Complete Parrot bluetooth integration with the Mini headunit

[Stew]

Hello hello,

I have just bought a 2005 Mini Cooper and wanted to add Bluetooth and iPod music integration. The parrot kits seem ideal (I’m going for the MKi9000), but the harness adapters for the mini use the amp built into the parrot when it is in use, rather than the line-in on the head unit. This is less than ideal since it obviously bypasses the volume and treble/bass control on the head unit, blocks the sat nav voice, traffic FM etc.

So I’ve been working on an idea to better integrate the Parrot with the car, and this is what I’ve come up with:

- Install the parrot control unit above the panel in the space under the switch module.
- Use the harness adapter to take +, ign + and ground
- Change the harness adapter so that the speaker inputs and outputs are straight-through connections.

Here comes the trickier bits

- Install the aux out cables from the parrot to the head unit via resistors/capacitors per jamesk’s post (sorry had to remove the link).

At this point you have the parrot connecting via the aux and phone audio/calls will now run through it. But I want to go one better and have my phone interrupt the head unit when I get a call (I might be listening to a CD etc).

- Connect the mute-out on the Parrot to the mute pin on the head unit.
But this will just mute the head unit (and thus also my call) so Per Tore’s guide I’m going to have the head unit switch to ‘phone’ mode (sorry had to remove the link).
- 12v needs to be applied to the phone pin. To do that I’m going to wire a relay between a 12v line and the mute-out on the Parrot (plus a diode to dissipate any surges and again upstream of the relay before the mini’s mute pin).
- Connect the 12v on mute to the phone pin on the head unit.
- Connect the left speaker output from the Parrot to the phone speaker input on the head unit.

One last thing, to prevent the Parrot sending the head unit into ‘phone’ every time I play music through it, I will disable the mute-on output during streaming (you just have to press a couple of buttons and its in the Parrot manual).

I’ll add some wiring diagrams and the pinup when I get a chance and photos when I actually do the install, but am curious if anyone has any thoughts in the meantime?

I should add my thanks to the community and the guys who've taken the time to upload those guides, that's how I've been able to put this plan together. Cheers all!

From doing a fair bit of reading I believe that this will work, I’m not 100% sure about the phone input level though.

- Is the phone + and – inputs designed for line or speaker level inputs? I can obviously do either (by looping in the Parrot left aux out or the speaker output). Based on Tore’s guide I think it is speaker-level.
- Does the Mini head unit isolate the phone in pins when not in 'phone' mode? I'm hoping it isn't a straight-through connection to the car's speakers since there's no way to prevent the Parrot from sending audio to it also when streaming music but not a call.

I’m going to try and do the full install without cutting/changing any of Mini’s wiring, only cutting the harness adapters. This way it should be completely removable.

So there you have it, complete wired and Bluetooth audio and calls integration with the Mini for about £100.

Parrott install guide:
Mini pinout:
Header adapter: (sorry had to remove the links)

[Stew]

Hello again, in the chance that this is of use to someone out there I'm going to keep this post updated with progress...

In order to resolve my concern about the 'phone' input having an aux/ speaker-level signal even when phone isn't in use (ie. on audio streaming mode), I'm going to use a second, double-pole relay to switch the signal on/off with the 'mute-on' from the Parrot. This might be overkill, but for the couple of quid it's going to cost I think it's worth it (unless someone can tell me that the phone inputs are isolated when note in 'phone' mode).

I could also really do with knowing if the 'phone' input on the Mini CD headunit is at line or speaker level. Obviously I will test with line-level first, and if I can't hear anything I will use the Parrot's speaker-level outputs.

I've ordered the Parrot adapter harness so I can find pins that will fit the adapter for the aux-in, phone-in, mute and phone active pins (7 in total).

More to follow...

[Stew]

So all complete and this has worked a treat.

When I get a call the HU goes into 'phone' mode.
When I'm streaming music from my iPod/iPhone etc I use the 'aux' input on the head unit.

The sat nav voice works with all sources and the sat nav still gets traffic info.

Special thanks to newministuff for throwing in some spare wiring harness pins when I ordered the adapter loom. As you can see in the 4th pic I used these to wire the aux-in and phone-in wires into the loom.

I hope this is of use to someone