Aftermarket Tesla CarPlay and Android Auto Devices

[Mikecm1]

So something weird just happened. My T2C was acting up and wouldn’t connect, so I reset the T2C to factory settings by going to http://192.168.3.1/ on my phones browser. Then I used “forget device” from my iPhones Bluetooth, deleted the wifi entry from my known networks, and DISABLED my hotspot.

Once the T2C rebooted to factory settings, I connected via Bluetooth and carplay immediately popped up on my teslas screen since it was already on tespush.com. It’s working perfectly. I’m sitting in my car listening to Spotify via CarPlay right now. But here’s the thing, I never added the wifi network back so it’s not connected to wifi and my hotspot is still fully disabled. And no, I don’t have a SIM card in the unit.

Anyone ever had this happen before? How is the T2C working if my hotspot is off and my phone isn’t connected to it via wifi? I’m so confused.





Quick edit: I disabled wifi completely and it did disconnect from CarPlay on my screen, but it’s still showing as not connected to any wifi networks.

Here are some screenshots and pics of it working.

 

[Hades]

Wonder if anyone can help... I've got an Ownice box for android Auto, which all works fine except for that I can't get it to pic up any voice commands etc. If I say 'OK Google' it recognises that but no speech to text comes up, same if I manually activate Assistant... If I try the steering wheel button I get an error (says something like 'connection error' iirc). Anyone got any tips??

Thanks

 

[Mandingo]

So something weird just happened. My T2C was acting up and wouldn’t connect, so I reset the T2C to factory settings by going to http://192.168.3.1/ on my phones browser. Then I used “forget device” from my iPhones Bluetooth, deleted the wifi entry from my known networks, and DISABLED my hotspot.

Once the T2C rebooted to factory settings, I connected via Bluetooth and carplay immediately popped up on my teslas screen since it was already on tespush.com. It’s working perfectly. I’m sitting in my car listening to Spotify via CarPlay right now. But here’s the thing, I never added the wifi network back so it’s not connected to wifi and my hotspot is still fully disabled. And no, I don’t have a SIM card in the unit.

Anyone ever had this happen before? How is the T2C working if my hotspot is off and my phone isn’t connected to it via wifi? I’m so confused.





Quick edit: I disabled wifi completely and it did disconnect from CarPlay on my screen, but it’s still showing as not connected to any wifi networks.

Here are some screenshots and pics of it working.

CarPlay WiFi is hidden. If you see CarPlay working it is connected to WiFi although it doesn’t show in the list of networks.

Hotspot isn’t required, CarPlay gets its internet from the iPhone cellular connection.

 

[jerome8283]

So something weird just happened. My T2C was acting up and wouldn’t connect, so I reset the T2C to factory settings by going to http://192.168.3.1/ on my phones browser. Then I used “forget device” from my iPhones Bluetooth, deleted the wifi entry from my known networks, and DISABLED my hotspot.

Once the T2C rebooted to factory settings, I connected via Bluetooth and carplay immediately popped up on my teslas screen since it was already on tespush.com. It’s working perfectly. I’m sitting in my car listening to Spotify via CarPlay right now. But here’s the thing, I never added the wifi network back so it’s not connected to wifi and my hotspot is still fully disabled. And no, I don’t have a SIM card in the unit.

Anyone ever had this happen before? How is the T2C working if my hotspot is off and my phone isn’t connected to it via wifi? I’m so confused.





Quick edit: I disabled wifi completely and it did disconnect from CarPlay on my screen, but it’s still showing as not connected to any wifi networks.

Here are some screenshots and pics of it working.

I noticed this the other day as well. Something changed because HotSpot was required but I’m not complaining, this is probably a good thing.

 

[jerome8283]

CarPlay WiFi is hidden. If you see CarPlay working it is connected to WiFi although it doesn’t show in the list of networks.

Hotspot isn’t required, CarPlay gets its internet from the iPhone cellular connection.

This is how I recall it worked with my previous BMW.

 

[Mikecm1]

CarPlay WiFi is hidden. If you see CarPlay working it is connected to WiFi although it doesn’t show in the list of networks.

Hotspot isn’t required, CarPlay gets its internet from the iPhone cellular connection.

Before today it would always activate my Hotspot and not work without it. And it would always show that it was connected to the autokit wifi network even if it wasn't using it for data. This is totally different behavior and I haven't gotten any updates for it. Pretty weird but as long as it works!

 

[Mandingo]

Before today it would always activate my Hotspot and not work without it. And it would always show that it was connected to the autokit wifi network even if it wasn't using it for data. This is totally different behavior and I haven't gotten any updates for it. Pretty weird but as long as it works!

Ok. I have always had my hotspot disabled and got it to work, though *only* CarPlay worked, the browser and Tesla couldn’t load anything else but I didn’t care. I didn’t enter any information in the hotspot fields (name and password) so I wonder if that’s why it didn’t try?

 

[yvr_my]

Wonder if anyone can help... I've got an Ownice box for android Auto, which all works fine except for that I can't get it to pic up any voice commands etc. If I say 'OK Google' it recognises that but no speech to text comes up, same if I manually activate Assistant... If I try the steering wheel button I get an error (says something like 'connection error' iirc). Anyone got any tips??

Thanks

I reached out to the OwniceAiBox chat on Telegram and asked the same question and the response was:

"It doesn't support google assitant, google assistant requests a microphone inside the T3 box, which it doesn't have."

I also asked about Tesla voice commands which don't work either.

"If you need to use built in Tesla voice commands, you need to provide a hotspot for Tesla first"

 

[Hades]

I reached out to the OwniceAiBox chat on Telegram and asked the same question and the response was:

"It doesn't support google assitant, google assistant requests a microphone inside the T3 box, which it doesn't have."

I also asked about Tesla voice commands which don't work either.

"If you need to use built in Tesla voice commands, you need to provide a hotspot for Tesla first"

Thanks... Pretty dodgy advertising since it says it supports voice commands! I'm finding it also lags so much it's unusable, so back to TesAA for me!

 

[rogersmj]

Here's the boot sequence - it is pretty seamless, just takes about 30 seconds to complete. Yes, I need to tidy up the cables a bit more. No audio to avoid the copyright police.

https://imgur.com/a/q1x1SPm

I have a few questions for you @Mandingo , sorry if these have already been covered but this thread is a lot to dig through...

1. So I watched this video you made, and saw the subsequent replies about how you don't allow the car connect to home wifi...I assume that's because if you do, the car will stay connected to your home wifi rather than connect to the Ownice box when you get in?
2. Is there any downside to not allowing the car to connect to home wifi (other than having to connect it manually once in awhile to get software updates)?
3. Your video shows the Ownice auto-powering up when you get in the car...how long after you leave the car/walk away does your phone disconnect? I'm thinking about when I get home and walk into the house, I want the CarPlay box to shut down so the phone switches to home wifi. Does it do that?
4. Does everything in the native Tesla software (their navigation, music, etc) still work when the car's connected to the Ownice wifi? I've watched like four reviews and not a single one of them talk about this.
5. How has the reliability of the Ownice been, particularly in terms of auto-connecting to your phone? I will pay basically any amount of money to have my phone auto-connect to CarPlay wirelessly when I get in the car. I just want it to work 98%+ of the time.

 

[yvr_my]

I have a few questions for you @Mandingo , sorry if these have already been covered but this thread is a lot to dig through...

1. So I watched this video you made, and saw the subsequent replies about how you don't allow the car connect to home wifi...I assume that's because if you do, the car will stay connected to your home wifi rather than connect to the Ownice box when you get in?
2. Is there any downside to not allowing the car to connect to home wifi (other than having to connect it manually once in awhile to get software updates)?
3. Your video shows the Ownice auto-powering up when you get in the car...how long after you leave the car/walk away does your phone disconnect? I'm thinking about when I get home and walk into the house, I want the CarPlay box to shut down so the phone switches to home wifi. Does it do that?
4. Does everything in the native Tesla software (their navigation, music, etc) still work when the car's connected to the Ownice wifi? I've watched like four reviews and not a single one of them talk about this.
5. How has the reliability of the Ownice been, particularly in terms of auto-connecting to your phone? I will pay basically any amount of money to have my phone auto-connect to CarPlay wirelessly when I get in the car. I just want it to work 98%+ of the time.

I know this is directed at Mandingo but this is my experience.

1. Yes, I leave my car disconnected from my home wifi to avoid confusion for when the Ownice boots up.
2. Main downside is software updates like you called out, but I just simply connect my wifi, do the update, and then forget it. It's not something you're doing all the time.
3. I have my Ownice wired the same way and it disconnects within a few seconds since the system is powered off as soon as the door shuts. Then my phone kicks over to my homes wifi.
4. When I'm using my Ownice the Tesla nav/voice commands do not work. Maybe it's possible to make it work if you also have an LTE connection you could use but I don't care much about it so I haven't investigated.
5. I went on a 800km road trip this past weekend and the setup was awesome. All the phone/connection automation just works (I've had one random disconnect). All I do is open the web browser and hit my favourite link and Android Auto is waiting for me.

Considering how this entire system works I'm impressed at how reliable it's been to be honest.

 

[rogersmj]

4. When I'm using my Ownice the Tesla nav/voice commands do not work. Maybe it's possible to make it work if you also have an LTE connection you could use but I don't care much about it so I haven't investigated.
5. I went on a 800km road trip this past weekend and the setup was awesome. All the phone/connection automation just works (I've had one random disconnect). All I do is open the web browser and hit my favourite link and Android Auto is waiting for me.

Considering how this entire system works I'm impressed at how reliable it's been to be honest.

Thanks for sharing your answers to those questions. Kind of frustrating that the native Tesla apps seem to have no connection...it should be relatively trivial to implement a router for Wifi clients (which the car is) on these CarPlay boxes, so that the car can share the phone's LTE connection...I don't know why they don't do it. I'm sure there's some complexity I am not aware of though.

If the Tesla nav doesn't work, how do you plan long routes with optimized charging stops?

 

[charlesoris]

Thanks for sharing your answers to those questions. Kind of frustrating that the native Tesla apps seem to have no connection...it should be relatively trivial to implement a router for Wifi clients (which the car is) on these CarPlay boxes, so that the car can share the phone's LTE connection...I don't know why they don't do it. I'm sure there's some complexity I am not aware of though.

If the Tesla nav doesn't work, how do you plan long routes with optimized charging stops?

For the vehicle to have access to the Internet, one must enable Hotspot.
I have a shortcut that turns the Hotspot on when I connect to the car via Bluetooth, and automation that turns Hotspot off when CarPlay is not used.

 

[rogersmj]

For the vehicle to have access to the Internet, one must enable Hotspot.
I have a shortcut that turns the Hotspot on when I connect to the car via Bluetooth, and automation that turns Hotspot off when CarPlay is not used.

Sorry I just want to be clear...with one of these CarPlay boxes (like Ownice), the car is connected to the Wifi network created by the CarPlay box. Are you saying that in this network configuration, enabling your phone's hotspot gets the car access to the internet while it's connected to the CarPlay box's wifi? Wouldn't the car need to connect directly to the phone's hotspot WiFi, in order to utilize its hotspot?

If this works, there must be some bridge networking going on. Just trying to make sure I understand.

 

[charlesoris]

Sorry I just want to be clear...with one of these CarPlay boxes (like Ownice), the car is connected to the Wifi network created by the CarPlay box. Are you saying that in this network configuration, enabling your phone's hotspot gets the car access to the internet while it's connected to the CarPlay box's wifi? Wouldn't the car need to connect directly to the phone's hotspot WiFi, in order to utilize its hotspot?

If this works, there must be some bridge networking going on. Just trying to make sure I understand.

There are two Wi-Fi chips inside Ownice unit. One to handle CarPlay, and the other one is dedicated to vehicle connection to the Internet via Hotspot. So, in essence, there are two types of bridge networking going on.
T2C works similarly except with only one Wi-Fi chip inside.

 

[Mandingo]

I have a few questions for you @Mandingo , sorry if these have already been covered but this thread is a lot to dig through...

1. So I watched this video you made, and saw the subsequent replies about how you don't allow the car connect to home wifi...I assume that's because if you do, the car will stay connected to your home wifi rather than connect to the Ownice box when you get in?
2. Is there any downside to not allowing the car to connect to home wifi (other than having to connect it manually once in awhile to get software updates)?
3. Your video shows the Ownice auto-powering up when you get in the car...how long after you leave the car/walk away does your phone disconnect? I'm thinking about when I get home and walk into the house, I want the CarPlay box to shut down so the phone switches to home wifi. Does it do that?
4. Does everything in the native Tesla software (their navigation, music, etc) still work when the car's connected to the Ownice wifi? I've watched like four reviews and not a single one of them talk about this.
5. How has the reliability of the Ownice been, particularly in terms of auto-connecting to your phone? I will pay basically any amount of money to have my phone auto-connect to CarPlay wirelessly when I get in the car. I just want it to work 98%+ of the time.

Coming a bit late to this. Most of these questions have been answered but I’ll expand on #3 - I have the unit connected to a switched 12v circuit that powers up and down with my presence in the car. It powers up when I open the door and sit down and powers off when I exit the car (disconnects within ~5 seconds) - this prevents the “still connected in the house” issue. Details of the circuit I use and harness required are discussed earlier in this thread.

#5 - unlike the T2C unit that is still a bit buggy and will disconnect randomly and occasionally refuses to connect at all, the Ownice connects and stays connected >98% of the time. Only downside is screen refresh rate is a little slower than T2C due to higher image quality (therefore has to stream more data). I wish Ownice gave us a little more control over this tradeoff.

A few other observations -

When the iPhone is charging it can get hot and iOS throttles down the CPU/GPU as a result and that can make the CarPlay display more sluggish.

GPS reception isn’t as good when the iPhone is in my pocket so I usually put it on the center console or wireless charger so it has a better view of the sky.

 

[charlesoris]

There is a new firmware update for Ownice 2.8.14
I reached out to Ownice on AliExpress regarding company's dedicated website/forum for updates, troubleshooting, and other relevant info.
In return, they send me a link to the new release: 2.8.14 - Google Drive

I wonder if anyone tried the update on their unit.

 

[Mandingo]

There is a new firmware update for Ownice 2.8.14
I reached out to Ownice on AliExpress regarding company's dedicated website/forum for updates, troubleshooting, and other relevant info.
In return, they send me a link to the new release: 2.8.14 - Google Drive

I wonder if anyone tried the update on their unit.

Yeah I have it. Not much change - I think they removed the middle setting for compatibility - now just high and low.

 

[pbcsd]

TSC didn’t care but the harness is required to enable the trailer brakes when towing so they must be used to selling this part.

From the Tesla user manual …

Trailer Brakes​

A brake controller must be purchased separately, and the required 4-pin pigtail connector can be ordered from Tesla Service.

Follow these steps to connect a brake controller:

1. Connect the wiring on the brake controller to the appropriate locations on the 4-pin pigtail connector.
2. Remove the cover located under the dashboard in the driver’s side footwell.
3. Peel back the carpet to expose the vehicle's 4-pin connector on the wiring harness.
4. Connect the pigtail connector to the vehicle wiring connector.

Finally grabbed the harness and should get the converter tomorrow.

When you installed, did you shove the converter into the compartment or leave it out?

This might actually be a good thing to connect dash lighting to. Most of them connect to the lighter which means it’s on all the time and you have to manually turn on and off any lighting.

 

[Mandingo]

Finally grabbed the harness and should get the converter tomorrow.

When you installed, did you shove the converter into the compartment or leave it out?

This might actually be a good thing to connect dash lighting to. Most of them connect to the lighter which means it’s on all the time and you have to manually turn on and off any lighting.

I ran the pigtail wires outside to connect to the USB adapter which is held on by Velcro in the footwell where I can reach it. I switch between Ownice and T2C by plugging them in.