A6 C5 OPS / RNS-E PU / Manual / A6 A8 PDC

[wucdbm]

Hey, as this is my first post on the forum, thank you very much for your wonderful craft. The display is simply amazing.

I have been fortunate enough to have a guy in Bulgaria that has mounted tens of these displays install mine. For the most part, everything works great, except for a few quirks, and I was wondering if you could help a little.
I have searched the forum for similar issues, to the extent to which I understand Russian. I only studied Russian for 2 years in school, I can understand much of what's being talked about, but I might have missed something.

I have a pretty convoluted setup in my car.

The car is A6 C5, with RNS-E PU (193, second gen, etc). The RNS-E unit luckily has RFSL for +12V camera activation. There's also a front AND rear cameras installed, the output to RNS-E's video interface is controlled via a relay. They are powered up with the PDC module (whenever PDC is active, via the button LED +12V through a transistor that actuates a small relay on a separate connection), not via reverse gear or any other means.

I have an A6 4F PDC module currently installed. I also have an A8 D3 PDC module. Both of these modules WORK with ColorMFA set to A6/A8 in OPS/PDC. I assume ColorMFA sends CAN messages to trick them into believing the vehicle has ignition on. Before I had the ColorMFA installed, these would throw an error about some module and refuse to turn on.

I also have an A3 8P (8P0 part number) CAN Gateway. All 3 - engine, comfort/convenience, infotainment busses are wired up to the Gateway and 2 CAN wires from the Gateway down to the OBD plug, this allows me to access modules via VCDS on my computer.
A few other modules from newer vehicles, but that's irrelevant to the topic.

Question #1

ColorMFA settings: OPS/PDC: A6/A8 active, A6/A8 show, A6/A8 -> RNS-E.

This works. PDC Module (A6 or A8, both work) no longer refuses to start and operates properly. ColorMFA shows graphic. RNS-E shows camera + sensor overlay graphic on the right.

The problem is however that when the car is off, when I flip the key to ignition ON, both RNS-E and the ColorMFA boot up, but RNS-E shows a blank screen of what seems like the parking aid screen. Like it's in camera ON mode, but there's no signal.
I can remove this by pressing the media button and it goes back to Media. Once I activate the parking aid, it automatically goes to camera/OPS as it should, if I switch it off, it stays at the same blank parking aid screen for a second and then it realizes parking aid is now off, so it goes back to media. So that's OK.

This only happens when I turn ignition on and stays like that until I press a button on the RNS or activate Parking aid via the button.

https://youtu.be/SddfE0PFU28 (TURN THE VOLUME DOWN! I forgot to reduce music volume.)

EDIT: The A6/A8 -> RNS-E setting is the one that causes the screen to go to parking aid on startup. I tested with that setting off and it doesn't do that when you flip the key to ignition ON.

Question #2

A6 C5 is a very analog car. It WAS automatic, but I converted it to Manual. Reverse gear is rewired to go through the F4 switch on the gearbox and that works fine for the lights, chromatic mirrors, passenger mirror curb position, etc.
Parktronic stopped activating with reverse gear when I transitioned. I then learned that Pin#6 on the 16 pin plug is for +12V from reverse and that fixed it.
Before that, I did not originally have a wire in pin 6. Meaning parktronic used to activate via CANBus, when the car was still with auto gearbox.

HOWEVER. A64F/A8D3 PDC modules no longer have Pin#6 wired for reverse gear +12V to activate the module, unlike the A6 C5 module.
I was wondering if ColorMFA is capable of activating the PDC module via CANBus whenever reverse +12V is sent to ColorMFA.

Note: At the moment reverse gear +12V is not soldered on the dashboard and ColorMFA. The guy who installed it only wired the turbo boost wire on the dash, and I wired ECU to Dash.
If ColorMFA can activate PDC via CAN, I can ask him to wire the +12V reverse gear on the grey plug to a free pin and wire it up.

I also saw in the manual in "Debug > Hardware > Outputs" the following options. I was wondering if any of those would solve my issue.

"Rear Gear - выход становится активным при включении задней передачи.
Ign.Delay 3s - сразу после отключения зажигания выход становится активным на 3 секунды.
Rear + RVC - выход становится активным при включении задней передачи или активизации камеры заднего вида R8."

But then I went to the car and entered in "Outputs" and it was all disabled.

Question #3

I've always wanted to get the moving steering lines on the camera feed on the RNS-E. Do you know if RNS-E draws those? Is it possible to get ColorMFA to send CAN messages with steering angle to RNS-E, for RNS-E to draw the lines?
I know people get this done with the R8 module, but that is very expensive and hard to find. I am unsure if the R8 module does the lines or RNS-E, so I might not need the R8 module at all.

Do I need to have either of these modules 8P0 919(910) 475 (N,H,Q) for that?

Question #4

Do you happen to know how reverse gear is communicated in Audi cars? I found on the Internet, that in Convenience and Infotainment, it's 0x351 - byte1 00 is forward, 02 is reverse gear, byte 2 and byte 3 are speed.
I tested in CAN Monitor, I have 0x351 in both Convenience and Infotainment, but only speed - byte2 and byte3. Byte 1 is always 00 and does not light up

I was also considering doing an arduino setup for reverse gear injection. Do you happen to know what message is being sent in other Audi models for reverse gear? Since 0x351 seems to aggregate gear + speed, I guess that reverse has its own separate message on the Convenience bus?

Furthermore, if I eventually get an 8P0 A3 8P module, since that one is on the Motor bus, are you aware what needs to be sent via CAN to get the module to activate?

[autopilot]

In fact, there is a separate thread for questions about the A6/A8 PDC: Парктроники с визуализацией

Question #1
If you have a camera installed without a compatible control unit (for example, from the R8), then for the camera to work correctly with the parking sensors, in the ColorMFA you must enable this option: Debug→ Software→ OPS/RVC→ BAP Camera Emu. In the RNS, the camera must be coded to operate according to the BAP protocol (adaptation channel 4 - coding 3 - Lambo).
But I'm not sure how this will work with both the front and rear cameras. Only tested it with the rear one.

Question #2

Note: At the moment, the +12V reverse gear is not soldered on the dashboard or the ColorMFA.

MUST be connected for proper PDC operation.

Question #3
The camera control unit (from R8 as example) draws the trajectory lines on video before displaying the video on the RNS screen. This cannot be done separately in the RNS or ColorMFA.

Question #4
On the A6C5 there is no reverse signal on the Comfort or Info CAN bus. This is not provided by the manufacturer.
Parcel ID 351 is in the car, but it doesn't transmit reverse gear data. There's no other way for the C5. There is no separate package specifically for reversing.

Furthermore, if I eventually get an 8P0 A3 8P module, since that one is on the Motor bus, are you aware what needs to be sent via CAN to get the module to activate?

If you're referring to the PDC module, you don't need any special options. Especially if you have the A3 8P gateway installed. It will do everything you need (if coded correctly).
If you don't have an 8P gateway, you need to enable this option in ColorMFA: Debug→ Software→ OPS/RVC→ OPS A3 GW
It is not recommended to use options in ColorMFA simultaneously with the installed gateway unit.

[wucdbm]

Yup, I read the thread, found lots of useful info there.

Question #1

The cameras are fine. The issue is, when key goes to ignition, RNS-E initially goes to PDC screen. If you press a button, it switches the screen normally. Has this happened to anyone else? I did not notice anyone complaining of that particular issue in the OPS thread.

Next time I disassemble the car, I will test without the gateway.

Question #2

Will it activate PDC when I hit reverse gear?

Question #3

Alright, thank you very much! <3

Question #4

EDIT: Reverse signal on CAN is not 100% true. When the car was with the automatic gearbox, it did NOT have +12V reverse cable to the PDC. But it activated once I put it in reverse. It could be some other message ID that activated the PDC, would be helpful if you know the ID and data format.

Regarding 8P PDC, noted. In that case, I will keep my current setup for now as 8P PDC and R8 Cam module are each quite expensive.

[autopilot]

Question #1
The problem only occurs when using a camera without a control unit (RNS coded to 1) and parking sensors simultaneously.
If you disable the camera or PDC, then the problem with a black screen when turning on the ignition does not occur.
The problem is only when TOGETHER. If the camera is without a control unit.
For proper operation, you need to set the camera mode to BAP (encoding 3) and enable the "BAP Camera Emu" option in ColorMFA. Of course, for work correctly, ColorMFA must see the reverse gear.

Question #2
Parking sensors are activated via the ColorMFA. Without a reverse signal, nothing will work. The ColorMFA must read either data from the transmission (automatic transmission) or from the reverse signal (manual transmission).

Question #4
See the answer to Question #2.
The RNS also has a reverse signal (RFSL). It can be activated by this signal. However, the parking sensors won't work. This is because they are controlled by the ColorMFA, and the ColorMFA hasn't received the reverse signal (there's no wire).

[wucdbm]

Right, gotcha. Thank you very much for your support, I'll get around to doing those things and post back.