Help with a Bosch SLDA head unit in a Suzuki Vitara

[Dormouse]

GREAT NEWS.

Updating the firmware to 1890 has worked!
The head unit is now fully functional.

I realise that most people will think why bother reading this. However, Bosch head units with similar functions and firmware are used in a whole raft of other cars including Nissan's / Renault's.

I will give the short story here just now but there is a long story ( mostly about what not to do ).

So, short version first.

Firstly, I bought a new SD card.

I then copied the 14 files from the unzipped SOP9 files.

These were booted up in the head unit.

half an hour later I had this.

Which gave this.

Which also updated Android Auto as well as a functioning Sat Nav.

So, while this thread is about a Suzuki, reading SLDA forums suggests that similar units can be found in Renaults / Nissans and possibly more.

This short version proves my first question, in the very first part of this thread, about asking if a firmware upgrade could achieve anything, and it has. Just what this has to do with faulty aerials I have yet to establish but I have hundreds of posts to trawl through to see if I can find out why.

The long version ( mainly of what not to do ) will be my next post, unless someone out there can cast a definitive light on this. Please feel free to chip in any info you may have.

[Dormouse]

This is the type of article ( of the many, many ) I have trawled through to get ideas why the ubat ( operational supply ) voltage may be linked to GPS.


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This article about a completely different electronic unit got me thinking that the SLDA unit had some sort of UBATT monitoring circuit
( even fuse ). If it was a fuse it would be inside the head unit. If it was micro processor controlled, then a reset might be possible. I tried all the on car resets so the firmware update was the step before removing and dismantling the head unit. I am still hunting for better wiring diagrams for this SLDA unit but I have hundreds of pages to look through so I may still be some time.

As it turns out, the firmware update has appeared to reset the UBATT / micro processor issue I think I had. Early days, but the unit seems to work properly now and I have by no means been through all the possible combinations this unit can do. For instance, the GPS acquired time signal now works, which it never did before. I knew my own GPS aerial worked so I started the reset process attached to the car's own GPS aerial and, as it turns out, it works.

Just to show how perverse I am, I am now going to work on the Android Auto side so I can use my phone for sat nav duties.

I hate things that don't work properly and I just need to fully understand them.

I suspect that some of the condemned warranty head units that Suzuki replaced may well have responded to this firmware reset, even if it was like for like versions as long as it was a clean install. Especially since Suzuki and Hella knew about the aerial power supply interference issues and Bosch probably do have a micro processor control for the power on the various boards inside the head unit.

[Dormouse]

The Android Auto system is working spot on. It linked instantly to the phone and was able to get this right away.

My next step is to play with a multi hub into the single usb in the centre console. I have a usb hub/volts display in the 12v power socket. This will take power back to the cubby mounted multi hub in an aftermarket centre armrest we have fitted and a single usb cable will then connect the muli hub back to the SLDA head unit. The cubby has two layers, a big-ish cubby and slim top tray for a mobile phone to lie in.

This will go into a separate post shortly once I have assembled all the cables and adaptors.

[JT99]

Hi,

I just joined the forum and saw your post.

I have experience of two of these Bosch LCN/SLDAs, one badged as a Nissan Connect in a 2009 Nissan Note, the other a Suzuki SLDA in my 2019 Jimny.

Bosch called them Low Cost Navigation systems for a reason, they are pretty rubbish.

They don't like being warm, which is why they are mounted right at the top of the dash where the Sun can heat the dash roll and bake the unit . This causes a loss of sensitivity, and they lose all the satellites.

My solutions
1) I put the desiccant bags on top of the LCN to keep the Sun off that part of the dash. (If you ever owned a Note, you know what the desiccant is for )
2) With the Nissan I bough a magnetic puck antenna - they are the standard blue shrouded co-ax plug, I screwed a steel plate to the top of the dash and stuck the puck to it, trailing its wire. Then whenever the unit got "lost" I could open the window and stick it on the roof, which gave enough signal to bring it back.

On the SLDA, if you touch the cog wheel on the right side strip when on navigation, you can "show position information" which gives the number of satellites in view- it needs 5 for a decent fix, although 3 ought to be enough. On the LCN it didn't show number of satellites, but the clue was if the altitude was zero it wasn't GPS locked but dead reckoning navigating.


Dead reckoning: once the GPS gets a moving fix, it can use the distance travelled from your speedo and the direction turned from your accelerometers to "guess" where it is, bearing in mind that it is constrained to roads. This works really well, and you don't notice the frequent signal losses, until one day the cumulative error is so great that it jumps to a road a mile or so away and then it is lost. The LCN used to show N---.------ W---.------- for its current position, the SLDA shows the calculated co-ordinates - I've checked them on Google Earth and they are where the unit claims to be, not where it is!

Strange Quirk: Nothing I could do would get the SLDA to show the right position, even though it could see satellites, it thought it was miles away in a field somewhere. Eventually someone suggested I check the time zone, and somehow it was set to Paris. Restoring it to London corrected the error. I've absolutely no idea why a time zone setting affected location.

The LCN had the better software tbh, I can't get the SLDA to stay in day mode if I put the lights on in the daytime, so I have to turn them off to check where I am going!
The lack of buttons on the SLDA is a constant annoyance, it is virtually impossible to jab the right place on the screen when moving.

[Dormouse]

Thanks for that. The Low Cost Navigation unit and the SLDA share many boards and parts as well as the mapping and software controlling them as far as I can find out. I just can't find decent schematics / wiring diagrams for these Bosch combined units. I am pretty sure they will share boards and modules from other Bosch units but I just can't get that information.
Funny that you mentioned the GPS Time Zone. When I first had the unit working, the time was out by an hour. Now, with 9 satellites for a fix, I was puzzled to discover the time zone was two zones out. After I set that, the time set quickly and correctly. I too had my "test" GPS aerial lying on the dash, but the lead was long enough to place the GPS aerial on the roof if I thought it might help. Any help the GPS gets in poor reception areas, the better.
This unit is taxing my knowledge to it's limits just now. It defies the logic I think should control it, forcing me to think laterally - given how numerous these units are, there is precious little technical information coming to the surface yet.
I am pretty sure the UBATT issue was caused by the roof aerial wiring issues I found. Just why it locked up the Head Unit, I don't know yet. Yet!

[Dormouse]

For such a popular and widely available head unit, the SLDA has reams and reams written it, but very little technical information or analysis. I am still ploughing through pages and pages of online material about Bosch, SLDA and LCN stuff and I will be some time yet.

However, Bosch has its own pages of Historical Blogs on it's own website.

Don't get your water heated, it provides nothing to the SLDA thread, but it might interest some of you as it talks about the inventions they have introduced to our lives.

I did find this web portal pdf 2015 instruction set for upgrading the Suzuki SLDA head units Firmware. Unfortunately this site won't upload the original file so you are stuck with photos of the screen as my Chromebook won't take screenshots of web portals.

It is not totally 100% correct/ inclusive in what it says but it looks like it was a "translated into English" job done by Suzuki using an instruction set given to them by Bosch. I will expand on this further in my full report.

Interestingly, head units for the Nissan range made by Bosch appear to have included the Firmware number for the unit on the label. SLDA (Bosch) units made in the likes of Malaysia did not have the Firmware number on the label - so you have no idea what the original Firmware in a SLDA head unit is until you power it up. The part number would presumably tell you the region it was intended for.

I have also discovered that if you touch certain parts of the screen you can inadvertently select sub menus which change the way the head unit responds. This partly explains why so many of the FW updates have 1 or 2 versions in quick succession. It appears that a lot of bugs have been discovered slowly as the use of the SLDA developed. It has also become apparent that software bugs in the various phone manufacturers' versions of Android over the years have also played a part in the operation (or not ) of the SLDA as a connected device.