ZENEC Naviceiver ZE-NC2011D

[pjondeck]

Hi all
I just took the plunge and had fitted the ZENEC unit.
The brochure makes note of the RDS tuner quote"with automatic station search, 30 station memory (18FM/12 AM) and best station memory. It simply doesn't work. the sensitivity of the AM receiver is crap also, perhaps this is the reason that the system is not grabbing the stations. I had the supplier give me all sorts of bull.... reasons but explained that I had spent my life in electronics, a lot of it radio. They eventually advised me that "because there is no AM in Europe, the function had been removed"!!! We tried another new unit with the same result so it does appear that the function just doesn't work on this model despite the claim. The stations have to be scanned in manually and saved. OK if you don't travel. I do a lot and the function gets a lot of use, or at least did. Another function that is claimed is the GPS turn info repeated on the MFD display in the centre of the gauge cluster. They tell me that in a few weeks they might have a patch to make that work, we'll see.
The distributor in Sydney told the supplier that if they got enough complaints about it (20 was mentioned) that they could go to the manufacturer and possibly get an "upgrade" to include the station search facility.
It would be good to get this posted across all VW models as the unit is common to lots of models. Not sure how to do this.
Any comments appreciated.
Peter

[SnowMotion]

I have the Zenec 2010 installed in 2 work vans. It has not been a happy 12 months with both units swapped out 3 times. If they fail again I will be returning them and asking for money back.
The Zenec seems very popular in Europe and seems to have a good share of the aftermarket business. I find it really hard to understand why Australian units have so many problems.

[Sunny43.5]

Can I ask a stupid question , I just had a look on the Zenec website are these units listed around the $1900 mark or am I wrong ?? I suppose the reason I ask is we have fitted to our 3 T5,s head units from China and they have the same functions plus more for a lot less > I will admit that I see some Zenec models will put some additional information from the car to the unit . Now as for Am and a lesser degree FM reception seems to be a VW problem as the moment you remove the stock units reception goes out the window . We live around 40 km from Brisbane central and AM is barely able to be picked up FM is quite good but I have fitted a vey neat roof aerial which is power boosted . I did some checking around and did try what one car radio fitting place suggested but it did not work so I went with the roof mount and it has worked . There is obviously built in boosting to the factory radio aerials from the factory head unit and I suspect that once you connect a non factory unit Canbus detects and somehow disables the boost [ please someone correct me if I am wrong here ] .I have tried to auto scan AM stations and cannot get any , I know the frequencies of some and have put them in manually but you can hardly hear them . FM auto scan will program more than 18 stations by itself . This is the one I have used in our new van .ES1268AU 8" HD Car DVD Player GPS WiFi 3G DVB-T IPOD VW PASSAT SKODA SEAT | eBay

[pjondeck]

Yes my system was $2100 installed.
I do get the impression that the firmware changes that they have made for the Australian market have nobbled the radio, especially AM. I wonder if the radio sensitivity was better perhaps the AS function would have half a chance at working.
The T5 does have an antenna pre-amp, in the ZENEC there is actually a selection to enable power to the pre-amp. I am sure that I am going to have the same problem as you with reception tomorrow as I drive away from Canberra. I wonder if we can use the numbers clout of the forum to get something done about it? The distributor in Sydney said that they would need a good number of complaints to initiate a communique to the manufacturer to get it sorted. It is probably only a firmware issue. If we were in a big market like the US I'd bet it would have been sorted. Interestingly, Lennock Motors, a big VW dealer here is sending purchasers of Multivans and Amaroks to the dealer to have the ZENEC fitted under warranty as the OPEL system is problematic, particularly with sun glare issues. The ZENEC is not immune either, it's just a sill angle of fitment of the screen, particularly in the Multivan.
I have posted this on the Audio Systems section of the forum also so will keep an eye and see if we can muster some numbers of people experiencing the problem.
thanks again
Peter

[Sunny43.5]

Just a thought have you had the van scanned for faults since fitting I just wonder whether the Can Bus has detected the change and has 'locked out the aerial boost" just a thought . In reality I rarely listen to the radio so its a no brainer for me , I would rather listen to my own complilation CD's from my music collection , as our unit will play data dvd's I can put hundreds of songs on one disc .

[pjondeck]

Yes I too mostly listen to what's on my iPhone, couple of thousand tunes there, also have another 1200 on an SD card so no shortage of music. It's just that I like things to work even if I don't use them, bit anal I suppose. Good thought about the Can Bus though, might resolve the permanent rear parking sensor problem too. Thanks for that. It will be a while before I can try that as am traveling for a month now but will post result. cheers
Peter

[pjondeck]

Hi Sunny43.5
I have just returned from 3 weeks travelling in Tassie with the newly fitted ZENEC. The boot up is real slow and one needs to start the engine and wait a minute before the reversing camera will work, frustrating! The most frustrating aspect of the ZENEC however is the useless scanning/saving function of the AM and FM stations. The AM simply doesn't work in AS (Auto Scan) or in manual scan. If you drive to another town unless you know the frequency you want to tune and mess about with manual tuning you just cant use it. The FM scan works occasionally, sometimes it gets a station or two but not always the same ones. It then puts them in frequency order on the buttons, not signal strength. This means if there is only one station in town (ie: Tumut) it will put random FM noise on the rest of the buttons and anyones guess which button has the active station. Odd thing is that once I had the AM station tuned that I wanted to use and drove out of Canberra toward Tumut, I was able to listen to the station just as long as I could with the original VW unit so the sensitivity seemed to still be there. I had a look at the site for the ES1268AU you referred to me. It looks like real good value for the money and if I cant resolve the ZENEC problem I will be telling them to pull it out. Odd that you seem to have the same radio problem with the ES unit? How did you get on with screen brightness which is an issue with the T5 with the flat angle of the screen? It seems better in the Amarok, more vertical. Were there any difficult issues about the installation of your unit, I'm inclined to do it myself this time. Thanks for your input. regards, Peter

[Sunny43.5]

Hi Peter screen brightness is always a problem with the T5 as the angle of the screen and the overhead sunlight make vision almost non existent but you can adjust the brightness - contrast and colour in the settings menu . I found that in my work van I use the GPS every day although I get directions when music is playing etc I have made up a small eyebrow hood it works perfectly in all conditions I will post a photo soon . The unit itself just plugs straight into the factory harness as you can order the canbus adaptor so it works fine if I had the steering wheel control wheel it will work with that as well . The auto tuning function is very simple it starts the scan from the lowest frequency and just keeps storing until it has locked in up to 18 FM stations as their are three FM sections and two am sections for storage of up to 12 AM stations [if there are that many left these days ] The unit itself fit perfectly into the original space with the exact same mounting points , the aerial connection maybe the only thing you may need to change it seems that VW have used two types the old fashioned bayonet type and the newer Fakra type but you can get these at most auto accessory stores . Only word of caution these units are using a Windows based operating system so once in a blue moon the unit will "lock up " in some function you may need to just push the reset button on the front panel and redo your settings no big deal , and in some cases you only need to turn it on and off again . Howard

[IN2VWS]

Most aftermarket radios have the screen brightness problem in a T5.
In my first T5, I had a Pioneer AVIC unit fitted. The screen was useless on a sunny day.
In the current van, it has the RNS510 fitted, and screen brightness is rarely an issue.
For the Dollars you paid for a Zenec, I cant understand you you don't buy the RNS510's that are available.

[pjondeck]

Hi again
Thanks for that good info Howard and IN2VWS. I too have fabricated a hood to look after the glare. It's a bit Mickey Mouse at the moment, I was testing the concept. I intend to fabricate something a little prettier and permanent. Howard, are you saying the ES1268AU scans in the AM and FM channels with no issues? I am going to the ZNEC supplier tomorrow and intend to give them an ultimatum, make the thing work to spec or remove it. In this case I will be seriously looking at the ES1268AU or the RNS510 (which I know nothing about yet). Is the RNS510 the standard VW fitment if you order the vehicle with GPS/Bluetooth/etc? If so a friend of mine took delivery of a new T5 four weeks ago and had such an issue with glare with that unit that Lennock Motors in Canberra sent him down to have a ZENEC fitted at their expense!!
I was surprised that they did that but he says the glare situation is much improved and is therefore a bit reluctant to complain about the non-functioning AM/FM scan and save function. Young bloke next door just had a ZENEC fitted in his Amarok and isn't too happy about the scan situation. As I forked out the big dollars for the ZENEC I intend to insist that it meets spec or rip it out!
The brightness setting in setup is not actually selectable and it is defaulted to max brightness. They know about the problem that's for sure.
Will let you know how I go if you are interested and may want to ask some questions if you are OK with that. I really appreciate the interest from you guys. By the way my T5 has the FAKRA antenna connection (gee, I'm already learning a bit!!)
cheers
Peter

[Sunny43.5]

What you have to remember is these units are Chinese and there are some points where they do not match up to more established brands . The RNS series is obviously a VW unit and as such quality will be of a higher nature . The Chinese ones do have more functions but as I did explain radio is not a strong point . I live around 40 kms from the centre of Brisbane and Am reception is nearly non existant . FM is okay but I very rarely ever listen to radio just cannot handle all these idiots that think they are funny . I have had around three units over the last 8 years in 3 different vans , one had to be sent back due to the non functioning music in gps feature and one after around two years stopped playing DVDS etc but because they are cheap if you do upgrade after a couple of years you get many more updated features and GPS mapping . The GPS in these is very up to date I read somewhere that the latest Toureg had maps that did not have Brisbane,s new tunnels and mine even had one that had not been opened at the time . Howard

[pjondeck]

Thanks Howard
I emailed Zenec and explained the problem, how's this for a bit of inelegant ducking for cover:
Quote:On our two VW vehicles here (at Zenec) that had factory radio installed (NS-510 navigation & RDC510) the AM scan function does not work on these either. But please remember that this is an aftermarket system and should not be compared to operation of a factory device as there is no claim that this is an OEM product.Unquote.
He's saying don't compare it with two OEM products that DONT work!!! My vehicle had the RCD310 fitted on delivery and it did everything it was supposed to.
Basically what he's saying is that the unit is not completely compatible to the OEM unit. He also gave me some BS about some VWs didn't have the two diversity antennas installed and I might need to install another antenna. I asked him if he thought that VW might have done a cost saving on my $64000 vehicle by not installing the full antenna installation! He said "could be". At that point he started to lose me. The glossy blurb sheet upon which I based a lot of my choice on the front cover says "Compatible with Volkswagen Golf VI/...........Amarok/T5 Multivan.
The supplier says it's only a problem with the T5, it set him back a bit when I told him they fitted one in a mates Amarok and another's T5just last week and they are both about to come and talk to them about the identical symptoms. I told him that while I am satisfied that they are trying to address the problem I'll be patient but have two years in which to decide to have it removed. He reluctantly agreed.
The plot thickens.
Peter

[Sunny43.5]

Will wait with anticipation for the outcome .Howard

[pjondeck]

Hi guys
The plot thickens on the ZENEC issue. I emailed ZENEC explaining the scan problems and got this response:
"On our two VW vehicles here that had factory radio installed (RNS-510 navigation & RCD510) the AM scan function does not work on these either. But please remember that this is an aftermarket system and should not be compared to operation of a factory device as there is no claim made that this is an OEM product. "
Now what that is saying clearly to me is that ZENEC are accepting that the unit is not 100% compatible with the OEM fitting.
When I asked for confirmation that that was what they were saying I got this response:
"We have asked Zenec in Europe about this, but as you have seen personally the RCD-510 factory radio does not scan AM either. So why it would be expected for our device to be different to that I don’t know. But we will see what Zenec’s explanation is and I will let Audiotech know the response."
There was a move to try the RCD-510 in the vehicle but the result was not conclusive, the supplier claimed that being under their workshop roof was probably an issue. Anyhow I pointed out to ZENEC that the system that was removed to fit the ZENEC was an RCD-310 which performed faultlessly in AM/FM scan and save modes and had good sensitivity so it is the RCD-310 with which I am comparing the performance. It seems odd to me that the supplier is being protective of the system, I told them that it is not their problem, it's ZENEC's.
I believe that this scan function is a fairly common problem that runs through aftermarket systems generally, can anyone confirm this please? ZENEC tell me that their unit is the only one that caters for the diversity antenna and that is why it is the only one that works, funny thing to say when it doesnt. Is it possible that there is some error or some condition being created in the vehicle that is causing a problem. I'm inclined to think not as the only thing that I could imagine is loss of power to the antenna pre-amp and unless I refit the RCD-310 I don't see how I can prove that. I will need to go back to VW and get the passcode for the RCD-310 to do that but I am disinclined to touch the ZENEC installation in any way as it will give them an opportunity to cry foul and duck out of the whole issue. There are three of us here with very recent installations with the same problem asking for resolution, would be interested to know if anyone on the forum would be interested in contacting Leigh Thomas at ZENEC on 1300493632 and telling them about any problems they have, all adds weight.
many thanks again
Peter

[IN2VWS]

I might be way off base here.....but how many antennas are connected to the Zenec?
My T5 has 3 antennas in the drivers side mirror. From memory, it is a GPS, FM and Am antenna........Someone jump in and correct me if I am wrong here.

The connections for these antennas is in the drivers door, and then the loom goes back to the radio. Are all these antennas used on the Zenec?

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f136/my11-t5-i-found-antennas-67179.html