Fishlex

I have no experience with Amps in cars, just home theater so I may be completely missing the mark but the Xtrons unit I have has female phono adapters for speaker channels out in its loom. Could you connect those to your amp? Like I say, I have no idea what kind of inputs you have on the amp in the car.

The end of the line. All in and working correctly, engages with reverse, looks great. The missing link was another part of the head unit loom still being in my drawer rather than attached to the unit. On that loom? A video input labelled Reverse Cam In... I'm slow but I get there in the end. Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone.

Finally managed to find an ingress point, two rubber grommets just below the bottom boot trim. No need to remove the trim or the screws at the bottom of the bumper, just pull the grommet in to the car, cut and feed the wire through then replace the grommet from inside. I pushed it all the way back out then used wire nosed pliers to pull the lip of it in to the interior. I ran the cable to the front the lazy way under the trim on the floor of the passenger side and through the dash to the back of the head unit. It works fine with my AVIN app but when I put it in reverse, still no picture. Still waiting for a response from Xtron support on that one.

Thanks for the tips Wingnut but I did put the "ATD 12v DC Power Relay For CANBUS Car Rear View Backup Reverse Camera" inline to feed the camera power so I think it's something else. It's deffo the PAL one too so I'm not sure what's going on. It works because the AVIN app shows a perfectly fine video feed, just not whatever app is jumping in when I put the car in reverse. I'm more concerned trying to route the cables as I will at least have a manual way of activating the reversing camera. I hate working on cars, everything is cramped and awkward to get to 🙂

Nice write up and photos Gaff, thanks. My own reversing camera saga continues as well. I got one that fits the number plate light and is basically a replacement clear plastic cover to go over the original fitting but with a camera attached. I managed to fit that without issue this time. I removed the entire fitment from the body (it's a clip on one side that holds it in to the body), fed the camera cables in to the hole and put the fitment back in. So far so good but now it all goes wrong. I can't find a way to get the cable from inside the bumper to inside the car. I've removed the bottom boot trim and found some promising looking holes but there's something between them and the space between the bumper stopping me from pulling the wires through. I think I'll need to get under the car and trace how the existing cables in the bumper get back in to the car. The second problem I have is that the head unit only shows a black screen when I put the car in reverse. If I run a built in app called AVIN on the head unit, I see the camera feed fine. I've got a ticket in to Xtron support for that one. I'll continue the updates if they're of any interest to anyone.

The superb one is online only and frankly not worth it, seems very incomplete to the old ones I was used to in print.

Nice one, thanks again Wingnut, you've been very helpful.

Right, I've rescued the light, had to undo three of the rear bumper torque screws and have a fish around. Still, all done now. I've ordered a custom light fit reversing camera and power relay from audiotech so I'll report back if I ever figure out how to fit it!

Thanks for that Wingnut, sadly the manual doesn't cover that kind of thing, guess they expect the owners to have more sense 😉I'll treat myself to a Haynes manual and see what's what before I do any more damage.

So being the ham-fisted fool I am I've managed to push one of the the number plate lights inside the body work 😧 The screws were stiff. I managed to get one undone and then pushing on to the other to get bite pushed it inside the bodywork. I wanted to get it out to have a measure up and make sure I get the right part. So the next question is how do I access the light fitting to push it back out? Is it a remove the bottom boot trim job or an underneath the car with a torch and a flexible wrist job?

Outstanding info, thanks again Wingnut! Nothing like speaking to the voice of experience when it comes to these things so thanks for sharing. Sounds like a bulb one rather than an LED may be the way to go as I'm not fussed about the light type, just want the camera really and I hate warning lights.

Thanks Wingnut! I'm busy eyeing up the Audiotech website now, I somehow hadn't found it. What would be the better option in your experienced opinion, a number plate light based reversing camera or one that is integrated with the boot handle?

I'm really looking forward to your write up on the DVR and especially rear parking camera as I'd really like to add one too! Which parking camera did you go for?

Hi Gaff, What a great write up! Excellent pictures and descriptions, I wish I 'd had this before I did mine. I had the same issue as you with the TPMS and the bluetooth, what fixed it for me was just using a different TPMS app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tpms3 Worked for me but I do hate the US flag on it 🙂 I have discovered something interesting when it comes to the maxidot integration. If I'm using the built in Radio or Music app, I get the Audio choice on my maxidot. If I use third party apps like Poweramp, I lose the Audio settings on the maxidot. I've yet to find a nav app that will pass through to the maxidot but I've only just figured out that it's app dependent so more experimentation is required here. I've added a 4G sim card to mine which seems to work well. I was surprised that the unit will only utilize the SIM for data and will not allow it to be used for calls or texts. I guess that's just my ignorance and unfamiliarity with the technology. Given my experience of the DAB so far, I'd say you're not missing much. I can't seem to get a solid signal out of it despite using the car's built in aerial. Speaking of the aerial, have you tried connecting to the car's GPS aerial rather than the soppy little one that comes with the unit? I was able to use the car's built in GPS antenna on my Superb and it locks on straight away and never seems to lose signal (barring tunnels). My ODB II is a bit flaky on the connection front but turning the dongle off and on again normally fixes it for me. One other thing you've probably already figured out but this unit has a microSD slot labelled GPS on the front. This is essentially just another SD card slot and can be used to store music, movies etc. It can even be formatted to be extra app space for the head unit should you need it. I'll be interested to hear about your ongoing journey with the unit, I'm still playing with and refining mine. I love it so far but as you have rightly said, the available documentation on these things is almost non existent. You've done a good job on adding to the knowledge here, thank you.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on! I'm still struggling to get a usable DAB signal on mine, I've tried ferrite cores and all sorts. It works about 70% of the time, certainly not as well as FM. Generally seems not worth the effort for DAB. The rest of the unit has been great, TPMS, Ignition, Igo for Nav and poweramp for music all running nicely on the Agama car launcher. I'm very happy with it overall.

Thanks Delboy, looks like I could have saved some serious cash 😪. I'll have to investigate why my music and nav isn't making it to the maxidot, Could be to do with using Agama instead of the native Xtrons launcher. I'll test it out as it would be nice to get that back.

I can understand that, all valid points. The head unit does work with hands free but it's not integrated with the maxidot. You're quite right about the L&K, I believe you have a nice amp connected to your speakers and this would definitely add complexity for you with an Xtrons. Mine's a bit more basic so was nice and easy.

Good shout on the part number, thank you langers2k. The only one I can find is just shy of £90 on ebay which seems like a lot of money for a plastic veneer!

That makes sense, thank you, I'll see if I can pries off the old one and report back.

I've had it a couple of weeks now so I'll give you my impressions. Firstly, the unit. I went for an expensive one as I love gadgets (I'm in IT) and plan on keeping my car until it is uneconomical to repair (first car I've ever loved owning!). I got the IQ90MTVL model (£429.99) but any model with at least 2 GB RAM will be fine. 4GB will be better. I also got the tire pressure monitoring (£63.99) , the ODB dongle (£10.99) and the DAB radio dongle (£49.99). I wouldn't buy the TPMS or the DAB from Xtrons again as they are over priced. Any USB TPMS or DAB dongle will work with this unit. I wish I'd known this before purchase! Fitting. This was very straight forward as the Xtrons unit is made for the Skoda so fits neatly in to the hole the old system left. Access to remove the old system is extremely easy as you just need to use a trim tool to pull off the rectangle of black plastic which surrounds the unit and then there are 4 torx screws (T15) to remove. One thing to be aware of is if you disconnect the passenger airbag sensor which is connected to the black plastic rectangle, you will trigger a warning on the ECU and you'll need to clear it with an ODB reader. I left it connected and just rotated the plastic out of the way when I fitted the new unit (be careful not to scratch the new unit on it!). I also left the battery connected throughout. The wiring harness was simple as the new unit came with a quad lock connector that snaps directly in to the car loom. This provides power and connects the car speakers to the head unit. It does not connect AM/FM, DAB,MIC or GPS. The new unit came with its own aerials for DAB and GPS. Put the DAB one in the bin, it's useless. The GPS unit works but you want it to see the sky wherever you decide to place it so it does end up cluttering the dashboard. I bought a Fakra to SMA connector from Amazon to connect the car's built in GPS aerial to the head unit for £7.99. I bough a dual fakra to DIN cable to connect the car aerials for AM and FM, again, £7.99. I also bought a magnetic stick on DAB aerial which works well but does result in some ugly wiring. My car doesn't have a built in DAB aerial so this will have to do as no way am I messing with the headlining to put a proper aerial in. DAB aerial was £13.99. The new unit. Nice, clean looking, large screen. I installed the Agama car launcher (£2.49 I think) after playing with a couple of other options and I find that Agama suits my needs very well. The unit itself seems well made, solid components and many many connection options. It has a DSP audio chip built in and sounds much better than the old RNS510 did. I love having the entire Android ecosystem available to customize the capabilities of the car. I am using Torque combined with the dongle I bought for real time engine information, the TPMS alarms audibly if it detects an issue. I have Igo, Sygic, Waze, TomTom, Memory map and Google maps for navigation which covers me for online and offline navigating, all with decent real time traffic monitoring. Poweramp for music, plex for parked up entertainment. The unit is snappy and fast. I added a 128GB SD card to its "GPS" slot but this is just treated as extra storage labelled GPS. I put my 90GB of music on it and it plays fine. The new unit is better than the RNS510 in every measurable way. The startup time is sub 30 seconds from cold, noticeably faster then the RNS510. Sub two seconds from "warm". The screen is clearer and brighter, the sound, especially the bass, is much improved too. Steering wheel integration has been fully retained and additionally is now programmable if you want to add more controls. You also retain things like the climate control settings appearing on the head unit when you make changes as well as reversing tones and display for reversing sensors (I don't have a camera but am thinking about adding one). The unit also allows you to add Skoda branding to it and match it's colours to your car's interior or any other colour you like. You can make it look very factory fitted as it has no branding on the front. The bad news. Maxidot integration is affected. You no longer have music titles being reported and the sat nav no longer integrates. So far I have been unsuccessful in integrating the car's Phone hands free functions with the maxidot. The maxidot will still control the phone and allow you to make calls etc but it doesn't route the audio through the head unit, just the phone. This may be fixable as I learn more but I hardly ever use the phone in the car so it's low priority for me. This may be a deal breaker for some but I normally have my maxidot on consumption anyway so this doesn't really bother me. The other big downside that I can see is that this unit really benefits from being online. You can download apps and maps and music and keep it all local but this unit shines most when it's able to get live traffic updates, stream spotify and other online activities. This means you'll want to either be getting your phone to enable its wifi hotspot each time the bluetooth connects to the head unit automatically (it's a pain to remember to turn it on and off each time you get in and out of the car) or you'll want a 4G version/dongle and a SIM to get the most out of it. Overall, I wish I'd made the change sooner. The new unit makes the car feel like a brand new modern day luxury vehicle. It can provide a wifi hotspot for passengers, good bluetooth built in, can handle up to four storage devices (3 x USB and 1 x SD) up 10 128GB each and is blisteringly quick compared to the RNS510. Multiple choices of navigation/music/movie/game software that simply isn't available to the RNS. Easy to update as well as maintain and based on an operating many people are already familiar with from their phone. I'd never replace the RNS510 with another RNS510, it'll be one of these units from now on. If you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer while it's all still fresh in my memory.

I just removed my RNS510 Columbus to replace it with an Xtrons 10" Android head unit. You can get them a lot cheaper than replacement RNS510s. Might be something to consider? I love my new head unit.

I can speak to aftermarket head units as I just took out my Columbus RNS510 and replaced with an Xtrons 10" Android 10 unit. Fitting it was a breeze but you will need some adapter cables like dual fakra to DIN and another type for the GPS if you want to use the built in car aerials rather than the feeble ones that come with the head unit. It has bluetooth and hands free. Happy to answer any questions or go more in depth as to what I bought and the process to do it if you'd like.

Hi All, I had an air freshener leak on to my large center piece wooden effect dash insert in the front of my Superb mk2 which first discolored then snapped(!) the part. I've looked all over for a replacement and found one from a company in Italy for 20 euro which turned out to be left hand drive and doesn't fit. I was hoping someone here may know of somewhere to sell me the right hand version for a reasonable sum? Here are the part numbers: 3T1858418B 3T1858418C 5481579 Any help much appreciated to restore my beloved Jeeves to his former glory!

Resurrecting a long solved thread to ask for your assistance again! I'm now trying to upgrade the mod I made as detailed above to handle recharging a solar battery (only when the car is running). I originally used slot 45 with a 5 amp fuse which works great with the dash cam but not the solar battery which draws too much power and blows the fuse. Would it be safe to try moving the mod to slot 7, 8 or 9 with a 10amp fuse? Is this dangerous? I'm lead to believe that standard cigarette adapter ports have a 10 amp fuse, is that correct? Really don't want to risk any damage to the car or create a fire hazard! Thank you in advance for any and all assistance you can provide.

I'm not an expert but it does sound like your bluetooth module has gone. It's worth checking the wiring first, it can get knocked loose. You can replace just that unit with no coding needed, just a straight swap out I believe. Other wiser members may correct me on that!