wolverine

Here's what I know:

In the US, the phone BMW uses it the Motorola V60s phone with Verizon as the carrier. The BMW parts person told me that the BMW phone is 'exactly the same' as the standard V60s with Verizon as the carrier.

I just stopped in at the Verizon store to buy a Motorola V60s phone for my 545, and I spoke to the Verizon service person who does the install for the local BMW and Mercedes dealers.

The service tech said that BMW puts a special chip into the BMW phone, as does Mercedes. He said he has replaced several V60s phones with BMW phones because they do not work properly without this special chip. They did not sell me a V60s phone.

I've heard from people on this board that their V60s phones work 'perfectly', that they have to plug them in everytime they start the car to download the address book properly, and various other problems. I've also heard people have problems with the BMW phone.

My question is; is there a special chip in the BMW phone?

Anyone know the straight scoop on this??

Rudy

I wish I could give you precise information to answer your question exactly but instead, all I can offer you is more information that may or may not help you out.

I have the BMW branded V60i on the AT&T network (not Verizon). The reason I can't give you concrete information is that I have problems with the phone not downloading or synchronizing properly too!

I heard from the dealer that a new eject box as well as version 12 software should cure my problems. I have an appointment in a couple weeks to get this sorted out. The reason I'm telling you all this is that maybe, just maybe, the people who are using "off the shelf" V60 phones not purchased through BMW are experiencing issues not related to any sort of "chip" in the phone but instead are seeing the same problems I'm seeing due to software and eject box problems.

I do know from past experiences that Mercedes uses a proprietary version of Motorola phones and plugging a normal phone in won't work at all. At least with the E60, it seems that many people are getting decent (but not perfect) results using non-BMW phones.

I guess the true test will be when someone with a non-BMW phone gets the new eject box and version 12 loaded. If they still have issues and I don't, then we'll know there's a slight difference in V60 hardware.

Sorry I couldn't offer better information!

rem

Rudy,

Are your problems related to the phone not always working? I'm having the same problem and I have a stock v60 phone. It's frustrating to say the least. I found that turning off the ignition, taking key out of ignition and taking phone out of box then restarting car and re-inserting phone works, but DAMN...I shouldn't have to do that.

khl

So far my V60s on Verizon seems to work fine for me. I've been using it for more than a week and so far I have not experienced non-syncing problem, regardless of taking out phone or leaving it in the cradle. The phone integration is satisfactory. Although the software/user interface still has a lot of room to be improved, I am able to use all features on the "Phone" menu including voice controls. Occasionally, however, the "dial name" voice ontrol could not activate the call and get wierd "functions currently not available" response in voice, but I could still use i-Drive knob/button to call.
I also noticed that leaving the phone in the cradle for a long time will automatically turn off the V60s, but this "feature" is not bothering me too much since the battery is still fully charged.

I paid my dealer for eject box and its installation (although I already found lots of DIY info from this forum). The first installation took two days and did not work. I demanded (to my dealer) that they had to use a CPT9000 (BMW brand) phone on Verizon networks to test the eject box. I made this very reasonable request since I knew my V60s would work just as good as a BMW brand. They later found it's a "wrong cradle" and it took them three days (imagine numerous software trials/failures) to recode TCU and fix the problem.

Initially I thought my dealer had upgraded my software to V12 (my SA told me they were going to upgrade the software) but later I found nothing was changed to my CD/changer pause problems or extra button programmabilities, etc. I concluded this software is still not quite version 12 (maybe 11.2?).

I don't believe there's any "special chip" in BMW phone (an opinion from a PhD EE IC Designer). There could be, however, some firmware difference (if you call it special chip) which might affect the synchronization behaviors of other V60 series models.

Gizmo

I dont believe there is a special "chip" required for the v60 in current E60 (and 7 series ) vehicles. This was confirmed by a BMW service rep some time ago.

The problems experienced by all appear independent of the use of v60 or CPT9000 handsets.

In addition, I have been told that the v60 line is being deleted. Proof of this came Monday as ATT Wireless removed it from their line-up.

The v12 software fix might be a solution, but that remains to be seen.

REM got me started noticing the idiosyncracies of v60 use. There are some definite Do's & Dont's regarding its use. For starters:

Always place phone in cradle AFTER vehicle start-up and iDrive activation.
Always remove phone from cradle BEFORE turning off car.

If you forget about above, you may see the pertpetual "reading data" notice on iDrive, and must turn off phone and car ,then use key fob to lock-unlock vehicle. Then proceed with phone use as above.

Rudy

I have two persistent problems:

1) The phone doesn't always sync with the car. Please wait shows on the display and the phone keeps powering up and down. If you remove the phone and reinstall it, you might get it to sync (but usually it takes many attempts).

2) If I manage to get the phone to sync (planets are aligned in a certain way), the microphone will act as if it's muted. In other words, if I make or receive a call, nobody can hear me at all. If the planets and stars are all aligned properly, then people can hear me just fine. A week or so ago, everything worked fine for about a week. Unfortunately, I had to remove the phone from the eject box to use it as a portable the other day (this phone will normally stay in the car as a second phone) and now I can't get it to work again.

I'm hoping my problems will be solved with a new eject box and software.

branie555

Hey Rudy. Does your idrive screen ever freeze up when inserting or removing the phone? I've had this occur a few times, in fact the dealer was able to duplicate the problem. How bout you (or anyone)?

Also, the BMW phone has a setting to control its operation in the car, i.e. charging, how long you want the phone to stay "on" after car is switched off, etc. So maybe there are some diffs from the stock v60. I don't have access to a stick v60 so I can't compare.

NickP

Why Mot doesn't work with BMW to rev the snap in adapter to work with more modern phones with the SAME Motorola phone connector and the SAME sw support for carkits (e.g. the GSM V600)...

I don't know who is worse BMW NA's telematics engineer, or Motorola's OEM support engineering team....

tdocz

The V60 is an old phone and should have been replaced a long time ago with one that has better features.

branie555

I couldn't agree more. At least a color screen...