Bluetooth music on RNS-E?

[The_Laird]

The wired option sounds good, as I'll need to charge the iPhone anyway. Here's a photo of the connector socket in the glove box

[HPsauce]

That looks like an Apple 30-pin interface for older Apple devices, so hopefully you just need an adapter to connect newer ones with a lightning socket.
Jim, can you take a better photo, closer and in focus?

Note: If that is the case you will probably need to shell out on a genuine Apple unit as most 3rd-party ones either only support charging or will be rejected by newer versions of IOS as not being compatible.

[The_Laird]

I’ll try another photo later. I tried to fit an old 30pin connector to it, but my sausage fingers wouldn’t allow it!

[MikkiJayne]

I think that is the proprietary MMI connector. You'll need a proper MMI adapter cable to connect it to an i-thing. They are plentiful on ebay.

I believe RNS-e only connects to the phone as a headset. It doesn't support the correct Bluetooth profile for music playback so the phone simply ignores it for that application.

[PsYcHe]

Bluetooth has a number of 'profiles', handsfree, and audio being two of them. Most older cars/head units only use the handsfree profile. You can add an adapter as mentioned if you have the apple connector. I think the tunes2air are now the Bovee WMA1000, which I've got in the Jag and No 2 Son's Volvo, which give you the steering wheel controls, etc. that you wouldn't get using an Aux cable. Though I'm sure there's other options out there for getting Bluetooth on to it, such as BT to Aux adapters and you just have to use the phone to change track.

[IT]

I would say that looks like the ipod dock.

And as it suggests, its designed for an ipod (of that era) to slide in and dock.

From memory there were 3 external audio options at that time:

Ipod Dock
CD Changer
AMI

The latter would give you the most connectivity options by today's standards I imagine and ought to be a fairly simple retrofit as the RNS-E didn't have many ports on the back, so I imagine its a case of unplug the dock, and plug the AMI in.(never actually done it though, so dont quote me)

The AMI in question looks identical to the one we see on the A6/A8/Q7 - but - crucially - it doesnt have MOST (optical bus) so is different connectors on the back, e.g: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-A4-B...0AAOSwpxZdiRtb



The RNS-E also has TV input options, so, worst case you could fathom a 3rd party connection over that, but they do tend to pick up alternator interference in my experience....

[The_Laird]

Originally Posted by IT

I would say that looks like the ipod dock.

And as it suggests, its designed for an ipod (of that era) to slide in and dock.

From memory there were 3 external audio options at that time:

Ipod Dock
CD Changer
AMI

The latter would give you the most connectivity options by today's standards I imagine and ought to be a fairly simple retrofit as the RNS-E didn't have many ports on the back, so I imagine its a case of unplug the dock, and plug the AMI in.(never actually done it though, so dont quote me)..

It is, indeed, an iPod dock!

And as I have a couple of old style iPods, that what I’ll pursue in the short term (funds need to be reserved for a new belt and a few other issues with the TTS).

The iPod functions in the dock, but the only text on the screen is ‘CD1....CD6’ and, for each CD, Track1.....Track n’. That’s pretty similar to some of the iPod links I’ve tried in the S8. I can live with that if I have to.

The SD card that I bought (not an HC card and only 2GB) works well too, with screen info and steering wheel controls, so I’ll buy a few more of them as well.

Thanks for all the input guys - much appreciated

[The_Laird]

I wonder if this might be as good as/better than the Apple cable?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-A...53.m1438.l2649

[Adrian E]

Is your RNS-E a MK 1 or 2? If not sure, usually a chrome volume knob and ability to use SDHC cards in the 2 slots behind that are bigger than 4GB is an indicator of Mk2.

I don’t think mk1 supports AMI (Sergey went through all this with his old car)

Never seen the iPod dock before!

[The_Laird]

Here is the RNS-E in my TTS. It has 2 SD card slots, but didn't like the 16GB card that I first tried. It’s fine with 2 GB, non-HC cards