Replacing RNS 510 with RCD 330+

[benough]

Yeah it works fine. Track buttons will only work if you still have a MEDIA-IN installed or a Polar FIS+

It's exactly what I bought.

If you haven't gotten a headunit yet, get the latest hardware revision, the 6RF model. Costs more but slick and bulletproof

[Jakeys]

Yeah it works fine. Track buttons will only work if you still have a MEDIA-IN installed or a Polar FIS+

It's exactly what I bought.

If you haven't gotten a headunit yet, get the latest hardware revision, the 6RF model. Costs more but slick and bulletproof

Yeah, I figured that might be the case because the new head unit doesn't support the MFD, right? I do have the MEDIA-IN being an MY10.5 it was standard however I would be using either the RCD's bluetooth or Android Auto capabilities, not the MEDIA-IN plug. Don't have Polar FIS+, just a Kufatec Fiscon Bluetooth which I will be disconnecting. So I assume no dice, but that's okay as long as I get the four buttons on the left I'd be happy. Volume mainly, the old voice control button (The star) I've read can be made to activate voice on the head unit with VCDS adaption, but not a deal breaker if I can't get that to work. (See here: 187B MFD Integration)

Haven't picked one up yet, looking at this one, seems to be the current way to go.

<link removed, seller didn't send the item and Aliexpress refunded me>

Wouldn't mind giving this mod a go at some stage too but will just get it all working normally first. Connecting the rear USB to the Rcd 330 Plus

[Jakeys]

So after the first 6RF 035 187E unit didn't get sent and Aliexpress refunded me, the second one I bought came DHL Express for some reason, from a different seller. Ordered Boxing Day, arrived today. It looks the part, appears genuine aside from the ridiculous LEMON SHARK brand label on the top of the unit which appears to be hiding another label underneath it and a different label has been ripped off. Probably a more legit VW looking label?

However, I noticed that while the right knob feels nice and tactile and OEM like, the left hand knob with the power logo on it is quite stiff feeling. Still turns okay but just doesn't feel right. Has anyone else noticed this, can you comment on if both knobs felt like OEM?

EDIT: Stuffing around using the left knob a lot pushing and pulling on it etc it is still not as nice as the one on the right however it feels a lot better now and more importantly does actually work perfectly. I may crack the unit open later and see if I can get a look at why it's tight and fix it if I can, but it's not that big a deal once the unit is actually bolted in.

Install went pretty well. Mine is an MY10.5 with dealer fit reverse camera and Kufatec Fiscon bluetooth. The Kufatec unit was pretty easy to pull out as it was essentially just loose behind the RNS unit, I have had to leave the plug for it behind the new unit for now as it has more wires that go to a mic and probably the fuse box that I will need to remove, however other than that it was easy to remove.
The reverse camera also works perfectly, it was just a third party composite feed but I appear to have wasted my money on the relay timer as it works perfectly going from Drive to Reverse and back, which is funny because my RNS never was able to do this so I just assumed I would definitely need that plug.

The steering wheel controls adapter works perfectly. Volume works, the phone button works and the star button that used to be for voice control of the sat nav now activates Google Assistant which is really excellent. If you don't have Android Auto plugged in so are just using Bluetooth it just comes up with a VW screen saying follow phone's voice prompts and works fine for phone and media control, however if you have Android Auto plugged in it switches the screen over to Android Auto from whatever you were in and brings up the Google Assistant icon. Really, really awesome. I love how speedy the unit is and how well Android Auto works, it's seamless.

Only two minor problems other than the stiff knob (lol).
First, the screen seems dimmer than the RNS510 even on max brightness. It's not a big deal and it may just be that the RNS text was so much bigger and simpler, but in full sun it's a little hard to read.
Second, there is a minor bug with Android Auto, if you are playing music from radio and I presume also aux/SD card, and you use the Google Assistant to switch into playing music in Android Auto automatically from your steering wheel, it appears to switch to Android and shows the new song you asked it to play on the screen, but after playing for a second the screen stays in Android Auto but the noise from the radio comes back on. You can fix it by just hitting play again on the screen and this is kind of a small use case, it's fine if you navigate into Android Auto manually or you were already in it to begin with. So this is really not a deal breaker.

Now on sound quality a couple of people have said that it sound worse, I have the DynAudio amp so I'm a bad tester for this but on my specific setup, it sounds just as good. HOWEVER it doesn't support DynAudio coding I think I read earlier so my volume slider is way too sensitive. I may need to revert back to stock amp or risk blowing my speakers out if I accidentally turn the volume up too high.

NEXT DAY EDIT: I drove the car a few hours for NYE stuff and got acquainted with the unit. The adapter for the 8 button steering wheel has a hidden feature not mentioned on any of the Aliexpress listings. If you press the OK button on the right of the steering wheel, the up and down arrows will control the tracks on the RCD 330. Press OK again to stop the buttons doing that. Sort of a handy little hack they put in, but it's not perfect as while the buttons do control the tracks in media and radio mode, it also continues to operate the MFD as normal. This feature does not work in Android Auto, only in the VW screens. Also if you take a phone call on the RCD 330 that does come up in the MFD but only for the duration of the call then the phone screen disappears.

Also, I found another bug with the unit, if you have a max startup volume (Same as the RNS510 had) configured, every time a voice prompt comes through on Android Auto like say a navigation prompt, it resets the volume back to your max startup. So you may need to just turn that feature off if you're using Android.

I'm being nitpicky bringing these bugs up, I think the unit is amazing.

[Jakeys]

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.

[klose]

Looking at upgrading my factory RCD510 to the 330plus in my MK6. What can I expect not to work in it regarding MFD display and steering wheel buttons

[StanliMK6]

Looking at upgrading my factory RCD510 to the 330plus in my MK6. What can I expect not to work in it regarding MFD display and steering wheel buttons

Everything on mfd radio related is gone, the oem Bluetooth system basically useless as it runs off the rcd330 head unit.
Steering wheel buttons will work as normal, sound up, down, changing to the next radio station, mute and picking up Bluetooth calls.



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[MikeJonesMV]

So am i right in saying that this unit will swap straight out my RCD310 unit and give me bluetooth music and calls?
Do i then lose my DAB radio though?

Seems like a great cheaper option!
Thanks in advance.

[Milo]

Hi guys.
I currently have this unit in my MY15 Polo. Firstly, what model is it?


Secondly, I wish to upgrade to have Android Auto, and considering I have no Steering Wheel controls, and no Reverse Camera, (Although might install a camera at a later date), will any RCD330+ from Aliexpress be what I need?

Cheers Guys.

[StanliMK6]

Hi guys.
I currently have this unit in my MY15 Polo. Firstly, what model is it?


Secondly, I wish to upgrade to have Android Auto, and considering I have no Steering Wheel controls, and no Reverse Camera, (Although might install a camera at a later date), will any RCD330+ from Aliexpress be what I need?

Cheers Guys.

The rcd330 will not fit your model.

Only mk6 and mk5 platforms is compatible with rcd330; with either rns510, rcd510 or similar installed.

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[kamold]

Hi guys.
I currently have this unit in my MY15 Polo. Firstly, what model is it?


Secondly, I wish to upgrade to have Android Auto, and considering I have no Steering Wheel controls, and no Reverse Camera, (Although might install a camera at a later date), will any RCD330+ from Aliexpress be what I need?

Cheers Guys.

It's a Composition Colour.
If you want App Connect you would need to upgrade the head unit (its in the glovebox) and the screen to either Composition Media or Discover Media/Pro.

[ymmf]

I wonder if there is solution for 330 to work with the Dynaudio system with Blaupunkt amp yet? From crawling through forums some said it's fine but it doesn't seem to be a proper fit. Would appreciate any advice.

[kamold]

I wonder if there is solution for 330 to work with the Dynaudio system with Blaupunkt amp yet? From crawling through forums some said it's fine but it doesn't seem to be a proper fit. Would appreciate any advice.

Rcd330 can't be configured to output line level balanced output for an amp (doesn't have suitable circuitry as part of the design)
You can use a line out converter like with most aftermarket head units.
RCD 510/RNS510/Discover Media units are designed to properly work with factory amps by switching output from speaker level unbalanced output internally.

[ymmf]

Rcd330 can't be configured to output line level balanced output for an amp (doesn't have suitable circuitry as part of the design)
You can use a line out converter like with most aftermarket head units.

I'm not familiar with the wiring but how possible is it to get a line out converter to work with RCD330+ and the Dynaudio amp?

It looks like an aftermarket headunit with Aerpro CAVW01 adapter is the only way to go? I thought about Maestro RR but apparently it only supports North American headunit models...

[ribice]

Purchased a Touran 2011 Highline yesterday that came with an aftermarket android head unit. I dislike it as it really looks non-OEM.

Found about RCD 330 today (had an rcd 320 previously on golf mk5).

Will the rear camera and park assist work out of the box?

I assume it's easiest to buy the one with Android Auto if I need it (and not bother with updating firmwares).

[benny82]

Purchased a Touran 2011 Highline yesterday that came with an aftermarket android head unit. I dislike it as it really looks non-OEM.

Found about RCD 330 today (had an rcd 320 previously on golf mk5).

Will the rear camera and park assist work out of the box?

I assume it's easiest to buy the one with Android Auto if I need it (and not bother with updating firmwares).

Only ntsc cameras work and park assist should work

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