2010 CLS350 VIN says DAB but cant see it?

[bluejmc2005]

..maybe I am being very silly but my VIN shows DAB:-


512 COMAND APS WITH DVD CHANGER
518 UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE (UCI)
537 DIGITAL RADIO STANDARD DAB (DIGI. AUDIO BROADC.)

but no option I can see for DAB?> any ideas?

thanks all,

Jason

 

[bluejmc2005]

found it - pressed the radio button about 5 times and it appeared. Not sure why I bothered though, only picked up 4 local stations!! (I wanted it for LBC and talk radio)

 

[Blobcat]

@Botus - one for you…

 

[mattkh]

found it - pressed the radio button about 5 times and it appeared. Not sure why I bothered though, only picked up 4 local stations!! (I wanted it for LBC and talk radio)

Are you getting LBC then..?

 

[bluejmc2005]

Are you getting LBC then..?

Nope, just local stations and randomly virgin

 

[Botus]

find out which tuner you have.... its likely its only a DAB tuner

there have been cases where the DAB user menu went walk about on some Merc models, your persistence to go look repeatedly sounds an intriguing fix the dealership wouldn't want you to share !

as for reception its very much regional / location dependant, if you remember freeview first started out as "ON digital" with 15 channels in high reception areas... then as tuners got more sensitive they diluted a weak feeble signal 5 fold and pushed it out to 120 channels of glitchiness

if you have the DAB tuner I suspect, it doesn't update the channels on it own you need to go tell it go re see the world ! Down the bottom of the menus are sets of chevrons... go here and fiddle about and get it to re-tune.... there should be at least 5 separate "multiplexes" to do. Re-tuning each one by one.. it can take quite some time.....

on later cars this all happens in the background and the separate groups of channels (multiplexes) appear to be one sensible long list of stuff but they aren't - and the nasty lag you find in all digital channel changing - is the delay to make the gaps the same between jumping from the channels in the same multiplex as the horribly long and pathetic delay needed as it jumps multiplex....

As early adopters on all our Digital switch over broadcasting - Europe got the wrong compression standard everywhere. TV was mostly fixed with HD freeview (note even that compression codec is now two iterations behind the standard you'd pick if we started today !). To fix DAB radio there was a euro wide upgrade of the DAB network from Feb 2016

germany turned off and binned DAB completely, and replaced entirely with DAB+ a totally different idea requiring a different tuner, with a different weaker signal but having a more robust way to receive it with some clever error handling, including more and a better standard of signal compression

the UK went a different route with dual broadcasting of both Old DAB and New DAB+, for cars where they knew it was coming they have both chipsets and can see and find old and new....

however in the UK that meant in big cities / great reception areas can suddenly have more than 99 channels... but the cars software never expected that many and it keels over under the strain and dies, locking up or randomly rebooting.... ( your tuner won't die if a DAB only tuner as there aren't >99 and these days DAB channels remain in decline)

more recently they got greedy and introduced channel logos putting another level of strain and that can cause things to wobble all over again, but most people say its the BBC nationwide multiplex (but they are mistaken).

for DAB and DAB+ Merc tuners from 2012 to current over the course of far too long, two separate Merc software patches/updates came out during 2016 (Jul and another in Oct I think), from 2012 you may even have a DAB+ tuner but its disabled in software and only DAB operates (as they were waiting for DAB+ to come online), I believe from 2014 model year it was turned on at build, but now, post 2016, the 99 channel bug can bite at any point crashing the tuner, in high channel availability areas. Either way if you have a DAB+ tuner and don't have the software updates don't come on here and say it works funny - go see a dealer and get your money out

you may well need a better antenna and or antenna amp to help the world do what you want in addition to the vital software fixes - FYI channel logo's were still killing DAB+ Radio's in brand new Focus Mk4's until a patch in Nov 2020 and PUGs play up without a 2018 update too....

YOU CAN'T UPDATE A MERC, MUST BE DEALER ONLINE TOOLS

 

[bluejmc2005]

Thank you for the detailed response - no option anywhere I can see other than autostore to find stations, I went to tesco about 4 miles away and did it there, picked up 7 stations!

 

[Botus]

no such thing as autostore that was an old FM thing to retune local stations as you travel about

you need to re scan (aka tune) your old, out of date channel list to find what is now broadcast from each multiplex ( best to do this in a good signal area) you must be in the DAB tuner to see this

 

[bluejmc2005]

Autostore only option I have?

 

[Botus]

those are your stored Presets / favourites / memory choices
FYI a multiplex in Merc world is an "Ensemble" (aka group of stations all squashed into the old space a single analogue station occupied)
I can SEE the chevrons I spoke about in your Photo (at the bottom where I said they'd be???)

Go to the chevron's and press then wait, then repeat until you come back round to the first ensemble you started out with (if in a high signal area that could be 7 or more times) capturing around 6 x 6 stations or so. Not much more than that left on DAB. Although having said that maybe autostore does try to do it for you. Go where you know its a good signal area, then try the search, it may find lots - then u can set as a Preset and you have a chance of finding elusive ones that may dip in and out when casually trying to find them

As I expect you never read the manual....
the number 3 in the main body of the menus on your picture (not the drop down bit) shows a 3 then the station name …
the 3 is indicating you picked that at preset 3 Grt Hits Glos ...as I have Magic London on Preset 2 and Smooth as Preset 3 on mine
the joy of using the Presets in DAB is you can jump to a station you want regardless of multiplex (but u will notice the massive delay finding its feet)

You use the phone dial pad to store to your Presets (but its a pain when u reach double digits as you need to double key fast) - then press down the comand knob to find them, scroll the list, and press again to select your choice.

lucky we don't charge by the hour....

 

[bluejmc2005]

those are your stored Presets / favourites / memory choices
FYI a multiplex in Merc world is an "Ensemble" (aka group of stations all squashed into the old space a single analogue station occupied)
I can SEE the chevrons I spoke about in your Photo (at the bottom where I said they'd be???)

Go to the chevron's and press then wait, then repeat until you come back round to the first ensemble you started out with (if in a high signal area that could be 7 or more times) capturing around 6 x 6 stations or so. Not much more than that left on DAB. Although having said that maybe autostore does try to do it for you. Go where you know its a good signal area, then try the search, it may find lots - then u can set as a Preset and you have a chance of finding elusive ones that may dip in and out when casually trying to find them

As I expect you never read the manual....
the number 3 in the main body of the menus on your picture (not the drop down bit) shows a 3 then the station name …
the 3 is indicating you picked that at preset 3 Grt Hits Glos ...as I have Magic London on Preset 2 and Smooth as Preset 3 on mine
the joy of using the Presets in DAB is you can jump to a station you want regardless of multiplex (but u will notice the massive delay finding its feet)

You use the phone dial pad to store to your Presets (but its a pain when u reach double digits as you need to double key fast) - then press down the comand knob to find them, scroll the list, and press again to select your choice.

lucky we don't charge by the hour....

Thank you sir for your help, sadly I don't have a manual and your support is hugely appreciated