[Experiment] Retrofitting a coloured screen to an RD45. Results somewhat inconclusive.

[the-termin8r]

Hi everyone,

I just quickly wanted to document some findings I've gathered for anyone else that's curious like I was.

The other day I saw this video that showed someone retrofitting a coloured Type-C display (part number 9660954280) to a C5 X7 with an RD4. In the video it seemed to function well enough. But it got me wondering whether it would also work on an RD45 (I can already hear Marc coming to tell me I should have known better LOL). My main concern was whether it had a Bluetooth-compatible ECU in it. But anyway, I picked one up and gave it a shot today.

The short version is that it works...sort of.

I took a quick video that's too big to upload here that shows what I explain below.

The longer version is that, surprisingly, it did connect to my phone and streamed audio just fine, but it was clear that the screen didn't belong. It detected and played from both my phone and the USB stick, however, when changing the channel with the source button it would display blank screens for both USB and BT. So you can't tell which channel you're on or what's playing. Changing the display mode didn't conjure anything useful. The radio and Aux-in were fine, I didn't have a CD to hand, but I assume it's also fine. Clearly these were never options on whatever car it originally came from (I assume it only had BT calling).

Further still, unlike the one in the video, mine came with a climate-control-temp display where the clock normally lives. The display didn't change with the temp knobs (I didn't expect it to, honestly) and to further add annoyance, selecting reverse didn't trigger the sensor display like it normally does. I had a bit of a poke around with Diagbox, the car essentially flagged it as "ECU not recognised" (or something to that effect), but still detected it as a Borg unit with the correct SW version. It also let me go into the config menus. Either I'm blind or I wasn't looking in the right place, but I couldn't find any settings that turned off the CC display and enabled the parking sensor display. I suspect those functions vary based on what car the screen was originally salvaged from.

So there we go, a somewhat inconclusive experiment. If you can live with the wasted space and partially-useless display options, go for it. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it. The colour screen is indeed nice, but once the novelty wears off, I'd much rather have my functionality. I didn't even bother sealing the dash back up with the new screen. I had it loose for testing and put my old one back in when I closed everything up again.

[wurlycorner]

Interesting experiment.
I'm assuming you configured the relevant existing systems to 'known' it had a type-c screen after plugging it in?
Did you look at whether it was then possible to configure any further options in the RD45 (via diagbox) after?

[the-termin8r]

All the correct settings were already on "known" from the start in the MFD's ECU. I didn't actually think to look in the RD45 ECU. Not sure there would be any relevant settings in there though. And if there were, surely they'd be set to the correct thing anyway as I'm not touching the HU?

[GiveMeABreak]

That's the issue - some of these are model / marque specific screens, so expect issues and also with the comms architecture which can be different.

[the-termin8r]

Just a quick update:

Went out again today and spent some time on it as I was a bit pressed yesterday. Had a more thorough look in Diagbox. I managed to activate the parking sensor display, but that was about it. Couldn't turn off the CC readout or enable the USB and BT info readout. Oh well, for £30 it was worth a shot.

[the-termin8r]

Another minor update:

Tried it on the 3L which has an RD4 with a NOMAD module. Same sort of result. Didn't bother with Diagbox this time.