nota4re

Those of you that know of Cool Tech know that we have focused on performance enhancing add-on’s to the Mustangs. However, we must remain realistic and, let’s face it, using your cell phone and listening to music are both highly convenient when you are taking the Boss to/from its race track exercising. So, this write-up is about adding superior Bluetooth and iPhone/MP3 capability EASILY to the pre-SYNC Mustangs. The main components of this “kit” are a Parrot MKi9200 Kit and a Mustang-specific wiring harness. Perhaps it is important to understand conceptually how the system operates. With the above mentioned items installed, the Parrot electronics sit in between your car stereo and the car stereo speakers. When the Parrot is not being used, your car stereo acts 100% OEM and there are no differences. When the Parrot is being used (and we’ll discuss what constitute “being used”), the communication between your in-dash stereo and the car’s speakers is interrupted and the Parrot now has control of the speakers. In this “Parrot mode”, your car stereo’s tuner, volume control, steering wheel controls, etc. all will have NO EFFECT. The interface to your speakers is now controlled entirely by the Parrot. This includes volume, “source”, etc. Maybe a couple of examples will help. Let’s say you’re driving along listening to your radio and someone calls you on your cell phone. The Parrot will SEAMLESSLY (no pops, clicks, or hisses) ASK you if you want to accept or reject the call. If you accept, you speak into the noise-canceling microphone (included) and you hear the other party through the car’s speakers. This is JUST like the OEM would do it in an integrated Bluetooth set-up. Microphone quality is excellent as is the fidelity of the sound over the speakers, etc. When the call is over, the Parrot will SEAMLESSLY pass control back over to the OEM car stereo. Pretty slick, eh? But there’s so much more…..

First, let’s talk about the color display – and for a moment we’re going to continue discussing the phone feature aspect of the Parrot. The Kit comes with a 2.4” color display. You will need to find a convenient place to mount this. You need to find a location that is in your line of sight and also where you can easily hide the telephone cord-like wire going to the display. Any surface is fine as the included double stick tape is great – allowing for a lot of possibilities. (See pics to see the spot I selected.) The display is very useful. For the phone use, this is where the caller ID will pop-up when someone calls you. Also, the Parrot will automatically load your phone book each time you get into the car after it is (Bluetooth) paired. For outbound calls, you can quickly and efficiently scroll through your phone book to access the person you want to dial. It is VERY fast and VERY user friendly. I should also point out that you can simply lift the display off and throw it in your console if you are worried about theft. Now we should talk about the second and final component of the user interface….

With this Parrot system, you interact with the display via a small module which has a small **** and 5 buttons. Additionally, the small **** is also a push-button switch. So, for example, when you access your phonebook, you use the small **** to rotate the display through your contacts and then when you get to the contact you want, you press down on the **** to select it. Now, unlike the color display this small user-interface panel is wireless! This allows you to mount it virtually anywhere in the car. My suggestion is that you mount this device on the console and close to where your right-hand is at rest. (Kind of like BMW’s i-drive ****.) These buttons control all of your interactions with the Parrot including call answering, hang-up, hold, volume, phonebook access, etc. Actually one cool feature of the Parrot (you can disable it if you want) is that when a call comes in, the Parrot will prompt you to say either “accept” or “reject”. With this interface, you don’t have to touch ANY buttons to answer (or reject) an incoming call. One last note on the components and then I haven’t really started on the GREAT additional features… The kit includes a microphone. Really it is two microphones as the Parrot does active noise canceling to make sure that whoever you are talking to can hear you well. The microphone and the aforementioned display both plug into a blue control box that tucks up nicely under your radio. This blue box is the brains and radio amplifier for the Parrot system.

So, thus far I have focused on describing a very well-integrated, hands-free Bluetooth system for your Mustang. One additional feature of this Bluetooth system – and one that I have never seen in any other system, is that you can pair two phones SIMULTANEOUSLY. So, when my wife and are commuting together, BOTH of our phones are paired. If either one of us gets a call, it will come through the Parrot interface. For outbound calls, there is still a notion of which phone (phonebook) has priority but you can toggle between the two phones by holding down the red button for 2 seconds. This is a REALLY cool feature!! I hope I have clarified that the “unit” sits between the radio and the speakers so that it can either pass the radio’s signal to the speakers or it can decide to “take control” – like when a call comes in. I hope this is clear because we are now going to “build” on this capability!

Since the device sits between the radio and speakers, it has the ability to also amplify and send whatever it wants to the speakers. With this, there are so many options. First, and likely one of the most popular options, is that the kit also includes an iPhone cable. Plug your iPhone/iPad/iPod device in and the Parrot will charge it. In our Mustangs, it is quite easy to have the cable within the back part of the center console and about 24” of cable if you want to lift it out of there to plug in the phone (or USB drive). Also, you will have full iPod interface on the Parrot’s color display. So, you can scroll through and access your playlists, artists, albums, etc. The interface is very fast and seamless. When you select a song, the Parrot is now the amplifier to the speakers and, as such, the small Parrot control **** now becomes your volume control. This is another reason that you will want the ****/switch module near you right hand (IMO). In addition to an iPod connector, the kit also has a USB connector as well as a line-in (mini stereo headphone jack). Plug a jump drive loaded with your favorite music into the USB jack and you can access it through the **** and color display interface. If you don’t want to plug your iPhone in, you can also choose to stream audio via Bluetooth to the Parrot. To provide even more flexibility, there is also an SD card slot on the back of the color display. You can also choose to load up and SD card full of music and play it through the Parrot.

Now, truth be known, I installed this Parrot system in another vehicle of ours and I was just so overwhelmingly impressed, I installed another one into the Boss. While I don’t have any experience with Sync, it’s hard to imagine that it is that much better and I am convinced that the Parrot will have features, Sync does not. We had to do a little bit of work with a custom wiring harness to get the system to work in the 2012 Boss. If there’s enough interest from the community here, we could entertain the idea of putting together a group buy which would include the kit, a modified, Mustang-specific harness and complete installation instructions. Our install took less than an hour from start to finish. It is a fantastic addition is you plan to drive your Mustang and you like to use your phone and/or listen to your own music.

Johnny5alive

This seems cool but IMO the satechi soundly with proclip mount provides a cleaner setup. Only drawback is being in aux all the time, but for me I never listen to cd or radio.

Plus having nav screen right there on mounted phone is nice. To each his own.

11SHELBYGT500

Bringing anything into the car is too dirty for me.

orng302

What about costs?

nota4re

If there was interest for a group buy of 10 or more "kits", I think we could supply everything for $299. This would be a complete kit that is 99% plug and play for the Mustang. (No wire splicing, period.) We would also provide complete instructions unique to installing in the Mustang. Figure 1 hour or less installation time.

orng302

Will do some research on my own, however I am interested in this.

badasbullitt

Likewise! So will this have voice recognition as well? As more people become interested would that lower the cost more? I would like to see the price somewhat lower.

Benjammin1829

I like the product, however, my eyes aren't what they used to be, and that 2.4 inch screen is way to small, especially when driving and trying to "glance" over and see who's call or whats playing...

With this said, I'm still interested...LOL

Ben

nota4re

Yes, there is voice recognition as well - at least for interacting with the phone capabilities. However, other than saying "accept" or "reject" (which worked flawlessly), I haven't experimented with how well the voice recognition works.

Sadly, I'm in the same boat, Ben.... my eyes just aren't what they used to be. However, I still find the screen to be very visible and useful. I admit that I do have to lift the sunglasses occasionally!

The5oh

I would be interested in this if it didn't have the LCD screen. Since my phone does double duty as my nav, it is always in the mount within eyesight. Much rather have either the MK9000 or CK3000. I'm not sure if you all are still considering this, but I would go that route today if it was available.

thevidon

I'd be interested.

Robg64

I'm not on this forum frequently and must have missed this thread when it was started several months ago. Glad it got resurrected. I'm interested in something like this. Please let me know if this is still in the works.

Rob