Has anyone 'upgraded' to the 2010+ RNSe?

[mac911rs4]

yep, not interested in going alpine etc, want it as normal as poss, album art nice, not the end of the world, be nice not to have an iPod left in the car all the time, then i could even lose the screen from the parrot !!
cheers
m

[Doug_S2]

2010+ fitted to my rs4 - about 1 hours work to replace the surround - i left the screen surround as it has the piano black trim.

Is there any how to's on getting the full ipod/ami connected to the rs4s?

[pDkALO]

Now you've got a 2010 spec RNS-e, you can connect up the Audi iPod interface and fit the 'dock' and cable in the glove box in place of the CD changer (if fitted) - part number 8P0 057 785 (A3 part number).

Not cheap at about £300 but it'll do everything, with all track info etc that's so missing from the 'old' RNS-e iPod hookup.

One on fleabay at the moment for £309.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-Music-In ... 2a1c77286a

[PetrolDave]

Is there any how to's on getting the full ipod/ami connected to the rs4s?

Depends what you mean by a "How To"?

It really is as simple as I said above - the AMI is a mechanical direct fit in the CD changer slot in the glovebox, and only has 7 wires - 3 for the audio that go to the 32 pin AV connector in place of the Aux In (pins 6, 21 and 22), 2 for power that splice onto the power wires in the D connector (pins 12 & 15) and 2 for CAN Hi & Lo that splice onto the CAN wires on the D connector (pins 9 & 10).

BTW all the RNS-E pinouts are on a paper label on top of the RNS-E.

AMI Pinouts
==========
1 Terminal 31 - to RNS-E pin D12
2 CAN Lo - to RNS-E pin D10
4 NF Right - to 32 pin connector pin 6
7 Terminal 30 - to RNS-E pin D15
8 CAN Hi - to RNS-E pin D9
9 NF Left - to 32 pin connector pin 22
10 NF Ground - to 32 pin connector pin 21

[PetrolDave]

Now you've got a 2010 spec RNS-e, you can connect up the Audi iPod interface and fit the 'dock' and cable in the glove box in place of the CD changer (if fitted) - part number 8P0 057 785 (A3 part number).

That's the part number for the AMI unit - 8P0 057 785 is what I've fitted.

It's a whole lot more than just an iPod interface...

[Doug_S2]

Thanks - all clear now - ami next then

[sakimano]

PetrolDave...that hard drive in there...magic.

How is interacting with the music on that? Quick? I find there's about a 1 second delay on the 32 GB cards when I go from one song to the next. Not enough to be a real problem, but slightly annoying. It's an instant change on my ipod connected to my B8 A4 Avant (with MMi standard I believe).

Could you estimate the total cost of going AMI with RNSe2010+ (AMI, other parts) and give the install a rating on a scale of 1 to 10, compared with say an RNSe to RNSe 2010 swap (which many of the guys in this thread have done, thus will be a good benchmark, difficulty wise).

Thanks

[pDkALO]

It's a whole lot more than just an iPod interface...

+1 agree, it's a neat piece of kit (USB connection too) - I had it factory fitted to my 2011 A3 with the 2010+ RNS-e, and it's the one thing that I really missed when I swapped to the RS4 - fortunately the RS has the S button and exhaust valves to compensate so I wasn't upset for long!...

[pDkALO]

sakimano - I put some figures on the RNS-e swap and AMI a few days ago (HDD excepted) - I'd be working on about £100-150 cost to change the RNS-e, assuming buying a refurb one and selling the old one (provided the old one's in good condition), then circa £300 for the AMI, and say £10-20 for the 32 pin connector and a couple of packs of terminal connectors from Audi to wire it all up. Oh, and of course, you could always sell the CD changer if you had one before, which would be more money back.

If my thinking is correct, by PetrolDave plugging the Audi HDD into his AMI, the AMI is simply seeing it as a big USB memory stick, so any standard HDD should work in the same way, provided it's been formatted correctly. If I'm correct, then you can pick them up for less than £50 - if I'm wrong (Dave may jump in here) then the Audi branded one that Dave can be had for about £65.

And I've noticed the slight delay between tracks too with 32Gb cards - agree it can be a bit irritating at times, but I can live with it. When I had this spec RNS-e and AMI in my 2011 A3, the track change with the iPod was pretty much instant.

[PetrolDave]

How is interacting with the music on that? Quick? I find there's about a 1 second delay on the 32 GB cards when I go from one song to the next. Not enough to be a real problem, but slightly annoying. It's an instant change on my ipod connected to my B8 A4 Avant (with MMi standard I believe).

The annoying delay when using the SD cards doesn't happen, navigating around the albums/artists is almost instant.

Could you estimate the total cost of going AMI with RNSe2010+ (AMI, other parts) and give the install a rating on a scale of 1 to 10, compared with say an RNSe to RNSe 2010 swap (which many of the guys in this thread have done, thus will be a good benchmark, difficulty wise).

There's 3 parts you need:
- the AMI unit, 8P0 057 785
- the cable, as there isn't a B7 cable I got the B8 cable 8K0 051 592
- the 32-pin AV connector shell

Total cost was £373.60 in October 2009 (yes the parts have been sitting in my study for 2 1/2 years!).

If the RNS-E to 2010 RNS-E swap rates a 4, I'd rate this as a 3. There's nothing as complicated mechanically as swapping the front panel, and the only coding change is to the RNS-E, but there is some wiring to do. So if you're mechanically minded it will be harder, but if you're electrically minded it will be easier.

[PetrolDave]

If my thinking is correct, by PetrolDave plugging the Audi HDD into his AMI, the AMI is simply seeing it as a big USB memory stick, so any standard HDD should work in the same way, provided it's been formatted correctly. If I'm correct, then you can pick them up for less than £50 - if I'm wrong (Dave may jump in here) then the Audi branded one that Dave can be had for about £65.

The drive needs to be formatted FAT32, which Windows can't do (due to a stupid unnecessary limit imposed by M$ of 32GB maximum on a FAT32 drive) so you either need to get a pre-formatted drive or download a proper FAT32 format program..

I got the 250GB drive from an Audi dealer off eBay for £60, and you can also get off eBay a 500GB from Audi dealers for around £80.

Plus you need an AMI to mini-USB cable - 4F0 051 510 H - which I also got from an Audi dealer off eBay for £25.

[Doug_S2]

AMI fitted from ebay that comes with harness so plug and play. TPS had the 250gb HD with lead.

[PetrolDave]

AMI fitted from ebay that comes with harness so plug and play.

Good work Doug, I thought there would be a harness for the RNS-E by now.

Don't forget that the RNS-E remembers different bass and treble settings for each input source, so if you usually have them set away from mid-settings then you'll need to adjust them for the AMI.

[PetrolDave]

Well I finally got round to doing 2 things today:

2) swapping the glovebox CD changer to the 8P0 057 785 AMI that I had bought over a year ago - which does work.

AMI unit in the glovebox, with hard drive in the drawer :

Having fitted the 2010+ RNS-E AMI I'm now selling the glovebox CD changer, and the pre-2010 RNS-E (it's the H version with SDS):

See http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=98310 for the CD changer and http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=98309 for the RNS-E.

[sakimano]

^^^what's that little star of david looking button?