Way back in January, I mentioned that I bought a Parrot CK3100 handsfree carkit for my cell phone. Unfortunately I had to return the kit because my phone kept rebooting the car kit. After hearing about the impending legislation requiring handsfree cell phone talking (car kit or headset), I decided to take another look. I read on forums that the kit now worked with the Samsung A900, so I decided to give it another shot. I went to Fry’s (a store I hate, but I knew that they had the kit and I could return it if it didn’t work), searched the shelves and found 1 left, but it had been returned (the upside is that it was $10 off). Having seen a brand new one before, I checked the contents and everything looked intact. I also knew that installing the car kit would be a pain, so most people would get intimidated when they saw the directions which gave me hopes that it was never used.

So, I go the kit home, hooked it up to a 12V supply and saw that my phone kept rebooting it. I checked the firmware and saw it was old. I updated the firmware and things seem to work fine, so I decided to install it the next day (today). I thought and thought and thought about how I was going to install the kit knowing that my car had some funky premium stereo and it wasn’t just a matter of connecting a phone hours. In the middle of the night, the solution came to me. I’d use the speaker hooked to my Garmin iQue 3600 car kit and let the handsfree car kit be the amplifier. This would make the install much easier. Another thing that made things easier was I decided that I’d use wire taps into the existing wires and forget about trying to do things without touching what was there.

The install took a good 5 or 6 hours and I only cut myself once. After I was figured everything out and was going to put it back together, I tested it and it didn’t work with the stereo on. Either the wiring diagram for the stereo was wrong or the wire I tapped into didn’t provide continuous 12V power in the accessory position. So I just tapped into the auxiliary power connector and everything was happy.

The kit works quite well with my phone and I’m reasonably impressed. Now we’ll just have to see what happens on the road. It is real cool to be able to turn on the car and have it pair with my phone. I was using a Bluetooth headset, but I’d have to turn it on everytime I got in the car and put in on my ear.

Mounting the LCD was another feat of engineering, but it turns out well. I also made it such that I could disconnect the speaker if I wanted to take my GPS unit with me. I could have drilled some holes in the dash, but what I did is good enough.

It’s now been over 4 months since I started using my Garmin Forerunner 305 to train for the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. I managed to complete the marathon and am now training for a half marathon. At first, the Forerunner was more of a gimmick in helping me train, but now it is integrated into my training. I use the current pace to see where I should be at based on how I feel. By now, I know the distance on most of my runs, so while the total distance initially helped me, it is more now just telling me how much longer until the pain stops! I’m also very interested in my heart rate, so uploading my data to MotionBased allows me to see how I’m doing in trying to bring down my heartrate.

Unlike some others, I’ve had no problems with the unit and use it 4 days a week. It is an excellent training aid, even for the beginner. I know I’m a geek, but without this gadget, I’m not sure that I would have been able to complete a marathon and I don’t think running would be so enjoyable.