Aftermarket Tesla CarPlay and Android Auto Devices

[Mikecm1]

Hey guys. I’m having an issue. When I connect to the wifi of my T2C from my iphone, 3 out of 4 times my phone shows the icon that it’s connected to a wifi network. When this happens, my network is super slow and my music constantly buffers. If I toggle my wifi on and off a few times, it will connect to the wifi network of the T2C device but it does not show the wifi icon in my status bar of the phone and it works perfectly.

So it seems like when connected to T2C, somewhere either on the device itself or on my phone, it’s supposed to communicate that even though I’m connected to wifi, it’s not supposed to be used as the actual internet gateway.

It’s like it’s looping data back and forth going from phone > T2C > phone > internet when it should be a direct phone > internet, which is how it initially worked and as mentioned is how it works when I toggle wifi a bunch of times.

Anyone have an idea for a fix? Is there some way I can tell iOS that this isn’t a wifi network even though I connect to it over wifi?

Alright I think I actually figured it out! In case anyone else has the same problem: I set up an automation that enables mobile hotspot when CarPlay is connected, and disables it when CarPlay disconnects. Before this I just left my hotspot on 24/7. Something about CarPlay triggering the hotspot resolves my issue for some reason.

This might’ve been posted elsewhere in this thread but it’s gotten so long that I didn’t come across it.

 

[DadRS99]

What mag safe mount are you using?

 

[timeshifter]

What mag safe mount are you using?

Not sure who your question is directed at, but below is the link to the one I use and it's great for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CG9KVBH

 

[Mandingo]

Not sure who your question is directed at, but below is the link to the one I use and it's great for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CG9KVBH

I suppose that’s another nice thing about CarPlay - once you have it set up you don’t need a mount any longer - my iPhone stays in my pocket for most trips or on the wireless charger for long ones.

 

[pbcsd]

Alright I think I actually figured it out! In case anyone else has the same problem: I set up an automation that enables mobile hotspot when CarPlay is connected, and disables it when CarPlay disconnects. Before this I just left my hotspot on 24/7. Something about CarPlay triggering the hotspot resolves my issue for some reason.

This might’ve been posted elsewhere in this thread but it’s gotten so long that I didn’t come across it.

I was doing the same thing but the off part was causing issues. For some reason sometimes it would switch on when I get into the car and then off. Then in again.

I noticed even in the house hours later I would see the automation switch to Driving on. I assume it was when the Tesla wakes for some reason it will connect to the phone.

 

[pbcsd]

I suppose that’s another nice thing about CarPlay - once you have it set up you don’t need a mount any longer - my iPhone stays in my pocket for most trips or on the wireless charger for long ones.

This is what I was hoping for, to stop using my phone mount. It's a great one (Jawua) for magsafe charging but I don't like having the phone there and only kept it there for Waze.

If the hotspot functionality worked a bit better I actually am not sure why I would need to keep paying for Tesla's premium service??

 

[Mandingo]

If the hotspot functionality worked a bit better I actually am not sure why I would need to keep paying for Tesla's premium service??

Yes, I don’t pay for premium connectivity.

 

[pbcsd]

Yes, I don’t pay for premium connectivity.

If you don't use hotspot and don't pay for premium...curious...how are you connecting the Ownice?

 

[Mandingo]

If you don't use hotspot and don't pay for premium...curious...how are you connecting the Ownice?

CarPlay uses the iPhone cellular connection. Maps, streaming music, podcasts etc. It works exactly like any car with CarPlay built in, doesn’t need anything other than the iPhone. The iPhone does all the work just like when you use a phone by itself, CarPlay is just a “second display” for the iPhone.

Edit: The Hotspot functionality (that I am not using) is just for sharing the phone’s cellular connection with the car, just like you would allow a laptop to utilize your iPhone‘s connectivity, i.e. not required for CarPlay.

 

[pbcsd]

CarPlay uses the iPhone cellular connection. Maps, streaming music, podcasts etc. It works exactly like any car with CarPlay built in, doesn’t need anything other than the iPhone. The iPhone does all the work just like when you use a phone by itself, CarPlay is just a “second display” for the iPhone.

Edit: The Hotspot functionality (that I am not using) is just for sharing the phone’s cellular connection with the car, just like you would allow a laptop to utilize your iPhone‘s connectivity, i.e. not required for CarPlay.

Got it. I’m still struggling with consistency of connection. Not sure if it’s the hot spot causing the issue. Sometimes it works fine. Other times my premium services won’t work while CarPlay is fine.

So still fiddling.

The other odd thing I find with CarPlay is, at least with Tidal, it seems to truncate my playlists and won’t allow me to play all the songs on them. Noticed this in my Audi as well and have no idea why it does that which is frustrating. So I don’t think it’s a Ownice issue. Can’t seem to figure out how to fix it. Also weird is that sometimes it shows the full playlist, most of the time it doesn’t.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Tesla Android bringing you Apple CarPlay in tesla full screen theater mode . Only works when car is parked, this is enforced by tesla vehicle. This is kinda experimental. It seems theater full screen mode disables Bluetooth. But I can still get audio since tesla android can pump high quality 48Khz audio via Wi-Fi to the tesla browser app (requires you to set audio output channel to “box” in autokit). Once again, CarPlay is kinda useless in theater mode since the car must be parked. Just thought I’d experiment.

 

[timeshifter]

Seems that Mike is making lots of improvements to Tesla-Android since I switched away from that in February. All I really care about is CarPlay. Tesla-Android worked OK for CarPlay when it was connected. But getting connected was more struggle-some by far than T2C. Slower boot times, inconsistent and unmitigatable Carlink dongle problems. @ElectricAnt54 do you think those things have improved in recent builds?

 

[Yipsan]

Seems that Mike is making lots of improvements to Tesla-Android since I switched away from that in February. All I really care about is CarPlay. Tesla-Android worked OK for CarPlay when it was connected. But getting connected was more struggle-some by far than T2C. Slower boot times, inconsistent and unmitigatable Carlink dongle problems. @ElectricAnt54 do you think those things have improved in recent builds?

I think other than longer boot time (which has shortened as well), the latest version of Tesla android is very good. One advantage of Tesla android is that if there are regularly 2 different iPhones that use the CarPlay, it switches better with an appropriate carlinkit software (not the latest one for me). The full screen feature will be quite interesting going forward.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Seems that Mike is making lots of improvements to Tesla-Android since I switched away from that in February. All I really care about is CarPlay. Tesla-Android worked OK for CarPlay when it was connected. But getting connected was more struggle-some by far than T2C. Slower boot times, inconsistent and unmitigatable Carlink dongle problems. @ElectricAnt54 do you think those things have improved in recent builds?

If all you want is CarPlay, seems T2C does all you need. Might as well keep using it as your main device for a bit. You have tried tons of approaches over the years , fire hd tablet with carlinkit dongle, hansshow dash console, tesla android + carlinkit dongles, T2C .

Maybe you can try tesla android (TA) on a weekend each month to keep an eye on it. Now that it uses OTA updates, it’s a lot less burden to maintain. I think the key is making sure your carlinkit dongle gets latest firmware. Also the newest versions of TA require that your pi has a more recent firmware, so do a firmware update/check before trying tesla android again. I have tutorial links if needed. If you favor a bit of stability, if there is no immediate need to update, I’d wait 7 days after each release before updating just in case there is an issue in a release and there is a hot fix. There is a small group of beta testers which tests a little before updates are released but sometimes an issue gets through & a hot fix happens within a day or two.

I didn’t have many issues getting CarPlay connected (carlinkit dongle issues). I remember you did though and you tried the discontinued cpc200-autokit & current cpc200-ccpa. I think issues decreased even more as I got new versions of autokit app & a few carlinkit dongle firmware updates (I think I got one in late 2022).

The boot time is faster these days at about a minute now & developer is continuing to look in to this area. It has gotten to the point where it is ready before my family makes it in to the car. For short errands, I leave it powered on between stops. My biggest complaint is with tesla vehicle not caching the web browser app in memory when we put our cars in reverse. When we switch back to web browser, vehicle spends 10 seconds reloading on my 2022 intel atom MCU, probably much faster on AMD Ryzen MCU

 

[timeshifter]

You have tried tons of approaches over the years , fire hd tablet with carlinkit dongle, hansshow dash console, tesla android + carlinkit dongles, T2C .

Come on man, you didn't have to out me like that in front of everyone

Only think that might be an issue is the SIM. I started with my AT&T SIM and the USB adapter for LTE on TA. When I went to T2C I had to break away the edges of my SIM to make it the smaller size SIM (sorry, don't recall the size designations right now). I'm guessing there are $5 kits on Amazon to use a small SIM in a big SIM slot.

Edit: never mind, I almost stopped as I was typing. Not only do the adapters exist, but I bought a few 6 years ago for another use (Cradlepoint router), so I probably have them lying around somewhere.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Come on man, you didn't have to out me like that in front of everyone

Only think that might be an issue is the SIM. I started with my AT&T SIM and the USB adapter for LTE on TA. When I went to T2C I had to break away the edges of my SIM to make it the smaller size SIM (sorry, don't recall the size designations right now). I'm guessing there are $5 kits on Amazon to use a small SIM in a big SIM slot.

Edit: never mind, I almost stopped as I was typing. Not only do the adapters exist, but I bought a few 6 years ago for another use (Cradlepoint router), so I probably have them lying around somewhere.

Lol.. I’m not far behind you. I tried fire hd + carlinkit, hanshoww console & tesla android (single pi) + carlinkit.

Yup, You can use an adapter to fit the smaller sim in to the Alcatel. I did that to use my iPhone’s small t-mobile sim in the Alcatel for testing. . Instead of buying a $10 kit, I found a 3D printable file for free and printed the file at my local library. The staff there helped me out. If you have access to a 3D printer, I can get you the link to the file I used.

 

[Mandingo]

Lol.. I’m not far behind you. I tried fire hd + carlinkit, hanshoww console & tesla android (single pi) + carlinkit.

Yup, You can use an adapter to fit the smaller sim in to the Alcatel. I did that to use my iPhone’s small t-mobile sim in the Alcatel for testing. . Instead of buying a $10 kit, I found a 3D printable file for free and printed the file at my local library. The staff there helped me out. If you have access to a 3D printer, I can get you the link to the file I used.

My list including prior Mercedes (a 2014):
iPad Mini
iPad Full size
Fire tablet
Android tablet
Joyeauto (stayed with this 3 years)
Hansshow 9”
CarLinkit (twice)
Ownice (current)

Gotta try ‘‘em all til you find the one that works for you.

 

[Yipsan]

discontinued cpc200-autokit

I didn't know this is discontinued. but anyway, it is what I use on TA, I found the latest firmware to be slower to reconnect / switch to different iPhone. so I use a late 2022 version and not upgrade even when prompted

 

[charlesoris]

Got it. I’m still struggling with consistency of connection. Not sure if it’s the hot spot causing the issue. Sometimes it works fine. Other times my premium services won’t work while CarPlay is fine.

So still fiddling.

The other odd thing I find with CarPlay is, at least with Tidal, it seems to truncate my playlists and won’t allow me to play all the songs on them. Noticed this in my Audi as well and have no idea why it does that which is frustrating. So I don’t think it’s a Ownice issue. Can’t seem to figure out how to fix it. Also weird is that sometimes it shows the full playlist, most of the time it doesn’t.

I have been reading your posts and comments and I don't really understand what you are trying to do with Premium Connectivity. Once you got the CarPlay working, the only two remaining benefits of having Premium Connectivity are:
1. Real Time Sentry Monitoring
2. High Quality Audio

Lastly, I will be happy to address your concerns via a private chat.
Take care

 

[timeshifter]

I don’t think you can have satellite imagery for Tesla navigation if you don’t subscribe to Premium Connectivity.