Replacing the RNS-510 with an aftermarket head-unit

pedror

New member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Location
Ontario Canada
TDI
2014 Tiguan 4Motion Highline (SEL)
I had an installer replace the RNS-510 on my 2014 Tiguan with a Pioneer AVIC 8100NEX with iDataLink module. I also ordered the backup camera adapter but once installed it would only give me a black screen when placed into reverse. I thought I had a defective unit so I returned it (BTW returns with AliExpress = big hassle) and ordered another newer unit (labelled 2015) and had the same issue.

The installer is very experienced and when I returned the second adapter the seller said they do not work with cameras with dynamic parking guide lines. Is the backup camera different on the Tig vs. the Passat?
 

Mr. Furious

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Location
North Carolina
TDI
None
The installer is very experienced and when I returned the second adapter the seller said they do not work with cameras with dynamic parking guide lines. Is the backup camera different on the Tig vs. the Passat?
The Passat doesn't have dynamic guide lines, so they must be.
 

Josemsm

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Location
Gastonia, NC
TDI
2011 VW Jetta TDI
I did a quick video when I left work today to show how fast the RVC is available after the car starts:

http://youtu.be/kAwYjncRvoU

The voice is my radar detector, not the head unit.
Mr. Furious

Question about that adaptor rgb to rca

I have 2011 Jetta TDI sedan with:
Aftermarket JVC
I am installing VW oem camera as you ALREADY done
****I bought the SAME adapter you have, HOW did you wires the adapter BACK , Power, Ground??

Thank you
Jose
 

B7TDI

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL
Pedror/Community,

I've also had problems with coverting a factory camera to an aftermarket HU. I installed an avh4100nex in my 2013 passat TDI SEL. It replaced the stock rns510. I too used idatalink to retain my steering wheel controls. Everything works perfectly except the back up camera. At first, I thought I had received a bad unit from aliexpress. I waited a couple of months and ordered another converter from a different supplier. They looked almost identical except the 1st one had a brown 26 pin connector and the 2nd was black but it didn't work either. Once installed, it still only showed a black screen on reverse with the "image may be reversed" text, timer, and x buttons. I connected the yellow wire to the purple\white reverse lead coming from the pioneer harness. The factory unit had static reverse lines. I seriously doubt I've purchased two bad converters. Did you ever get this resolved in your tiguan? What am I doing wrong? Anyone, please help.

Thanks
 

JaredC01

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2011
Location
St. Louis, MO
TDI
2015 Passat SE - 6MT
Pedror/Community,
I've also had problems with coverting a factory camera to an aftermarket HU. I installed an avh4100nex in my 2013 passat TDI SEL. It replaced the stock rns510. I too used idatalink to retain my steering wheel controls. Everything works perfectly except the back up camera. At first, I thought I had received a bad unit from aliexpress. I waited a couple of months and ordered another converter from a different supplier. They looked almost identical except the 1st one had a brown 26 pin connector and the 2nd was black but it didn't work either. Once installed, it still only showed a black screen on reverse with the "image may be reversed" text, timer, and x buttons. I connected the yellow wire to the purple\white reverse lead coming from the pioneer harness. The factory unit had static reverse lines. I seriously doubt I've purchased two bad converters. Did you ever get this resolved in your tiguan? What am I doing wrong? Anyone, please help.
Thanks
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=5005262&postcount=2
 

B7TDI

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL
Thanks for the response. When I mentioned that I had the yellow wire from the converter connected to the purple/white wire from the pioneer harness, I failed to mention that the reverse lead from the Maestro harness was also connected.
The picture below is my completed wiring harness. Instead of using wire taps, I doubled up on each of the three connections required for the reverse camera adapter.
I twisted the black wire from the converter to the black wire on the maestro harness and terminated them into a female bullet connector. I then terminated the pioneer harness ground to a male bullet.
The same was done for the red and yellow wires. However the yellow from the adapter was connected to the purple/white reverse wire from the maestro harness and connected to the purple/white reverse lead coming from the headunit.
Polarity seems fine. When I put the vehicle in reverse the HU switches to the black screen. When I take it out of reverse, it goes back to whatever screen it was previously on.
If this is how it should be connected, could there be something in VCDS causing the issue? Does anyone know how I could test the camera? I would think it was bad if Pedror hadn’t experienced the same problem.
What am I doing wrong?



 

JaredC01

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2011
Location
St. Louis, MO
TDI
2015 Passat SE - 6MT
Colors are useless without knowing what they're labeled as. What are the Yellow and Red wires labeled as on your adapter?
 

B7TDI

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL
The first image is the original adapter I purchased. The black was labeled (ground), red (+ battery), and the yellow (back). The second image is the new adapter. However, when it arrived, there were no tags on the wires. I assumed they were the same as the first one. It never dawned on me that they might be different. The picture shows the red (back) and yellow (+battery). I'll take it back apart and try this configuration. It just seems odd that it would behave the same as it did with the first adapter if the wires are crossed now. I'll report back. Thanks.



 

B7TDI

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Location
Georgia
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL
Success! I switched the wires around and I finally got an image. I connected the black "GND" to the harness black ground, yellow "+battery" to the harness yellow +12v constant, and the red "back" to the harness purple/white reverse gear. I then plugged the yellow "cam out" RCA to the brown "BC" RCA input on the back of the head unit. When I switch into reverse, the camera comes on. Thanks for helping me work through it.
 

JaredC01

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2011
Location
St. Louis, MO
TDI
2015 Passat SE - 6MT
Glad you got it working! These cheap Chinese adapters really have no quality control to speak of... The color of the wire means absolutely nothing.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 

Uncle_Masa

New member
Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Location
Fort Worth, TX
TDI
14 Passat
Another Happy Replacement in my 14 Passat.

I went with the Kenwood DDX9902S, Maestro RR, other than that I used all the same components as Mr. Furious.

For those going the Kenwood route I wanted to offer some insight with the Gauges/ODBII connection. Every time I went to configure the system by selecting my engine size it would say that the unit was disconnected. I had to pull the stereo out and reflash the maestro to get it to work. So you can set gas tank size, but don't change the engine and it will work.

Also with my RVC adapter the metal sheath on the RCA connector broke loose. I ended up ordering some new terminators from Amazon and reterminated it myself. Nice solid connection.

The only other issue I'm dealing with is AM radio. I get great FM, but no AM at all. The adapter is hooked to the amp wire coming from the radio. Before I RMA to enfig I wanted to know if anyone else has grappled with this?
 
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flore

New member
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Location
Maryland
TDI
Passat
Hey guys,

I've been reading this and other threads about replacing the RNS-510 and the posts here were a lot of help!

I just installed a Pioneer AVIC-8200NEX with Maestro RR, VW1 harness, the 26-pin to RCA adapter and Enfig housing and antenna converters. Everything works except for the backup camera, which only works in camera view mode.

There is a weird phenomenon on why the Pioneer does not switch into reverse gear mode when shifting into reverse: The voltage in the reverse signal lead from the harness drops from about 12.5V to 1.7V when compared with ground when the reverse signal lead of the Pioneer is connected.

(Overview: GND to harness +12V: 13.7V ; GND to harness reverse signal 12.5V with no wire connected to it, and 1.7V with pioneer reverse signal lead connected)

I checked and pinged the wiring but I just can't figure out why the voltage drops... Camera wiring seems to be OK because the camera does switch on and off when going to reverse and back, which I can see in camera view mode. The BACK wire from the camera adapter doesn't make a difference whether it's connected or not - voltage still drops and the camera turns on and off with the BACK cable connected or not.. basically it has no function.

When the Pioneer reverse lead is connected directly to the harness +12V cable it goes into reverse gear mode.

Any help or advise? Is the Pioneer unit bad and has some kind of leak that just doesn't show up when connected straight to +12V ?

Thank you for your insight!!
 
Last edited:

Mixchump

Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Location
Stratford, ON Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon 1.9L TDI - 5-Spd Manual, 2015 Passat 2L TDI 6-spd Manual
I finally got around to this a couple weeks ago, and what a difference... Goodbye crap sounding OEM head unit... I ended up installing a Kenwood DNX-693S (but actually working on a deal to swap up to 694S).

I did end up buying the RGB to Composite adapter from AliExpress and it worked flawlessly in my car with the Kenwood unit.

This is the one I bought...

RGB-to-Composite converter

It sounds like the Pioneer unit is looking for +12V to tell it to switch into reverse mode, but the Camera adapter harness is pulling it low (close to 0V) on non-reverse condition and isn't going high (+12V) on reverse condition. Double check the wires in the AliExpress harness, because I've read in another thread that they were labelled backwards in one case...
 

flore

New member
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Location
Maryland
TDI
Passat
Thanks for the tip! I will have to wait a bit to play around with it again... I will test the camera adapter. I got the same one, also from Seicane, but ordered it on ebay. I'll switch around the cables and see.. but last time the camera did switch on depending on the gear setting so I'll see...

Hopefully, I'll have it worked out in my next post ;)
 

senez

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
15 Passat DSG
Has anyone tried installing an Alpine ilx-107? I'm looking at it primarily for the wireless CarPlay functionality. Any tips/reviews?
 

15 TDI

New member
Joined
Oct 24, 2017
Location
ohio
TDI
Passat
Guys, I have done this same replacement on my "NEW 15"

I put in a pioneer 8001nex, Maestro rr, harnesss, etc etc etc..

Now the dealer wont warranty my factory remote start, that quit working.. Have you guys had a dealer pull this yet???
 

flore

New member
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Location
Maryland
TDI
Passat
I finally figured it out: The reason why the pioneer wouldn't go into reverse camera mode when shifting into reverse is that the reverse gear indicator cable (violet/white) did not have enough current. I had a relay installed that is connected to the main 12V harness - that gives it enough current when shifting into reverse.


One new problem came up though... When using apple carplay, using the VW microphone doesn't work... it seems like the pioneer needs its directly connected microphone for that and can't use the OEM one connected via maestro.. Anybody figured this out or is using the directly connected microphone the only option?

@15 TDI: I never used the remote start .. will try tomorrow and see if it still works.
 

flore

New member
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Location
Maryland
TDI
Passat
@15 TDI: I tried the remote start.. it still works for me. Did you try to go to a different dealer yet for the warranty repair?

How did you setup your settings so that Apple Carplay works through the factory microphone?
 
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