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CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

So yea I think the newest OTA update bricked my unit. Here is what I updated to and the result after I got the success prompt on the phone... Anyone?
 

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Small correction to the settings descriptions in the initial posting...

GPS: enables GPS via CarPlay

When enabled, the adapter passes on GPS coordinates received from the head unit via the car's GPS antenna in order to improve positioning, especially when the iPhone is hidden away, lacking a clear line-of-sight view to the satellites.

This is not a mandatory feature for wired CarPlay. So it may not be supported by all cars with wired CarPlay only (probably only those with a navigation system built-in).
Click to expand...
 
After having spent about a week with the Carlinkit 2.0 adapter, I decided to write a little review about my experience with it.

Car: SEAT Leon ST FR (2019) with NAVI SYSTEM PLUS (based on Volkswagen MIB 2)
Adapter: Carlinkit 2.0 (Autokit edition with red UI) with FW 2021-03-06
Phone: iPhone X (iOS 14.5)

Carlinkit 2.0 Wireless CarPlay Adapter Review
 
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BleedingMe said:
So I did several tests with my adapter. Here are some things that I found out…


Car: SEAT Leon ST FR with NAVI SYSTEM PLUS (based on Volkswagen MIB 2)
Adapter: Carlinkit 2.0 (Autokit edition with red UI) with FW 2021-03-06


UI
UI navigation is quite smooth. There is not much of a difference compared to wired CarPlay. Appearance automatically switches to dark mode when the car lights turn off (or are being turned off manually).

Controls
The iPhone properly detects that CarPlay is navigated via touchscreen rather than a selection knob. So there is no focus item in my case.

Unfortunately seeking inside audio tracks by long-pressing the steering wheel’s skip (previous/next) buttons does not work.

Audio sources
Transitioning between audio sources is seamless. Also mixing two audio sources works properly, e.g. Siri/directions on top of music (or the HU's FM/DAB+ tuner).

WiFi/USB hand-off
When connecting the iPhone via USB to the dongle, the current CarPlay session is interrupted for a few seconds. Weird thing is that the iPhone and dongle reconnect wirelessly instead of via wire. Apple actually specifies that there shall not be a switch. But connecting the iPhone via cable (in order to charge it) shall not cause an interruption.

Phone calls
Tomorrow I will perform a phone call echo test in order to compare the lagging between wired and Wireless CarPlay (and no CarPlay at all).
Click to expand...
Great write-up. This mimics my experience in a 2019 VW Golf (also running MIB 2 system) with the exception of the USB handoff which I haven't tested. Phone calls work well but only for a few minutes; after that the audio for the other person sounds distorted and garbled; almost robotic. Haven't been able to tell if this is an adapter thing or an infotainment thing.
 
I updated my "review" with some measured numbers (effective media delay, telephony round-trip delay).

I haven't done any long-term testing so far.
 
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Interesting there's been no firmware update for the product since the last update on 3/6. They average 1-2 per month, but now nothing in almost two months. They clearly don't care about the bugs that are still present. Probably moving onto the 3.0 or whatever they decide to call it. Strange.
 
Here is some more info...

The access point spanned by the Carlinkit adapter only offers 802.11n 2x2 40MHz @ 300mbps:
wifi.jpg



It uses channel 36 which is UNII-1 and not the advertised 5.8GHz band (UNII-3). This should make any difference though.

Apple actually recommends 802.11ac VHT (using up to 80MHz wide channels resulting in 866mbps) and even mandates WMM. The Carlinkit 2.0 adapter offers neither despite the built-in Realtek WiFi chipset supporting both. I don't know whether it would make much of a difference since CarPlay is a point-to-point connection, not using a hell of a lot of bandwidth anyway. It might however bring down latency.​
 
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BleedingMe said:
Here is some more info...

The access point spanned by the Carlinkit adapter only offers 802.11n 2x2 40MHz @ 300mbps:
View attachment 1767023


It uses channel 36 which is UNII-1 and not the advertised 5.8GHz band (UNII-3). This should make any difference though.

Apple actually recommends 802.11ac VHT (using up to 80MHz wide channels resulting in 866mbps) and even mandates WMM. The Carlinkit 2.0 adapter offers neither despite the built-in Realtek WiFi chipset supporting both. I don't know whether it would make much of a difference since CarPlay is a point-to-point connection, not using a hell of a lot of bandwidth anyway. It might however bring down latency.​
Click to expand...
Hypothetically, does this mean that one could set appropriate parameters somewhere in a .conf file in an unpacked image, repackage it and test the performance accordingly?
 
So I put all my findings into a separate review, see here. I will keep it up to date with latest findings and future firmware improvements/regressions.
 
Have an issue where the dongle will disconnect after 30 seconds or so of being connected. Have to unplug and replug to get it to work. Updated to the latest firmware when I got it in December-ish - is there a fix for this in any newer firmware? Car is a 2019 Mercedes A Class. Thanks!
 
cambookpro said:
Have an issue where the dongle will disconnect after 30 seconds or so of being connected. Have to unplug and replug to get it to work. Updated to the latest firmware when I got it in December-ish - is there a fix for this in any newer firmware? Car is a 2019 Mercedes A Class. Thanks!
Click to expand...
All Mazdass used to have that exact same issue, For Mazdas, it was fixed in the 2021.01.28 updates. Current is 2021.03.06 and that works very nicely, for Mazdas. Maybe for yours...
 
cambookpro said:
Have an issue where the dongle will disconnect after 30 seconds or so of being connected. Have to unplug and replug to get it to work. Updated to the latest firmware when I got it in December-ish - is there a fix for this in any newer firmware? Car is a 2019 Mercedes A Class. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hi, I have a 2020 Mercedes A Class, I had this same issue initially, the custom 02.02 firmware has fixed it for me. I tried the 03.06 too but find the 02.02 seems to be the most stable for Mercedes. I find the device also boot up faster with the custom firmware too.

Cheers
 
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cambookpro said:
Constantly getting an 'Update failed' error when trying to go to 03.06 firmware... any ideas? :(
Click to expand...
I'm not sure why "Update failed" was happened. but it seems you have updated via OTA. so how about USB drive updating ? See #1 message.
 
BleedingMe said:
Yes, see here. It is less hypothetical than you may think. With CFW it should be possible to replace hostapd.conf.
Click to expand...
Would this be something which could be done / changed in a custom firmware or would it need to be done by carlinkit - would be very interested to try this out if it could lower the latency - especially in phone calls
 
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