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it is a bit difficult to answer, considering that IMA BASIC PLUS is at the base of about € 200 + release of moving images, about € 120 more; once you have these things you can develop your system in various ways, from the cheapest Android tv box for about € 20 + CarPlay dongle to using ruspberry or, as I did, by assembling a real carputer but spending much much more
 
the main thing is minor RNSE I give an AV input and this you do through IMA BASIC PLUS by Kufatec; you also need the ability to unlock video on the go! having this you can extend your rnse as you want, I As I told you I have installed the wonderful wireless mirroring, I have installed the specific PC for car (carpc) in which I have both Windows7 and Android with wireless CarPlay, you can do whatever you want with the pc ! as far as RVC is concerned, you can take advantage of the same IMA BASIC PLus since it has a dedicated input and you can mount a normal aftermarket camera or do as I did, buy the OEM RVC kit of the r8 and you will have the original system which is wonderful
 
armran said:
release of moving images, about € 120 more
The VIM unlock is much cheaper if you purchase the feature pack for my custom firmware which you mention :wink:

No need for the external hardware in that case, and i believe it works better as it doesn't block speed related CANBUS messages to the headunit (which is how I think the 3rd party solution for this normally works - correct me if I am wrong).
 
yes in fact your sw is the definitive solution; I ask you a question; since about 10 years ago I installed the VIM release via a third-party module and since I would like to avoid going to disassemble everything again, by installing your sw do you think that the two VIM release systems will conflict? who will get the better of the two, would I prefer yours ?!
 
armran said:
yes in fact your sw is the definitive solution; I ask you a question; since about 10 years ago I installed the VIM release via a third-party module and since I would like to avoid going to disassemble everything again, by installing your sw do you think that the two VIM release systems will conflict? who will get the better of the two, would I prefer yours ?!
I don't think they will conflict, but the third-party module one (assuming it works the way I think it does) will continue to block speed related messages going to the RNSE when it is activated. That is obviously not ideal for a number of reasons.

If you cannot remove it, it may be possible to disable it. Please refer to the manufacturer/supplier for how you might do that. I don't own one, so have no idea how you might go about this.
 
Is this conversion possible with USA firmware on a RSN-E?
The VIM part is possible with pbbc's firmware (only 15 GBP :) ). However the rest of what armran did there is hardware mods--he installed a touchscreen on it and then further installed a CarPC which presumably displays via VIM through the RNS-E and controls by what I'd imagine is a USB interface to the touchscreen.

The cool thing about what he did was he kept the original RNS-E functionality while also adding touch and PC (both Android and Windows) to it.

Edit: Another option is to just use the VIM and then use an RPi to add Android Auto:

No touch doing this, but also not the hardware modification of the RNS-E itself.
 
Coming from a MK6 Golf R the upgrading of an HU was much simpler. I went from a RNS-315 to a RNS-510 to a MIB2. What I would like is the ability to have CarPlay and keep all of the RNS-E functionalities.
 
Coming from a MK6 Golf R the upgrading of an HU was much simpler. I went from a RNS-315 to a RNS-510 to a MIB2. What I would like is the ability to have CarPlay and keep all of the RNS-E functionalities.
Yeahhh them's the breaks unfortunately. The RNS-E is more dated tech so that's what you have to deal with here lol. I mean Audi didn't have A2DP in their factory BT on some of their cars out until like 2015 or so, which includes the TT 🤦‍♂️ I mean who knows what they were thinking there but the "infotainment" stuff in these cars is way behind the times the cars actually lived in. So much for "Vorsprung durch Technik" :rolleyes:

Even in the first year of the TT (MY07 in US I think), it was dated in some regards, particularly this one. Audi seems to always refuse to update this stuff until the next model design, so even facelifts don't do much most of the time. Now the RNS-E was updated--192 v. 193 units--so there were some improvements but still nothing as "advanced" as the VWs had from around Mk6 (and advanced in quotes 'cause even they weren't amazing but still way ahead of the RNS-E).

You could replace the HU entirely but some of us (myself included) don't want to spend the money or even change the OE stuff. I have everything replaced stereo-wise in my A3 (and it has been like that basically since I got it), but on the TT, I'm doing everything but the HU. I think if the TT was my only car I'd definitely replace the HU and not bother with the RNS-E though.

If you want to have CarPlay on the RNS-E good luck with that. There's the Navinc option (that started this thread) but that's like 700 GBP ($850 USD) and you'd have to import it and all that. I'm sure at that point you'd rather just get an aftermarket HU as that money buys you a pretty nice one. You could do it on an RPi running Android (or any similar Android 'box' with analog video output), and then using one of the rogue Carplay on Android "dongles" but then you'd have the problem that you'd have no way to control it from the RNS-E. Unless of course you do something like the RPi-AA guy did and write your own code in order to interface with CAN commands from the car. Hopefully your coding skills are up to snuff ;) It might be that hard-modding the RNS to fit a touchscreen would be easier and you could just go that route.

It almost comes down to a triangle of Time, Skills, Money. If you have a ton of money to spend on this, you won't need much skills or time. If you have the skills and the time, you can do it for much cheaper than that crazy-priced Navinc thing.

Best of luck! I have a feeling that you'll just replace the HU and call it a day lol.
 
do you like my modified RNSE system?

CarPc, Windows 7 in dual boot Android Prime OS, Apple CarPlay, touchpanel




Wow, this is amazing. I also saw this yesterday while searching RNS-E on Youtube.

I would just like to be able to mirror my android phone wirelessly to the RNS-E screen, no touchscreen etc, that's far to advanced for me. Is there a simple-ish way to do this? Can I cast my phone to a dongle and connect that to the TV interface? Thanks.
 
Wow, this is amazing. I also saw this yesterday while searching RNS-E on Youtube.

I would just like to be able to mirror my android phone wirelessly to the RNS-E screen, no touchscreen etc, that's far to advanced for me. Is there a simple-ish way to do this? Can I cast my phone to a dongle and connect that to the TV interface? Thanks.
Did you ever find out how?
 
Did you ever find out how?
It's basically the ways I said above and in your thread. Those are your options if you're dead set on keeping the RNS-E in the car.

You can either "DIY" this with a Raspberry Pi (I linked you some threads in your other thread); or you can buy something like the Navinc unit mentioned here. The former choice requires a lot more skill, tinkiering, effort, and time and still requires some $$ spent...and there's not even really a certainty you'll get it all working the way you want since there's no "great established formula" at the moment for getting it done. The other problem is updates on the AA or CP side can render whatever you setup, "broken", and then require fixes on the Pi software side to address or workaround.
The latter choice is far more "plug and play" or turn key, but requires a relatively large amount of money spent. It really isn't worth it compared to what else you could buy (aftermarket) with that money. 700 GBP is not really anything to shake a stick at, just to have AA/CP. But you're free to do as you wish with your money of course.

For AA at least there is not even any longer the idea of "just mirroring your phone screen" because AA is no longer usable as a stand-alone app on a phone. (Note: I'm not sure about CP.) But, even then when you could have done that with AA, IIRC using AA on a phone (standalone) I think it was limited to portrait view, which would be pointless to see on the RNS-E screen--it'd either have to be sideways or a narrow "strip" on the screen of the RNS.

I suppose as a final option you could just go with a mirroring (as mentioned in the post you quoted). You could do this with phone screen in landscape mode but you wouldn't be able to get AA like that (again I have no idea about CP). You could use things like Waze and whatever app(s) that way in a "view only" fashion on the RNS screen. You'd still need a phone that's capable of outputting HDMI over USB (many higher end ones can, but many lesser phones cannot); and still need to then convert that to VGA, and then from VGA (RGB-HV) to RGB-S to input to the RNS-E. This is basically "half the job" of the "Rapberry Pi way", since you're still doing all the video input stuff just not having to deal with any of the Pi code/setup/hardware. But again you'd not get AA nor any way to control anything on the car side without a Pi in the equation.

TBH I get the feeling that you're looking for some "easy plug in way" to do this because you wouldn't be up to doing things like setting up a Pi and doing the wiring, etc... That's fine but hopefully we can be clear here... Something "cheap and easy" like that doesn't exist for the RNS-E, period. Unless you want to spend a lot for that NavInc module of course...which is not cheap. If you want to do that, there's your way:

Go there and call them up and call it a day; though a word of caution that thing might only work on 192s, if you have a 193 you should be sure about it when you contact them--needs to either work with 193 or they have a different version for it. Otherwise it's gonna be the hard way or just go aftermarket. Hopefully this answers this for you because there's honestly not much else to say about it. You can keep finding other threads to ask on but there's not going to be any other answer.
 
It's basically the ways I said above and in your thread. Those are your options if you're dead set on keeping the RNS-E in the car.

You can either "DIY" this with a Raspberry Pi (I linked you some threads in your other thread); or you can buy something like the Navinc unit mentioned here. The former choice requires a lot more skill, tinkiering, effort, and time and still requires some $$ spent...and there's not even really a certainty you'll get it all working the way you want since there's no "great established formula" at the moment for getting it done. The other problem is updates on the AA or CP side can render whatever you setup, "broken", and then require fixes on the Pi software side to address or workaround.
The latter choice is far more "plug and play" or turn key, but requires a relatively large amount of money spent. It really isn't worth it compared to what else you could buy (aftermarket) with that money. 700 GBP is not really anything to shake a stick at, just to have AA/CP. But you're free to do as you wish with your money of course.

For AA at least there is not even any longer the idea of "just mirroring your phone screen" because AA is no longer usable as a stand-alone app on a phone. (Note: I'm not sure about CP.) But, even then when you could have done that with AA, IIRC using AA on a phone (standalone) I think it was limited to portrait view, which would be pointless to see on the RNS-E screen--it'd either have to be sideways or a narrow "strip" on the screen of the RNS.

I suppose as a final option you could just go with a mirroring (as mentioned in the post you quoted). You could do this with phone screen in landscape mode but you wouldn't be able to get AA like that (again I have no idea about CP). You could use things like Waze and whatever app(s) that way in a "view only" fashion on the RNS screen. You'd still need a phone that's capable of outputting HDMI over USB (many higher end ones can, but many lesser phones cannot); and still need to then convert that to VGA, and then from VGA (RGB-HV) to RGB-S to input to the RNS-E. This is basically "half the job" of the "Rapberry Pi way", since you're still doing all the video input stuff just not having to deal with any of the Pi code/setup/hardware. But again you'd not get AA nor any way to control anything on the car side without a Pi in the equation.

TBH I get the feeling that you're looking for some "easy plug in way" to do this because you wouldn't be up to doing things like setting up a Pi and doing the wiring, etc... That's fine but hopefully we can be clear here... Something "cheap and easy" like that doesn't exist for the RNS-E, period. Unless you want to spend a lot for that NavInc module of course...which is not cheap. If you want to do that, there's your way:

Go there and call them up and call it a day; though a word of caution that thing might only work on 192s, if you have a 193 you should be sure about it when you contact them--needs to either work with 193 or they have a different version for it. Otherwise it's gonna be the hard way or just go aftermarket. Hopefully this answers this for you because there's honestly not much else to say about it. You can keep finding other threads to ask on but there's not going to be any other answer.
Yeah it's a shame. I heard of the Kivic One but that was discontinued donkey years ago.

I've put in an enquiry for the Navinc. See how much they quote me and whether thats worth it.
 
Yeah it's a shame. I heard of the Kivic One but that was discontinued donkey years ago.

I've put in an enquiry for the Navinc. See how much they quote me and whether thats worth it.
The Kivic One is not doing anything special. There's a ton of different products on Amazon, etc. that can accomplish the same thing. You still need to get video in to the RNS-E. There's a video on YT about using a Kivic One on a 193 RNS-E, it's clear in the description they used a video interface of some sort (they don't say which one) and a VIM module of some sort. I'm imagining they just used the Kufatec stuff* but they don't say.
Advanced Guys on YT said:
This was installed into a 2014 Audi TT with the RNSe Navigation System MK2. This was done in conjunction with an AV-Interface and Video-In-Motion Box.
*The Kufatec stuff is pretty expensive (see links below) and are not really needed if you both get the pcbbc firmware and know what you're doing.

The only thing that seems "special" about the Kivic is that it had some app compatible with iOS (no mention of anything for Android) that did some extra stuff for music playback, but that's about it.

You can even use an Amazon Fire Stick to accomplish what the Kivic is doing otherwise--it allows for smartphone mirroring IIRC and from there you still need to take the HDMI out from the Fire Stick (or whatever similar wireless mirroring thing, of which there are many, as mentioned) and get it into the RNS-E.

That involves either stuff like that Kufatec gear (320 Euro combined) OR the pcbbc firmware (15 GBP) and exactly what I said here:
as a final option you could just go with mirroring (as mentioned in the post you quoted). You could do this with phone screen in landscape mode but you wouldn't be able to get AA like that (again I have no idea about CP). You could use things like Waze and whatever app(s) that way in a "view only" fashion on the RNS screen. You'd still need a phone that's capable of outputting HDMI over USB (many higher end ones can, but many lesser phones cannot); and still need to then convert that to VGA, and then from VGA (RGB-HV) to RGB-S to input to the RNS-E. This is basically "half the job" of the "Rapberry Pi way", since you're still doing all the video input stuff just not having to deal with any of the Pi code/setup/hardware. But again you'd not get AA nor any way to control anything on the car side without a Pi in the equation.
The only difference in that above paragraph would be the note about using a USB-C/HDMI adapter cable and having a phone capable of outputting HDMI. Instead of needing that, you could go with anything that can do wireless mirroring to HDMI, and then the rest is the same.
 
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The Kivic One is not doing anything special. There's a ton of different products on Amazon, etc. that can accomplish the same thing. You still need to get video in to the RNS-E. There's a video on YT about using a Kivic One on a 193 RNS-E, it's clear in the description they used a video interface of some sort (they don't say which one) and a VIM module of some sort. I'm imagining they just used the Kufatec stuff* but they don't say.


*The Kufatec stuff is pretty expensive (see links below) and are not really needed if you both get the pcbbc firmware and know what you're doing.

The only thing that seems "special" about the Kivic is that it had some app compatible with iOS (no mention of anything for Android) that did some extra stuff for music playback, but that's about it.

You can even use an Amazon Fire Stick to accomplish what the Kivic is doing otherwise--it allows for smartphone mirroring IIRC and from there you still need to take the HDMI out from the Fire Stick (or whatever similar wireless mirroring thing, of which there are many, as mentioned) and get it into the RNS-E.

That involves either stuff like that Kufatec gear (320 Euro combined) OR the pcbbc firmware (15 GBP) and exactly what I said here:

The only difference in that above paragraph would be the note about using a USB-C/HDMI adapter cable and having a phone capable of outputting HDMI. Instead of needing that, you could go with anything that can do wireless mirroring to HDMI, and then the rest is the same.
After a rollercoaster of researching, it seems like for the expense and convenience, its best to just buy a portable car screen for 30 quid, OR rely on the good ol' phone holder.

The next thing to figure out is a bluetooth adapter that will allow me to play my audio - can't believe the RNS-E only allows phone calls over bluetooth and not stream music through phone! 🙄
 
After a rollercoaster of researching, it seems like for the expense and convenience, its best to just buy a portable car screen for 30 quid, OR rely on the good ol' phone holder.
I hate to be "that guy" but you didn't really need to go on the roller coaster when it's pretty much what I mentioned in the beginning (on the other thread), lol:

The reality is, if you want these things it will be much easier to just get an aftermarket HU that has these things instead. TBH these things do not require "donating a kidney" in this day and age and are relatively cheap, provided you don't care for the CD/DVD drive (typically speaking only high-end stuff has that anymore and high-end stuff isn't cheap). Otherwise there's lots of cheap "mechless" China Android-based jobbies out there as there are good aftermarket models for a little more; neither of which is are that expensive.
The next thing to figure out is a bluetooth adapter that will allow me to play my audio - can't believe the RNS-E only allows phone calls over bluetooth and not stream music through phone! 🙄
And again... 😉😅
What you can do is add some type of A2DP interface so you can get the audio into the factory system. There are three general kinds of which you can get. In order of cheapest to most expensive you have a "dumb" interface that connects to AUX input and just gives you the audio; a CD changer interface which gives you control but no text; and then a Bovee Tune2Air (or clone) which connects to the AMI (if you have that), and provides the audio streaming plus control, and gives you some limited text (for track titles, for example). None of these will be capable of displaying the image/video from the phone on the car's screen, however.
In your case I'd highly recommend something that plugs into the AMI...presuming you have the AMI in your car. That means a Bovee or clone if you want to spend the money on it (~$60-70ish USD equiv).

If you don't want to spend as much as Bovee/Invery/etc. costs, and want to go with the cheapest type that can still "just plug in" to the AMI note that you need to get the kind that has both an AMI plug and a USB plug for power. The reason is the AMI in our cars doesn't supply power in the same way that other/newer AMIs do, so if you get one that only has the AMI plug...it won't work because it won't get power. These are real cheap (like $10-15) but offer nothing in functionality except audio input--they fall under the first group (of three) I mentioned above, but use AMI AUX instead of a regular AUX (which you might not have), and are easy to plug in to AMI and USB power and "just work". (Note the Bovee class devices don't have or need a separate power supply because those are "smart" interfaces that "know" how to get even the older/different AMI to give them power.)

Note the one SJP mentioned in his post falls in to "type 2" of my mentioned three types. I honestly don't recommend this in your case because it's not just a "plug and play" solution in the car--you do have to pull the radio out and connect things behind there, etc. which I don't think you're looking to do...at least if you can avoid it? So...avoid it lol. Only reason you'd want to go that route is if you have neither AUX or AMI already in the car.
 
I hate to be "that guy" but you didn't really need to go on the roller coaster when it's pretty much what I mentioned in the beginning (on the other thread), lol:





And again... 😉😅


In your case I'd highly recommend something that plugs into the AMI...presuming you have the AMI in your car. That means a Bovee or clone if you want to spend the money on it (~$60-70ish USD equiv).

If you don't want to spend as much as Bovee/Invery/etc. costs, and want to go with the cheapest type that can still "just plug in" to the AMI note that you need to get the kind that has both an AMI plug and a USB plug for power. The reason is the AMI in our cars doesn't supply power in the same way that other/newer AMIs do, so if you get one that only has the AMI plug...it won't work because it won't get power. These are real cheap (like $10-15) but offer nothing in functionality except audio input--they fall under the first group (of three) I mentioned above, but use AMI AUX instead of a regular AUX (which you might not have), and are easy to plug in to AMI and USB power and "just work". (Note the Bovee class devices don't have or need a separate power supply because those are "smart" interfaces that "know" how to get even the older/different AMI to give them power.)

Note the one SJP mentioned in his post falls in to "type 2" of my mentioned three types. I honestly don't recommend this in your case because it's not just a "plug and play" solution in the car--you do have to pull the radio out and connect things behind there, etc. which I don't think you're looking to do...at least if you can avoid it? So...avoid it lol. Only reason you'd want to go that route is if you have neither AUX or AMI already in the car.
With the AMI plug in device, would phone calls still go through the same or would you have to disconnect the AMI and reconnect to the RNSE bluetooth?
 
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