I have just replaced my 61 plate Superb 170 Elegance, built in 2011, with an 11 plate version of the same spec. (+ DSG), possibly built in 2010.  The car seems pretty much identical except for the operation of the Colombus unit and the options on the Maxidot display.  The 11 plate car has the option to display the current speed in big digits, I don't recall having this option on the 61 plate car.

 

Were there different versions of the Colombus unit? because there is no button on the Media display and we can't connect our phones using bluetooth.   We can no-longer use the Aux connection as our phones no longer have audio jacks, so listening to audio books on long journeys seems to be out of the question.  This is going to make things very tedious 😞 .

 

- Is my new (older) unit faulty? 

- What is an MDS connector (I didn't have this on the 61 car) and what connects to it?

- Has anyone replaced the Colombus unit with a Bolero head unit, as found in newer Octavias?  Or the Composition system that I have seen in Octavias and Passats, this seems to offer all the same functionality as found in my 61 plate Superb, but with a nicer user interface.  Is it a plug'n'play swap?

 

All help guidance and suggestions welcome please

Pls post a picture of your infotainment unit and VIN of your Superb.

 

8 hours ago, SuperSkodab said:

The 11 plate car has the option to display the current speed in big digits, I don't recall having this option on the 61 plate car.


This can be activated with VCDS  I think you set it o Australia   ( its been ages since I done mine)

 

Were there different versions of the Colombus unit? because there is no button on the Media display and we can't connect our phones using bluetooth.   We can no-longer use the Aux connection as our phones no longer have audio jacks, so listening to audio books on long journeys seems to be out of the question.  This is going to make things very tedious 😞 .

How can you not connect to bluetooth.. That would be the easiest option
There is cables available~
For both phones
 

Android here

Iphone here

 

8 hours ago, SuperSkodab said:

 

All help guidance and suggestions welcome please

 

Edited 13 February, 20233 yr by DEL80Y

10 hours ago, pab567 said:

Pls post a picture of your infotainment unit and VIN of your Superb.

2 hours ago, DEL80Y said:

How can you not connect to bluetooth.. That would be the easiest option
There is cables available~
For both phones

 

It hadn't occurred to me that there might be a Lightning/USB to 3.5mm jack cables - Thanks

Looks that you have BT module 5N0035730D which, if I remember correctly, does not support audio streaming - so the best solution IMHO is to have it replaced, e.g. with 5C0035730D or 5C0035730E.

2 minutes ago, pab567 said:

Looks that you have BT module 5N0035730D which, if I remember correctly, does not support audio streaming - so the best solution IMHO is to have it replaced, e.g. with 5C0035730D or 5C0035730E.

 

I've checked Telephone Retrofitting page and it looks I was wrong - your module supports Bluetooth. What is the phone you use?

The phone is a Galaxy Note 10, which connected perfectly well to my previous Superb.  The car sees the phone OK and offers up a PIN for the phone, which I enter.  At that point I either get an error message to say "No bluetooth connection to mobile phone" or the whole process stalls with the PIN still showing and the Cancel option not working.  This is repeatable and is the same for my older phone, a Note 8.

 

Having played around a little more, I discover that I can connect my phone as a media device.  That plays content successfully and the Bluetooth button now shows on the media screen, to the right of the MDI button shown above.  There are now 5, slightly smaller, buttons, not 4.  The phone automatically connects as a media player when the ign* is turned on. 

 

In the bluetooth settings on the phone for BT_Skoda there is a toggle for Calls, which is off, and a toggle for Audio, which is on.  If I move the Calls toggle to on, it slides back and I get a msg on the Maxidot saying  that "Connection is not possible".

 

This is starting to sound like a fault in either the Head unit or the BT unit...

 

* Yes it's a diesel but...

13 hours ago, pab567 said:

Looks that you have BT module 5N0035730D which, if I remember correctly, does not support audio streaming - so the best solution IMHO is to have it replaced, e.g. with 5C0035730D or 5C0035730E.

Did you mean 5K0035730D/E?

 

This other thread 

talks of installing the 3C8035730A-E units into a Superb, in place of the incumbant unit.  What are the pros/cons of the 3C80 box versus the 5K00 box please?

Nope, 3C8035730D/E. See picture below - black font means this is installed in your car, grey ones are the other options. As you can see, your module (5N0035730D) was later replaced with 3C8035730B then C3C8035730C, 3C8035730D and finally 3C8035730E (which is not listed here bue believe me, it was).

 

Check in your mobile what are the Bluetooth profiles active between mobile and Skoda BT module. Both your mobile and Skoda BT module support both RSAP (Remote SIM Access Profile) and HFP (Hands Free Profile). See List of Bluetooth profiles. Advantage of 3C8035730D/E is that in RSAP mode (and this is what you probably use as you have to enter PIN when connected to Skoda BT module)  they can create WiFi Access Point so you can access on your phone data based services.

 

3 hours ago, pab567 said:

Check in your mobile what are the Bluetooth profiles active between mobile and Skoda BT module. Both your mobile and Skoda BT module support both RSAP (Remote SIM Access Profile) and HFP (Hands Free Profile)

I don't think that either of these are active, because the phone is unable to connect to the car as a phone, only as a BT media device.

 

I have unsuccessfully tried to connect 2 x Samsung Galaxy and 1 x iPhone 12.  In every case the sequence is the same with the following messages shown in the Maxidot display:

1.  Select Phone Search > "Searching for mobile phones..."

2.  The car finds the phone and lists it in the Device List

3.  Select the named phone > "Enter password in phone:nnnn nnnn nnnn nnnn"

4.  Enter the displayed password in phone > "Connecting..."

5.  Then after a short delay > "No Bluetooth connection to mobile phone"

6.  Then, after a short delay, back to > "no paired phone found"

7.   If you then choose to add a Media player > "Searching for players..."

8.  The car finds the phone and lists it in the Device List

9.  Select the named device > "Enter password in phone:nnnn nnnn nnnn nnnn"

10.  Enter the displayed password in phone > "Connecting..."

11.  Then after a short delay > "Media player [ OK ] <phone name>"

12.  Select OK > "Name stored."

13.  Then briefly "Connection not possible" - I think at this point the phone is trying to connect to the car as a BT phone.

14.  Then, after a short delay, back to > "no paired phone found"

 

If I then immediately start the sequence again, we get to step 3 at which point the system in the car freezes.  It's not possible to select 'Cancel' and the only way out is to turn the car off and remove the key.  When you turn the power on again you see the message "no paired phone found".

 

How is it possible to determine where the fault lies, Head unit or BT unit, or somewhere else?? - I get the impression that there are multiple boxes that make up the infotainment system!

 

I don't mind replacing the BT unit, if that is definitively the location of the problem.

 

Regarding which version to buy, I'm not sure that having WLAN in the car is an advantage, it just means that my sons will consume my mobile data allowance in preference to using their own!! 

 

Thanks for your guidance.

Without WLAN in BT module you will NOT have access to Internet when you are connected in RSAP mode.

Try to find in MaxiDot, in Phone section, Bluetooth settings, some switch to enable / disable "Premium" mode.

16 hours ago, pab567 said:

Try to find in MaxiDot, in Phone section, Bluetooth settings, some switch to enable / disable "Premium" mode.

Ah, the penny has dropped, I  hadn't understood what your were saying before - sorry.

 

The Bluetooth settings do not exist in my menu.  Under Phone I only have:

Help - basically an instruction to RTFM

Phone search 

Media player

SOS

 

I remember seeing Bluetooth settings in the menu of my previous car, but I don't recall exactly where in the sequence.   It might have been under a paired phone,  which makes sense because you would set each phone separately.   Unfortunately since I can't pair a phone, I'm somewhat stuffed.

 

Also, when using the phone as a BT media player, I don't see the info. or controls to pause/play on the Columbus screen.  I had these on my previous car.

And in Settings menu in Maxi_Dot?

Nope, nothing.

On 17/02/2023 at 18:40, pab567 said:

Without WLAN in BT module you will NOT have access to Internet when you are connected in RSAP mode.

Curious, I never had an issue with accessing the Internet with my previous car when the phone was connected.   I guess that this means that I wasn't using rSAP, but just 'hands free'?

 

Would you please check what BT unit was fitted in my previous car?  VIN in attached photo. 

Yes, it means you were using HFP profile, not RSAP

Thanks pab567

 

Given the information that I have shared in this thread,  is it possible to diagnose why our phones aren't connecting?   Or which component isn't working correctly? 

 

Thanks