CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

[LarryJoe33]

This one specifically says that it works over 5Ghz Wifi. Not convinced the existing ones do.

I'll keep updating with shipping. Paid for DHL shipping. Bought via AliExpress.

I saw that on their website poorly explained. Keep us posted. I just got mine yesterday. I have 30’days free return to amazon. I’d swap it out not it made a difference.

 

[LarryJoe33]

For USB updates, will exFAT work? Windows 10 doesn't do FAT32 anymore. Don't have my Mac with me.

 

[MrMister111]

For USB updates, will exFAT work? Windows 10 doesn't do FAT32 anymore. Don't have my Mac with me.

Use a free format tool, can then do whatever format want, allocation size etc. It has to be FAT32

Example but lots of others

Download USB Disk Storage Format Tool

The USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a freeware program that allows you to format a USB drive using FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and EXFat file systems.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[bookemdano]

This one specifically says that it works over 5Ghz Wifi. Not convinced the existing ones do.

I'll keep updating with shipping. Paid for DHL shipping. Bought via AliExpress.

2.4GHz doesn't have sufficient bandwidth for wireless CarPlay. So all versions of Carlinkit (and indeed all implementations of Wireless CarPlay) use 5GHz WiFi. Whoops. Looks like I'm wrong about this.

I posted about this redesign a week or so ago. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see U2W silscreened on the front. So I think it's unlikely that this adapter uses the U2H firmware. I could be wrong, of course. Please post your experience after you receive it.
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For USB updates, will exFAT work? Windows 10 doesn't do FAT32 anymore. Don't have my Mac with me.

The Windows 10 format GUI does do FAT32, just not on flash drives larger than 32GB. If you don't want to download a third party tool you can use PowerShell - instructions here: https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/

 

[Mike DeQuardo]

Well I’ve tried everything. Had mine working on my 19 GTI but cannot get it to connect at all on my 2020 Malibu. I did manage to update to the 3/6 firmware from the kind folks here who posted it. I got the red and blue lights after plugging in the USB stick I d/l the file to. So I assume all went well there. Note I saw no flashing lights. First the red lit followed a few seconds later by the blue one and they remained steady (no flashes).

When I plugged in the updated dongle there was no change at all. Nothing happening on the infotainment screen and only the red LED showing. My conclusion is this simply won’t work on 8” MyLink screens for at least Malibus and Equinoxes. Despite the CarPlay2Air site.

Bottom line is to only purchase from the CarPlay2Air site if you KNOW it will work. Their application listings are flat out wrong and arguably fraudulent. Their CS is horrible and their reviews are either fake or filtered. My 2 star review does not show up. As others have advised, buy the Amazon Prime version.

I’ll keep monitoring but if anyone has this working on either a Malibu or Equinox with the 8” MyLink screen I’d love to talk.
Thanks, Mike

 

[jck1634]

This one specifically says that it works over 5Ghz Wifi. Not convinced the existing ones do.

I'll keep updating with shipping. Paid for DHL shipping. Bought via AliExpress.

Hi can you send me a link to the one you bought on aliexpress?

 

[LarryJoe33]

Use a free format tool, can then do whatever format want, allocation size etc. It has to be FAT32

Example but lots of others

Download USB Disk Storage Format Tool

The USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a freeware program that allows you to format a USB drive using FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and EXFat file systems.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Thank you
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2.4GHz doesn't have sufficient bandwidth for wireless CarPlay. So all versions of Carlinkit (and indeed all implementations of Wireless CarPlay) use 5GHz WiFi. Whoops. Looks like I'm wrong about this.

I posted about this redesign a week or so ago. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see U2W silscreened on the front. So I think it's unlikely that this adapter uses the U2H firmware. I could be wrong, of course. Please post your experience after you receive it.
[automerge]1586439753[/automerge]


The Windows 10 format GUI does do FAT32, just not on flash drives larger than 32GB. If you don't want to download a third party tool you can use PowerShell - instructions here: https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/how-to-format-usb-drives-larger-than-32gb-with-fat32-on-windows/

Got it, so ok to use larger than 32GB but has to be FAT32, right? Still debating whether to try 3.06.20, there are definitely some issues with reconnecting after a quick stop and start of the car. Did 3.06 address this? If also could be that my car keeps the power to the USB for a certain amount of time after engine off, but the phone is out of range when I run into a store quick?

 

[bookemdano]

Thank you
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Got it, so ok to use larger than 32GB but has to be FAT32, right? Still debating whether to try 3.06.20, there are definitely some issues with reconnecting after a quick stop and start of the car. Did 3.06 address this? If also could be that my car keeps the power to the USB for a certain amount of time after engine off, but the phone is out of range when I run into a store quick?

I remember reading earlier in the thread suggestions to use the smallest size flash drive you have. Maybe that was just due to the ease of formatting it--I don't know. Certainly no harm in trying your 32GB but if you can't get it to work then see if you have an old one laying around.

In my experience, the newer firmwares are definitely faster to connect than the older ones, and also fixed a bug many of us were experiencing with laggy GPS positioning. I've been on 20200307 for about a month now and it's working great. I know others (mainly GM owners I think) got audio glitches with that firmware and have had better luck with 20200306. You can freely flash between those two firmwares (or even older ones) and find the one that works best for you.

Yes, you should see if your car keeps the Carlinkit alive after powering off the vehicle. Look for the tiny LED lights. With my Ford, power to the USB ports is cut as soon as a front door is opened (after turning off the ignition) but I know some folks have ports that stay powered longer or even indefinitely.

I still occasionally have cases where my phone will not reconnect to the Carlinkit. It's only happened once in the past two weeks though, and a quick reboot of the phone gets it working consistently again. Possible that Apple improved this with the iOS 13.4 release, I dunno.

 

[alanplum]

Hi can you send me a link to the one you bought on aliexpress?

68.57US $ 52% OFF|Carlinkit Apple Carplay Wireless Dongle 3.0 Car Play Adapter For Audi Mazda Porsche Volkswagen Volvo Citroen Nissan Mercedes Box - Car Ai Box - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[inkahauts]

Thank you
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Got it, so ok to use larger than 32GB but has to be FAT32, right? Still debating whether to try 3.06.20, there are definitely some issues with reconnecting after a quick stop and start of the car. Did 3.06 address this? If also could be that my car keeps the power to the USB for a certain amount of time after engine off, but the phone is out of range when I run into a store quick?

I used a 128 gig flash drive cause it was all I had that was empty. Just used disk manager and shrunk the volume to only be 30 gigs then it easily formatted to FAT32. After I deleted the volume again and reformatted to the normal size, and ordered a couple 32 gig flash drives for 5 bucks so I don’t have to do that again...

 

[LarryJoe33]

I remember reading earlier in the thread suggestions to use the smallest size flash drive you have. Maybe that was just due to the ease of formatting it--I don't know. Certainly no harm in trying your 32GB but if you can't get it to work then see if you have an old one laying around.

In my experience, the newer firmwares are definitely faster to connect than the older ones, and also fixed a bug many of us were experiencing with laggy GPS positioning. I've been on 20200307 for about a month now and it's working great. I know others (mainly GM owners I think) got audio glitches with that firmware and have had better luck with 20200306. You can freely flash between those two firmwares (or even older ones) and find the one that works best for you.

Yes, you should see if your car keeps the Carlinkit alive after powering off the vehicle. Look for the tiny LED lights. With my Ford, power to the USB ports is cut as soon as a front door is opened (after turning off the ignition) but I know some folks have ports that stay powered longer or even indefinitely.

I still occasionally have cases where my phone will not reconnect to the Carlinkit. It's only happened once in the past two weeks though, and a quick reboot of the phone gets it working consistently again. Possible that Apple improved this with the iOS 13.4 release, I dunno.

Thanks, my USB drive is actually a 250GB drive and it's taking forever to format with the third party tool. I think I will give 03.06 a shot, it seems to be the most popular. In terms of the power to my car, I can adjust the time delay for power to cut off after engine off through the interface. I like it at 5 minutes, but can try 0.

 

[LarryJoe33]

How long does the process take for the file to load on the device and for the red and blue lights to flash and go solid?

I ended up fomratting a 32GB thumb drive in FAT32 and plugged it into the device and the device into a wall charger. I am only getting a solid red light and it's been over 5 minutes?

 

[Otto Pilot]

I got the 2020-3-6 update installed and it fixed every issue I was having. Drove approximately 45 minutes with no sound breakdown, and had a phone call with acceptable lag. I definitely recommend this one, and will not be moving from it for a while.

 

[hardlock75]

I remember reading earlier in the thread suggestions to use the smallest size flash drive you have. Maybe that was just due to the ease of formatting it--I don't know. Certainly no harm in trying your 32GB but if you can't get it to work then see if you have an old one laying around.

In my experience, the newer firmwares are definitely faster to connect than the older ones, and also fixed a bug many of us were experiencing with laggy GPS positioning. I've been on 20200307 for about a month now and it's working great. I know others (mainly GM owners I think) got audio glitches with that firmware and have had better luck with 20200306. You can freely flash between those two firmwares (or even older ones) and find the one that works best for you.

Yes, you should see if your car keeps the Carlinkit alive after powering off the vehicle. Look for the tiny LED lights. With my Ford, power to the USB ports is cut as soon as a front door is opened (after turning off the ignition) but I know some folks have ports that stay powered longer or even indefinitely.

I still occasionally have cases where my phone will not reconnect to the Carlinkit. It's only happened once in the past two weeks though, and a quick reboot of the phone gets it working consistently again. Possible that Apple improved this with the iOS 13.4 release, I dunno.

where you download the firmware 20200307 ???? can you upload it?
thank you

 

[bookemdano]

How long does the process take for the file to load on the device and for the red and blue lights to flash and go solid?

I ended up fomratting a 32GB thumb drive in FAT32 and plugged it into the device and the device into a wall charger. I am only getting a solid red light and it's been over 5 minutes?

Took under a minute for me--maybe even 30 seconds. I would look around for an even smaller drive if you have one. I use a 4GB freebie I got from Micro Center years ago.

Edit: It may be helpful to use a flash drive that has an activity LED on it. Mine does, and when I first power up the Carlinkit with the USB drive attached, I see an initial flicker of the light indicating that the Carlinkit is looking for a firmware file. On the times it didn't work for me, that initial flicker was all I saw. But when it works, there is another flicker of the LED a second or two later when the Carlinkit is actually flashing the firmware. Then maybe 15 seconds later I would get the blue light on the Carlinkit.

Also, I had better luck using a Windows machine to put the .img file on the drive. Make sure it's the only file on there and isn't in a subfolder.

Edit: Also, make sure it's not zipped!
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where you download the firmware 20200307 ???? can you upload it?
thank you

Read back a few pages. The file was attached to a post in the last week or so. Also a direct link on the original site was posted (even though the index is gone, the files are all apparently still there).

 

[shauder]

Update: I've ordered one from AliExpress.....DHL shipping...

Did you get it from the 'Carlinkit Direct Store' on AliExpress? I was looking at the listing with all the models and new pictures of this new hardware.

 

[LarryJoe33]

I think I bricked it. So after trying the big thumb drive where the red light just stayed on, I found a 32GB drive that appeared to do something. The red light would stay solid and then the blue would flicker and then back to the red. Trouble is this is what it did over and over. Left it for a while. Got in the car, plugged it in and pretty much the lights did the same thing and car play won’t launch. No WiFi or BT connection. Not zipped. It’s an image file. The device does nothing when I plug it into the car except the lights flashing I mentioned.

Any advice? Do I need to reinstall 2.0 and if so how?

 

[Otto Pilot]

I used a Samsung 128gb drive and it worked so fast I didn't even know it worked. took maybe 30 seconds or so and the lights were blue and red.

 

[LarryJoe33]

I used a Samsung 128gb drive and it worked so fast I didn't even know it worked. took maybe 30 seconds or so and the lights were blue and red.

Yeah something is up. I’m now trying a 32GB SD scard plugged into a USB adapter formatted as FAT and it’s doing the same thing:

Red solid on device for a few seconds
Then
USB sticks light flashes like it’s being read
Then
Blue flashes on device

Repeats over and over with no solid red blue ending.

 

[Otto Pilot]

The first time I did it i tried to do it with the zip file instead of the .img. Definite user error. Could it be something like that?

 

[LarryJoe33]

The first time I did it i tried to do it with the zip file instead of the .img. Definite user error. Could it be something like that?

Definitely not zipped. Even if it was, it wouldn't explain why the unit won't function. If zipped it simply wouldn't flash. It's stuck in this loop. I mean, it none of these drives were setup to flash the way they were supposed to, it would do nothing right? So something was done, just not successfully. There's got to be someone in this ginormous thread with the same flash failure?

Guess it's going back, that was short lived. Exchange or call it a day?

 

[Mattflys]

It's quite a rough start as a first message here... This thread shows that there is indeed support by the vendor but it can be mediocre. However it's a complex topic. We know that the device is not approved by the Apple MFi program and there are so many different implementations of wired Carplay by the manufacturers. However there are a lot of information in this thread to find a solution. You could start by providing more information about your setup like the navigation unit you are using (e.g. Discover Premium) and what steps you already tried (e.g. is BT and WLAN working?, did you do an update attempt - OFA and/or USB) etc.

Well I’ve tried everything. Had mine working on my 19 GTI but cannot get it to connect at all on my 2020 Malibu. I did manage to update to the 3/6 firmware from the kind folks here who posted it. I got the red and blue lights after plugging in the USB stick I d/l the file to. So I assume all went well there. Note I saw no flashing lights. First the red lit followed a few seconds later by the blue one and they remained steady (no flashes).

When I plugged in the updated dongle there was no change at all. Nothing happening on the infotainment screen and only the red LED showing. My conclusion is this simply won’t work on 8” MyLink screens for at least Malibus and Equinoxes. Despite the CarPlay2Air site.

Bottom line is to only purchase from the CarPlay2Air site if you KNOW it will work. Their application listings are flat out wrong and arguably fraudulent. Their CS is horrible and their reviews are either fake or filtered. My 2 star review does not show up. As others have advised, buy the Amazon Prime version.

I’ll keep monitoring but if anyone has this working on either a Malibu or Equinox with the 8” MyLink screen I’d love to talk.
Thanks, Mike

Agree with everything you haves said. They have been terrible and I also believe extremely misleading. I have a claim in with PayPal for a full refund.

 

[2018 Denali]

I think I bricked it. So after trying the big thumb drive where the red light just stayed on, I found a 32GB drive that appeared to do something. The red light would stay solid and then the blue would flicker and then back to the red. Trouble is this is what it did over and over. Left it for a while. Got in the car, plugged it in and pretty much the lights did the same thing and car play won’t launch. No WiFi or BT connection. Not zipped. It’s an image file. The device does nothing when I plug it into the car except the lights flashing I mentioned.

Any advice? Do I need to reinstall 2.0 and if so how?

What are you connecting the CarPlay2air adapter to power it up for the manual firmware update?

A iPad wall charger was the best I found that worked.

Do not Do not!!!! connect it to a PC/Mac or your car when doing the USB firmware update method.

 

[LarryJoe33]

What are you connecting the CarPlay2air adapter to power it up for the manual firmware update?

A iPad wall charger was the best I found that worked.

Do not Do not!!!! connect it to a PC/Mac or your car when doing the USB firmware update method.

I have tired two different high quality USB charging stations as well as an Apple 5v old school wall cube charger.

 

[hardlock75]

Since the beginning of March I have installed the Alpine iLX-F903D in my car. I had written the word "perfect" back in December in the first enthusiasm about the adapter. But I only use the navigation apps and they work very well. I don't really use music or telephone. There is a small time offset when changing music titles. Very rarely I had connection problems in January. Not anymore.
The only problem is the activation of the rear view camera. Sometimes there is a black screen after finishing the reverse gear. The adapter does not automatically return to the CarPlay screen. I have to reactivate it manually on the screen. But this problem does not occur often.
But I can live with that. I am now on software version 2020-03-06.
Greetings from Austria.

I think the problem is interference. Do you remember installing the GPS antenna that comes with the radio? I know that the radio does not have a navigation application but I still installed the GPS antenna. I will test without plugging in the GPS antenna.