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Trying the impossible...

3K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  Tintin 
#1 ·
Hello EOS community, at the time I am writing this post, I would have enjoyed nearly 10 years of EOS ownership. Having clocked in excess of 106,000 miles, normal people would be looking at replacing their motor. Instead, I carry on spending more money trying to play catch up. I loved everything about the car apart from one thing that has been bugging me ever since I owned it: the iPod connection! For the past 10 years, I have had to live with the RCD 300 showing "Track 1 CD 1". How useful...not! I have lost count of members of my family or friends asking me what track they were listening to, only for me to take the iPod out of its cradle, whilst driving (not good), to simply be able to answer their question. But those days are now over. As of yesterday, I have replaced the original head unit with an all singing and dancing RNS 510. So, technically, I should be a happy bunny. Well, almost. The screen is bigger, I now have a sat nav (although I am still rather attached to my portable TomTom so the sat nav was not really essential) but when I play a CD, it is now telling me who is singing, what the name of the song is and how much is left of the track. But, guess what? I am still getting "Track 1 CD 1" when I play music stored on the iPod. This was sadly to be expected as I now have 2006 technology (in the shape of the iPod connection) talking to 2016 technology (RNS 510). First thing first: when you do that, you need to either change the can-bus or make sure your unit is modified so that the unit does not drain the car battery. Otherwise, it is a nasty surprise the next day if you need to be somewhere fast. Breakdown cover, here we come. I chose the latter. Now, to fix the lack of track details being displayed, you also need to change the iPod caddy as well as the harness. This is because VW, around 2010, have switched to a Media connection. I have just bought those two bad boys last night and they should be on their way. In theory, this should be it. I am therefore hoping to share with you the good news next week, giving an idea of what is possible or not. However, the story does not end there. Are you still awake? I did not realise when I ordered the RNS 510 head unit that some come with DAB / DAB + and some don't. Now I leave you to guess which one I have. Yep, that's right, I don't have DAB. And I am rather gutted about it. So, this is 50% of the reason for writing this post. Has any of you managed to retrofit DAB capability in a unit that clearly does not have it? As far as I can tell, a DAB amplifier and antenna aren't good enough and I fear that unless I switch my new unit for one with DAB, it is going to be an almost impossible challenge. Here is the other 50% of the reason as to why I am interested in hearing from the community. The RNS 510 comes now with voice command. What a brilliant idea. Rather than looking for buttons and touched screen, you can just talk to your radio, which is a lot safer. I have a fiskon bluetooth unit for my phone which not only worked brilliantly with my old RCD 300 but also with the new 510. Sadly, the microphone, I am told, is not compatible with the 510. So, all I can hear when I try to give some clear instructions is "Pardon? Pardon?". Again, has anyone faced this challenge before and if so, how did you resolve it? If you are still reading this, then I thank you for your kind attention.:rolleyes::eek:
 
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#2 ·
I can only help with your track names. Older spec. media systems (those fitted in cars!) are pretty strict on file and track naming conventions CD's use Joliett. Some systems use filenames (with character length restrictions) some use the data embedded in the MP3 file. I know nothing about Apple OS, but the conventions are the same. If the media player cannot read the track name format or embedded data in the MP3 header or the track file name is too long it just defaults to Track01 etc. It's all to do with how you copied/downloaded and transfered music content. I have also seen the same problem when music files are put in lots of folders. You need to play around with a couple of tunes and see what is read o.k and what is not. Welcome to the world of digital incompatibility!

I have tools to edit MP3 headers in Windoze and guess there are similar tools for Apple. Mind you, if you have 1000's of tracks, the editing would be a daunting task so I would look see if there is a batch application.
 
#3 ·
Hopefully, once I have received the new caddy and harness, I will be able to confirm that it is all working as expected rather than renaming nearly 8,000 tracks...lol. We connected my iPod to a Sirocco which had the newer caddy and the RNS 510 and all seemed good so fingers crossed....
 
#4 · (Edited)
Mission accomplished! It has taken me 10 years and finally, I am able to not only see the track details but I can also choose which album, artist, track or play list I want to listen to directly from the head unit instead of having to take the iPod out of the armrest. Patience truly is a virtue...it was almost worth the wait.
 
#5 ·
I have spoken too soon. I am in the process of sending the RNS 510 back (too many issues with it) and my garage has kindly lent me a RCD 510 to ensure I had something set up for my road trip down the road of Napoleon between Grenoble and Nice. Sadly, it seems that in the process of it all, my Fiscon unit (bluetooth) has become faulty. So, I have 3 working days to resolve this issue. Horrible when you have been used to make or receive calls in your car and this has been taken away. But I know it is only temporary. I will then decide whether I can leave with a RCD 510 or whether I will want to source another RNS510. I had it side by side with a portable TomTom and TT wins every time. But I like the RNS unit knows about traffic ahead, has a better and bigger screen and can play DVDs.
 
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