Nav Plus to RNS-E Questions

[Rich_C]

Gents,

Been giving some serious thought to replacing my CD based Navi plus system that came as standard on my RS6 with the newer RNS-E system as fitted to the newer RS6 Plus variants.

At present I'm quite happy with the performance of the Navi plus system but after seeing RNS-E system in operation it does seem a little dated. For those people who have swapped over is the improvement noticeable and worth the cost? What are the key enhancements that stand out?

Also be interested to hear how easy the swap over is … what works and what needs adaptation (e.g. TV tuner). Apart from the RNS-E what other parts would be required. Will the Phatbox integrate straight with the RNS-E or is an adapter/wiring loom required? Does the bluetooth phone connection work straight out of the box or does it need extra parts/configuration? How do you make/answer calls … does a microphone need to be installed?

Has anybody gone any further and installed say a DVD player or media centre in the glove box?

What did people do with there old Navi Plus systems … keep them or sell them on Ebay … is there much of a market for used Navi Plus systems?

Just want to get my facts straight before making a decision … don't want to get into something that starts growing legs and arms.

Many thanks in advance.

Rich.

[SteveH]

Rich, your looking about £900 for the RNS-E fitted, or buy it yourself off ebay and DIY but personally I aint that confident in fitting myself and frying the electrics by accident.

Big cost though as part if this change is that you wish to maintain the TV, then you need to adapt the wiring connections and replace the tuner. Tuners cost about £400 second hand and well over a grand new, which is an absolute crime given that you can buy a damn good TV for your house for a grand, let alone a tiny box that sits in the boot.

Bluetooth phone kit is basically the same as normal car kit, but instead of wiring in the phone cradle, you wire in the bluetooth cable and yes you still use microphone, but you can get concealed mikes now that hide in the light/sunroof control area and are not visible.

[bobjebb]

The fountain of all knowledge on this subject other than Steve of course is craigyb - he is the only person that does this upgrade I think?

[Andyuk911]

criagb is away for 10days ... I am waiting to get a group of people in London, who need work to make it worth his while to come south.

[Rich_C]

Gents,

Already spoken to Craig and another installer to get info & prices.

Steve, as always you're spot on the money ... have you gone the RNS-E route or investigated before? To get the whole system in with new TV tuner, TV in motion enabled is in the order of £1400. As much as I would like to make the jump it's hard to justify the move from the equivalent RNS-D system. Tested the waters with the wife and the conversation went along the lines of ... "so what's the difference? what do you get extra for £1400" to which my answer was "well it does all the same things but it looks nicer and works faster". Needless to say the conversation didn't continue for much longer after that. See for £1400 I get the same functionality as I currently have now ... I maybe use the sat nav 2 or 3 times a month and (as was pointed out) it's never failed to get me to where I want to go. I don't really need the SD card slots as I have the phatbox installed and I only use the TV when stuck in a traffic jam or waiting for the wife at hairdressers, shops, etc.

Admittedly if I did away with the TV functionality it would be under a grand to have the satnav, radio, cd functionality but it seems like a bit of a backward step plus it's one of the things that impresses people who see the car for the first time ... "wow, a TV in a car!!!"

So for the people who made the change to an RNS-E was it worthwhile ... what are the benefits of the new system? I haven't ruled it out the swap over as yet as bonus time will be coming around in March/April time so I might feel the urge to be frivolous.

For anybody else thinking of doing this here's some good places to start (mods please remove if deemed inappropriate) ...

Nav Plus Forum (Clicky Click) ... lots of useful info and a good place to start.

Craig's Website (Clicky Click) ... to give an idea of pricing

RS6 DIY RNS-E Installation (Clicky Click) ... only for the brave who like lots of coloured wires

To get the Bluetooth enabled is an extra £450 which would bring the total up to closer to £2k ... it would almost be worth trading into a Plus where you get all RNS-E as standard ... I suspect with Juniors imminent arrival I'm going to need the space ... babies certainly don't travel light!!!.

Rich.

[peterb]

I swapped mine myself, with RNS-E and TV tuner obtained from ebay, wiring adapters from Kufatec. It works with the new TV module, PhatBox and phone kit.

[SteveH]

Have toyed with this idea far too many times for my own good (as you guessed above). Although very rare for my weakness of boys toys... So far I have decided not to spend £'s on RNS-E; although prices have dropped somewhat since I first looked, in my opinion (and this is just the bank of Steve judgement) I don't see value in the swap unless the total cost was around the £800 mark at most, up to that point I could justify the change. The CD system is perfectly good enough for what I use it for, its just that there is one with a few more bells and whistles available so off course I drool over it and want it!

If I did'nt have any Nav system in my Audi car and currently had a CD Player like the Symphony, then the £1200 to £1400 would be almost justifiable.

Peterb, you are very brave and I am very jealous!

I can't believe that Audi price themselves out of what I am sure is a very large marketplace, it is comical the prices they demand if you went to a dealer, you'd be talking about £4000 to £5000 for the upgrade, for parts that probably cost in the region of £400 to make if that. Fair play to craigyb, without him the Audi OEM entertainment nation would be screwed.

[PetrolDave]

if you went to a dealer, you'd be talking about £4000 to £5000 for the upgrade, for parts that probably cost in the region of £400 to make if that.

IF you could find a dealer willing to do it - most dealers still say that the upgrade is impossible! (despite several hundred, maybe even several thousand, people worldwide who have done it).

[Wolverine]

Rich ... I think your right that an RS6+ upgrade would make a better financial proposition than an RNS-E upgrade!

I too cannot justify the upgrade cost. You used to be able to sell your old RNS-D + TV on ebay for £400 which would help offset the cost of the upgrade, however, with all these eastern european sellers on ebay who are offering RNS-E systems from £400, I dont think you would get much for your old parts.

The only way to do thsi upgrade cost effectively is DIY like Peter. Unfortunately not very good with electrics

[Rich_C]

Top marks to you Peter ... after reading the DIY guide I was sufficiently scared to not even consider giving it a go myself which is contrary to my normal hands on approach. The phatbox is still sat in my garage waiting for Audi to source me one of the frame holding clips that pinged off never to be seen again when I removed it before Christmas. After much messing around Audi Tech have now identified the part I need but only after I took one of the other clips into my local dealership for them to photo ... you would have thought they'd have a giant bucket of them sat in some parts department or another. So far I've drilled and tapped new holes in the phatbox to sit it further back in the frame - I don't think I'll need to hacksaw anything but it's all got to go back together again. Can't stand listening to the radio for much longer though!!!

Steve ... I could have written your first 2 paragraphs myself lol ... boys toys and new gadgets - yep I'm a sucker for them too. When I started looking into the RNS-E conversion after seeing MugelloR's in action I had hoped to get it all done and dusted for a grand ... anymore it's really hard to justify the expense ... I/we would be much better off spending the equivalent money on some decent suspension!!! I haven't even talked to my local Audi dealership ... they were a little baffled at hard wiring the road angel ... lord knows what would happen with a retrofit of the RNS-E ... probably get the first RS6 fitted with a toaster!!!

Wolverine ... yep I'm in agreement there - like any mod I doubt you'd ever get the money back fitting an RNS-E into a regular RS6 ... most potential buyers probably wouldn't notice the difference anyway. RNS-D's on ebay seem to be going for less than £150 at present for good condition units so would hardly offset the RNS-E installation price.

So ultimately I think I'm going to stick with what I've got ... but I've said that in the past - now about this plus

Thanks for the info & input guys!!!

Rich.

[shineydave]

if you've fallen out with the idea of upgrading to an RNS-E why not look at adding to your existing system. i've fitted a cappuccino micro PC to mine through the AV inputs on the TV tuner which gives me virtually unlimited movies and music and bluetooth phone. i've also got my Vag-Com plugged in permanently through one of the USB ports.

[peterb]

The upgrade really isn't that difficult, with the appropriate adapters from Kufatec ... it almost becomes plug'n'play. The most difficult part is to connect the TV tuner to the new Nav - the usual method is to install the new cable which often comes with the TV tuner, but you do need to get behind some of the trim to make a good job of this. I chose an alternative method - I cut the plug off the original loom, and substituted the new Q-Lok connector. However, I wouldn't recommend this unless you are very resourceful, and happy to mess about with wires and soldering irons.

At the time, (June 2005), I managed to sell my old Nav+ and TMC module for £450, reducing the cost of the swap to around £475. I subsequently sold the old TV tuner for £125. Total cost of the RNS-E upgrade ... around £350!

[SteveH]

around £350!

Cheers peter, rubbing salt into wound comes to mind.

[Daveperc]

Shineydave

I like the sound of what you have done - can you share a few more details?

How do you "control" the PC - is it via the RNS-D or do you have to have a keyboard etc?

How easy was it to install - just plug and play, or lots of cunning wiring to be run.

I've just about given up thoughts of going the RNS-E route on the basis of cost, but what you described sounds like it will give me most of what I'm after.

Dave

[shineydave]

plug and play basically. as i said i use a glidepoint touchpad at the moment to control it because all i'm doing is clicking buttons on the interface, no typing. when i get 5 mins i'll buy a wireless presenter which i'm hoping will be easier to use.

wiring is a doddle as all you need to connect is the sound and s-video to the inputs on the TV tuner. hardest bit was getting it to boot up when i unlock the car, i used 2 relays connected into the central locking pump to "press" the power button on the PC to turn it on and off and another to break the signal if the RNS was switched on as the autolock on the car would shut the pc back down. i'll probably get a dedicated start up controller for it at some point.

have a look at http://www.cappuccinopc.com/default.asp for the specs of the pc's, they pop up on ebay from time to time. another good resource is http://www.mp3car.com/

i've got a nice front end for it now that emulates the MMI interface