Car kit upgrade woes - Nokia 6310i
David Wood
I'll post here before sending this to Club Nokia and/or faxing
CommunicAID (big UK service centre in Huntingdon - I'm not very far from
them and I trust them).
Up until last week I had a CARK-99 and a Nokia 9110. I came to recognise
that the Communicator was out of date and, more importantly, the user
interface was no longer suited to my needs as my disabilities worsen.
The 9210i doesn't solve many of my concerns and, importantly for me, it
doesn't have GPRS.
I decided to use Bluetooth to go "two box" and bought a Compaq iPaq
H3970 and a Nokia 6310i, also a MCC-1 cradle which I thought would
convert the CARK-99 successfully to a CARK-91. The iPaq is a fantastic
machine, and I'm delighted with it - though that's an aside here.
The first unexpected problem with the car kit upgrade was that when I'd
unscrewed the old cradle, the mounting bracket in my car didn't suit the
MCC-1 - it domed out too far in the centre. I fitted a MKU-1 in its
place, and that was that problem solved (I don't need a swivel mount - I
have a bracket from dashmount.co.uk that is already angled correctly).
At that point, I disconnected the power to the HFU-2 control box,
changed the cradle and reconnected the power loom to the control box.
Initial testing went well. When I put the 6310i in the car kit, the
little car icon comes up, the lights come on, and you can make and
receive calls hands free. I don't have the optional handset fitted - I
don't need it and there's no room for it in the car. The phone charges
and when the phone is in use the radio is muted (actually, the phone
audio is routed through the radio - my Vauxhall Zafira is VDA equipped
and I have a VDA loom installed).
So I'm up somewhere around 95% functionality from the car kit. However,
there's two features that don't work - ignition sense and auto-answer. I
have a feeling that auto-answer (which is selected in the 6310i's menus)
only works if ignition sense is connected on at least some Nokia car
kits, so maybe this is really just one problem.
I've double checked with a multimeter that there is ignition switched
12V on the blue wire of the power loom at the HFU-2 connector. At this
point, I can think of five options:
1. The HFU-2 software is obsolete - though I wasn't aware that there
were any different versions of this box, and I can't believe that
there's that much software in its microcontroller anyway. The HFU-2
would be somewhere around 2.5 years old, and ignition sense / auto
answer worked perfectly with the 9110 and its associated cradle.
2. The HFU-2 I have has been customised for the CARK-99/9110
combination. I would have hoped that if this was the case, Nokia
would have used a different part number. I thought 9110's MCU
software was pretty much that from the 6110 anyway.
3. My MCC-1 is damaged - though I can't see this being the case. So far
as I know, all the signals between HFU-2 and the phone go over MBUS,
and if the MBUS or ground wires to the cradle were damaged, then
other functions wouldn't work (the car icon wouldn't come up, the
radio mute signals wouldn't get through etc.)
4. The pin connected to the blue wire of the connector *internal* to
the HFU-2 has broken, either in the connector or on the PCB. I feel
this is *very* unlikely - I haven't stressed the power connector,
and on the couple of occasions that I've mated and unmated the
connector I felt no resistance. If I need to rule this out, I can
temporarily reconnect the 9110 cradle and the 9110 to test it out -
and I'll do this unless I get any other advice. I'm just fed up of
taking my dashboard apart, that's all.
5. Bug in the 6310i's firmware (it already has 4.80 firmware, which I
think is the latest). I thought it may be related to having
Bluetooth switched on, but I repeated my tests with Bluetooth
disabled and it still doesn't work. If it makes any difference, the
phone had been used with a headset before it was first used in the
car.
I very much favour option 5 - but can anyone else confirm this problem
exists. I don't have access to a second HFU-2 to substitute for mine,
and I really don't want to buy another one "on spec". Unfortunately I
don't have another phone (5110, 5130, 6110, 6130, 6150, 6210 or 6310) to
try in the car kit either. I suspect that the cost of having the HFU-2
serviced is less than buying a new one from Radiophone Services.
However, if I land up buying a new HFU-2, I shall kick myself - as, at
that point it would have been much cheaper overall to buy a new car kit
<sigh>. I can get a complete car kit for 74 pounds plus shipping. I've
spent nearly 35 on the MCC-1 cradle.
The likely easy and cheap (laughs hysterically) upgrade to the car kit
was one reason for going for the 6310i now, rather than waiting for the
next generation of phones which use different car kits. However, it
doesn't look like the forthcoming 6610, which needs a new car kit, has
Bluetooth, so it wouldn't have suited me anyway.
I could try a factory reset on the 6310i (using the menu option unless
anyone knows of a harder reset) and I could try the 9110 and its cradle
on the HFU-2 just to rule out option 4, but I think I'm pretty much out
of options now.
I'm hoping that someone can confirm that this is a firmware bug -
ideally in the 6310i, in which case I just need to wait for the next
firmware release then go to a service centre (unless there's later
firmware than 4.80 already around).
Cheers,
David
--
David Wood
da...@wood2.org.uk
Jeremy D. O. Taylor
<snip>
>So I'm up somewhere around 95% functionality from the car kit. However,
>there's two features that don't work - ignition sense and auto-answer. I
>have a feeling that auto-answer (which is selected in the 6310i's menus)
>only works if ignition sense is connected on at least some Nokia car
>kits, so maybe this is really just one problem.
>
>
>I'm hoping that someone can confirm that this is a firmware bug -
>ideally in the 6310i, in which case I just need to wait for the next
>firmware release then go to a service centre (unless there's later
>firmware than 4.80 already around).
>
I'm not an expert, so take this with a pinch of salt, but from previous
postings on the newsgroup, it appears that this feature (ignition sensing)
has not been enabled in the 6310i. No-one's sure if they will ever enable
it or not.
The latest firmware is 4.81, but that has only been reported by people
outside the UK. A good website for firmware versions is:
http://marcin-wiacek.fkn.pl/gsm/firmware/firmware.htm
Jeremy
Jeremy D. O. Taylor
>On Mon, 23 Sep 2002 18:58:59 GMT, Lars-Erik Østerud <.@.> wrote:
>
>>Jeremy D. O. Taylor skrev:
>>
>>> postings on the newsgroup, it appears that this feature (ignition sensing)
>>> has not been enabled in the 6310i. No-one's sure if they will ever enable
>>
>>But the auto-answer option is in the menu, so why souldn't it work.
>>I thought the igition sense only was for turning the phone on/off ?
>>Haven't tested with my 6310i (haven't received a call yet) but if
>>auto-answer does not work then I'll certainly complain to Nokia :-(
>
>My 6310i with firmware 4.80 works fine in my carkit, even auto answer
>works OK. no problems here.
>
No one else in the newsgroup has reported that 4.80 enables ignition
sensing, though (I don't dispute the auto-answer, esp. since I don't own
either item), and
http://marcin-wiecik.fkn.pl/english/gsm/firmware/firmware.htm doesn't
report it either.
David Wood
<borr...@zonnet.nl> writes
>Sorry, missed the part of ignition sensing, never tested it, but I don't think
>it works.
Club Nokia have confirmed to me that Ignition Sense doesn't work and
isn't supposed to work on 6310i.
Quoting their reply:
Thank you for contacting Club Nokia Careline.
With regards to your query about car kit compatibility. The
6310i does not switch on/off with the ignition of the car. This
is not a fault but a change is design. The phone can be set to
autoanswer. Withing the settings menu you will find accessory
settings. You need to set this to autoanswer. Please note that
if the ringtone is set to beep or ring once, then autoanswer
will not work.
Please don't hesitate to contact us again if you have any
further questions.
I guess that people have complained about ignition sense, not realising
that it is optional - just don't connect the blue wire in the power
loom. Having said that, I believe it defeats auto answer on some Nokia
car kits if you don't connect the blue wire - but the answer to that is
easy enough - connect the blue wire to permanent +12V.
Auto Answer - well, it certainly didn't work when I tried it (I have the
advantage of having a DECT system, so I can take the landline handset
into the car when it's parked up outside). I definitely have the option
set, too, and the phone was on my General profile, which is set to:
Incoming call alert: Ringing
Ringing tone: Ring ring (boring, I know - but I believe a telephone is a
telephone)
Alert for: All calls
(the only thing that's off in this Profile is Keypad tones - I just hate
them!)
I'm wondering if there's some kind of problem with the way my 6310i is
configured. I've copied all my Outlook contacts into it using the PC
Suite, also I know I turned that setting on using the PC Suite.
I had wondered if using PC Sync to copy down my contacts had set up
Caller Groups - but a quick play with the phone indicates it didn't.
Anyway, I think my next move is to use Content Copier to back up my
phone, factory reset it using the menus and experiment further. I would
have done this today, but I've been too ill to leave the house.
Thanks for all the replies, anyway - I'll let you all know briefly what
I find. If I can't get auto answer working after doing a factory reset
of the phone, I shall reply to Club Nokia and see what they say.
David Wood
<da...@wood2.org.uk> writes
>I'm wondering if there's some kind of problem with the way my 6310i is
>configured.
I reckon the problem was that I set Automatic Answer on using the PC
Suite. Using the phone menus, I turned this setting off and reselected
it - and it now works. Thank goodness - I now have a fully working car
kit.