At the risk of dismissing everything point you've considered I wouldn't waste anymore time and buy one. Unless you're dead set on a green Amundsen+ version, the Seat/VW units are anywhere between £280 and £350 and will do exactly what you want

I know you're absolutely right, but I reckon the colour would get on my nerves pretty quickly.

Shame the illumination isn't software configurable

I would have said the same two years ago before I got an RCD510DAB, it personally didn't bother me and I got used to it, but I know everybody's different.

Jonny5ive has an RCD310DAB in his roomster which has red buttons and a blue backlit LCD and I think he's just got used to it too.

I used to have an RCD 310 DAB in my Fabia, the red lights don't look that bad unless you are really fussy about it.

 

At the risk of dismissing everything point you've considered I wouldn't waste anymore time and buy one. Unless you're dead set on a green Amundsen+ version, the Seat/VW units are anywhere between £280 and £350 and will do exactly what you want. There is a guy on eBay who regularly has Amundsen units but normally prices them a bit higher.

Unlikely I would have thought and if you're going to go to the effort of removing the dash top tray, you might as well pull the fascia panel off and undo the 4 screws that hold in the head unit. It's dead easy, take your time and it's nothing to worry about.

 

Sense. Spoken! ;

 

Gyp, you could go through all the effort of going in through the top and go nowhere, or go through the little effort of popping the trim, remove 4 torx screws and being guaranteed knowing within seconds.

 

 

I know you're absolutely right, but I reckon the colour would get on my nerves pretty quickly.

 

 

Having had both RCD310 and RNS315 (VW and SEAT models) I'm quite happy with the colour, it's quite subtle and non-intrusive, unless you're going to spend all your time looking at the unit whilst driving. The red is not harsh at all. You might even be able to get the Skoda firmware on there and see if it will update the screen colour and startup logo, although again, neither are a big irritation.

Sense. Spoken! ;

Gyp, you could go through all the effort of going in through the top and go nowhere, or go through the little effort of popping the trim, remove 4 torx screws and being guaranteed knowing within seconds..

I was only asking if the connector was visible from above, as if it is, then it's easier, but if it's not, then it's a waste of time.

I need to take the top tray out soon anyway (to see if there's clearance to fit a Neutrik USB socket) so I'll have a look

Well, my decision got a lot easier today.

 

I called up the friendly local Skoda dealership and after a brief chat, yes the Skoda loom for fitting the Highway 300Di is still available and yes they have one in stock.

 

£30 lighter and about an hour of fiddling later and I'm at this stage.

 

 

Using the Skoda loom, the installation is amazingly easy.

 

I still need to buy and fit the external aerial, and run a wire to the fusebox to get a switched live, but that'll be it.

 

Tomorrow I'll be all DABed up

 

Oh, and to answer the other question, no the back of the radio isn't visible from the top when the tray is removed, but (once you've done it once) radio removal is remarkably easy.

OK, i won't be fully DABed up tomorrow as the decent local car hifi place isn't open at the weekends it would appear.

 

Never mind, I've spent the evening mounting a Neutrik A/B USB passthrough socket into the dashtop box such that I can charge the phone or plug in the ipod etc out of sight.

 

As long as it's not too wet tomorrow, I'll run the new switched positive circuit from the fuse box.

 

 

 

Update - in the end I did the aerial and changed it to an Ezi-DAB. I've started a new thread rather than clutter up the Amundsen thread any more with non-Amundsen stuff

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/303542-alpine-ezi-dab-installed/