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CarPlay CarPlay adapter to convert to wireless CarPlay?

garethmat said:
Great! How is it working? Was it hassle free to install? Which car model do you have?
Click to expand...

It’s been a little fidgety to start. I don’t think it likes connecting while the car Bluetooth is active, so I deleted all devices from the car Bluetooth and it seems to be a little better.

I’m trying to decide if I want to try and switch between 2 devices or just have 1 person only use the wireless option. It’s pretty cumbersome switching between 2 drivers phones.

But overall it’s working pretty well. 2019 Honda CR-V. Steering wheel controls are working. I haven’t noticed any incompatibilities. The only very minor thing I noticed is that the border around some apps shows app occasionally as if I don’t have a touch screen but it only shows up sometimes and then goes away after a tap.

Does anyone know if this device has a built in gps or is it using my phones gps? I know one of the things Apple required for wireless CarPlay is a built in gps in the head unit.
 
I couldn’t answer that specific question, but I can say this: last Saturday I drove 100 miles one way using my carlinkit unit. I started out with a fully charged battery in my SE 2020 and streamed music over T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network in High Quality mode. I was not actively using GPS for directions but it was doing background location access to keep Apple Maps up to date on screen. When I reached my destination, I was at 85% battery remaining.

This included bouncing in and out of some of the Ozark foothills & river valleys west of St Louis.
 
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StLouisCPhT said:
I couldn’t answer that specific question, but I can say this: last Saturday I drove 100 miles one way using my carlinkit unit. I started out with a fully charged battery in my SE 2020 and streamed music over T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network in High Quality mode. I was not actively using GPS for directions but it was doing background location access to keep Apple Maps up to date on screen. When I reached my destination, I was at 85% battery remaining.

This included bouncing in and out of some of the Ozark foothills & river valleys west of St Louis.
Click to expand...

That’s not bad at all. Seems relatively efficient even with GPS on in the background. There probably isn’t a way to disable gps anyways now that I think about it.
 
Actually plenty of cars do not have a GPS. My Palisade is only the SEL model without options including no drivers package that gets you their NAV, GPS etc. So no GPS in my 2020 Palisade. Highly recommend you add an Anker or similar wireless charger (I did) do your car. If I am going on a trip of any length I put the phone on the wireless charger. As to the 2 phone versus 1. My wife and my Phones are both set up. It will try to connect to what ever it was connected to last even when your both present. That works well. If you have want to choose manually you can at start up but you have to be quick.
 
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Hope I can clear this up a bit:

Wired Carplay (built-in or via an aftermarket head unit): Car/HU-provided GPS is optional for Apple's Wired CarPlay spec. So some cars/HUs have it (in which case CarPlay will use it instead of your iPhone's GPS for better accuracy and reduced power consumption) and some don't (in which case CarPlay will use your iPhone's GPS).

Wireless Carplay (built-in or via an aftermarket head unit): Apple requires any manufacturer implementing Wireless CarPlay to provide a GPS receiver that CarPlay can use. The main reason is to reduce battery drain on your iPhone (as some may know, GPS is power hungry). Since the whole point of Wireless Carplay is that you don't plug your phone in while using it, the power usage is a much bigger factor. Apple probably didn't want to deal with complaints from people that their car is draining their iPhone battery, so they decided to make it mandatory to offload GPS to the vehicle.

And just a side-note, even if a car/headunit doesn't advertise GPS/Navigation capability doesn't mean it doesn't have GPS. GPS receivers are dirt cheap these days. But manufacturers still want to try to squeeze more money out of customers by charging big bucks for navigation. I think it's actually cheaper for them to add the GPS receiver to every car built, and just turn it on in software when a customer pays for the Navigation option. Even if a car is sold without nav, the GPS receiver may still be used behind the scenes for telematics or CarPlay, etc.

Edit: None of this of course applies to the Carlinkit/Carplay2Air because those devices are not Apple-certified for CarPlay. As previously determined, these adapters always use your iPhone's GPS regardless of whether or not your vehicle or headunit has GPS.
 
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mnsportsgeek said:
It’s been a little fidgety to start. I don’t think it likes connecting while the car Bluetooth is active, so I deleted all devices from the car Bluetooth and it seems to be a little better.

I’m trying to decide if I want to try and switch between 2 devices or just have 1 person only use the wireless option. It’s pretty cumbersome switching between 2 drivers phones.

But overall it’s working pretty well. 2019 Honda CR-V. Steering wheel controls are working. I haven’t noticed any incompatibilities. The only very minor thing I noticed is that the border around some apps shows app occasionally as if I don’t have a touch screen but it only shows up sometimes and then goes away after a tap.

Does anyone know if this device has a built in gps or is it using my phones gps? I know one of the things Apple required for wireless CarPlay is a built in gps in the head unit.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update!
 
mnsportsgeek said:
It’s been a little fidgety to start. I don’t think it likes connecting while the car Bluetooth is active, so I deleted all devices from the car Bluetooth and it seems to be a little better.

I’m trying to decide if I want to try and switch between 2 devices or just have 1 person only use the wireless option. It’s pretty cumbersome switching between 2 drivers phones.

But overall it’s working pretty well. 2019 Honda CR-V. Steering wheel controls are working. I haven’t noticed any incompatibilities. The only very minor thing I noticed is that the border around some apps shows app occasionally as if I don’t have a touch screen but it only shows up sometimes and then goes away after a tap.

Does anyone know if this device has a built in gps or is it using my phones gps? I know one of the things Apple required for wireless CarPlay is a built in gps in the head unit.
Click to expand...

Is this your first unit or are you replacing the old with the new?
 
StLouisCPhT said:
1) Any car that added CarPlay through an aftermarket upgrade

2) Any GM car that the owner decided they didn’t want Onstar spying on them
Click to expand...
Not so sure that number 2 is fully accurate. You can be in one other condition. If you have factory NAV and still have no OnStar sub, then you have factory GPS that's active even without an OnStar Sub. It's just not reported outside of the car.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
Thanks. I asked because I’m waiting on the new one to replace the old style one and wondered if the new one was buggy compared to the old one for you. Got it.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Ya overall I’m impressed. The only issue I see is that it doesn’t play nicely handing off from the car’s built in Bluetooth to the carlinkit. But that’s not really a big deal since the car’s Bluetooth system isn’t any good.
 
mnsportsgeek said:
Gotcha. Ya overall I’m impressed. The only issue I see is that it doesn’t play nicely handing off from the car’s built in Bluetooth to the carlinkit. But that’s not really a big deal since the car’s Bluetooth system isn’t any good.
Click to expand...
Fortunately, I am one of the lucky ones where everything works perfectly 99% of the time. It just works. I am using the CP2Air at the moment. I just don't want to break what is not broken, but I guess if the new version had a slightly better boot up time, that would be helpful. I also get split second Apple Music audio drops every now and then, but I think this is more interference in the wifi connection. All in all, it's good. My criteria for keeping it or not was whether I was also going to be messing with it in terms of plugging it in and out. I can't remember the last time I unplugged it.
 
tdar said:
Not so sure that number 2 is fully accurate. You can be in one other condition. If you have factory NAV and still have no OnStar sub, then you have factory GPS that's active even without an OnStar Sub. It's just not reported outside of the car.
Click to expand...

I was referring to all the people that have replaced the Onstar module with a 3rd party alternative like BlueSTAR or have otherwise bypassed the gps function of the Onstar module.

The factory nav setup for GM vehicles pre 2018 (year depends on model but 2018 was the last year GM offered the non hmi audio/nav system) involved a splitter to share the gps signal between Onstar and the nav unit. Disconnect the antenna cable going into the splitter from your roof - no nav gps functionality and the Onstar is a black box.
 
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Hi everyone - I have A 2020 Mercedes GLB with MBUX via USB-C. I tried Carplay2Air with an adapter but it didn’t work. I saw some people tried the usb c version from Carlinkit it. I just ordered one on eBay.

can anyone confirm if they’ve gotten it to work on the Mercedes MBUX with the USB C port? I didn’t see a direct answer so apologies if this has been answered.
 
USB adapters or going to be spotty because Apple does not support anything but direct connection. No Hubs or Y adapters. USB C male to USB female perhaps? I suspect the reason Carlinkit made a new model without a hardwired cable was to accommodate cars that are starting to come with USBC. Could try a few adapters or bite the bullet and switch. If your still within your return period I would suggest returning it. C2PlayAir though is not to my understanding very good about returns though they claim on their site to take them.

Did you try somthing like this?

www.amazon.com

Anker USB-C to USB 3.1 Adapter, USB-C Male to USB-A Female, Uses USB OTG Technology, Compatible with Samsung Galaxy Note 8, S8 S8+ S9, iPad Pro 2018, Nexus 6P 5X, LG V20 G5 and More

USB-C to USB 3.1 Adapter The SuperSpeed USB-C Converter From ANKER, America's Leading USB Charging Brand • Faster and safer charging with our advanced technology • 10 million+ happy users and counting Huge Compatibility Allow your USB-C phone, tablet or computer to work with almost any USB devi...
www.amazon.com
 
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anthover said:
USB adapters or going to be spotty because Apple does not support anything but direct connection. No Hubs or Y adapters. USB C male to USB female perhaps? I suspect the reason Carlinkit made a new model without a hardwired cable was to accommodate cars that are starting to come with USBC. My a few adapters or bite the bullet and switch. If your still within your return period I would suggest returning it. C2PlayAir though is not to my understanding very good about returns though they claim on their site to take them.
Click to expand...

thanks for this. Yeah I’m still within return so I’ll give it a shot at sending it back and order the new one. I was using just a straight adapter even tried the one that Mercedes gave me. All I would get is a notification that the device wasn’t compatible.
Also is it possible to update the unit without setting it up? Wondering if it’s old firmware but since I can’t get to the set up screen I’m not sure.
 
StLouisCPhT said:
1) Any car that added CarPlay through an aftermarket upgrade

2) Any GM car that the owner decided they didn’t want Onstar spying on them
Click to expand...

I didn’t know there are any cars from GM with CarPlay and no gps, in part because I’ve never seen a GM car with CarPlay that also didn’t have nav. What model is it they sell that way?

And if it’s aftermarket then the car wasn’t CarPlay capable...
 
StLouisCPhT said:
I was referring to all the people that have replaced the Onstar module with a 3rd party alternative like BlueSTAR or have otherwise bypassed the gps function of the Onstar module.

The factory nav setup for GM vehicles pre 2018 (year depends on model but 2018 was the last year GM offered the non hmi audio/nav system) involved a splitter to share the gps signal between Onstar and the nav unit. Disconnect the antenna cable going into the splitter from your roof - no nav gps functionality and the Onstar is a black box.
Click to expand...

Except that means the car did come with gps and someone altered it aftermarket. I was asking for any cars that come from the factory that have CarPlay but do not have any gps factory installed...
 
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