Kenwood 520VBT

[Robbles]

Hi,

Ive bought a second hand Kenwood 520VBT and I'm unable to get the connections to fit. The wiring loom is not the genuine Kenwood one.

Do i need anything else?

I've never changed a car stereo before.

Cheers

[mannyo]

Yes, you need a quadlock (Car) to ISO (headunit) conversion kit. You also need to run a switched supply to the main fuse box since there is not one behind the headunit or on the quadlock. You may also need a Fakra to ISO aerial adapter depending on what aerial connection is on the back of the Kenwood.

Since the wiring loom is not the kenwood one, there maybe other connections missing. The ISO connection you currently have will only sort the power and speakers. There is no canbus connection, so you'll get no PDC display or climate display on the kenwood etc.

[nutters_uclan]

I ordered this pal:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=260940871042

Did the trick, but I've not yet connected my radio antenna up.

[Robbles]

Did you have to connect this one to the fuse box mate?

[mannyo]

You will have to connect to the fusebox unless you want a flat battery, because your kenwood will not power down completely without the switched supply which must be obtained from the fusebox.

[Robbles]

Thanks for the update mate

I think I'm going to get someone to install this who knows what they are doing..

[JohnMcL7]

You will have to connect to the fusebox unless you want a flat battery, because your kenwood will not power down completely without the switched supply which must be obtained from the fusebox.

Are you sure about that? I haven't read of anyone else needing to do that with this unit on here.

John

[mannyo]

The two 12 volt feeds behind the headunit are both always on, they are not switched so the headunit will not know if the key is in the ignition or not. The factory headunit knows because it is canbus controlled, so gets its on/off command via the cars Can-H and Can-L data bus. This is not supported by the ISO loom posted above. The kit that Skoda supply to be used with aftermarket headunits includes a fly lead to run directly to the fusebox for this very reason.

The battery may not go flat as long as you remember to switch it off, but the radio will not turn off/on with the ignition, so it is possible to leave the radio switched on which will result in a flat battery.

[JohnMcL7]

The Kenwood unit is canbus controlled as well as far as I'm aware as this is one VW offered themselves, certainly it powers right down when I take the key out of the ignition.

John

Edited 7 April, 2013 by JohnMcL7

[nutters_uclan]

Same - I didn't have to do anything but buy that lead and connect it up. I've had it for almost a month, it turns off and on with the ignition and my battery has never died as a result.

[JohnMcL7]

I've just checked mine and my battery isn't flat either, I think the advice Mannyo is giving would apply to most aftermarket units whereas this Kenwood unit (and I think some of the Zenecs) are designed to work with the Canbus system as mine does recognise when the keys are in the ignition and when they are not.

John

[Robbles]

Brilliant. Thanks for the help.

[JohnMcL7]

Can you get another Kenwood wiring loom? That should be all you need as it connects the bigger black connector and the smaller antennae connector.

A word of warning - be very careful with the antennae connector (the small 90 degree beige connector), the wiring loom is a bit bulky as it has a couple of boxes on it and there's not much space behind the stereo so when I pushed the stereo back in I snapped the antennae connector which seems a complete pain in the neck to get fixed. Someone here recommended sliding out the heater controls and to put the excess cable down the back which I haven't tried yet but sounds like it might make it easier.

John

[nutters_uclan]

Someone here recommended sliding out the heater controls and to put the excess cable down the back which I haven't tried yet but sounds like it might make it easier.

Yeah, that's what I had to do.

Looking sweet now with my wrapped trim:

[Robbles]

Look's good mate

Edited 8 April, 2013 by Robbles

[JohnMcL7]

My new black trim arrived today so will be good to get that fitted and just waiting for the trim removal tools so I can get the storage box at the top off and fit the GPS antennae. Also need to look at Nick's recommendation again on where to route the BT mic's cable. Still need to find someone to fix the antennae connector though.

John

[Robbles]

Mine's all fitted and working fine. Over the moon with it.

How do you change the boot screen logo?

[JohnMcL7]

The instructions are a bit down on this page:

http://wikibin.org/articles/kenwood-dnx520vbt.html

Custom Startup

The Startup screen (VW, Seat or Skoda Logo) can be changed on the DNX520VBT. The image format needed is a 800x400 pixel JPEG image. (*.jpg)

To carry this out you need to press SRC+EJECT+RESET. then release the RESET button and still hold in the SRC+EJECT button until the Startup screen selection loads. You will be shown two options, Kenwood Image or OEM Image. plug in a USB device with your image file you want as a Startup screen into the USB slot on the DNX520VBT. once the USB Device has been discovered you can then select OEM Image and select the image on your USB drive. Select ENTER to write the image to the Head Unit. Once this is done you can press reset to exit and reboot your Kenwood unit. then recall your settings.

note: Before entering this setup mode, save your settings from the SETUP MEMORY option. Select TOOLS, SYSTEM, SETUP MEMORY. Select YES, MEMORY and confirm that you want to write to the memory. Once you have finished the start up screen proceeder, recall your saved settings from the above options.

[JohnMcL7]

If anyone's wanting a small USB stick that doesn't get in the way, I'd recommend this little one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-43941-Netbook-Flash-Drive/dp/B004699TNU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366223010&sr=8-2&keywords=verbatim+netbook

It's incredibly small and doesn't have any preloaded software so just a case of sticking your music in and plugging it in, works fine with the stereo.

John

[nutters_uclan]

Good find. I've been thinking of getting one myself.

[Robbles]

Thanks mate, That USB stick is a must.

[nutters_uclan]

Thanks mate, That USB stick is a must.

just a shame they don't produce them in a much larger size. Having said that, I think the unit can only handle so many directories, so 32GB is probably as good as it gets.

I also find the sound is better when you can change the EQ settings of both the iPod and Kenwood unit too, which you obviously can't do on a USB stick.

[JohnMcL7]

The Kenwood unit can't take any more than 32GB, the total number of mp3's I think is 65,500 ish but the root level folders is limited to 255 but you can work around that by nesting the folders slightly. If you go over the limit it will grey out the folders in the folder view (FLIST) and they won't show in the tags view (PLIST), I was using a 32GB mp3 player and had this behaviour but checked and I had 280 odd folders in the one music folder which was obviously the cause. I didn't bother rearranging as I knew I'd be switching over to the USB stick. Strangely in the FLIST view the folders are listed by the order they were placed on the drive which makes that mode a bit random to use.

I found with the 32GB player the PLIST button was greyed out for a bit and took a few minutes before available so thought I'd try a smaller 16GB stick just to see if it was much quicker but speed seemed the same.

It shouldn't matter not having an EQ on the USB stick as it's just a drive and the Kenwood is entirely responsible for the audio which normally means better sound quality. I don't quite know how the Ipod works as it's using USB and the aux-in so I assume it's sending control signals over USB and then the audio is coming in via the aux-in?

John

[nutters_uclan]

It shouldn't matter not having an EQ on the USB stick as it's just a drive and the Kenwood is entirely responsible for the audio which normally means better sound quality. I don't quite know how the Ipod works as it's using USB and the aux-in so I assume it's sending control signals over USB and then the audio is coming in via the aux-in?

If you only the aux in for audio, then the EQ settings from the iPod are still in effect. I seem to have struck a golden combination between the two!