Well after umm'ing and err'ing about which head unit to get, I went with a Columbus and today it has taken pride of place in my dashboard! Yep, it's all fitted and functioning!

Huge thanks to mikeholroyd who demonstrated his VCDS wizardry in getting it all coded up appropriately. It's amazing just what you can do with VCDS...I never thought that having the foglights flash every time I turned the heater on would be that useful, but I'm actually beginning to appreciate it now!!!!! Seriously though, Mike was an absolute star....brought his laptop and VCDS down from Preston (on a coach full of United fans too!) and not only coded everything up on VCDS but also located and fitted a new CAN gateway. That in itself was a bit of a big job due to the fact that on my '07 Octy they've hidden the darned thing up behind some relays at the back of the steering column! Was a right pig to get to....Mike I hope your knuckles aren't too badly skinned from manhandling the dashboard, fascia, etc, etc!

It's a 3T0 Columbus (July 2010, firmware 3800) and I was somewhat surprised when, having fitted it and switched it on, up popped the navigation compass in Maxidot without having to do anything! Mike confirmed on VCDS that it wasn't currently coded for navigation so just quite why/how it appeared on Maxidot I really don't know - but anyway, it's all coded appropriately now and damn it's a fine bit of kit!

One thing I'm not too sure about re the navigation - it works absolutely fine and picks up a GPS signal in no time at all, but it seems that there aren't many road names appearing. They do occasionally pop up, but usually only the road I'm actually on and not any of the surrounding ones. Is this normal? (I'm on v7 maps btw) Or is there a way to control what/how much info is displayed on the screen?

The only other thing to say is that climate info doesn't appear on the screen and there is no visual indication of the rear parking sensors. Does anyone know how to make those things appear? I think I read somewhere that to get the parking sensor info would require a new parking ECU...? It's by no means a show stopper though - would be nice to have but I certainly won't be losing sleep over it.

So there we go...I'm now MFD3'd up and grinning lots! Thanks again Mike...hope your coach passengers behaved on the way home!

EDIT: Oops! Meant to post this in the Octavia II forum Can an admin move it please? Sorry!!

Edited 12 February, 201115 yr by slicendice

I would not worry about the climate display, I've disabled mine as it's annoying and as for the rear sensor display, I never see it because I'm looking over my shoulder when I reverse, so it's rather pointless for me.

Not noticed the road names on the satnav, but if I remember I'll have a look tomorrow

Enjoy your Columbus

My Columbus doesn't show all the road names too, just the occasional one, mainly main roads.

Ian

I was quite surprised when I fitted mine that everything worked out of the box without re-coding. The car had only ever had Stream units from new, but the Columbus worked fine with navigation instructions and compass showing on the maxidot etc.

Enjoy your new toy

Thanks everyone

Well I have discovered a slight problem whereby it locks up if I choose "Select map details" in setup - no idea why! I've made a post in the ICE forum about it....hopefully someone will have some words of wisdom!

Glad you're all sorted. And I believe some kind person did answer your pre-purchase query about climate and parking sensor info

Sorry, can't help on that operational question. Maybe just go through the 'reboot' sequence and see if it clears that gremlin?