Tahoe Dave

I have been following some of the "older" threads on the Bluestar 2010 and I like the idea that it uses the OnStar phone system. I am not currently, nor do I plan, on subscribing to OnStar, so the Bluestar makes good sense.

I understand there were (are) battery drain issues? Also, how difficult is it to install in an 05?

Thanks in advance

jman0110

I have a 06 C6 corvette and just got my blue star 2010 3 days ago. I really like it but have not had much time to experience any battery drain issues yet. I would like to hear more about other people who may have had battery drain issues.

It took me about 2 minutes to install the blue star and i paired it with my droid having no issues. The device works great and people can't even tell that I'm really on a speaker or bluetooth when i call them.

If you are going to get any sort of bluetooth device for your Corvette then i would highly suggest taking this route. It works great utilizing the mic and speakers from onstar.

So far the only bad part is that there is no communication to display callerID as of right now for the corvette class 2 vehicles. Also i'm working more on getting a permanent installations and a good place to locate the bluestar since on the corvette i have to have to leave 2 plugs (J4 and J3) in the onstar module and 2 plugs (J2 and J1) in bluestar module.

Tahoe Dave

jman0110,

Thanks for the response, it was helpful. I do however have two questions, the communications you refer to is the read out on the NAV screen? Second, is the location, is the bluestar module in the back out of site, or someplace else?

prseasix

Here's a tip for you.

Bluestar LOVES Annicot Steel.

Put your best customers onto it.

Knob Jockey

GG: 'What's worth doing is worth doing for money'.

jman0110

The communication is supposed to have the bluestar module communicate to the nav screen radio to display the callerID. However, I questioned costar about this not working for me and they said that it was for GMLAN vehicles only and the corvette was a class2 vehicle. They said that at this point they do not know of a way to communicate the callerID to the radio for class2 vehicles, but were going to try some testing. So keep your fingers crossed and hopefully we will get it.

The onstar unit is located in the trunk, in the right (passenger side) little cubby storage in the trunk. You should see that the wall of this storage is bowed out slightly and if you pull back the carpet lining, then you will see the onstar module. The only problem is you have to leave J3 and J4 plugged in, but adding the bluestar module to J1 and J2. So, I have not figured out a good way to mount both devices nicely.

One reason I dont have a great way to store both devices back there is because I cant figure out how to get that carpet completely off so I can really get in there. If someone has some suggestions with this, that would be great.

andneil74

I installed this on my 2005 vert 2 months ago and it seemed to work fine EXCEPT there was a problem with the unit staying on after the car was shut down, causing the battery to drain. After several emails back and forth with Costar, I returned the unit and asked for a refund, which I got promptly.

I like the idea of the Costar and would love to repurchase it, provided I had some reassurance from other Forum users and Costar that the battery drain problem has been fixed. To date, I haven't received any confirmation.

Would love to hear other comments on this.

jman0110

I have too fallen to the battery drain. This just happened to me the other day and so I can only assume it is from the bluestar. I am very disappointed and sorry to hear that andneil74 had to return the device because I really didn't want to have to do this. If this is my only option, then I may be doing the same this.

I did however think that if it would not be too hard of a task, I may not mind tapping into the power wire of bluestar and intercepting it with a toggle switch. Then I can manually turn on and off the bluestar. I dont know if this is possible or will work, and I wish I didnt have to, but so far, I have 50 days left on my 60 day garentee, so I havent decided what to do yet.

AntneeD

thanks for the feedback!! let us know how it works out..

jman0110

I emailed Costar and they said that they were working with another corvette owner now and would have a fix soon. So they told me to unplug my bluestar for now.

I will wait a few more weeks, but this does not make me very happy.

Tahoe Dave

I received this email from Joe at BLUEstar yesterday, looks like they are committed to fixing this glitch...

Dave,

It’s not fixed yet. We got the echo code from the DSP manufacturer so we spent some time working on integrating that. It is on the top of our list as we’ve been getting several daily requests from Corvette owners that want a BlueSTAR – and I’ve been telling them to hold off until we have this issue resolved. It’s probably a couple more weeks as Chris will be away on vacation next week.

I’m sorry it’s taking so long!
-Joe

Knob Jockey

After waiting forever for PAL, a couple weeks for this cool, convenient feature is no big deal.

tlcj

This looks interesting. I do not use on-star so I will not miss it. I do use the voice commands and might miss those. From website:
Installation of the BlueSTAR 2010 requires
removal of the onstar module. As
a result, all onstar features are disabled.
This includes emergency assistance in
the case of air bag deployment. Additionally,
voice control of navigation
units (if so equipped) will be inoperative.

CSixDude

I've been working with Chis at CoStar for a few months now in an effort to help them resolve the battery drain issue. They sent me a firmware update they thought would fix it, but it didn't work. So they are now going back to take another look at resolving the problem.

The unit works fine for me, the only issue is that it isn't properly shutting down when the car is turned off, which results in a battery drain issue.

I haven't heard anything from them for a few days now, but I'll let y'all know as soon as they have a fix for it. It should just be a firmware flash that can downloaded off the internet and loaded into the unit via a USB cable.

andneil74

Thanks for the update on the battery drain issue. Although the unit worked fine in my '05, I also had the same problem with battery drain and wound up returning the unit to Costar. I would love to re-purchase it if they can ever figure out the problem and correct it. I'll be looking out for your updates.

c54u

how about hooking it up to a switched power supply?

beav626

Sounds like we are getting close... Keep us posted

Puzzled

That is what I was thinking.

The BlueFusion is another option as opposed to the BlueStar.

beav626

I spoke to the Blufusion peeps and they said it doesnt work on vettes 20007 and up

jman0110

Well, it looks like the battery drain issue may actually be fixed. However, it looks like it has been fixed since 8/12/10 and I didn't know about it!!!!!!!!

I emailed Costar about the problem 3 months ago and they said they were working on it. Since then I have not heard anything. I kept checked their website on my own looking at their home screen with all the NEWS on it. Nothing new ever showed up about the corvette fix, so I kept waiting and waiting. Then just now I clicked on bluestar on the product section and went down to the updates for the software and found 8/12/10 an update for corvette battery drain fix.

I am not very happy about all the time wasted because costar did not properly inform their current and potential customers. This was a huge problem for their product and they didn't post it as news on their home page. How ridiculous. Maybe someone from costar will pick up on this and do better in the future for something so obvious.

Aside from that, I look forward to putting this back in my car tomorrow. Enjoy