Siemens VDO RD3-01 Car Radio

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Siemens VDO RD3-01 Car Radio
Manufacturer	Siemens VDO
Code name	PSARCD100
Release date
Device type	Car Radio"Car Radio" is not in the list (Laptop, Computer Component, Game Console, Phone, Tablet, Television/Monitor, Camera, Printer, 3D Printer, Drone, ...) of allowed values for the "Device type" property.

Guides

Device pictures

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  Front Panel

PCB pictures

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  Motherboard of PSARCD100-08, Top

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  Motherboard of PSARCD100-08, Bottom

Reference measurements (also schematics if available)

Please consider contributing pictures to this section!

More Information/External Sources

Do not confuse this with the Clarion RD3-01 radio, the front panel looks similar, but the eject button is on the opposite side, and the motherboard is very different (for example the Microcontroller and DSP chips are all different)

The amplifier IC is always on, even when the ignition is off.

There is a 24C32 eeprom present on this board. It stores settings, such as saved radio stations, but it also stores the VIN of the car the radio came from. The VIN can be found in plaintext at the very end of the 4096-byte eeprom, from offset 0xFEF to offset 0xFFF, not even null-terminated. Due to its position it's likely that there are no checksums/hashes involved, so it may be very easy to modify the eeprom content to make it work in another car.

The DSP chip is called SAA7708H. The CD drive is connected to SPDIF1. The AUX stereo input, also known as the "Line In from NAV", also known as the green Mini ISO connector, goes to TDA8579 line receiver, and then goes to the TAPE_R/TAPE_l inputs of the DSP chip. The CD changer connections are passed into the CD_RI/CD_LI inputs of the DSP chip.

There is a design error around the AUX input circuitry: The Electrolytic capacitor that connects to the "IN-" input of TDA8579 is placed with the wrong polarity. This results in the electrolytic capacitor getting reverse-charged, even without the AUX interface being in use. The reverse charging happens via high value resistors, so it is unlikely to end in the capacitor exploding, but if you choose to make use of the AUX input, then the polarity of this capacitor should be fixed.