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CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

Garkan said:
@dvuon Nop. It didnt work, after leaving the car and coming back after work it started to do the connect/disconnect issue.
I opened a dispute on aliexpress for refund.
I pressed the update button from the middle of the page and i think it updated to the last version available.
Click to expand...
I think there is something wrong with the latest OTA that is breaking devices. My older CPLAY2air has worked like a champ until I did the most recent OTA. Now it boots, and will show "connecting" and just loops there forever. I can delete the phone, re-pair, but it will never get past "connecting". Tried with three different iphones on combinations of iOS14 & 15.

I've been trying to flash various firmware, but none of them ever seem to take. Just a solid red light on the unit. Any suggestions?
 
Meanwhile my Podofo adapter is running stable and reliable on 3.09 firmware.
Solution: I ordered a USB-C cable at Amazon for 1.30 Euro and replaced the standard cable. Without the new cable it connected only sporadically.
Mercedes C Class 2019
 
Hi There, im new with this,

I bought the carlinkit 2.0, when I was installing it I think I made the mistake of updating it, I don't know if this is the consequence of my problem but the first time I connect it to my stereo it works fine, but when I turn off the truck and turn it on again the screen stays black or if it connects it has no sound when I play music, I have to reset the carlinkit so that it works well again, what do you recommend?
 
stevestrike said:
I think there is something wrong with the latest OTA that is breaking devices. My older CPLAY2air has worked like a champ until I did the most recent OTA. Now it boots, and will show "connecting" and just loops there forever. I can delete the phone, re-pair, but it will never get past "connecting". Tried with three different iphones on combinations of iOS14 & 15.

I've been trying to flash various firmware, but none of them ever seem to take. Just a solid red light on the unit. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
No idea if this will help or not but I had the same issue and just found this thread. I've had a CPlay2Air adapter since January 2020.

I was several updates behind and applied several up to the most recent August one. That's when the adapter refused to load the CarPlay interface (it would connect via Bluetooth but no Wifi I assume was the cause for CarPlay interface not loading).

Anyway, I just followed the steps from the 1st post to update it via USB to the July 2021 firmware. Just tried it in my car (2019 VW Jetta) and it successfully connected to my iPhone and loaded CarPlay.
 
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stevestrike said:
I think there is something wrong with the latest OTA that is breaking devices. My older CPLAY2air has worked like a champ until I did the most recent OTA. Now it boots, and will show "connecting" and just loops there forever. I can delete the phone, re-pair, but it will never get past "connecting". Tried with three different iphones on combinations of iOS14 & 15.

I've been trying to flash various firmware, but none of them ever seem to take. Just a solid red light on the unit. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
same for me,
solution :

please try the latest manual update available which is the 2021.07.05 system version.

Update instructions:
1.Please download the firmware update file from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RctSWqQX4YKfzIVmC6I5GqPaiZpB-lsz/view?usp=sharing

  1. Please save update firmware file on USB flash drive (Flash drive format must be FAT32)
    NOTE: In case the file has no extension, kindly put it in this .img
  2. Plug the flash drive into the CPLAY2air adapter.
  3. Plug CPLAY2air to the USB power charger/wall charger for your iPhone. Please don’t use the USB port of the car or computer!!
  4. Please wait 2-3 minutes, until the flashing light becomes solid
  5. Please unplug the adapter from the USB charger and remove the USB flash drive from the adapter.
  6. Please now plug the product into the USB port of the car.
  7. Please wait until the new window appears on the vehicle's screen.
  8. Connect your phone to the Bluetooth network which is shown on the screen.
  9. Wait for the new interface to appear on the screen.
Very Important note: Do not attempt to connect the adapter to your computer's or laptop's USB port. These ports are made to transfer data and will just interrupt the update process and brick the device. If you have Type C port, kindly use a converter.
 
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Kris404 said:
Does anyone have 2021 Ottocast U2-NOW? - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098Q18K8S

It has a bright green UI and is the fastest in connecting to my car. But sometimes, the car gets stuck in 'Activating device..' stage.

The latest firmware seems to be 2021.06.21.1624 and am not sure which custom firmware to try.

Edit: Corrected UI color
Click to expand...

I’ve had mine for a week, haven’t really experienced much issues with it
 
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samabbott said:
You should be able to recover if there's lights... You'd need to load new firmware on a flash drive (formatted as FAT32), within nothing else on the root, and then connect the USB, and power up the device from a USB power brick (I wouldn't use the car). Should flash, and reboot... The trick is knowing what firmware to load. You could try downloading the latest.... @VLud has a good repository for Stock firmware (https://github.com/ludwig-v/wireless-carplay-dongle-reverse-engineering/tree/master/Firmware), if it's an older device, I would try the 8.30; if it's newer (e.g. the Carlinkit w/ red Interface//WiFi 5, you could try the 8.24).. WMMV.

You could also email their support. They might have a better process to follow. I've heard C2A support is better than Carlinkit....
Click to expand...
Should I do all these operations by connecting them to the computer?
 
Thank you so much, tonust!

Your instructions worked, whereas I had been unable to get it flashed after spending literal hours with it last week.

The two things I did differently based on your steps were:
  1. Only have a single file on the USB drive
  2. I had not tried the 2021.07.05 version, but just about every other one available
I'm not sure which of these things fixed it, but it's working so thanks again.
 
jurrus said:
I have upgrade the Carlinkit following your instructions. Then, I have driven for 15 minutes and the Carlinkit does not work well in 2021.08.30, the device is delaying to a point that it reboots. I have modified the delay to 350 so I backed to 1000 and get back to home... and another reboot. The same happened with 2021.07.05 version, last shown via OTA.

The rest of the story is me trying to rollback via USB unsuccessfully until I have seen that it was possible to rollback from the OTA option.
Now my Carlinkit is back in 2021.03.06 and I think it is working like before (not tested... but it's the previous version)

Thank you for your help!

Edit: in case it can help someone, my Carlinkit is a V2 version, my car is a european 2020 VW Golf with Discover Pro (I don't know if europeans are different from US, just in case) and my iPhone a 12 Pro running iOS 15 RC.
Click to expand...
How can I change my carlinkit from the newest upgrade to 2021.03.06???
 
With latest Carlinkit FW 2021.08.24.1817, something seems to be wrong with the adapter's boot process as sometimes no controls are working, neither touch input nor the steering wheel buttons. Audio is working and the screen is also updating, just no car controls.

Does anybody suffer from the same issue? Head unit is a VW MIB2 with navigation.
 
renkliorjinal said:
Should I do all these operations by connecting them to the computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, sort of...

  1. Format a USB flash drive as FAT32 (using your computer)
  2. Download 1 firmware file from the link above, I would recommend going to the latest. If you don't know what model of device you're running, I'd probably start with the U2W_Update_2021.08.30.0022.img and if that doesn't work, try U2W_AUTOKIT_Update_2021.08.24.1817.img second.
  3. Place the downloaded firmware file directly on the flash drive and rename them accordingly:
    1. U2W_Update_2021.08.30.0022.img rename to: U2W_Update.img
    2. U2W_AUTOKIT_Update_2021.08.24.1817.imgrename to: U2W_AUTOKIT_Update.img
      1. If neither of those work, you could try renaming U2W_Update_2021.08.30.0022.img to U2W_ZYD_Update.img
  4. With the C2A or Carlinkit device unplugged, connect the flash drive (formatted with FAT32, and only *1* firmware file) to the USB-A port on the device...
  5. With the Flash Drive inserted into the device, power it up using any method you'd prefer connecting to the type-C port on the device. I would recommend doing this off of a power brick, or MacBook Pro charger... Rather than your car. But your car would work as well..
  6. The device should flash a few times, and after about 30 seconds, you should see it flash red/green. Eventually ~5 minutes or so, it should reboot and be recovered on the latest firmware... If if doesn't, try the different firmware file, and combination of the filenames... Also, common mistake is to not have Windows/MacOS show the "File Extensions", make sure that you're showing them, and that you're not naming the file <file>.img.img...
Hopefully you're able to recover the device! In my experience, the only time it's "Bricked" is if there's no LED/Light when receiving power... As long as you get the LED light, you should be able to flash the firmware. -- Also, be careful to not disconnect power too soon... The device SHOULD reboot by itself after ~5 minutes... If it doesn't, I'd give it an extra 5 minutes to be safe... Disconnecting the power while it's flashing can cause it to brick.
 
What is the difference between carlinkit v2 and v3?

I thought they are the same? Same usb-c to usb-A dongle? How can you tell the difference?

Thx
 
ssdaytona said:
What is the difference between carlinkit v2 and v3?

I thought they are the same? Same usb-c to usb-A dongle? How can you tell the difference?

Thx
Click to expand...

This is what I've gathered, might be missing some information:

v1 == USB A.
v2 == USB C, can run all 3 UI (Green, Blue & Red), and is a Realtek WiFi Chip running wireless N/4.
v3 == USB C, ONLY runs RED UI (as of Oct 2021, and no CFW support due to new encryption), and it has a Broadcom WiFi Chip running wireless AC/5.

Both v2 and v3 appear the same from the outside appearance.. and as far as I can tell, the UI is identical if you're running a v2 w/ Red UI... So the only way I can properly identify the two is running a WiFi explorer, and checking it it's WiFi4 (N) or WiFi5 (AC). I imagine if you crack the black shell case on the unit, it'll show the chip logo/models... but I haven't opened the v3 unit yet. v2 Showed the Realtek chip/crab.
 
Last edited:
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samabbott said:
This is what I've gathered, might be missing some information:

v1 == USB A.
v2 == USB C, can run all 3 UI (Green, Blue & Red), and is a Realtek WiFi Chip running wireless N/4.
v3 == USB C, ONLY runs RED UI (as of Oct 2021, and no CFW support due to new encryption), and it has a Broadcom WiFi Chip running wireless AC/5.

Both v2 and v3 appear the same from the outside appearance.. and as far as I can tell, the UI is identical if you're running a v2 w/ Red UI... So the only way I can properly identify the two is running a WiFi explorer, and checking it it's WiFi4 (N) or WiFi5 (AC). I imagine if you crack the black shell case on the unit, it'll show the chip logo/models... but I haven't opened the v3 unit yet. v2 Showed the Realtek chip/crab.
Click to expand...
Thanks for breaking it down. Im looking to buying one of these adapters for my fiances new 2022 CRV Hybrid, and i cant decide if its worth getting the v2 or v3. V2 has advantage of custom fw and v3 is newer WIFI. If you were to start over today, which would you choose?
 
The version that works. A newer version doesn't mean it will work. And someone that also has a Honda info system.
 
samabbott said:
This is what I've gathered, might be missing some information:

v1 == USB A.
v2 == USB C, can run all 3 UI (Green, Blue & Red), and is a Realtek WiFi Chip running wireless N/4.
v3 == USB C, ONLY runs RED UI (as of Oct 2021, and no CFW support due to new encryption), and it has a Broadcom WiFi Chip running wireless AC/5.

Both v2 and v3 appear the same from the outside appearance.. and as far as I can tell, the UI is identical if you're running a v2 w/ Red UI... So the only way I can properly identify the two is running a WiFi explorer, and checking it it's WiFi4 (N) or WiFi5 (AC). I imagine if you crack the black shell case on the unit, it'll show the chip logo/models... but I haven't opened the v3 unit yet. v2 Showed the Realtek chip/crab.
Click to expand...

what are you using as the WiFi explorer on a pc or mac? I don't have an Android phone to run WiFiman.


thx
 
rohizzle121 said:
Thanks for breaking it down. Im looking to buying one of these adapters for my fiances new 2022 CRV Hybrid, and i cant decide if its worth getting the v2 or v3. V2 has advantage of custom fw and v3 is newer WIFI. If you were to start over today, which would you choose?
Click to expand...
I'm using v3 right now, as well as a Podofo off Ali Express. They both work, the v3 is faster for sure...
I've got mine on the latest firmware, I think 08.24.. and it's VERY stable with my iPhone 13 Pro, not so much with the iPhone XS that was replaced recently... So It really does depend.

I have faith that the v3 encryption will be broken eventually... But until then, it's running pretty good with the Stock firmware. My v2 got bricked doing an update a while ago... But it was fairly stable as well. I'd say go with whichever one is less expensive; or give the "mini" a shot, I imagine that'll have the v3 hardware in a newer design... I like the Broadcom chips better than Realtek, so I like that about the v3 as well. Don't quote me on this... but I think the Realtek chip in the v2 device actually supports WiFi5/AC, however the drivers are trash and that is why it's running at WiFi4/N.
 
Still waiting for podofo to get back to me regarding getting the device to work with my Mazda CX-5… there’s no new updates from cheerdriving either
 
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what's funny is that I ordered 2 new carlinkit 3.0, both show WiFi4 a/n when using WiFi explorer

one of them does boot up much quicker than the other though. about 20secs to the CarPlay screen
 
ssdaytona said:
what's funny is that I ordered 2 new carlinkit 3.0, both show WiFi4 a/n when using WiFi explorer

one of them does boot up much quicker than the other though. about 20secs to the CarPlay screen
Click to expand...


www.amazon.com

Carlinkit 3.0 Wireless CarPlay Adapter USB for Factory Wired CarPlay Cars (Model Year: 2015 to 2025), Wireless CarPlay Dongle Convert Wired to Wireless CarPlay

Features: 1. Low power consumption design ensures stable operation of the product in different environments 2.Linux microkernel makes software operation more efficient and stable 3. Support OTA upgrade, online feedback and quick problem solving 4. Faster startup connection speed, better automatic...
www.amazon.com

This is the one I purchased and got the Broadcom chip. Looks like they've since changed all the descriptions to show "3.0". That said, if I ordered another one off this same page, I got the 2.0 with WiFi4. Maybe it's just luck of the draw, unfortunately..
 
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but I think the Realtek chip in the v2 device actually supports WiFi5/AC, however the drivers are trash and that is why it's running at WiFi4/N.
Click to expand...

Yes. The Carlinkit V2 uses a Realtek RTL8822BS. The adapter however builds on a very old kernel 3.14 with the very old rtl871xdrv driver which doesn't have proper 802.11ac support. Newer drivers for the chipset are available, see here and here. But it would also require Carlinkit to update the kernel.
 
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One thing to consider is that 80MHz 802.11ac may not have much of an impact as there is still the USB2 bottleneck. It may make sense to configure the second antenna to perform spatial diversity (same data over multiple paths for improved reliability) instead of spatial multiplexing (independent streams for improved throughput).
 
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