- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Messages
- 157
- Reaction score
- 37
- Location
- USA Canton Ohio
- VCDS Serial number
- C?ID=235721
I don’t have a lot to offer the thread, but I’ll give what I have and maybe some of it will help someone.
2015 Passat TDI SEL Premium. Replaced the RNS510 with the RCD330 187b. Pretty much plug and play other than the reverse camera which I am currently working on. Disabled NAV in VCDS which cleared most of the errors but there was no sound. Box 2 was set to 00 which is “no audio system”, trying to change it to anything gives error 31. Per other forums, unhooked battery and reconnected and now I have sound. Box 2 still says 00 which I find strange, but I’m not nearly as involved with VCDS as most of you. Was able to change box 4 to 40 which enables rear view camera and was able to disable treble monitoring. I read somewhere else that I had to put it in development mode to be able to mess with box 2, which I think I did, but it still wouldn’t accept anything other than 00, no audio system. Oh well, it works.
Couldn’t stand the USB being on the front so I tore it apart, cut the end off of a female USB cable and soldered it to the PCB and ran it out the back. Works perfectly and the new cable now comes out between the seat and center console which is perfect for me.
Having a few issues that I’m figuring are with the RCD firmware, and unfortunately, the buyer I got it from says the developer hasn’t updated it in quite a while and he doubts they will anymore. In fact, his supplier doesn’t even offer this system anymore so my guess is that the ones for sale are what’s left. I’ve been wrong before though.
So if you’re not completely bored yet, and not writing a flaming response to my ignorance, I’ll talk about the “non”VCDS issues I’m having with it.
Volume... It doesn’t seem to remember volume settings. You can set it as low as you want and the next time you start the car it is at about 1/4 volume, which is kind of loud at 6am. There are settings in the RCD to set maximum startup volume, but they seem to be ignored. I set it to minimum, and it still starts at 1/4.
Volume -2... any time you use Siri, when you are done and go back to music, the volume basically doubles up to a finite point. If the volume is up high, it doesn’t seem to do it. Sometimes I feel like it’s going back to startup volume and sometimes it seems louder. Siri works great though.
Volume-3... the sound is pretty good for the first 1/3 of the range, but starts to distort and not sound nearly as clear as it increases. This is what originally got me digging in VCDS to try to set it up correctly (as in fender). I believe from a pinout I saw that this has 4 speaker outputs and after looking at the boards inside, it doesn’t really surprise me that it distorts. My uneducated guess is that somehow the speaker level outputs are being used as the amps inputs (not uncommon)but then any distortion is of course being amplified. The RNS510 definitely sounded better cranked up.
Phone... whether tethered via lightning cable or via Bluetooth, the calls are not quite as clear on the other end. Not bad, but not as good as the RNS. The ringer volume is always way too loud and seems to be based off of the volume of the last call you made. Meaning if I’m on the highway at 70, and have the phone volume up, the next call I get will ring so loud I about jump out of the seat. My quick fix for this was to pick a very mild ringtone. Another annoying issue is that while we all know the mic will block out background noise, the beeps that occur when you push any button on the radio go through to the person on the other end quite loud.
Overall, even with the quirks, I’m quite impressed for 235 bucks. CarPlay works perfectly, capacitive touch screen is lightning fast, and it looks great in the dash, especially with no USB cord hanging out of the front.
2015 Passat TDI SEL Premium. Replaced the RNS510 with the RCD330 187b. Pretty much plug and play other than the reverse camera which I am currently working on. Disabled NAV in VCDS which cleared most of the errors but there was no sound. Box 2 was set to 00 which is “no audio system”, trying to change it to anything gives error 31. Per other forums, unhooked battery and reconnected and now I have sound. Box 2 still says 00 which I find strange, but I’m not nearly as involved with VCDS as most of you. Was able to change box 4 to 40 which enables rear view camera and was able to disable treble monitoring. I read somewhere else that I had to put it in development mode to be able to mess with box 2, which I think I did, but it still wouldn’t accept anything other than 00, no audio system. Oh well, it works.
Couldn’t stand the USB being on the front so I tore it apart, cut the end off of a female USB cable and soldered it to the PCB and ran it out the back. Works perfectly and the new cable now comes out between the seat and center console which is perfect for me.
Having a few issues that I’m figuring are with the RCD firmware, and unfortunately, the buyer I got it from says the developer hasn’t updated it in quite a while and he doubts they will anymore. In fact, his supplier doesn’t even offer this system anymore so my guess is that the ones for sale are what’s left. I’ve been wrong before though.
So if you’re not completely bored yet, and not writing a flaming response to my ignorance, I’ll talk about the “non”VCDS issues I’m having with it.
Volume... It doesn’t seem to remember volume settings. You can set it as low as you want and the next time you start the car it is at about 1/4 volume, which is kind of loud at 6am. There are settings in the RCD to set maximum startup volume, but they seem to be ignored. I set it to minimum, and it still starts at 1/4.
Volume -2... any time you use Siri, when you are done and go back to music, the volume basically doubles up to a finite point. If the volume is up high, it doesn’t seem to do it. Sometimes I feel like it’s going back to startup volume and sometimes it seems louder. Siri works great though.
Volume-3... the sound is pretty good for the first 1/3 of the range, but starts to distort and not sound nearly as clear as it increases. This is what originally got me digging in VCDS to try to set it up correctly (as in fender). I believe from a pinout I saw that this has 4 speaker outputs and after looking at the boards inside, it doesn’t really surprise me that it distorts. My uneducated guess is that somehow the speaker level outputs are being used as the amps inputs (not uncommon)but then any distortion is of course being amplified. The RNS510 definitely sounded better cranked up.
Phone... whether tethered via lightning cable or via Bluetooth, the calls are not quite as clear on the other end. Not bad, but not as good as the RNS. The ringer volume is always way too loud and seems to be based off of the volume of the last call you made. Meaning if I’m on the highway at 70, and have the phone volume up, the next call I get will ring so loud I about jump out of the seat. My quick fix for this was to pick a very mild ringtone. Another annoying issue is that while we all know the mic will block out background noise, the beeps that occur when you push any button on the radio go through to the person on the other end quite loud.
Overall, even with the quirks, I’m quite impressed for 235 bucks. CarPlay works perfectly, capacitive touch screen is lightning fast, and it looks great in the dash, especially with no USB cord hanging out of the front.
