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CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

2018 Denali said:
Try this on your bricked unit.

1. With your truck on and wireless CarPlay running search 192.168.50.2 it should show you the firmware update to 8-4-20 on your phone. Keep this page open.

2. Connect the bricked unit to the wall power brick.

3. Connect a iPhone/iPad lightning cord to the bricked unit.

4. Connect your phone to the lightning cord.

5. Now press the update firmware tab on safari on your iPhone screen and let it go through the process.

6. This worked for me on my Carlinkit usb-c once when I couldn’t get it to do anything.
Click to expand...

Hi 2019 Denali, thanks for this amazing tip. I just tired it out. I also have 2x adapters so this was do-able for me. First i downgraded to 08-04, but then my iphone could not find the adapter. I therefore upgraded to 2020.09.17. Finally it suggested an OTA upgrade after that.

The upgrade starts after following your list, but it stops at 4%. The iPhone does not connect or start charging at any point.

My setup is like this:

USB-C iPad wall charger, usb c cabel from the wall charger to the adapter, then i use a iphone usb-a to lightning cable from the other side of the adapter to the iphone.

Any suggestions? Theres alot of newer firmwares available. I just tried to find one old enaugh to launch an OTA upgrade.
 

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Update, i rolled back to 2020.09.17 to be able to OTA upgrade. The method was a success. I left the bricked adapter it self powered in a long time before starting the process.

But still, no red light or led when powering it.
 

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KevinGrabher said:
Instructions are on the first page.

1) Download the firmware you want (http://projects.grabher-industries.com/U2W/)
2) Format a flashdrive (FAT32, (Allocation size 1024, default value should be fine if you use disk utility))
3) Use a power adapter without any smart features, preferably around 10 Watt (iPad power adapter for example)
4) Depending on the software your Carlinkit has now you'd want to either

Plug in the flashdrive into the Carlinkit, then plug everything together into the power adapter & wall
or
Plug in the Carlinkit into power adapter and wall, wait 1-2min, then plug in the flash drive.

The Carlinkit should blink in different colors while updating, the whole process might take a bit, I'd always leave everything plugged in for about 10 minutes to be safe.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! This thread is so long I had no idea that there would be anything of use of use all the way back on the first page.

I chose the latest update from February and now the CPLAY2AIR device actually works. I can pair phones wirelessly and play content, similar to being plugged in for CarPlay.

Unfortunately I now have some issues.

First, it seems like I need to wait until my head unit boots up before plugging in the dongle or it won’t work. That kind of defeats the purpose of using it. Is there any fix for this?

Second, if I pair both my phone and my wife’s phone and we're both in the car, how do I make sure that it pairs to the driver’s phone? It seems that once it picks the phone there’s no way to change the phone without re-plugging the dongle. We share a car and each have to drive it separately most days. On the weekends we are usually in the car together. I'm finding that if I plug in a phone to the dongle's USB port it forces it to disconnect the current device that's wirelessly connected, but then often immediately reconnects to the same device when you tap the CarPlay icon on the head unit. Strangely, my phone will connect over USB through the dongle but my wife's phone won't.

Finally, now I wonder if since all these dongles use the same software that maybe I should have bought a different brand. This brand claimed to support Sony head units but now I suspect they all do.
 
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waffffffle said:
First, it seems like I need to wait until my head unit boots up before plugging in the dongle or it won’t work. That kind of defeats the purpose of using it. Is there any fix for this?
Click to expand...
There’s a delay option in the web UI (192.168.50.2) on recent firmware which is intended to solve this problem. It doesn’t affect all head units, so I guess you are unlucky.


waffffffle said:
Second, if I pair both my phone and my wife’s phone and we're both in the car, how do I make sure that it pairs to the driver’s phone? It seems that once it picks the phone there’s no way to change the phone without re-plugging the dongle. We share a car and each have to drive it separately most days. On the weekends we are usually in the car together. I'm finding that if I plug in a phone to the dongle's USB port it forces it to disconnect the current device that's wirelessly connected, but then often immediately reconnects to the same device when you tap the CarPlay icon on the head unit. Strangely, my phone will connect over USB through the dongle but my wife's phone won't.
Click to expand...
I have the exact same problem. It would be nice if the “return to car UI” button presented the phone selection screen, but it doesn’t. For now, I’ve found the most reliable way is to disable auto connect (in the web UI). This will stop it connecting until you select the phone from the menu on screen. It’s not ideal, but the extra tap is better than messing around with phone WiFi settings when driving.
 
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Grecomafioso said:
I can confirm that renaming the update file to U2W_AUTOKIT_Update.img FINALY works on the Carlinkit 2.0 plus dongle. In the past i tried several times with U2W_Update.img and it Never worked with several usb drives. Now, after changing the firmware it just accepts the Firmware files renamed to U2W_Update.img.

My dongle just won’t work with my Sony XAV-3005db - it just rebooted my whole Head Unit on the Stock fw it came with. First I updated it to the newest update. 2021-02-19 I think it was. When I plugged it to the USB port of my head unit the led sayed red, blinked for a split second green and then again stayed on red. There is nothing CarPlay related showing up on my head unit.
Click to expand...
Hey, just wanted to thank Grecomiafioso and the others posting about problems with the USB update. I read a number of posts where people couldn't get the OTA or the USB update to work. I was one of 'em.

- Just got the U2W Plus adapter from Amazon on 3/4/21.
- Software version was 12/25/20. Also had the red screen interface that looked different.
- Linked with Mazda 2016 CX9 CarPlay but would reboot every 30 seconds or so.
- Tried the OTA update and it would not show new versions to update. I reset device and still no use.
- Tried many USB sticks with USB firmware versions trying to get something to work. Dongle would not start the update process - period. - Didn't matter what timing or sequence i tried.

- Saw this post and on a last ditch effort, changed name of U2W_Update.img to U2W_AUTOKIT_Update.img. Dongle immediately took update on USB stick, flashing red/green lights for a minute or two.
- Took the dongle back to the car and when booted, the UI screen was different - no longer red highlights but green now with different screen layout. Synced with Mazda's CarPlay and it worked - no more reboots and the software update screen in Safari now shows the latest version!

Hopefully this will help others that got the dongle with the 12-25-2020 software version. I think the comment made earlier that this particular software version was crippled and different from the others. Many thanks to forum members for posting their findings. It did the trick!
 
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jgriffter said:
changed name of U2W_Update.img to U2W_AUTOKIT_Update.img
Click to expand...
What version of the firmware did you update to, and where did you get the file from?

As much as the newer interface looks nicer, the constant audio cutouts on wired and wireless CarPlay make me keen to update!
 
whatgift said:
What version of the firmware did you update to, and where did you get the file from?

As much as the newer interface looks nicer, the constant audio cutouts on wired and wireless CarPlay make me keen to update!
Click to expand...
whatgift said:
What version of the firmware did you update to, and where did you get the file from?

As much as the newer interface looks nicer, the constant audio cutouts on wired and wireless CarPlay make me keen to update!
Click to expand...
Firmware version - 02-02-21 (latest at this site)
Source: https://github.com/ludwig-v/wireless-carplay-dongle-reverse-engineering/tree/master/Firmware
 
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Have any of you guys bricked the adapter when usb firmware updating, and managed to get it to life again?

Ive done the method above with another dongle, and even if it seems to claim success on 192.168.52.0, the dongle is still dead without any lights on power input :/
 
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AUTOKIT version is only for Carlinkit V2 devices (Old devices having 10MB rootFS are not compatible)
I copied the UI from the 2020.12.25 AUTOKIT firmware but all the rest is the 2021.02.02 firmware with custom script execution

9ZC5Qih.jpg
 
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I installed the bigger autokit file on my Carlink 2. It booted up fine. I'll drive later after my bike ride. The connect screen is a bit nicer as seen on the above post.
 
@VLud! Nice -- I installed it and it works great -- is it possible to change the color from Red to something else? Perhaps via a script to it can match our interface?
 
VLud said:
AUTOKIT version is only for Carlinkit V2 devices (Old devices having 10MB rootFS are not compatible)
I copied the UI from the 2020.12.25 AUTOKIT firmware but all the rest is the 2021.02.02 firmware with custom script execution

9ZC5Qih.jpg
Click to expand...
Does the Cplay2air have 10MB or more. It’s working fine after flashing the 2020.12.25 firmware (9.66MB)
 
MrMister111 said:
What dongle and OTA or USB? What was described in the change log?
Click to expand...

Just downloaded VLud's 2021.02.02 Custom Firmware and did USB update. And the version I see after this update is 2021.03.07.

Didn't see any change from my previous version 2021.02.02 stock.

Carlinkit CPC200-U2W-Plus
 
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Which version of Carlinkit 2.0 is everyone purchasing? Amazon.com has many different versions claiming to be 2.0

I have been searching for CPC200-U2W-Plus and I get one for 125 and one for 75, any differences?
 
I think the 2021-03-07 is VLuds custom firmware version that includes the AUTOKIT UI -- which is actually the 2021.02.02 firmware.
 
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Mavro said:
I think the 2021-03-07 is VLuds custom firmware version that includes the AUTOKIT UI -- which is actually the 2021.02.02 firmware.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification. Just downloaded it. Haven't gotten anything to work yet on my Acura so I just keep trying when I see "milestone" updates. The last OTA was a weird one so I'm hoping this is better. I downloaded the AUTOKIT one.

QQ, does the "Reset" button on the settings page act as a "Factory Reset" or just a configuration reset? Can anyone confirm how a factory reset is actually performed?
 
I got a V2 device that was on the November firmware with the old interface. I flashed the 12.25 autokit firmware and got the new interface, awesome. However I went to flash VLud's custom firmware and now its back to the old color interface. What the heck?
 
Mavro said:
Make sure you download the Vlud AUTOKIT firmware (https://github.com/ludwig-v/wireles...ster/Custom_Firmware/2021.02.02_BASED/AUTOKIT)
Click to expand...
yup I figured that out now, i'm an idiot lol

the 12.25 firmware works perfectly in a 2019 Jeep Renegade, but in a 2020 Chevy Spark the frame rate is like 1 fps and stutters. The 2.2 firmware fixes this, and having the new interface is nice too

From the factory Chevy's MyLink is 30 fps CarPlay, using the settings menu in the Carlinkit I made it flawless 60 FPS!
 
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