I normally use my phone to play music on the UConnect stereo through Bluetooth. The problem is two-fold: The stereo doesn't stay in BT mode after shutting off, and it plays BT music at a lower volume than radio or CD, so I have to turn the stereo up when playing BT music. So when I start the car up later, it's playing the radio station that was on before going into BT mode and it's blasting it.

I couldn't find anything in the settings to help out, and it looks like there are no software upgrades available for this stereo. Does anyone know of a way, trick, work-around, ... to keep stay in BT mode?

 

1) Uconnect does not stay in the BT mode for streaming audio after turning the key off and then getting back into the vehicle. The reason is because the radio would have to stay in the AUX mode when the key is turned back on. The issue here is that the radio turns on within a few seconds of turning the key on. Uconnect has to power up, send out a search for the paired devices and then go thru the handshake between the radio and Uconnect. Then there are steps that are gone thru before Uconnect is available for A2DP to proceed. During this time frame if the radio is in AUX mode, there would be no audio signal being sent to Uconnect. There would be a pop thru the speakers instead of a smooth audio entry.

2) The level on your phone needs to be turned up to at least 3/4 - max volume in order for Uconnect to playback at a higher volume.

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess that BT mode behavior makes sense, although I compare it to a commercial BT-capable stereo that I had in my previous vehicle. That one stayed in BT mode and I didn't get any pops from the speakers during connection. But then I don't know the relationship between UConnect and the radio. I was assuming they're one in the same.

As for the volume, my phone is turned up to full. Again, on the commercial radio the volume from BT was the same as the volume from the radio. So if I switched from one to the other, I didn't have to adjust the stereo's volume to match.

 

The pop more so was noticed by customers that have factory remote start systems. This isn't an issue with the Uconnect module but more with the radio and there being a timing difference in power up mode when the vehicle is remote started. There's not different radios for remote start and non remote start vehicles.

The Chrysler radio has separate volume levels for each source section (CD, Uconnect, radio etc). You say that your phone volume is all the way up, is that in just the call section of the phone itself. The phone also has separate volumes between calls and media features. While you are playing media, is the volume still high? I don't mean to sound condescending, but some people don't realize that about the volumes.

 

No offense taken at all. I do know about the different volumes, though, and when I'm playing music through BT I have the media volume up all the way. When I use the volume control button it even shows the Bluetooth symbol on the volume level display. I've even set a task that detects Bluetooth connectivity and turns media volume to 100% when connected.

So is there a way to set the volume levels for each source? I didn't see it in the manual, but there's a lot to that radio and I could easily miss it.

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One piece of info for anyone else who comes across this thread - I'm using an Android phone, and Google, in their finite wisdom, as decided that they need to protect our delicate ears. So occasionally Android will turn down the volume on it's own if it sees it's set too high (in their opinion). And they don't notify you. But if you try to turn it up, you get a warning that listening to loud music can hurt your ears. This isn't the problem in my case, as I usually notice when the volume is lower than how I left it and then override their setting. I just wanted to put it out there for others.

 

The separate volume levels isn't an external control, it's written into the radio's SW. So there's no way to control it.
IS this low volume with music that you have put on the phone as well as with APPS?

***Edited Note***
Which radio do you have?

 

The volume is the same with the several navigation apps I've tried as it is with my music.

The radio looks like it's the 130S/RES.

Next question is more for my curiosity. It sounds like this system has two modules, the UConnect and the radio. Where does the Bluetooth come in? From your description, it seems that the UConnect module has the Bluetooth piece. So what happens if I plug something into the Audio input jack on the radio? Does that route to the UConnect module, which then decides between Bluetooth and Audio jack and send that to the radio's AUX input?

Again, just a curiosity. I'm an engineer and can't help being interested in how things work.

 

For what it's worth to possible future UConnect/radio designs, depending on how loud that speaker pop is, I would probably rather have that pop than the radio blasting. Especially when my wife is in the car. Whenever that radio comes on loud she always asks how I can stand it that loud. And I always explain it's just the radio with different volumes for Bluetooth and radio stations.

Could be she just likes to bust my chops, though :-). Maybe I just need to start a habit of turning the volume down before getting out of the van.

 

Well, I doubt that will ever be an option. You see the reason why this was changed is because of the number of customers taking the vehicles into service for the pop and costing warranty dollars. So for the few people that would rather have it automatically connect, there are more that complained about the pop. So because we know that the radio will be loud when entering the vehicle the next time, it just needs to become a natural thing to turn the volume down prior to turning the key off. I have learned to do this and I don't get the sudden surprise.