Hi Folks,
I just finished adding bluetooth to the Fusion ip700i stereo that came standard with my 2014 R25SC. Forgive me if any of the following is a re-iteration of what's already been said, but I thought I would put it all in one place for convenience.
Fusion makes two add-on "dongles" (who ever came up with that name?) that connect directly with their head units and provide bluetooth connectivity, similar to many of today's autos. Unfortunately, it does not allow for telephone use, but music and anything else you can hear from the phone, like internet radio, podcasts etc, can be heard through the boat's stereo system.
For the ip700i they recommend the MS-BT200 plugged into the Sirius input jack which, on my boat, is easily accessed at the back of the head unit by peering into the storage compartment (glove box?) next to the stereo. The downside is that you then lose the ability to have an add-on Sirius tuner plugged into that jack.
If you do want the Sirius tuner as well as bluetooth, they recommend their MS-BT100 dongle which plugs into the RCA auxilliary jacks of the head unit instead. The Sirius tuner can then use the dedicated Sirius input, but this is really unnecessary as you'll see below.
Once the connection is made you simply mount the dongle on a convenient flat surface nearby - there's about a 12 to 15 inch lead to the dongle that gives you plenty of mounting flexibility. I simply attached it with a screw high up on the half inch plywood backing of the glove box. Fusion recommends it be as far from any "metalwork" as possible. I have no range issues as it works from anywhere on my 25 footer and even when the phone and I are standing on the dock several feet away.
That's the easy part. Unfortunately, one needs to update the head unit's software before any of this will work. It's not that difficult but adds unneeded complexity to the install. You download the update from the Fusion website onto a flash or thumb drive. The drive plugs into the USB port of your computer. I tried using an Apple desktop and laptop and had no luck accessing the Fusion site. For some reason the site is virtually unusable on an Apple computer - though it does work on an iPad which doesn't do you much good since you can't use a thumbdrive wih an iPad. I had to take the thumb drive to the office and use a Windows PC to get the update transferred. Once the update is on the thumbdrive you plug the drive into the USB input on the back of the stereo. Fusion provides instructions on the website about what to do from there, but again unfortunately, all is not as simple as it seems. I finally did get the head unit updated, but not by following Fusion's instructions which may apply to some earlier hardware/software versions. Wish I could tell you the exact method but I just sat there and pushed buttons till I got it to pair with my phone.
Once it's installed it works great. And by downloading the Sirius app to my iPhone 5 I'm able to get all of Sirius via bluetooth as well. Btw, I've no reason to believe that it won't work just as well with an iPhone 6 or any other bluetooth equipped device.
Sorry for the long winded post. Hope this helps someone.
