Hello all,

 

I'm a newbie so be gentle ......

 

I have a 2010  Superb auto estate 170 hp and recently had a problem with the Columbus Sat Nav/Radio system in it , which basically was switching on OK but the screen was frozen , no reaction when pressing any of the buttons for radio , phone , sat-nav etc.. . Also no sound from radio and CD . I could make a phone call from the steering wheel control and the recipient could hear me but I could not hear them.

 

Long story short, brought it to an auto electrician and he  said nothing he could do as it had either a software corruption or hard disk drive problem and would need to be sent to a specialist company for repair, Anyway , I decided to bite the bullet and bought a 2nd hand replacement unit which was manufactured in 11/2015. It's a Columbus RNS SSD with DAB and DAB+ Radio , latest maps , HW: H30 and SW: 6276.  The unit also came with a new GPS antenna but the company I bought it from in Europe told me that if I already had a GPS antenna in my car  (which I do and all was working fine until my existing radio/sat-nav packed in) then there was no need to fit the new GPS antenna.  Today connected the replacement Sat Nav/Radio system to my car and all ''working '' well with one major exception - there is no sound from the radio , cd player etc...     Has anyone on here had a similar experience and if so can you give me any pointers as to what the problem might be .and how I could solve it  ?.  The people I bought the system from assure me that it was fully tested before they sent it to me and that it works perfectly.

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.  

Sounds like you need to correctly code the new Columbus using VCDS

Thanks very much for your reply. Excuse my ignorance but how do I go about correctly coding the new Columbus using VCDS. Does it mean I'll have to make a trip to the ''wallet lightening shop '' i.e. the Skoda main dealer ?  

You could if you wish. Or you could buy your own VCDS cable and do it yourself (cost around £260), or you could find someone local to you with the required cable and software, and pay them a few quid to do it for you.

Couple of topics to help you find someone local although there aren't that many in owners in Ireland it would appear.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com/

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/224376-vcds-owners-map/

 

A Skoda dealer should be able to do it but it wouldn't surprise me if they refuse or mess it up somehow.

Whereabouts are you, Brian?

I'm in Cork City , Ireland. I brought the car to a local auto electrician just after I posted above and am now back from him . Unfortunately no success ! He says he has VCDS and that he has tried everything but '' is unable to get the unit to talk to the amplifier in the car ''.  The unit switches on no problem , shows the radio stations , shows the graphics from the reversing sensor on the screen when I put car in reverse , present location on sat nav map shows up fine  , volume control indicator shows on the screen etc...    Also I can make a phone call from the steering wheel controls and the person I'm calling  can hear me but I cannot hear them. So , in short all seems OK apart from the fact that there is no sound- nothing from the Radio or CD player and I can't hear people that I phone  via the steering control, which just about leaves me nowhere really.

 

The auto electrician mentioned something along the lines that he tried the code from the old Columbus unit (which I was having replaced ) in the new unit but is still not able to get the unit to talk to the amplifier in the car , which to be honest I don't understand as it's like a different language to me and beyond my comprehension......   

 

The new Columbus unit did come with a Radio Card giving a long serial number and a 4 digit code number and I did give that card to the auto electrician .

 

I got in touch with the company in Europe that I purchased the replacement Columbus unit from and they said that to resolve the issue (which they say is a very common  one ) , it is simply a matter of properly coding the unit and they recommend me to go to Skoda main dealer who they say will definitely be able to do the coding and get the sound working without any problem whatsoever . They even went so far as to say that if that didn't prove to be the case I could return the Columbus to them and they will refund me what I paid them for it.  

 

I mentioned to the auto electrician that if he could not do anything more I would probably take it to a Skoda main dealer and he just said that he can do anything that a Skoda main dealer can do . In fairness ,  I have no reason to doubt him as he is a very experienced auto electrician  and although this is my first time using him ,people I know speak highly of him and his abilities .

 

Auto - electrician asked me to call him again tomorrow morning when he will tell me what options I have as this evening he didn't have the time to do that as he was pushed for time getting another car back to one of his customers. 

 

Frustrating to say the least ! 

OK; I would have offered to code it for you on the off-chance you were close to me in the Midlands. Good luck, anyway.

I installed a Columbus DAB a few years back, if your car has a amplifier (enhanced audio package) you will need to code the Columbus.

You will also need a DAB aerial for the new system.

The following posts may help...

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/310299-columbus-issues-dab-replacement/#entry3711601

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/user/73225-dcc/

The coding for my Columbus.....

Address 37: Navigation (J0506) Labels: 1T0-035-680.clb

Part No SW: 3T0 035 680 C HW: 3T0 035 680 C

Component: RNS-MID H60 3984

Revision: AB001001 Serial number: *** Removed***

Coding: 00060002000000810000 ******** Use VCDS to setup this coding ********

Shop #: WSC 33361 790 00999

ASAM Dataset: ------------------------- ------

VCID: 3065E85263384CE

 

Hope this helps

Forgot to say, after new coding entered you should reboot the Columbus...

Checkout...

.... About 1 minute into the video it shows how to reboot

You say the auto electrician was unable to code it to work with your amplifier system. What amplifier system do you have? If it's an aftermarket amp system then there could well be problems...

I installed a Columbus DAB a few years back, if your car has a amplifier (enhanced audio package) you will need to code the Columbus.

You will also need a DAB aerial for the new system.

The following posts may help...

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/310299-columbus-issues-dab-replacement/#entry3711601

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/user/73225-dcc/

The coding for my Columbus.....

Address 37: Navigation (J0506) Labels: 1T0-035-680.clb

Part No SW: 3T0 035 680 C HW: 3T0 035 680 C

Component: RNS-MID H60 3984

Revision: AB001001 Serial number: *** Removed***

Coding: 00060002000000810000 ******** Use VCDS to setup this coding ********

Shop #: WSC 33361 790 00999

ASAM Dataset: ------------------------- ------

VCID: 3065E85263384CE

 

Hope this helps

 

When you say I will also need a DAB aerial for the new system , I recall the auto electrician saying today that the car doesn't have a DAB aerial but that this was not related to the problem of the new unit not having any sound which he says is  caused by being unable to code the new unit to communicate with the amplifier in the car. He also said that there was no need to fit the new GPS antenna that came with the new system because the car already had an existing GPS antenna which is sufficient. Do you think that if I got a DAB aerial and had it fitted that would it possibly resolve the issue of sound coming from the system ? Sorry if that's a silly question but all of this stuff is beyond me to be honest .......    

A DAB aerial won't help if the system isn't coded correctly to work. It'll allow you to get DAB radio, but it won't magically make something work which isn't going to.

You only need the DAB aerial if you want to receive DAB radio.... Has no effect on your sound problem.

Your existing GPS Aerial is OK if it is working.

If your Auto Elec has VCDS ask him to show you the coding for Address 37: Navigation. It should read as above "00060002000000810000".

If you are not sure what to look for, ask for a VCDS log report and post it here. He could put in on a USB flash drive or he could email it to you.

The standard radio is coded to drive speakers, if you have the Skoda enhanced audio system(10 speaker system) the radio will not work without the correct coding.

You only need the DAB aerial if you want to receive DAB radio.... Has no effect on your sound problem.

Your existing GPS Aerial is OK if it is working.

If your Auto Elec has VCDS ask him to show you the coding for Address 37: Navigation. It should read as above "00060002000000810000".

If you are not sure what to look for, ask for a VCDS log report and post it here. He could put in on a USB flash drive or he could email it to you.

The standard radio is coded to drive speakers, if you have the Skoda enhanced audio system(10 speaker system) the radio will not work without the correct coding.

The coding is specific to the cars configuration. Just applying a coding which works for one car won't mean it's going to work correctly in another car. It might work, but it's not a definite fix.

The coding is specific to the cars configuration. Just applying a coding which works for one car won't mean it's going to work correctly in another car. It might work, but it's not a definite fix.

From my experience The coding is specific to Columbus DAB and non Dab for models from 2010 to 2011 using the Skoda enhanced sound system(10 speaker).

I have coded three cars in the 2010 to 2011 range with this coding.

If you have experience of using different coding it would be helpful if you could post this information.

Edited 18 February, 201610 yr by DCC

You say the auto electrician was unable to code it to work with your amplifier system. What amplifier system do you have? If it's an aftermarket amp system then there could well be problems...

 

To be honest I don't know what amplifier system I have  but I could ask the auto electrician to check that for me .  I bought the car about 2 years ago and the Columbus RNS 510 (which I am now replacing) always worked fine with the  existing amplifier system , so am I right to assume that in theory at least it should also work with the replacement Columbus which was manufactured 11/2015 ?  

To be honest I don't know what amplifier system I have  but I could ask the auto electrician to check that for me .  I bought the car about 2 years ago and the Columbus RNS 510 (which I am now replacing) always worked fine with the  existing amplifier system , so am I right to assume that in theory at least it should also work with the replacement Columbus which was manufactured 11/2015 ?

Do you have these extra speakers in the front doors??? If so then you have the Skoda Enhanced Sound System that people mention above.

Do you have these extra speakers in the front doors??? If so then you have the Skoda Enhanced Sound System that people mention above.

 

Yes, I do have those speakers in the front doors ! 

From my experience The coding is specific to Columbus DAB and non Dab for models from 2010 to 2011 using the Skoda enhanced sound system(10 speaker).

I have coded three cars in the 2010 to 2011 range with this coding.

If you have experience of using different coding it would be helpful if you could post this information.

The coding is relevant to all the cars functions. If you change (for example) the steering wheel buttons to off because the car doesn't have them, then the long coding number will change. Therefore the number used for long coding will have many different variations, depending on the particular car it's fitted to.

Just a wildcard response: is it possible that you've bought a unit for the new Superb III? I THINK they are different and are incompatible with the Superb II. I might be wrong, though - does anyone know?

To be honest I don't know what amplifier system I have  but I could ask the auto electrician to check that for me .  I bought the car about 2 years ago and the Columbus RNS 510 (which I am now replacing) always worked fine with the  existing amplifier system , so am I right to assume that in theory at least it should also work with the replacement Columbus which was manufactured 11/2015 ?  

If you already had a functioning Columbus fitted to the car then the answer is simple. Fit the old unit and do a full VCDS scan. The radio or navigation long coding number which is correct for your car will be stored in the log generated if you save it as a txt file. Then replace the old Columbus with the new unit, and copy the long coding you saved from the old units scan and apply it to the new unit using VCDS, The only issue you might come across is the old unit might have an old 9 byte coding while the new one will certainly have a 10 byte coding. What this means is actuality is the long coding for the old unit might be 18 digits long while the new one will require 20 digits. This is probably where your auto electrician went wrong. Take the old 18 character coding and add a single byte (00) to it, making it 20 characters, and then apply it to the car and it should be accepted. Then go into long coding and check to make sure all the options for your car are still correct. Then a reboot will allow the unit to accept the new coding.

 

Any other problems, let me know.

Edited 19 February, 201610 yr by Rustynuts

Just a wildcard response: is it possible that you've bought a unit for the new Superb III? I THINK they are different and are incompatible with the Superb II. I might be wrong, though - does anyone know?

Impossible to confuse the two (unless you're particularly stupid) as the old Columbus is a one piece unit while the new style Columbus is two parts.

Just had a similar issue myself, got it working in the end though so don't loose faith!! Im in co louth and have vdcs if you need to use it your welcome to. Usually its just a tick box option that needs to be corrected.

As previously said above take your old coding and put it into the new working unit, I had to do a system reset afterwards to have the changes take effect.

Damien

You only need the DAB aerial if you want to receive DAB radio.... Has no effect on your sound problem.

Your existing GPS Aerial is OK if it is working.

If your Auto Elec has VCDS ask him to show you the coding for Address 37: Navigation. It should read as above "00060002000000810000".

If you are not sure what to look for, ask for a VCDS log report and post it here. He could put in on a USB flash drive or he could email it to you.

The standard radio is coded to drive speakers, if you have the Skoda enhanced audio system(10 speaker system) the radio will not work without the correct coding.

 

Thanks to all and especially to DCC .The problem has now been solved. I asked auto electrician this morning if the coding he had entered was the same as the one given above by DCC . It was very similar but if I remember correctly was out by one digit - I think it had a  ''4'' in place of the ''6'' in DCC's coding. I asked him to enter the coding supplied by DCC which he did and  still no sound ,so as advised by DCC I then asked  him to reboot the system which he did and hey presto everything worked perfectly.

The auto elec then deleted DCC's coding and re-entered the coding he originally had put in ( he said he was doing this to be on the safe side as it was the coding that worked with the Columbus unit which I was replacing  ) , did a reboot and all was OK. He said that yesterday he had forgotten to do a reboot of the system and this is why it didn't work then.  Thanks again for your assistance which is greatly appreciated.