# SE BT kit installed



## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Well, after some time of communicating with a few people and doing some research of my own, I decided that the unknowns, costs, and other issues involved in getting the BMW BT kit working in a MY01 (or anything before 03/02) were not worth the 'cool' factor. So I decided to essentially do what I had done before (first for my Motorola L2000, then for my v60) by taking the handset maker's kit and integrating it into the car as much as possible.

This time, I went with a SonyEricsson HCB-30 Bluetooth kit. Nokia and Motorola also make similar BT kits, but I've read about some interoperability issues with the Nokia (no surprise) and the Motorola kit's control panel looked rather large and awkward.

I'll probably need to do minor tweaks to the mic placement as in the past, but so far, it tests quite well.


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## JoeCinVa (Apr 26, 2002)

Kaz,

What's that next (to the left) to the radio? I take it the only integration with the car is power and the radio mute feature?


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

JoeCinVa said:


> Kaz,
> 
> What's that next (to the left) to the radio? I take it the only integration with the car is power and the radio mute feature?


Oh, maybe I wasn't being obvious enough.  That's the BT kit's control panel (take call, reject call, volume =/- and mic mute).

The kit also runs the car's speaker along with power and mute. I had actually never used the mute in my prior installations.


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## Pete Teoh (Jan 27, 2002)

Kaz, I'm interested to know more about your installation. What functions do you get out of the kit? Voice dialing? Phonebook import? Also, how difficult/easy was the install? Thanks!


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Pete Teoh said:


> Kaz, I'm interested to know more about your installation. What functions do you get out of the kit? Voice dialing? Phonebook import? Also, how difficult/easy was the install? Thanks!


:lmao: I wish it was that sophisticated. Voicedial will work, though I haven't programmed my phone to do it yet. The only 'integration' it does is power, speaker, and radio mute (with 'PHONE' displayed on the radio when on, and 'WAIT' when off, which seems odd to me).

'qpilot' just posted in one of the other threads about a kit he offers that does mic and steering controls (but not phonebook sync). I followed up to see if maybe those two functions would be migratable to my setup.

Install took be about 2.5hrs, mostly because I'm not that great with a soldering iron, and I had to build another harness (I sold my old one with the last v60 kit). Good thing is my new harness is a lot cleaner than the old one.


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## Raffi (May 18, 2002)

Cool, how much did it cost?


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Raffi said:


> Cool, how much did it cost?


$150 off eBay.


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## Raffi (May 18, 2002)

Kaz said:


> $150 off eBay.


 Cool, definitely cheaper than BT and a good alternative. :thumbup:


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Raffi said:


> Cool, definitely cheaper than BT and a good alternative. :thumbup:


I've been in communication with the person in the other thread who sells a steering wheel integration kit with the Nokia BT kit, and he's planning on looking into getting this SE kit to work with that also. That would be even better.


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## Pete Teoh (Jan 27, 2002)

Kaz, did you ever get the steering wheel controls to integrate?


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Pete Teoh said:


> Kaz, did you ever get the steering wheel controls to integrate?


Almost forgot about this...

Randy from eiskits.com actually told me that he got his setup working with the HCB-30, and it looks like he's now selling the kit. The only problem I have is that his kit requires you to mount the stuff in the back of the car, and that's something I may want to avoid. I'll e-mail him about that for myself, but other than that, it looks like it's now available.


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## Pete Teoh (Jan 27, 2002)

Cool. I might have to spring for that and the HCB-30. Looks like a pretty good alternative to the BMW BT Kit which may never be available for my car. Thanks for the info. :thumbup:


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