Kenwood Blue Tooth

Greggd · 02-20-2010, 05:16 PM

I have a Kenwood DDX70119 that has all of the following accessories , KNA-510 Navigation ,
Blue Tooth , I Pod and for whatever reason it no longer will pair with any cell phone . I have tried both of our I Phones , a Blackberry , a high end Samsung phone and none will pair with this radio that is 2 years old . I was coming down I 5 talking to a customer when it lost its connection so I pulled over and checked my signal strength which was ok , tried to redial the number on the radio keyboard and a notice appeared stating NO CONNECTION ! .I tried to
pair the I phone several times and got the same message . To make matters worse I dialed my customer back on the I Pone and was pulled over by our friendly CHP and given a ticket for $160.00 .I have pulled the radio and had it checked by a supposed Kenwood dealer/ technician and he said that that there has been some sort of change in the network and that I would have to purchase the latest model of Bluetooth $138.00 or upgrade to another $2100.00 radio that has all of these components built in . this radio is only 2 years old and one would think that some provision would be made to accommodate this change . I tried contacting Kenwood Customer service and was totally shocked at their lack of understanding!
Have any of you had this problem ? . Thank you Girls and Boys in advance .
Greggde

jage · 02-20-2010, 06:10 PM

The latest model of Bluetooth? Huh? Is he saying the radio or Iphone downloaded a firmware upgrade that made the other obsolete during your phone call?

I also can't believe that anyone would change the standard of Bluetooth anyway and have it not be backwards compatible at least. Can you imagine? "Yeah, with this new iPhone you can pair with all your bluetooth devices- as long as they were made after 2010."

Sounds like techno-hogwash and that you should find another technician.

Greggd · 02-20-2010, 06:38 PM

Jage the same information was provided by the Kenwood Factory Tech? after a 21 minute wait on the phone . I am hoping that one of you TECHNICALLY ADVANCED FORUM MEMBERS can give me some input as this really isn't very logical TO ME .
Greggde

**daveb** · 02-22-2010, 10:34 AM

That seems strange Greg; is it only an issue with the Kenwood because my work truck has a "Parrot" hands free and all is well. (Standard AT&T not I-Pod or fancy E-phone) I'll have to check my van when I get it back from the shop but I did have a similar problem with my Kenwood some time back. My model has some sort of componet that ties it into the head unit and it failed. Once replaced, it has worked OK. Sorry, I don't know what model stereo I have.

Greggd · 02-22-2010, 11:48 AM

Jage and Dave ,
Thank you for your replies it seems that maybe the culprit might be an upgrade thru the
KNA-510 Navigation device . The Blue Tooth seems to be tied into this plug in accessory . I tried 3 more phones last evening (ATT , Sprint , Verison) and none of them would pair . I really don't want to dump another 2 grand into a new unit even though Rob said the newer system was supposed to be an all in one trouble free product .
Greggde

Scalf77 · 02-22-2010, 02:02 PM

I would have to think that your unit was somehow updated and that has left the blue tooth stack nonoperational. Allot of blue-tooth compatibility problems has to do with drivers. And in general from what I understand there is a lack of comonality in accessing different cell phone vendors. But you can't seem to pair with any of them. If your Kenwood was updated I would suspect that they have made changes that support their latest model blue-tooth adapter but not your old one. This appears to be a support decision or in your case a lack of support decision. It would appear to me that they are aware of the issue. If you were just updated you could ask them if you reverse it to regain your phone connectivity. Although you might want to press them giving you the newer blue-tooth module. I would not even think of purchasing the newer radio with everything built in unless they guaranteed that future updates would not render features useless.

-greg

jage · 02-22-2010, 07:10 PM

There have got to be a hundred other customers out there with the same issue, no? I wonder if there is the potential for a class action- stranding customers without the means to make lawful hands free calls in order to force upgrades? Nasty at best...