lets get started into the new kenwood round with the dnx521dab, a double din unit for volkswagen cars. the shape and size fit perfectly, and the design matches the golf or eos or other models. this model is equipped with dab,
Android TV jvc, which means radio reception in digital quality. we will install it now into a golf 5. for the installation we will use the aiv m.i.c.k.i, with article number 640311, which is for the can bus connection.
then we have the iso connector. we have to install a microphone, for the bluetooth hands free, so to be able to make phone calls while driving. furthermore there is the gps antenna, for the navigation. and we install the cx-dab1 antenna of kenwood, this is the dab antenna, which has to be installed in addition to the fm antenna, because we want to listen to digital radio. included in the supply is the quick start guide. the complete manual is on a dvd,
it can be printed if necessary. we will try to do it without, and also explain the functions. in addition we will have an iphone or ipod connection, with the ipod cable, which also allows playing videos. first we put a protective blanket on the center console, in our case a fleece mat, in order not to scratch the interior of the car. and as always in the golf v we start right at the top, and remove the top cover of the dashboard. we unplug the connector,
and put this on the side. on top there is a torx screw you can hardly reach it, we undo it, i really enjoy this! after removing the screw, we can lever up the front of the insert, we have to be careful not to break it, then pull it forward - here are the retaining pins, now it can also be unplugged and put aside.
inside there are 2 more screws, which also have to come out. now we can remove the complete top bezel, starting from the top, and all the way down. we'll have it our hands soon, oh come on some more leverage down here, so, now we have it. remove the connector, will you come out? there it is! and we put the whole thing to the side again.
now we have access to 2 more screws, which need to come out. they hold the bezel around the radio. it needs to come off, to finally be able to remove the old radio, and install the new one. the rest is just some clips. so, and now we have it. we put it on the side again, and find another 4 screw, which actually hold the radio. screws are removed, and now we pull out the radio.
we remove the good old ac/dc cd :-) now we have here 2 antenna cables, and the quad-lock, which we unlock with the lever. so, the old radio is out. we have here now the connectors: the quad-lock, on which we find the 2 can-bus cables, in orange-lilac, and orange-brown. then the 4 speaker cables for 2 channels, and the ground and permanent power cables.
the rest will be done by m.i.c.k.i., our can bus adapter. which will connect the new radio with the car electronics. and here we need the fakra antenna adapter, which is included in the set. our m.i.c.k.i. adapter has the quad-lock connector, which goes directly to the car harness. first we have to fully open the lock mechanism, the we push it in and lock again. the we have the iso connector, with ground, permanent plus and switched plus. the switched plus is generated by m.i.c.k.i. from the can bus. it also gives the speed signal, which is necessary for the navigation. all this goes to the iso plug.
we also have here the speaker connection, even for 4 channels, but this doesn't matter for our installation, as there are only 2 channels in the car. then there is the fakra connector, which we plug onto the antenna cable. as the antennas in the golf 5 need a phantom power supply, which means they need 12 volt, we need to provide the connection. therefore we use this phantom adapter.
we grab the 12 volt from the blue remote cable, which switches on along with the radio. we connect the 2 cables to power the antenna, which will now be switched on by the radio. all this is needed for a good fm reception. we clip off the small plug, and use a wire-tap connector. we put it on the cable, insert the second one, and press it closed. now that we have the iso connectors here, we can take the original harness from the dnx 521 dab, and we connect the power and speaker plugs.
and here we have the plug which goes directly into the new kenwood radio. in addition we find here the reverse cable, which comes to use when we install a reverse camera, it tells the radio that the car is in reverse, and switches the screen to the camera picture. the light green cable is for the parking brake. theoretically it would block the video function of the kenwood, unless the car is parked. we can trick the radio by putting the cable on ground. the radio thinks we are parked, and does not limit the functions. so we simply connect the cable to ground. you could watch dvds while driving, but you shouldn't, really.
we remove a bit of the insulation, and connect the cable. we'll solder the connection, and insulate it then. how do we solder? we are tinning the soldering tip, and let the solder flow in the copper. we lift off the tip, make sure the surface is nice and shiny, when it looks tarnished, it became too hot, and the solder joint cold be faulty. now we wrap it with insulation tape. the lilac reverse cable is not needed. we can shorten everything which is not needed, and tidy it up with some tape. now the connections are done,
and we have to find a way to store all cables and connectors, so to be able to insert the radio without problems. finally we have the microphone for the bluetooth hands-free, and the gps antenna. in our golf 5 we can put it in the upper area of the dashboard. the golf does not have a metallized windscreen, so the signal will be good. the cable can straight go down to the radio, and again we have to store the excess cable. we have here a metal plate, on which the gps antenna sticks magnetically. i our golf 5 we can stick it in one of the corners.
later, when everything is put back together, we can simply place the gps antenna here. the second cover, which comes on top, will still fit, there is enough space. i have installed already the microphone, it sits on the steering column. the cable runs behind, from where you can grab it and route it to the radio. we also have to install the usb cable. it is fixed on the radio. it has to go to the glove box, where i put already the aux cable for the video of the ipod. when you almost close the glove box, you can grab the cable and pull it through. the cables end up in the glove box, and can be plugged into the ipod adapter.
and here we have the ipod connection with video, for our dnx 521 dab. what else we have to do? we need to install the dab antenna. we are using the kenwood dab antenna cx-dab1. it's got a long cable, and this little box. best is to install it on the windscreen. it has the sticky pads already. and here we have a foil with wires, which makes contact to the little box. you simply stick them together. we put everything together and route the wire to the radio. the antenna will be glued on the windscreen, where is does not restrict the view.
we have to put it in a way which allows hiding the cable behind the a-pillar cover. then we will install the foil with the wires. we lift off the airbag tag, and remove a torx screw. we push our fingers under the rubber lip, and pull the cover off. there is a numbers of clips behind. off it comes! now the a-pillar is free. here you see the clips, we have to remove them, and push them back into the cover.
this, by the way, is the airbag, so be careful! don't worry, it is not dangerous, as long as no one starts cutting it. you only have to ensure that it is put back properly behind the cover. now we access to the metal parts, and can install the antenna. we clean the windscreen, make sure it is free of oil and grease. we remove the paint with some sanding paper, until the bare metal is visible. it takes some time, now we have the filler, and there is the steel.
some more sanding... we have to connect here the ground of the antenna. to ensure a good reception. you can see now the bare metal, and this is where we stick the grounding contact of the antenna. just like this. to have a good contact with the metal. then we can stick on the little box, but we adjust it so to sit straight and as far as possible in the corner. let's peel off the protective film, and stick it on.
now the other protective film, there is the contact plate, on which we push the box. this one came off again, so lets put it back on. we will secure it with a little screw, to ensure the ground connection. after it turned out that the glue doesn't really work, i have decided to put a screw to hold it down. so i drilled a small 2.5mm pilot whole, and now i set the screw. this should hold it down forever. now we route the cable in ars24 manner. we will use our bitumen tape to hold it down, so not to interfere with the airbag.
here we have a roll of bitumen tape, we use it for everything in our workshop really. you can buy it by the meter of course. we push a stripe of it into the channel, all the way down, and far away from the airbag. and now we press the cable into the tape. it is a really solid way of securing the cable. we can remove this side cover, it is just clipped to the dashboard. and here we can put in the cable without any problems. how do we run the cable from the right side to the radio bay without removing the glove box?
it's very simple: we tape the plug to a strong wire, and push it on top of the glove box, until it shows on the left side. we grab and pull it. how long did this take now? was less than 30 seconds i think. we pull the cable all the way through, not to have anything hanging down. then we will put the side cover and the a-pillar cover back on. we will stow all the cables, and the radio can go in. we tie up the antenna cable with some tape, the cable is that long because in some cars you might want to install the antenna in a fixed rear side window.
this depends on your preference, the antenna is quite small anyway. we push the a-pillar cover back on, it is a bit tricky as all the clips have to go into their holes. click - clack, this one needs some work... then the screw back in, the rubber will snap on top again. now we can finally insert the radio, but not before plugging in all the connectors. let's start with the aux in for the ipod, then the fm antenna, and of course it doesn't fit. but we have this small adapter, which you can find it in our web shop.
here is the microphone cable, the socket is clearly marked with mic in. the gps antenna goes in here, all sockets are marked properly. what else is missing? the main plug of course. it should be mentioned that we have here 3 sets of rca sockets, for front, rear and sub. the subwoofer can be controlled separately. we also have av in sockets, for the reverse camera, or other signal sources. then there is a socket for a tv tuner. kenwood offers the dvb-t tuner ktc-d600e, here is a small picture from the brochure, it will be connected like a cd changer.
you can put it behind the glove box or elsewhere, where it is out of the way. you would also need 2 antennas, the caw-ant450. this would be the dvb-t antennas, so you can watch digital tv. all this would bring dvb-t into your dnx device. here is the socket for the dab antenna. unfortunately we don't have a steering wheel control here in our company car. if you've got one, it would also work of course, provided you have the correct interface for your car. but we don't have this, and insert the radio now.
so, now it is in position, 4 screws to hold it in place... it might be better to test everything first. so, it is switched on now, it is starting up, for the navigation we would have to leave the workshop, as we don't receive a gps signal in here. the receiver would calibrate itself. you can see now, that the illumination is in demo mode. it shows all possible color combinations.
the radio looks really cool already! soon we will explain the operation of the device. it displays already the set-up functions, which come up with the first start the language is english, which of course we don't want here, so lets set it up: let's see what options we've got - there is german, which we confirm with enter. next is ipod, connected to av-in2, this is the connection with the video in. the color we want it red of course, to match the golf 5. so, here we select red,
everything is red now, confirm. we could also modify the tone of red, if we like, by changing the red, green and blue values. we leave green and blue on zero, for maximum red. back to the previous screen... one more back... what else we've got? camera: this would be for the reverse camera - yes or no. as we don't have one, we have to set it to no, else would automatically switch the screen in reverse. even though there is no camera.
that was basically the setup. how do we get out? menu? no. - how does this work? ah here - end. first conclusion about the dnx 521 dab: it is ultra-cool! the menu is similar to what we know from our pc at home, or a pad, or an ipod or iphone. everything runs smoothly, and is easy to operate. if for example i want the sd card as a favorite, i simply drag it to the top. it works really well, and looks just great in the car. why doesn't vw offer such radios? you can of course customize the colors like you want.
we set it to red so to match the vw style, but this is up to you of course. to show you some of the menu items: let's start with fm radio. you can set here your stations, there are 6 presets. like on very old radios, which were excellent to operate. you can store the station simply by holding the p1 button. and now bayern 3 is on preset 1. the radio makes good use of the large display, shows all information very well. it has the station name, the radio text in a very clear way,
everything looks so great. let's switch to navigation now. even though we did not calibrate the unit outside, we have reception already, despite all the steel around. the unit found its position, and we can start scrolling around. i can zoom in, you see we are in kempten. it shows lots of poi's - points of interest. the navigation software is really cool. when i go back from the map, i can enter my destination. the software comes from garmin, it is very intuitive. i can enter an address, or i want to go back home, of which i can store the address of course. if i want to enter an address, i select the town, say i want to go to memmingen now,
to our headquarter, everything reacts very fast. now i can enter the street, we go to eibenweg my god it goes really fast! number 2! ready. it is ready now - and go! this is how the navigation looks. i like it a lot! that much about the navigation. next we have the phone function. of course we have the pair it first. we push bluetooth setup.
register new phone - set. it is searching for devices... the phone shows now the dnx... lets click it... here it shows oliver's iphone now... just following the instructions on the screen... i confirm here... now i have to enter the pin code 0000 ... now it is pairing...
now it is connecting... let's see if they come together... here it shows again now the dnx... here is still says connecting... this takes actually quite long... maybe it is synchronizing the phone book already? it might take a bit longer at the first time... so, that was it. we will call eddy now via our hands-free.
either we enter the number directly from the key pad, or we go into the phone book, which runs very smoothly. let's go to c here, you can see how easily it scrolls. just like on my iphone. we go further down to find eddy. there he is! let's call him! we will see now if it works., and how the quality is. it's dialing... let's close the door...
still dialing... hi eddy, can you hear me? yes. and why you don't say hello then? why? i am just doing a test, you are live on air with us in our youtube film studio. we are installing a kenwood dnx 521 dab into our golf 5. and now we are testing the bluetooth hands-free with you. okay, i can confirm it sounds really good on my end.
and i can say that the dnx 521 dab is a really cool thing. the operation is iphone like, with drag and drop, with cover flow, it runs really smooth. i haven't seen that on any other radio yet. well, that was about time. all the others have tried that, but no one succeeded so far. in any case, i can only recommend it. eddy, that was it already. we just wanted to test the hands-free here with you. yes, it works so far.
thanks mate, have a nice afternoon! cheers! so, lets close the connection. the radio has a reader for a micro sd card. it it here under the small flap. push the card in, close the flap, ready to go - cool. we will test now how long it takes the radio to boot. there is the start screen... let's see when it starts playing...
lights are on... i didn't count the seconds, but it takes some time. now it works. should be 15 seconds or so. possibly 20. we are leaving the workshop now. into the air, for optimum dab reception. i have to say the radio looks so great in here. let's get into the sun... the navigation wants something from us... dab plus radio we can search here for a station,
or we can display the services. here we can see which stations are on air, and the list is quite long already. i can also find them alphabetically. off we go - with finest digital radio reception. from the services list we select radio galaxy, what is this here? some kind of refresh function. okay, clear. we go back now, and then we store radio galaxy on preset 1. and now i have on digital broadcast no.1 my radio galaxy.
i could do this now with all my favorite stations. rock antenne of course... back again, and i store it on preset 2. it looks quite tidy once it is all set. and then i can directly switch between stations. again here we have a nice smooth scrolling function. i have to say again that i really like the kenwood. it looks so great, everything is functioning perfectly. what else there is to say? i really enjoyed the installation, (this was a lie).
but i think it was worth it, even though i was close to pulling my hair out at times. the kenwood is for me the only dab plus radio at the moment,
as a multimedia device, which has the full functionality, where the operation and the quality are first class. not to forget the perfect integration into the golf 5 and the looks in general. i can only recommend it. i hope you enjoyed the video! see you soon!
