RCD510 & SD Card Help

[breeza]

Just got a Golf6 with RCD510 and I am trying to use it with an SD card.

It all works fine in general and I am very impressed with it but I have the following problem:

When I turn on the ignition the RCD powers up and immediately starts playing the mp3 from where it left off but as soon as I turn the key and start the car the RCD seems to reset and the screen goes off. When it comes back to life shortly after it re scans the SD card which can take a minute or two.

If I start the car with the RCD off and then power it on manually after the car has started all is fine and the SD card is not re scanned.

Now the thing is I have had a parrot bluetooth kit installed and I didn't try the SD card before it went in so I don't know if its the parrot install that has caused this issue or is does everyones RCD510 do this when the car is started?

Can anyone help?

[Mk3Mike]

Mine does too every time I start the car... Atleast I think it does. But a minute sounds like a long time. I'd say around 20secs or so. I Use Sandisk Ultra II SDHC 16GB.

[breeza]

The delay was driving me mad so I scrapped using the SD card and tried a few USB sticks. Hardly any delay but some sticks work more reliably than others. A generic brand sometimes fails to initialise but the sandisk cruzer contour 16gb was fine.

I am currently testing a couple of different western digital portable hard drives to see how they perform. 16gb just isn't enough storage and those 64gb USB sticks are in excess of £100!
I am wondering how well they will cope with the cold and vibration!

[jonallen628]

I am wondering how well they will cope with the cold and vibration!

I started off by using a WD Passport which fits perfectly in the cubby hole next to the MDI socket. It failed a couple of times in Jan when the weather was really cold. The hard drive also loses where it was when you turn the car off so will play the same song everytime you start the car. The access time on the hard drive is also slower than with a USB stick. I have switched to a 16GB Sandisk USB drive now which doesn't have the drawbacks associated with a hard drive.

[easybreeze]

Yeah I got the 16GB USB stick and works perfectly... also when you remove it then put it back in, it starts back at the same song when you took it out - amazing... well I think it did - lol

[breeza]

Well my experience is a bit different as I have had 100% success with the WD My Passport Essential 500GB part number WD5000ME-00 1309A

I have a folder structure of a-z\artist\album and it works fine with about 180GB of MP3s. The access time is 5 seconds slower than a usb stick on first turning on the radio to getting sound but after that its perfect. Even if I unplug it and plug it back in it starts the same track in the same place - same if I remove the key, lock the doors, wait for everything to power off and then open up and start the ingnition again.

I am impressed that when you unlock and open the door you get power at the MDI socket straight away so the HDD can power up and initialize before you turn the radio on.

I must add that this is actually in an 09 MK6 Golf and not a rocco.

jonallen628 when you say it failed a couple of times in the cold what actually do you mean by "failed" ? Cheers

[jonallen628]

When the device boots normally you get a message on the head unit "media device intialising" or something along those lines. A couple of times when the weather dipped below -5 i would get a message to "media device failed" or similar.

It didn't matter how many times i unplugged and re-connected it, it just wouldn't work. Later that day on the way home when the temperature had increased it worked fine. Unless i am intepreting it wrong the literature with the drives says that it wont function below 5 degrees.

Before the cold snap the hard drive operated without a glitch.

It is interesting to see that your WD unit remembers what you were listening to when turning the car on / off, if mine did this then i would probably have continued to use it. Do we know what element of the Hard Drive spec would determine this functionality?

Sorry i can't be more accurate with the messages dispayed on the headunit.

[breeza]

Thanks,

Yes the operating spec is 5 degrees and above however I suspect it will work at lower temperatures. When it gets below -5 though I can imagine it won't like it too much I can live with it the few days a year it gets that cold.

Even a really old Western Digital 120GB USB drive WD1200U017 worked and remembered the track position but it was a lot slower to initialise. Hmm maybe the newer head units have an updated firmware that improves compatibility with USB hard drives.

[breeza]

Pahh!

The drives I was testing I borrowed from work. As the WD5000ME-00 1309A worked fine I went ahead and ordered one but the drive I received actually has a very slightly different part number WD5000ME-00 3309A. This one doesn't resume where it left off!

I have logged a support call with Western Digital to see if they have any ideas but am not holding out much hope.

[breeza]

As I suspected Western Digital couldn't come up with an answer. They are saying the two part numbers are identicle! Hmm so why are they different part numbers then

[class]

I have a question for you who use the SD card. I'm an impatient git who doesn't take delivery of my Scirooco until june, but want my music all ready to go as soon as possible, and I am looking to use the SD card.

Firstly, I'm guessing the structure on the card should be Band/Album/Song MP3 or alternatively Band/Song MP3. Is this correct?

Secondly, I have about 2000 songs on my PC. Some band/groups will only have 1 or 2 songs in the folder, whilst another may have 100's. How does the SD Card work with regard to skipping tracks. Can I select the folder with the 2 tracks in for example, then when I get bored use the console to skip forward, and the RCD510 will automatically 'skip' to the next folder, or does it not work like this and I have to manually select another 'folder' myself?

Any help would be gratefully received!

[breeza]

Yeah that folder structure should be fine I can't remember if when you skip tracks it will go into the next folder but it certainly does when you naturally get to the end of the last track in the current folder.

I would still advise a USB key in the MDI rather than an SD card though.

[class]

Hi Breeza, thanks for your input. Can I ask why you would prefer the USB key method? Also, does it have the same result using the USB ie scroll through the files on the screen etc?

Yes I'm a noob, haha!!

[jonallen628]

Yep if you get to the end of one particular artist / folder and skip forward it will move onto the next artist / folder in alphabetical order.

[class]

Cheers Jon.

[breeza]

Hi Breeza, thanks for your input. Can I ask why you would prefer the USB key method? Also, does it have the same result using the USB ie scroll through the files on the screen etc?

Yes I'm a noob, haha!!

Because every time you start the car it resets and initialises the SD card. I found this was taking a minute or two and I found it really annoying. In contrast the USB key is up and running in just a few seconds. Yeah the UI is the same on screen selection menu.

[shooms]

Hi....

I've got a Sandisk Ultra II 16gb SDHC & it takes a max of 30 secs to initialise the card from ignition & always picks up from where turned off...

The SD slot is SUCH a top feature... hats off to the VAG team for the foresight

[breeza]

OK it's been a bit of a jouney but I now have what I believe to be the perfect solution - an OCZ Rally2 64GB USB stick.

Plenty of storage for the largest MP3 collection, super quick to initialize, works first time every time, starts where it left off, should cope with the cold as it has no moving parts & has fast read and write speeds.