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Installed my Zenec NC2010
There's a couple of threads around already named Zenec NC2010. One's a promotion from a retailer and the other is a discussion about possibly getting one.
Plenty of info can be found about the headunit on this forum and the Zenec website, but I'm hoping to have this particular thread aimed at answering questions from members on this forum about usage of the NC2010.
I had help installing the head unit into my Tiguan from Nationwide Auto Electrical on Marshall Road in Malaga. While I was up there, I also had the Zenec RCE2001B reverse camera wired and installed.
The GPS antenna is located in in front of the glovebox, under the far left corner of the windshield.
I've opted to have the USB port located in the top console tray under the headunit, rather than the suggested location inside the glovebox. This tray has rubber lining and is ideal for connecting an iPod via the cable, or perhaps a passport-style portable USB hard drive for music and movies.
My Tiguan already has Bluetooth and MDI as standard, but the Zenec cannot utilise these. I've only just had the new setup and not yet spent time playing around with the features. I bought the unit from ACR in Germany and shipping took two and a half weeks. More on the different options I looked at here.
All I can say so far is that with the default European street maps and POIs installed I don't see much on the navigation screen when driving. According to the headunit, Perth and WA are pretty green this time of year! I'm going to download Australia and NZ map coverage later and see if anything else needs updating. I'll also post any photos here if anyone is interested in the installation process.
---------- Post added at 07:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:12 PM ----------
The NC2010 comes shipped with its own 4Gb FAT32 USB thumbdrive. It is bombed up with all the electronic versions of the hard copy manuals that are included in the box, and in addition it has a "Brief Instruction" PDF for the Naviextras Toolbox software.
The Naviextras website is where you need to go to get maps for Australia and New Zealand. In order to do so, first the Synctool needs to be downloaded and uncompressed onto the root directory of the thumbdrive. The first speedbump in this process is that the Naviextras link to downloading this sponsored software no longer has the file. Apparently it has been "temporarily removed" since 19Aug11. The Zenec website comes to the rescue, with a version of this Synctool software. Unsure if this is the latest, but I'll jump through the hoops to get the thumbdrive prepped for initialising the headunit and to update it with local street map data.
---------- Post added 12-12-2011 at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was 10-12-2011 at 07:56 PM ----------
Update:
A few days down the track and I'm really enjoying the features of the NC2010...
The mapping datasets (streets and POIs) are from Whereis (Telstra), so essentially the same source as the one that the RNS510 uses. It's currently at R18.3 for the NC2010, which apparently is third quarter 2011.
I had to purchase the maps for Australia and the software on my computer made it easy to select the coverage I wanted. It gave me the option of transferring the 43 European countries to my PC and just keep Australian data on the headunit. Even then, I can opt to just keep street data on and remove the POIs if I wanted to. The software also allows for KML format POIs to be added to the collection. I haven't tried this out yet, but I'm sure that will come in handy.
Initialising the headunit was a bit of a tedious process. I had to update the firmware about three consecutive times to take it up the various updates before finally being able to install Australian map data. It took about 45min getting that sorted, requiring the supplied USB thumbdrive to swap between being updated with upgrades from the server and plugging into the NC2010 to apply the upgrades.
The NC2010 has a heap of navigator languages, including four UK English voices and an Australian one. Unfortunately the Australian one is not TTS, so it won't pronounce individual street names for navigation. Not sure if this can be upgraded somehow from an online source.
I imagine the RNS510 uses speed attributes in the map data the same way as the NC2010 when it displays the speed limit of each street being travelled on. It will also verbally announce when I exceed the speed limit. I can set this to warn me when I go 100%, 105%, 110%, etc. of the signed speed limit. A great feature to see the speed limit for a road when the signs are not displayed.
Route calculation is very fast and I have four main options to select a planned route: Short, Easy, Fast and Economical. I can modify that by selecting various preferences such as avoiding tolled roads, highways or unpaved roads, etc. as with any other GPS navigator out there these days.
The verbal navigation volume can be changed separately to radio or attached media, and the music is toned down a little as an announcement is made. No issues with continued announcements while changing screens from reverse camera to main menu to media display.
The only real issue I have at this stage is that I can't get route directions to display on the MFD. I'm not sure what's causing thing, although I have not yet RTFM and done any troubleshooting. I didn't disconnect the fitted OEM Bluetooth, so I imagine that might also be clashing as it prompts me to connect to a phone when I hit the phone button on the steering wheel. This button activates BT on the NC2010, but it does not proceed with calling if I press it a second time like the OEM BT does.
So far, the NC2010 has proven to have a very intuitive interface and is very responsive.
Zenec RCE2001B Reverse Camera
The RCE2001B reverse camera has great clarity and a good field of view, but it could have pointed a bit higher up. When fitted, it points down at roughly 45deg from horizontal. The bumper is visible at the bottom and takes up almost 1/5 of the screen. It's not possible to bend/adjust the camera angle. Also, the video feed has arbitrary blue graduation lines that are meant to appear perspective, but don't help at all in guaging distance. Might as well not have those!
---------- Post added 14-12-2011 at 08:17 PM ---------- Previous post was 12-12-2011 at 07:26 PM ----------
Updated by adding some images of the headunit.
Plenty of info can be found about the headunit on this forum and the Zenec website, but I'm hoping to have this particular thread aimed at answering questions from members on this forum about usage of the NC2010.
I had help installing the head unit into my Tiguan from Nationwide Auto Electrical on Marshall Road in Malaga. While I was up there, I also had the Zenec RCE2001B reverse camera wired and installed.
The GPS antenna is located in in front of the glovebox, under the far left corner of the windshield.
I've opted to have the USB port located in the top console tray under the headunit, rather than the suggested location inside the glovebox. This tray has rubber lining and is ideal for connecting an iPod via the cable, or perhaps a passport-style portable USB hard drive for music and movies.
My Tiguan already has Bluetooth and MDI as standard, but the Zenec cannot utilise these. I've only just had the new setup and not yet spent time playing around with the features. I bought the unit from ACR in Germany and shipping took two and a half weeks. More on the different options I looked at here.
All I can say so far is that with the default European street maps and POIs installed I don't see much on the navigation screen when driving. According to the headunit, Perth and WA are pretty green this time of year! I'm going to download Australia and NZ map coverage later and see if anything else needs updating. I'll also post any photos here if anyone is interested in the installation process.
---------- Post added at 07:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:12 PM ----------
The NC2010 comes shipped with its own 4Gb FAT32 USB thumbdrive. It is bombed up with all the electronic versions of the hard copy manuals that are included in the box, and in addition it has a "Brief Instruction" PDF for the Naviextras Toolbox software.
The Naviextras website is where you need to go to get maps for Australia and New Zealand. In order to do so, first the Synctool needs to be downloaded and uncompressed onto the root directory of the thumbdrive. The first speedbump in this process is that the Naviextras link to downloading this sponsored software no longer has the file. Apparently it has been "temporarily removed" since 19Aug11. The Zenec website comes to the rescue, with a version of this Synctool software. Unsure if this is the latest, but I'll jump through the hoops to get the thumbdrive prepped for initialising the headunit and to update it with local street map data.
---------- Post added 12-12-2011 at 07:26 PM ---------- Previous post was 10-12-2011 at 07:56 PM ----------
Update:
A few days down the track and I'm really enjoying the features of the NC2010...
The mapping datasets (streets and POIs) are from Whereis (Telstra), so essentially the same source as the one that the RNS510 uses. It's currently at R18.3 for the NC2010, which apparently is third quarter 2011.
I had to purchase the maps for Australia and the software on my computer made it easy to select the coverage I wanted. It gave me the option of transferring the 43 European countries to my PC and just keep Australian data on the headunit. Even then, I can opt to just keep street data on and remove the POIs if I wanted to. The software also allows for KML format POIs to be added to the collection. I haven't tried this out yet, but I'm sure that will come in handy.
Initialising the headunit was a bit of a tedious process. I had to update the firmware about three consecutive times to take it up the various updates before finally being able to install Australian map data. It took about 45min getting that sorted, requiring the supplied USB thumbdrive to swap between being updated with upgrades from the server and plugging into the NC2010 to apply the upgrades.
The NC2010 has a heap of navigator languages, including four UK English voices and an Australian one. Unfortunately the Australian one is not TTS, so it won't pronounce individual street names for navigation. Not sure if this can be upgraded somehow from an online source.
I imagine the RNS510 uses speed attributes in the map data the same way as the NC2010 when it displays the speed limit of each street being travelled on. It will also verbally announce when I exceed the speed limit. I can set this to warn me when I go 100%, 105%, 110%, etc. of the signed speed limit. A great feature to see the speed limit for a road when the signs are not displayed.
Route calculation is very fast and I have four main options to select a planned route: Short, Easy, Fast and Economical. I can modify that by selecting various preferences such as avoiding tolled roads, highways or unpaved roads, etc. as with any other GPS navigator out there these days.
The verbal navigation volume can be changed separately to radio or attached media, and the music is toned down a little as an announcement is made. No issues with continued announcements while changing screens from reverse camera to main menu to media display.
The only real issue I have at this stage is that I can't get route directions to display on the MFD. I'm not sure what's causing thing, although I have not yet RTFM and done any troubleshooting. I didn't disconnect the fitted OEM Bluetooth, so I imagine that might also be clashing as it prompts me to connect to a phone when I hit the phone button on the steering wheel. This button activates BT on the NC2010, but it does not proceed with calling if I press it a second time like the OEM BT does.
So far, the NC2010 has proven to have a very intuitive interface and is very responsive.
Zenec RCE2001B Reverse Camera
The RCE2001B reverse camera has great clarity and a good field of view, but it could have pointed a bit higher up. When fitted, it points down at roughly 45deg from horizontal. The bumper is visible at the bottom and takes up almost 1/5 of the screen. It's not possible to bend/adjust the camera angle. Also, the video feed has arbitrary blue graduation lines that are meant to appear perspective, but don't help at all in guaging distance. Might as well not have those!
---------- Post added 14-12-2011 at 08:17 PM ---------- Previous post was 12-12-2011 at 07:26 PM ----------
Updated by adding some images of the headunit.
you really should get in touch with ozmale on the vwgolf.net.au forums, so that he can determine if it's the same problem that he had (that required a 1-hour rebuild)
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