RNS-510 HDD replacement/SSD swap DIY

[Supplanter]

The Internet archive has an old copy of this thread with the pictures:

http://web.archive.org/web/20121110081231/http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f78/rns-510-hdd-replacement-ssd-swap-diy-60984.html

[kamold]

Nah, the AN21u based units are excellent.
There is a thread on XDA about the software (updates, how to get root access etc).
I bought this one: Wholesale Product Snapshot Product name is 2014 Pure Android 4.1 DVD GPS for VW Polo Jetta Tiguan Golf Bora Passat B5 B6 5 6 car Capacitive Screen WiFi Radio Volkswagen

[MrWolf]

My $350 Chinese Android unit in the Golf has radio ready instantly, has RVC going in about 20 seconds, and is fully booted in about 20-30 seconds.

Which particular unit do you use? I've seen various Chinese versions on eBay, but they look pretty sus.

[kamold]

The only advantage really is space.

You don't want to put a regular consumer grade spinning disk in there due to it not being designed for the environmental conditions inside an automotive head unit. A consumer SSD however runs pretty cool and has no moving parts so this is not really an issue, and costs less than an industrial grade spinning disk of similar capacity. There might be some marginal improvement in music browsing speed but I doubt that you'd really notice it.

[The_Hawk]

It's probably not that much different to my stock RNS unit at 20 seconds... so if it's not boot time, what's the benefits of an SSD? I've never noticed the maps being particularly slow to load, media doesn't need to load quickly (and I use an iPod via MDI or iPhone over Bluetooth most of the time anyway).

[kamold]

The newer RNS units boot faster.
They boot from the internal flash memory.

My $350 Chinese Android unit in the Golf has radio ready instantly, has RVC going in about 20 seconds, and is fully booted in about 20-30 seconds.

[The_Hawk]

awwwwww...

So what's slowing down the boot time? And is there any way to speed that up?

I note the Pioneer in the Van takes some time to boot but the Camera works instantly and what seems to be completely separately to the main OS vs the RNS 510 which seems to need to be booted up to work

[kamold]

It won't make any difference to boot times as only the maps are installed to the HDD (and voice files).
That drive wouldn't work I dont think as its a SATA drive, with a PATA bridge cable. The way the drive sits plugged into the board requires a PATA interface on the drive itself. The only known quantity as far as drives go that are tested are the Kingspec PATA drives.

[The_Hawk]

I'm looking at giving this a bash for something to do since I like tinkering but wanted to ask a couple of questions first.

Most of the reasoning behind the upgrade for me is the speed to initially boot, especially to get to the RVC since I reverse out of my driveway and the less time I have no camera (or have to sit waiting for it) is good. So how much faster is boot up time?

Secondly, is there any recommended PATA SSD that is known to work better than others?

I'm looking at this one at the moment:
OWC OWCSSDMXLE060 60GB Mercury Pro Legacy 3.5"... in stock at OWC

[greg32]

I tried this upgrade about 18 months ago. I used a 160gb PATA drive at the time as others had success. What happened with my RNS is that it stopped the dvd to stop working. I put the original drive in but the dvd still didn't work. I tried a second hand dvd and everything was OK so I thought it may have been something I did to fry the drive and repeated the SSD swap. That is when I had a second fried DVD. I gave up and returned it to the HDD and a new DVD drive. I don't quite understand why this happened and have been reluctant to repeat the experiment.

[kamold]

John has left the community unfortunately and the hosted photos have expired.
Next time I take one apart I'll try and get the photos replaced.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[darrenr0]

Hey John, great post but was wondering if there are any accompanying photos along with your teardown guide? Thanks Darren, UK

[Mikkaa]

Hi all,

I am interested in upgrading the hdd in my rns510 - octavia vRS, but don't really have the technical skill to do so. Is anyone interested in giving me a price to do this for me? I live in moorebank in sydney, and can drive to you. If needed, I can also buy the ssd from ebay if you would rather that.

thankyou.

[ririm69]

Thank you very much for your help Kamold.
I will follow your idea.

[kamold]

Hi Ririm69,
The firmware loads are failing to read the hardware version of your mainboard, so cannot complete.
It might be possible to restore functionality, but the right software and hardware tools are needed.

Given you are in Europe, I would advise getting in touch with user 'josi' or 'oem repair' on the vwnavi forums.