Replacing RNS 510 with RCD 330+

[Cupra]

Car Radio RCD330 MIB200F,Carplay,Android Auto,BT,CD,USB,RVC,AUX,for VW GOLF POLO | eBay

This one has CD player, please double check the Android Auto

Thanks, I'll have a look.

Phil

[brane_klc]

Hi Jakeys,
did you solve brightness problem with RCD 330?

[brane_klc]

So the brightness issue has been really bothering me as the screen even on the brightest setting is basically impossible to read on sunny days where the head unit isn't in full shade. I figured it couldn't be that dim by design so I did some digging and figured out the following steps to up the brightness. I can only speak to my own car, your mileage may vary, proceed at own caution, etc.

1. You need VCDS, maybe OBDeleven or similar would also work.
2. Connect your OBS cable, open VCDS, navigate into Module 56 - Radio.
3. Go into Adaption. Change Channel to 50 and the Stored Value from 0 to 1.
4. That will enable the Engineering Testmode. It's the same as the old RSN510 service menu, so hold down SETUP for 10 seconds to get in.
5. Go to Software System > HMI Look and Feel > Brightness.
6. Untick Auto Brightness and up the brightness from 50 to 100.
7. Exit the menu, congrats, your screen is now twice as bright.

I don't know why this is the way it is, if I had to guess the Auto Brightness feature maybe uses the light and rain sensor from the newer cars to adjust brightness based on sun level, but our gateway doesn't support it so it always stays at the default medium brightness? Just a guess based on the fact auto brightness seems to do absolutely nothing.

The good news is that doing this does not affect the dimmer when the headlights are on, it still works normally, and you can also still adjust the brightness within the normal SETUP menu so there is no downside to doing this that I know of. There are other settings you can play with in the testmode but this was the only one I saw in there that I cared about.

EDIT: Back to the drawing board, having the car off for a while or resetting the unit (Hold down power for 10 seconds) puts this back to the default value. Very frustrating. Maybe need to adjust a value somewhere in VCDS.

EDIT 2: Okay I don't know if anyone else is reading these haha but I'm putting the info here anyway in case anyone else is as bothered by the dim screen as I am. I'm surprised more people aren't bothered, as far as I can tell any B6 Passat will have this problem...

So the B6 Passat and other VW cars of the same age have an older gateway (CANBUS) than what this RCD330 was designed for. It seems like maybe most features hasn't changed between our cars and the newer ones because a lot of features work fine, eg the time, temperature, dimmer switch, are compatible out of the box. Some things have changed and so don't work, eg. our steering wheel controls and as I've discovered, something to do with lighting when the parkers and headlights are off.

When the headlights are on in the older gateway cars, the screen is controlled as normal with the dashboard lighting dimmer switch, on max setting the screen is at 22% and on minimum setting the screen is at 5%. You can measure this using VCDS on one of the measuring blocks for the radio module. However the problem is when you switch the lights off, although the red lights on the buttons turn off the screen will only go back to 22%. This is the highest it can go. So it's the same brightness day or night if your dimmer is up.

In Engineering Testmode (See my grey steps above) you can manually set the screen brightness independent of the car by turning off Auto Brightness. This "disconnects" the brightness of the RCD330 from the gateway. From here you can manually set it all the way up to 100%. But because this is just a test mode it doesn't save the setting and it's also problematic because the red button lights are on forever in this mode too.

The problem is that the CANBUS simulator adapter I have which fixes the incompatible signal for the steering wheel controls doesn't do anything about the incompatible brightness signal. Supposedly there is a different CANBUS simulator that could do both but it is a bit pot luck cause they all look pretty similar. I noticed my simulator only has four wires (RWYB) and there are some others that appear to have seven wires (BYROBGW) so I might buy one of those and see if it works better.

Hi Jakeys,
did you solve the brightness problem with RCD 330?

[Jakeys]

Hi Jakeys,
did you solve the brightness problem with RCD 330?

No. I think I tried another CANBUS simulator but it was incompatible.

[senui]

My quadlock had 2 power sources, one at BAT+ and the other where ACC+ is/should be. I tapped into the ACC+ power, bingo.

The RCD330 does have a pin there also, although function is undocumented. Could probably assume it's ACC+.

Now to plug it all in and see it works before I hide all the wiring.

It's been a while, but can you remember how you solved the battery drain issue you were having? Do I understand correct that there is an undocumented ACC pin on the RCD330 that you fed an ACC wire to, to turn off the head unit when the ignition is off? If, so could you maybe recall which of the pins it is? I am having the same issue.

[age100]

Hi All, I have a 2010 Golf R Mk6 with an factory RNS510. Plan was to replace the unit with a RCD330 187B, when I removed the 510 and tried to connect the cars Quadlock to the 330 I discovered the socket on the 330 wouldnt take the car Quadlock as it has an extra plastic web in the 330s connector. the speaker pin outs all seem to be the same it's the power pins that differ. I guess I can modify the socket but wanted to see some advice first.

[age100]

FYI RNS510 pin out

[age100]

I assume I can modify the power pos/neg over and re-pin the CAN- & CAN + to the RCD330?
I don't need the CVBS (comp video) as I don't have a reversing cam. [ATTACH=CONFIG]52644[/ATTACH
Thoughts?

[petercrisp63]

I assume I can modify the power pos/neg over and re-pin the CAN- & CAN + to the RCD330?
I don't need the CVBS (comp video) as I don't have a reversing cam. [ATTACH=CONFIG]52644[/ATTACH
Thoughts?

That is strange you had this problem, only 3 days ago I installed my RCD330 into my wife's 2011 MK6 TDi, and it clipped straight on, I had to unpick the antenna plug from the 2x body plug for the single lead to push onto the head unit. But it all works fine.

Pete

[age100]

Apparently I need one of these.