Wireless apple car play adapter device.

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Wireless apple car play adapter device.

JaseNZ

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#262297 14-Jan-2020 22:50

First world problems and all that, I am incredibly lazy and cannot be arsed plugging my phone into the head unit every time I get into the car. I have taken a punt on a wireless option and hopefully it works it says it will, I am not worried about battery drain on phone as not in the car long enough for that to matter.

You can update the firmware on it to keep it up to date as well.

It arrived today and was pretty much plug and play, Just plugged the adapter into the usb port and connected to it via bluetooth and was pretty much bam wireless carplay.

Was in and out of the car all day and auto connected every time directly into carplay. I use it for all my music and nav is always handy, I love the new look of the new UI so for me was worth the cost.

Could you get it elsewhere for cheaper yes probably but this is what it cost me to the door via DHL and I am happy with it so far

Total cost to door was $263.65 NZD

Got it from here if anybody else is interested

https://carplay2air.com/

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

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meow
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#2392253 14-Jan-2020 23:47

Pricey but quite cool - I've got a brand new Kia Seltos which only has wired Carplay but the thing I like is how responsive and smooth Carplay is on this car. In my other car which has a Pioneer head unit I find that Carplay can be somewhat laggy at times with animations. Have you noticed any difference in terms of animations, scrolling etc within Carplay?

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CYaBro

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#2392255 15-Jan-2020 00:00

I got something similar for my android head unit I put into my 2004 Mazda 3.
It’s not the wireless version so need to plug in the phone but I like to charge my phone while driving.
I now have Apple car play instead of just basic Bluetooth control so its great. Makes it pretty much the same as true Apple CarPlay in our new Pajero.

My one cost me about $55 delivered from AliExpress.
The android headunit was about $180 also from aliexpress about a year ago.

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JaseNZ

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#2392275 15-Jan-2020 06:41

michaelmurfy:

Pricey but quite cool - I've got a brand new Kia Seltos which only has wired Carplay but the thing I like is how responsive and smooth Carplay is on this car. In my other car which has a Pioneer head unit I find that Carplay can be somewhat laggy at times with animations. Have you noticed any difference in terms of animations, scrolling etc within Carplay?

Zero difference noticed, just the same as being plugged in. I would say the pioneer would have been the issue for you with not enough grunt to run it properly. Your new car would have better processing power hence it being so smooth.

Connection time when getting in the car is around 20 odd seconds which does not bother me as by the time I get going its all connected with music playing. Nav (Google maps, Waze and apple maps) all work smooth as butter as do calls and everything else.

I find it handy just being able to jump in the car phone in pocket don't have to unlock it and it all just connects and works.

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FineWine

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#2392290 15-Jan-2020 07:59

We have a Kia Sportage EL 2019. Apple Carplay to iPhone 7 is great but it is wired if you want Apple Carplay. If you do not want Carplay then it does bluetooth for music and phone. The gripe we have with the Kia headunit bluetooth is:

My partner is the primary and I am the secondary in the bluetooth connection hierarchy. We have a walk through garage so his phone is always connected if he is in the house. If I hop in to drive away I have to manually disconnect his via settings and then connect mine because it wont auto connect when his is 'out-of-range'. But if he is nowhere near the car when I hop in it will auto connect mine. And if either of us leaves the vehicle for good it wont auto connect to the remaining phone so again the remaining phone must be manually connected.

And of course it does not fully bluetooth for Carplay.

I have past on feedback to Kia about this.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

trig42

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#2392295 15-Jan-2020 08:30

Looks like a good device. Be nice if they made it a wireless charging pad as well.

I suppose they (or someone else) will.

Jiriteach

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#2392308 15-Jan-2020 09:00

Nice to hear this works. I've been looking for one and see a ton on AliExpress and Ebay but have been hestitant to buy one as many have had problems with them.

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Jiriteach

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#2392312 15-Jan-2020 09:02

Does anyone know if these can handle multiple phones (not at the same time).

e.g. I use the car and it auto connects to my iPhone. Wife uses the the car and when shes in it auto connects to her iPhone for CarPlay

Is this possible?

Thanks

-- opinions expressed by me are solely my own. ie - personal

BlinkyBill

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#2392313 15-Jan-2020 09:04

They have a FAQ which answers this and other Q’s.

Geektastic

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#2392703 15-Jan-2020 21:53

Sadly no aux input in my car and BT is for phone calls only. Otherwise I’d do it.

trig42

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#2392750 16-Jan-2020 08:45

Geektastic: Sadly no aux input in my car and BT is for phone calls only. Otherwise I’d do it.

It would only work if your car infotainment system already supports (wired) Carplay. This device is just a way to make it wireless - so you don't have to plug your phone into the car's USB port every time you hop in.

Some head units (and, I think, Ford cars) support wireless Carplay out of the factory.

michaelmurfy

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#2426199 24-Feb-2020 10:45

So I got a review unit sent to me from carplay2air - Impressions with my 2020 Kia Seltos:

1) Connect time is quite slow - ~10secs vs near instant with my head unit.
2) It causes quite a bit of lag on the head unit. There are dropped frames.
3) The interface changes completely to a more "simplified" version of Carplay for some reason.

I've done the firmware update of the carplay2air unit - it hasn't improved anything. I'm guessing my new car is perhaps too new.

Something else I've noticed - when playing music and scrolling a map in Google Maps it causes the music to drop out.

@JaseNZ how are you finding your dongle?

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Geektastic

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#2426296 24-Feb-2020 13:33

trig42:

Geektastic: Sadly no aux input in my car and BT is for phone calls only. Otherwise I’d do it.

It would only work if your car infotainment system already supports (wired) Carplay. This device is just a way to make it wireless - so you don't have to plug your phone into the car's USB port every time you hop in.

Some head units (and, I think, Ford cars) support wireless Carplay out of the factory.

My car did not when I wrote that - now it does as it's a new one!

Why oh why is Carplay not wireless by default though?

michaelmurfy

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#2426338 24-Feb-2020 14:37

Just tested with my other car which has a Pioneer head unit:

1) Head unit was laggy already, the adapter adds no further lag.
2) Music drops when panning around in Google Maps (Satellite view).
3) Steering wheel controls don't work - they skip songs until you unplug the dongle.

At this stage I honestly can't recommend the dongle which is a shame really. It doesn't work properly in both of my cars.

Something else I found with the Seltos:

If you put the car into reverse (bringing up the reversing camera), Carplay doesn't come back until you unplug/replug the dongle.

alasta

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#2426421 24-Feb-2020 15:53

Thanks for the review. I wouldn't be happy with what you've described, so it's good to know that before spending the money!

michaelmurfy

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#2426467 24-Feb-2020 16:52

I didn't want to fully destroy this dongle, but I did a teardown.

Powering the dongle is a AT91SAM9260 ARM processor: https://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/AT91SAM9260
Coupled with 16mb serial flash memory.

The wireless appears to be a 2.4GHz Single Chain 802.11n + Bluetooth module. I however can't find the module number without potentially destroying it.

The "U2M" sticker indicates it is nothing special, it is indeed the generic "Carlinkit U2W" Wireless Carplay dongle you see around the place with custom branding.

There are serial headers - I did hook into this however got radio silence. I am guessing this is for factory programming only.

I did manage to grab the firmware image for it and will attempt to reverse-engineer it when I get some spare time.

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