The Phone .... again

Lola's Mom · 10-22-2008, 07:03 PM

Would whoever posted the information about getting private service on our car phones please re-post that information .... Thanks.

jamsto · 10-22-2008, 08:44 PM

Ruth Ann, Are you referring to the Verizon/Onstar plan? We switched the phones in all our Cadillacs from Onstar to the Verizon plan. It shares minutes with our cell phones and is a lot cheaper than purchasing Onstar minutes for your phone.

Lola's Mom · 10-22-2008, 09:27 PM

That's it! Thanks Jim... THIS TIME I will write it down!

jamsto · 04-24-2011, 03:25 PM

I don't know how many members did the Verizon/Onstar program which changed your Onstar Phone to a Verizon number and shared the minutes with your cell phone and you didn't have to pre-pay the expensive Onstar minutes. We did it on our 3 Cadillacs. Verizon has now announced that this program will cease to exist on 12/31/11. I understand that currently the only option will be to go back to the Onstar plan.

Hopefully prior to them turning off the phones, Onstar will partner up with someone else in order to offer cheaper rates for the Onstar telephone.

Does anyone else have any more info on this?

jjsea55 · 04-24-2011, 06:12 PM

We are an AT&T household (not particularly advocating it, mind you), and have been for some years now with our early iPhone indoctrination. We actually recently became even more involved with a Uverse transition from cable and DTV.

I've had an On-Star account since my Monte Carlo SS purchase in early '03. I rarely make On-Star calls and have been accumulating minutes at the minimum rate each year to maintain an emergency or fringe area backup system. I've added another account with the purchase of my XLR V in February, with much the same objective.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a way to blend the iPhone (or perhaps only the iPod function of it) into the XLR system for regular usage. Does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with this procedure? Would be sweet to simply plug her into a data port somehow to play tunes, make calls, or simply recharge. I have an adapter for car charging through the aux outlet, but that's the extent of it's capability.

For those of you with the Verizon program... maybe they'll change their mind before the end of the year (wishful thinking)... or develop an alternative plan that will suffice.

sschooley · 04-24-2011, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjsea55

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a way to blend the iPhone (or perhaps only the iPod function of it) into the XLR system for regular usage. Does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with this procedure?

You might want to pull up the thread "i-phone for 2006 XLR". Monepit seems to have this all figured out.
Steve

onalaska · 04-24-2011, 08:47 PM

I used my I-Phone for streaming music from Pandora and Wunderadio the entire trip to the Carolinas. Was also running trapster for speed trap and traffic alerts and it worked great. It cost me about $20 for a plug and jack to patch it into the audio using the XM portion of the radio. Phone calls do come in over the car's audio system like a speaker phone as well. It's not fully integrated with the radio, no video or anything, just sound. There are some more expensive solutions that do more, but are a lot more expensive.

jjsea55 · 04-25-2011, 08:36 AM

I'll check the mentioned thread... thanks! Onalaska, I'd appreciate more information about your "patch job". That sounds like what I'd like to have available... and is within my budget, to boot : ) I'm not certain I have the electronic ability to make the patch myself, however. More details would be greatly appreciated!

onalaska · 04-25-2011, 05:39 PM

It's all plug and play, no soldering. You just unplug one connector on the XM unit and insert the pre made wiring harness. Check out the link: http://www.kawal.net/auxinput.htm

Alternative #1 if you don't subscribe to XM, Alternative #2 if you want to keep your XM active.

jjsea55 · 04-25-2011, 06:12 PM

Well, SIR! I ask for detail and there it is! I have an XM subscription and do give it a listen occasionally, so option #2 appears to be my preferred alternative. Now to determine mounting options and where all this is located on the XLR...

Thank you very much for providing this link!

onalaska · 04-25-2011, 08:19 PM

The XM module is mounted behind the storage compartment that is between the seats. Four screws, torx I believe, allows you to remove the compartment and access the XM module. Plug the harness in there and then fish the connector down to the console.

jjsea55 · 04-26-2011, 06:17 AM

Good! I had to access that area to install the WindRestrictor. Many thanks!

Harrisburg Hat · 05-08-2011, 10:25 AM

OnAlaska thanks for the information. I had such a bad experience with the Lockpick and coastaltech. I ordered the harness today.

onalaska · 05-08-2011, 11:38 AM

it's simple and works. Does not display anything on the nav screen, but that is OK with me. They also have an interface called PAL this is available for the C6 Corvette and it does show the Ipod screen on the nav and allows you to change songs with the steering wheel controls, but I sent him a picture of the XLR radio and they don't think they are compatible. Check this out: http://www.kawal.net/nav.htm

They say there are not enough XLRs out there to make it worth adapting it to work with the XLR radio.

SuperDave · 09-11-2011, 11:11 PM

Using the information posted here I contacted Ray at Kawal.net and purchased one of his conversion kits for my '07 V. I use XM so I went with his option #2. It was shipped quickly and it was simple to install. Easy guy to deal with, I highly recommend this option if you want a simple iPod/iPhone/iPad connection option!

Thanks to everyone for posting on this site, you guys rock!

Dave