sonicblue6

Note: I have no affiliation with either of these products or any of their suppliers. I merely note where I obtained the products and attest to my experiences and opinions.

The vehicle: 2004 Mazda RX-8 GT with Bose sound system

The Bluetooth unit: Parrot CK3000 Evolution, from etronics.com = $86.30 + shipping/tax. This was the cheapest I found it, by far. I live in PA, so it got me to from NYC in one day.

The harness: Quick Connect harness for Mazda Bose, from Quick Connect Products, $150. This is the only place I found that sells a simple plug-and-play harness for Parrot kits -> Mazda Bose systems. I was surprised at the price but when there's only one game in town.... I found out that the unit has many features, on top of its ease of install and excellent quality.

Disassembly: Done before, but I'll document mine.

Remove the shift ****. Then pry up the shifter trim. I found slipping a flathead here is the best way to get started. It's just pull-clips, so just be gently firm and life straight up.


Unplug any harnesses underneath (nav, seat heaters, etc...)

Remove the two screws holding the ashtray in:


Then, just pull straight out, as there are two clips behind


I just laid it to the side, I can't get that bulb plug out for the life of me! Now, remove the two screws holding the radio in. Note, they're the circled ones, not those outer ones:



Since I have to take it out anyway, I also remove the glovebox. Just open it, push the slide carriage (right side) off, squeeze the sides to drop it all the way down and pull the lower c-clips off their post.



My radio also is slyly missing the "magic brass bolt" holding the radio in from the left side, but check for it anyway. I put my right hand in the glovebox opening and behind the radio and apply gentle pressure. I then put my left hand at the left lower corner, cupping my fingers underneath the radio and pulling, while my left thumb pushes against the dash. That's usually enough just to pull it off that clip. I do the same to the other side. With the bottom free and supported by my left hand, I give a firm push from the back:



I removed all the harnesses because I was doing some additional work to mount my controller. If you just need to plug in the QC, you can manage just to get that one plug out and plug the QC in. What I did was, remove the front trim panel of the radio (two brass screws each side) and pop out that lower half-moon shaped trim piece. I drilled a small hole at the very bottom, just enough to get my wire through:



For my microphone, I simply ran it from the interior of the glovebox area to the right and out a trim piece:

My hand reaching toward the place you can fit it through:


Pull this rubber piece back and you can retrieve the wire:


I then just kept going up that rubber trim until I was at the top of the A-pillar:

I then just ran it toward the windshield and up into the front edge of the headliner and over to the mirror. I removed that little wire cover piece, looped it around the wires there and replaced that cover, "pinching" the mic wire in place. I just left it hanging there, as I didn't want it to contact anything and potentially pick up vibration. It doesn't swing or anything and the base is held there well, so it's not going anywhere. The Parrot comes with various clips that you can adhere somewhere that have a little nub for the mic to snap onto if you want a firmer placement.


The QC connection is straightforward - everything only fits one place. The harness has one arm with a male and female jack. You unplug the main factory plug from the back of the radio and plug the male QC in there. The factory male then goes into the QC female.



The brown plug at the top is the factory male into the QC female. I couldn't get a pic, but it's straigthforward for the QC male into the factory radio. The other arms of the QC go to the various parts of the Parrot harness. I tried to get a good pic of them all here:



Quirkily, with this unit and the 3000, two harnesses go unconnected. For my unit, the Parrot mute wire used "Mute wire 2" (you can see the mute wires on the left, they're well-tagged). With other Parrot units (3100 and 3200, I guess they are), the QC will actually REPLACE the Parrot harness altogether, so those should be even easier.

The other ends of the Parrot harnesses you see here plug into the blue Parrot box, and only fit one way, so that's easy. Lastly, between the space behind the radio and behind the glovebox, this seeming octopus of wires fits easily and the glovebox should reassemble/close without interference.

Finished control unit:


Once you're up and running, the system will prompt you to pair a device upon first startup. Simple go into your phone and select "Find Devices" or such. My Razr V3 paired up without incident. Also, the QC unit has controls for left AND right volume. It has the capability to be VERY loud, so mine is turned down quite low. Moreover, I turned down the RIGHT all the way, so passengers don't have to hear my conversations, just like the factory nav works.




I couldn't be happier with it. Not only is the receipt of a call completely easy, with automatic muting of the radio, but placing a call through voice dial works great as well. Plus, the Parrot has "magic words" for PHONE and HANG UP, so I don't even need to touch a button at all to start/end a call. The audio quality is crisp, without echo and "full-duplex," meaning I can hear the other person while I talk.

I spoke with Howard (info@quickconnectproducts.com) who was VERY helpful and knowledgeable about his unit and answered the couple questions I had with great response time. Again, I think his product is the only game in town, but all in all, my total outlay was very reasonable, especially in return for the ease of install and total integration I have now.

Feel free to PM or e-mail with questions.

Chamberlin

iTrader: (1)

Awesome man - going to be doing this with one of the LCD display Parrots in the future... although I have used my radio's plastic punch out panel for 5 LED lights for my CAR PC. Bluetooth was too much of a pain for me with the CAR PC, and I am still using the factory Bose system for everything (plus additional tweeters and sub amp/box too) so the Parrot makes the most integration sense...
thanks again for the excellent write up!

-C

sonicblue6

Cool- - good luck!

bruce_van

Excellent write up. I'm thinking of doing this upgrade next.

sonicblue6

go for it!

RX8Tech

Excellent write-up. I think the Mazda Bose harness from www.parrotkits.com is the only way to go for a plug and play bluetooth retrofit.

elf

Yeap, with the Parrot MK6000, the QC Mazda Bose harness COMPLETELY replaces the harness included with the Parrot kit. And as RX8Tech mentioned, it's plug-n-play: 1) unplug the main harness from from H/U, 2) plug the matching male connector of the QC harness into the H/U, 3) plug the OEM male connector that was unplugged from the H/U into the matching female connector of the QC harness, 4) plug the remaining male connector of the QC harness into the QC black box, 5) plug another smaller QC harness between the QC black box and the Parrot blue box, 6) plug the Parrot controller and Parrot mic into the Parrot blue box. Done. It takes less than a minute to make these connections ... it took me forever and a day to remove that OEM connector from the back of the H/U

The QC Mazda Bose instructions for the MK6000 are also for the 3200 and 3400.

Oh, and nice writeup sonicblue6!

RX8Tech

Very cool. You are now California legal with your handsfree kit. Arnold will be proud

What do you think of the MK6000 BTW? Does it stream MP3's and what is the audio quality like? Let us know if the stereo music comes out the back speakers too - it should with that Bose harness.

elf

Yup, that was my lame excuse to get the kit, even though the law doesn't go into effect until July 2008 (I think) ...

The MK6000 works very well for me (so far). It was a way to kill two birds with one stone --- a hands-free kit and iPod integration. Audio is CD quality and is stereo to all the speakers; I can't tell the difference between the MP3s streaming from the iPod and the CDs that I ripped them off of. I'm using a Bluetooth stereo dongle in my iPod dock connector that supports both the A2DP and the AVRCP profiles, so the MK6000 controller provides the basic Previous, Next, Pause/Stop controls. You can also use the iPod to control play-back. There are some capabilities that you lose with this setup, though. Since the MK6000 essentially by-passes the H/U, you lose its Balance, Bass, Treble, Fade, etc. controls in addition to the audio controls on the steering wheel. However, you can set the bass/treble from iPod, and volume is adjusted with the MK6000 controller. In fact, you don't have to have the H/U on for this kit to work. The hands-free half of the MK6000 works well too, although I haven't had a chance to play with its voice recognition capabilities yet. You'll have to set the volume on the QC black box lower since it defaults to VERY LOUD, as sonicblue6 mentioned. For easy reach, I mounted the MK6000 controller on the center console, just ahead of the seat-heater switches.

RX8Tech

Thanks for the info. I'm impressed. Can you be paired with your Ipod for A2DP at the same time you are paired with your phone for calls? ie, if you get a call, does it cut off the Ipod music and start ringing? If it does, I'm sold on an MK6000! I sort of figured you could only be paired to one device at a time??

ps - what brand of bluetooth Ipod dongle do you have?

elf

Yes, they can both be paired at the same time. The MK6000 supports the pairing of five phones --- I take that to mean five Bluetooth devices, not just phones. So long as the Bluetooth devices don't try to use the same profiles simultaneously, the MK6000 works fine. This goes for most recent Bluetooth dongles too. Since my cell phone uses the Handsfree/Headset profiles and the iPod uses the A2DP/AVRCP profiles, they both pair and work simultaneously connected to the MK6000. For incoming AND outgoing calls, the MK6000 mutes all the other audio sources: the Bluetoothed iPod (or any Bluetooth MP3 player for that matter) and any of the audio sources on the H/U (CD, radio, tape, etc.). Playing the iPod will mute the H/U audio sources. Playing around with your cell phone will mute everything. As soon as you hang up your cellphone call, whatever audio source you were listening to resumes. I was just playing around with the voice recognition capabilities of the MK6000 and that seems to work for the most part --- depends on the cell phone capabilities I guess and the quality of the recorded commands/keywords to the MK6000. I'll go back and re-record those and see if anything improves. I think the hands-free capabilities of the Parrot car kits, like the CK3000 that sonicblue6 installed, work pretty much the same, you just need to decide what other cabilities you want with it (streaming MP3, GPS, etc.).

I'm using the iMuffs MA110 Dock Adapter for the iPod (http://www.wi-gear.com/products/imuffs/ma110.php). Jabra (http://www.jabra.com/JabraCMS/NA/EN/...25s/JabraA125s) and Anycom (http://www.anycom.com/products/bluet...&partno=CC3315) also make Bluetooth stereo iPod dock adapters, but I haven't had any experience with those. I'm sure there are other out there. Forgot to mention that the MA110 adapter uses power from the iPod so I have to recharge my iPod more frequently --- not a big issue with me.

PeteC

Nice writeup, I just installed mine yesterday. I don't have the boze setup so no left/right volume control. The harness was great, made the job ten time easier than the old days of splicing everything.

One question though. My quick connect harness said to switch the fuses on the parrot harness (switched and constant power I think). It also mentioned you'd hear a goodbye message when you shut the car off. All I get is a chirp, do you get the goodbye message?

elf

Yeah, was wondering about that Goodbye message myself as neither the one in my wife's car or in my RX8 does that.

RX8Tech

I think the "Goodbye" reads out only on the Parrot LCD models. The non-LCD models probably just stay on for a few seconds and then shut off. If you are not losing voice tags or other settings, you are probably OK with how you have it wired. You just don't want it on 24/7 as it probably draws a bit of current.

sonicblue6

Still smooth as silk......

fuzzmac

i just installed Parrot CK3000. Everything works great except one. After I installed it, I found out that the HU Backlit is dead. All the buttons and display works just fine but the backlit. Does anyone have same problem? I have no idea where to start. Please help. Thanks!

Best,

Fuzzmac

RX8Tech

Did you use a Quick Connect harness? Make sure the plugs are pushed all the way in until they click. Sounds like the illumination wire is not making good contact or you have blown a radio illumination fuse somehow??

fuzzmac

Yes I did. I thought I pushed all the way, but don't remember if I heard "click" I'll take a look again and let you know. Thanks.

sonicblue6

FYI, I noticed my speakers were intermittently going out as of late. Got back there and found the portion of the QC that plugs into the HU was not clicking in. Unplugged it and gave it a good shove in and it seems to be working. Moral is: just go back and check all your connections. Also, take note if a particular wire in the harness may be loose. In my wife's car, one of the small Parrott harnesses that connects to the blue control box had a wire come loose and it took some fine-motor skills to get it to click back into the harness.

khronos

I also found out that i had not pushed the plug far enough until it clicks when I also saw my HU backlit was dead.

It is a little bit tough but you must push the plug very hard... It will click finally...

JimmyJhonts

Does anyone have thoughts as to whether a quick-connect harness is desireable for an autosound shop install of a Parrot MK6000? It seems silly to buy the harness for $150 if you're not doing a DIY install, but on the other hand, I am concerned that the shop may not do the wiring correctly to create muting capability (especially given that I have Bose, and Navigation, which already does some muting, and that they may not be too familiar with the H/U on the RX-8).

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

elf

My thoughts on this is ... purchase the $150 harness and do it yourself. It's an elf-proof install --- if I can do it, ANYONE can!

Hercules

Bumping this for questions... anybody install this WITHOUT the harness? I have no interest in muting the sound, and I'm replacing the entire car's audio so it doesn't matter too much to me.......

auzoom

I had this installed (LS3200) by a shop who didnt have a QC harness and so just spliced in a shitty little speaker. Do yourself a favour and get the QC, its a waste of money otherwise.

auzoom

OK question for you guys. I was just about to buy the QC but came across a parrot product http://www.parrotshopping.com/au/p_p....aspx?i=145290 for roughly 1/5th the price. Now what I understand of this adapter is that its just a straight pin adapter. I have read in a few places that the Volume of the Parrot 3200LS that I have is extremely loud and I may have issues. Has anyone used this adapter? can anyone see any issues using this instead of the QC?

Cheers

Andrew