Grand California camper control panel

[ekonomism]

Door controller was replaced last time, with no effect. This time the central control unit was replaced. Dealer also said people have tried changing the control panel, with no effect. They believe the error was in the central control unit. They have talked to the factory and others about it.

The car is now working ok. But I'll wait a while before I conclude that it is cured definitely. For the time being, no spontaneous alarms, strange reading on the control panel or malfunctioning lighting.

 

[andy_c]

Visited the dealership today and they tried to check what was the software version in our control panel. They did not succeed to find it out, but later today we managed to get it out. Ours is V000108 and at least that one is buggy as hell.

You can enter the factory settings on the control panel by swiping the top on the screen from left to right and then from the middle from up to down while in the main screen.

This can take many many tries before it opens as I don't know if there is a delay or certain speed for the swipes.

View attachment 82999

View attachment 83000

Hi All,

Is anyone able to advise if there is a later control panel software firmware version beyond V000108 and if so what is the version number and when it came out or when you at least had it upgraded?

FYI: The above diagram is really useful for guiding access to the factory settings, but I thought that I’d add that I’ve managed to get into the settings more regularly by being careful where I finish the downward swipe - somewhere under but closer to the “battery” text or the blue line than perhaps that arrow suggests… or maybe I’m just lucky!

Many thanks!

Andy

 

[Jester]

Hi All,

Is anyone able to advise if there is a later control panel software firmware version beyond V000108 and if so what is the version number and when it came out or when you at least had it upgraded?

FYI: The above diagram is really useful for guiding access to the factory settings, but I thought that I’d add that I’ve managed to get into the settings more regularly by being careful where I finish the downward swipe - somewhere under but closer to the “battery” text or the blue line than perhaps that arrow suggests… or maybe I’m just lucky!

Many thanks!

Andy

I have the same sw version as you and seem not to have any issues. However interested to understand your issues if you have any.

Will

 

[andy_c]

Hi Will,

I think I experience much of what others have reported - solar charger stops charging, water and battery levels report incorrectly - nothing a reset doesn’t fix - it’s just annoying and you’ve got to be watching for it. In general I love the van when it’s performing, but paying this amount of money for a heightened sense of paranoia is not cool - pretty disappointed in VW on this front… and the off grid capability and the kitchen sink tap… but everything else is awesome!

 

[Jester]

Hi Will,

I think I experience much of what others have reported - solar charger stops charging, water and battery levels report incorrectly - nothing a reset doesn’t fix - it’s just annoying and you’ve got to be watching for it. In general I love the van when it’s performing, but paying this amount of money for a heightened sense of paranoia is not cool - pretty disappointed in VW on this front… and the off grid capability and the kitchen sink tap… but everything else is awesome!

Morning Andy,

Totally agree, any issues I have and not finding the dealer handles it well I lodge my issue directly with VW CC I do not always get the desired result but they need reminding from us all that some of our issues are recurring for many owners and they should do more about it ie taps/pumps.

also they should be reminded we were sold a campervan at 90k + not a Crafter + 26k. We let them get away with to much.

Like you I love the van.

 

[Eber123]

Good morning,

From the very beginning my VW dealer was very supportive and helped as much as he could. If something needed to be changed, and parts were available, within 2 or 3 days I got the vehicle back.

But a VW dealer works in a restricted network of processes, which are provided, in my case, from VW Ireland. If something needs to be done "out of norm" they must give their blessing.

At the beginning it felt to me that VW Ireland was not very "customer orientateted" (let's describe it nicely). My complaints were at the beginning ignored, later I got "standard replies".

At that point I raised on official complaint with Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge in Hannover. I got a reply within 2 days. As expected they "... were sorry about the problems ...." but "... VW Ireland is responsible to sort the issue...".

That is all I have heard from Hannover ... but it might have been coincidence, but now my VW dealer got all the help possible (as I mentioned Irish VW specialists, VW specialists from Hannover connecting online to the camper....). At the tail end of the issues (well almost) I got a special deal worth of few Euros.

In the past I gave out a lot about the Grand California. But thinking about it, it is not really about the camper, it is about Volkswagen. Everything can break, but it is so important how the dealer and manufacturer is dealing with it. In my case the VW dealer was brilliant, but VW Ireland couldn't care less.
I don't believe that I expect too much if I think that if there are serious issues with a vehicle worth new EUR 95K and if it is escalated to them, that they can ignore it or not engaging properly with the vehicle owner.

I also think that if the Grand California causes one issue after the other, which at the end prevent the owner to use it, that the country specific VW headquarter should be contacted and as a next step VW Hannover. One or two of those contacts and complains won't change anything, but there is really a bigger group of Grand California users with issues there might be a chance that Volkswagen is listing and improve customer support and find and offer technical solutions.

Almost repaired Grand California,
Eberhard

 

[andy_c]

Good morning,

From the very beginning my VW dealer was very supportive and helped as much as he could. If something needed to be changed, and parts were available, within 2 or 3 days I got the vehicle back.

But a VW dealer works in a restricted network of processes, which are provided, in my case, from VW Ireland. If something needs to be done "out of norm" they must give their blessing.

At the beginning it felt to me that VW Ireland was not very "customer orientateted" (let's describe it nicely). My complaints were at the beginning ignored, later I got "standard replies".

At that point I raised on official complaint with Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge in Hannover. I got a reply within 2 days. As expected they "... were sorry about the problems ...." but "... VW Ireland is responsible to sort the issue...".

That is all I have heard from Hannover ... but it might have been coincidence, but now my VW dealer got all the help possible (as I mentioned Irish VW specialists, VW specialists from Hannover connecting online to the camper....). At the tail end of the issues (well almost) I got a special deal worth of few Euros.

In the past I gave out a lot about the Grand California. But thinking about it, it is not really about the camper, it is about Volkswagen. Everything can break, but it is so important how the dealer and manufacturer is dealing with it. In my case the VW dealer was brilliant, but VW Ireland couldn't care less.
I don't believe that I expect too much if I think that if there are serious issues with a vehicle worth new EUR 95K and if it is escalated to them, that they can ignore it or not engaging properly with the vehicle owner.

I also think that if the Grand California causes one issue after the other, which at the end prevent the owner to use it, that the country specific VW headquarter should be contacted and as a next step VW Hannover. One or two of those contacts and complains won't change anything, but there is really a bigger group of Grand California users with issues there might be a chance that Volkswagen is listing and improve customer support and find and offer technical solutions.

Almost repaired Grand California,
Eberhard

Thanks for sharing your experiences Eberhard. You’ve probably ascertained from my various posts that I’m trying to evaluate the pros and cons of different upgrade paths and it’s definitely not easy - on one hand maintaining the warranty feels sensible, on the other it will potentially prolong the pain when actually there could be some fairly simple (but admittedly more costly than is fair to us) mods that will mean life is materially better! I will share the options I evaluate and my experiences over the next few months and I hope others will continue to do so also - it’s really great to have a community forming to help shine (fee a solar joke coming on) light on this stuff!

Kr

Andy

 

[GordonH]

I thought I would add to this thread as its title suggests it would be the right place. Admins - If there is a better place please advise.

As has already been mentioned the panel has a hidden factory configuration screen. Folks seem to be having some challenges in entering it but once you’ve found the sequence you can reliably get into it.

With the panel in the Home Screen place a finger on the ‘day’ text on the top left, swipe across to the ‘outside temperature’ text on the top right. Then lift your finger and place on the ’Start’ text in the middle of the screen and swipe down to the ‘Battery’ text. It doesn’t need to be fast, just deliberate.

You then enter the factory configuration screen as below where you can enable/disable a number of control panel functions. The potential use of this is to enable control of aftermarket items that need powering - I’ve found under the drivers seat the wiring loom has the power feed to both the satellite system and the WiFi router even if those were not fitted at the factory (my van is a November 2021 build GC600) - so when you turn on the ‘WiFi’ option the panel then enables the WiFi button on the entertainment menu and allows you to switch it on and off which switches power on and off at the connector under the seat allowing possible control of aftermarket WiFi router equipment from the panel - something I am about to install and it would be nice to have it all feel integrated and this appears to allow that.

The satellite loom also has an aerial feed and what looks like a control feed. If you put a small load on the 12V switched feed other options to control the dish appear in the panel so it may be possible to aftermarket fit the Kathrein system that VW use and access it via the control panel, not something I am looking to do but others may be interested in this.

There are a few other connectors under the seat, possibly for the sound system - I’ve not done any further investigation yet.

Of course VW could choose to reverse all the settings and lock the panel out at some future point so be mindful of devising a work around if you use this approach to power aftermarket equipment.

ps - I’ve taken a video describing all this if anyone is interested but not sure how or where to post it.


Factory screen

12V source switched from panel ‘WiFi’

Satellite 12V switched from panel, also note co-ax and data feed, no idea where these go.

 

[GordonH]

There's a slot that looks like a sim card slot at the rear of the control panel, does anyone knows what it's for?

View attachment 80586

Seems there may be a Bluetooth and 3G option https://www.dometicgroup.com/en/pr-and-media/news/emea/dometic-connect

 

[GordonH]

Just to add to these posts -

1. A previous poster had removed the panel and taken a picture of the rear and highlight what was thought to be a SIM holder - reading the Dometic manual is seems more likely to be a Micro SD card holder as this how the firmware is upgraded.
2. Its interesting the VW GC brochure shows users controlling the panel/camper functions from an app. There is a Dometic app that connects via Bluetooth to their equipment but I can't find a way to get that app to connect to the GC panel so assuming no bluetooth module onboard.

 

[Hugokijmy1983]

hola buenos dias
Soy muy nuevo en estos temas, tengo el mismo problema con las luces, bombas de agua ,etc; panel de control no responde realice el reset que comentais y se eliminaron indicaciones de la pantalla pero sigue sin funcionar.
Alguna solución ??

 

[GordonH]

hola buenos dias
Soy muy nuevo en estos temas, tengo el mismo problema con las luces, bombas de agua ,etc; panel de control no responde realice el reset que comentais y se eliminaron indicaciones de la pantalla pero sigue sin funcionar.
Alguna solución ??

I’m reliant on Apple translating your question correctly - Power cycling (red switch in utility cupboard - turn it off for 30s or so then back on) seems to be the main ‘fix’ for a non responsive panel, I’ve only done that once since I’ve had the van and that was when I collected it and was checking what did/didn’t work. Admittedly only had the van 6 weeks so it may yet be a recurring issue but I have found if the panel doesn’t immediately respond to the touch screen switching on the Ambient lighting seems to wake it up. Could be a firmware glitch and it needs some activity on the CI-Bus to come to life. If you dont have Ambient lighting try the switching the ordinary lights and.or outdoor lights On/off.

 

[Hugokijmy1983]

muchas gracias, sigo con los problemas esperaremos a ver si lo solucionan en la vw, antes de tener que desmontar yo la cosas. La garantía es fundamental en este momento

 

[dominichayhoe]

I’m reliant on Apple translating your question correctly - Power cycling (red switch in utility cupboard - turn it off for 30s or so then back on) seems to be the main ‘fix’ for a non responsive panel, I’ve only done that once since I’ve had the van and that was when I collected it and was checking what did/didn’t work. Admittedly only had the van 6 weeks so it may yet be a recurring issue but I have found if the panel doesn’t immediately respond to the touch screen switching on the Ambient lighting seems to wake it up. Could be a firmware glitch and it needs some activity on the CI-Bus to come to life. If you dont have Ambient lighting try the switching the ordinary lights and.or outdoor lights On/off.

Hi Gordon,
Good tip that, found that myself only this week.

I have done numerous on/off's with the red switch before with no issues, but this week the panel was not responsive after a reboot until I turned the lights on, and I don't have the ambient lights.

 

[leeb]

Hi Gordon
Yup ...it will be a recurring problem. Met some German owners with a 680 last week. Same problem for them too. The panel (so far) has unfrozen with a power off/power on cycle every time. We do have ambient lighting..and this is frozen when the panel freezes so the hack suggested by @dominichayoe wouldn't work for us.

 

[dominichayhoe]

Hi Gordon
Yup ...it will be a recurring problem. Met some German owners with a 680 last week. Same problem for them too. The panel (so far) has unfrozen with a power off/power on cycle every time. We do have ambient lighting..and this is frozen when the panel freezes so the hack suggested by @dominichayoe wouldn't work for us.

When you say the ambient lighting is frozen do you mean from the switch by the hab door, which is what I meant, or the switch on the control panel, which id expect to not work.

 

[leeb]

Both....when the panel does its freeze thing, I am unable to access ambient lighting with either panel or switch

 

[Holidaymaker]

Both....when the panel does its freeze thing, I am unable to access ambient lighting with either panel or switch

Your are ask before troubles Gc - I am happy can tell for you good news - This week also, I am have not have troubles my Gc - is functions all excellent and wunderbar!. I am think many others also have good news same than me - but is not they write to tell you so, only when is kaput!.

 

[leeb]

Kaput off ...you so gluckglich..Aber Oder volk not so gluckglich

 

[GordonH]

Hi Gordon
Yup ...it will be a recurring problem. Met some German owners with a 680 last week. Same problem for them too. The panel (so far) has unfrozen with a power off/power on cycle every time. We do have ambient lighting..and this is frozen when the panel freezes so the hack suggested by @dominichayoe wouldn't work for us.

Interesting to know.

I’ve been monitoring this and trying to ensure I am consistent with the sequence and timing of things and what ’appears’ to be the case (for us at least) is when the van is first unlocked and you switch the ambient lights on at the switch beside the bed (not the panel) BEFORE you do anything else then the panel always works fine from that point onwards, we’ve never had a problem with it other than after first opening the van and then only when we didn’t first switch on the ambients.

If we use the panel after the unlocking the van before switching the ambients on then its hit or miss if the panel is non-responsive on certain icons. Once its in that ‘undefined’ state it may come back to life with the ambient switch trick but that’s not a given.

Plainly we shouldn’t have to be doing this type of ‘light switch dance’ to have the panel function consistently so it would be good to know if anybody has had this problem fixed by means of firmware or hardware update.

 

[GordonH]

As a quick follow up - the panel is actually a Dometic Control Panel and is used by Knaus and Eriba in certain products - I wonder if they have similar issues?

 

[leeb]

No doubt we will soon have an "amusing" response from happy camper. It is a serious issue that VW have failed to solve. Early adopters, such as myself, will soon have an out of warranty van that may be a liability to use...and ultimately sell on.
I will continue to press VW customer service for an answer

 

[GordonH]

Here is an interesting resource for the GC - this page is specifically about the control panel fix where they show the outside light being the suggested ‘fix’. Web site has lots of other info.

Camper Unit Reset

Was tun wenn die Camper Unit nicht mehr funktioniert?! Geteiltes Leid, ist halbes Leid. Die meisten hatten bestimmt schon einmal die Situation, dass sich der...

www.grandcali.com

 

[IsThisNameLongEnough]

Hi all, was there any further resolution to the buttons on the control panel not working?

Have the same thing - reset and it works fine, a few hours later the touch screen works, just none of the touch panels on the side.

 

[GordonH]

Hi all, was there any further resolution to the buttons on the control panel not working?

Have the same thing - reset and it works fine, a few hours later the touch screen works, just none of the touch panels on the side.

I haven’t come across any further information on what seems to be a pretty common headache. Big red switch only documented solid fix. Anecdotal evidence that switching on lights before touching the panel is a workaround to reduce chances of the ‘freeze’. My own experience is if you switch on the ambient lights before touching the panel when you first unlock the van it never freezes, if you touch the panel first then there is a 50/50 chance it freezes. I now always switch the ambient lights on first and have had no ‘freeze’ issues in the last 6 months. Plainly not helpful if you dont have ambients but some of the other posts suggest similar success with first switching the outside light on. Not great having to do this type of nonsense ‘switch dance’ but to my knowledge no VW hardware/software fix.