read the whole thing thinking it was a hands free, good write up.

palidanx

dude.. i did NOT know that you can pull the wire straight out the back. That's good to know if I want to hide the wire, but I have to drill through the trim which may not be cool.

to check the firmware spin the dial right and go to
settings --> information .. i successfully flashed mine to version 4.10b

palidanx

hey eldud.. do you think it would be better to move my mount to where you are talking about to avoid wind noise?

Because when I really think about it.. the car kit sorta introduced a unique situation in my car... the stereo off. Before I never really thought about it, but my stereo would always be bumping, so with the quiet engine i would virtually here no road noise.

However now when i turn down the speaker, I can actually hear road noise now so the mic placement I think will be key.

palidanx

Sound.. you know jon.. its sorta weird. Before I was having sound issues when testing it with eldud, but I recently flashed it and turned the mic down which I think solved the problem. Next time I'm on the road i'll test it with ya so you can compare hehe.

palidanx

hmm.. i think it is a hands free no?

vp911

Did you get the problem at higher speeds fixed? If not, consider moving the mic to the rearview mirror - when I had the SE HCB-30 kit, I had to have the mic by the rear view mirror or there was a lot of road noise.

Nice write up

elduderino

Turning the mike down solved it on our car. WIth the out-of-the-box setting I was hearing it during testing (I wasn't the driver, I was on the landline) until we lowered it to 1 click. I haven't reflashed it.

elduderino

Our mike is just aft of the RV mirror, the mount bracket is between the headliner and the flange edge of the sunglass holder/homelink console/dome light console.

I'm told this thing sounds better at speed than my phone w/o the HF kit. Still have to do freeway testing.

palidanx

was it difficult taking out the lining leading to the sunglass holder/homelink area? I'm pretty tempted to move it cuz when calls are made I have to put my window up.

elduderino

There are two 8mm above the dome lights and another two option-to-remove screws inside the sunglass holder. After you pull the F two you can fish a mike cable through pretty easily.

But I would close the windoww anyway- I don't expect any HF kit to work well with the window down while driving.

Bill O

This post is of interest as I want to install a similar unit in a TSX (Parrot 3200 kit) but there are no photos. What do I have to do to see the photos?
Bill

Tsx536

Welcome to the site! The photos are just really old. You can try PMing the original poster and seeing if he still has the pics. Good luck

palidanx

i reuploaded my original pics from that post

guest

They now have a plug and play harness for Acuras with an amp like the TSX - see the QCHBB-HA here: www.parrotkits.com

tsx 2 nv

if i order the QCHBB-HA...will it take up my AUX port? I still want to install ipod integration as well

palidanx

you should be fine since all you are really grabbing is a ground wire and a power wire from the stock amp.

tsx 2 nv

thanks!