I’m not surprised. Did you open it and confirm it has a SIM slot? If it does your purchase was a bit sweeter. Check the version, upgrade if needed and join the club of trying to figure this thing out.
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Aftermarket Tesla CarPlay and Android Auto Devices
- Thread starter jorhett
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- android auto
Sure. I contacted their customer service and they recommended buying sim cards from carriers like Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Cricket Wireless or Boost Mobile.
Trying to select the right thing to order reminds me of George Carlin saying "Mongolian Cluster F#$%!"
@Mikecm1 I think the one you got will be fine.
Tip I just discovered. Today when I left the house CarPlay wasn't connecting. I was connected to the T2C WiFi. On the Device tab on the black tespush.com page I hit the blue Autoconnect switch to turn that off then back on. When it switched back on CarPlay connected.
@Mikecm1 I think the one you got will be fine.
Tip I just discovered. Today when I left the house CarPlay wasn't connecting. I was connected to the T2C WiFi. On the Device tab on the black tespush.com page I hit the blue Autoconnect switch to turn that off then back on. When it switched back on CarPlay connected.
I’m not surprised. Did you open it and confirm it has a SIM slot? If it does your purchase was a bit sweeter. Check the version, upgrade if needed and join the club of trying to figure this thing out.
Just checked, yes there’s a sim slot. Maybe they had it listed wrong on Amazon and why they removed it after I emailed them.
I just went out to set up the T2C and it was a piece of cake! Took 10 minutes including updating the software to get up and running. Changed the display to HD and refresh rate or whatever they called it to ‘fast’, and it’s smooth as butter, looks sharp, and worked perfectly. Only played with it for ~15 minutes but no complaints.
The only questions I have which might not be possible as a restriction to CarPlay, but is there any way to change the default dashboard view layout or widgets? The bottom left “home” widget for the map is pretty redundant with the map right above it:
And is there any way to have more than 3 app icons on the left column? Seems like a waste of screen real estate. I’m pretty sure there are more in my wife’s Audi that has CarPlay, but I might be misremembering.
The only questions I have which might not be possible as a restriction to CarPlay, but is there any way to change the default dashboard view layout or widgets? The bottom left “home” widget for the map is pretty redundant with the map right above it:
And is there any way to have more than 3 app icons on the left column? Seems like a waste of screen real estate. I’m pretty sure there are more in my wife’s Audi that has CarPlay, but I might be misremembering.
Not that I'm aware of. You may already know about this but you can switch views by clicking the icon in the bottom left to the more traditional display with rows of icons.
Don't think I've ever seen more than three icons there.
Apologies if this has been answered already (I did look but couldn’t see it), if you use a SIM card with the T2C rather than your phone’s hotspot, approximately how much data are people using per month? Assuming CarPlay is being used mostly to stream audio and for navigation with Maps or Waze. A broad indication of how much data is consumed would be very helpful.
Update - I have actually returned my Carlinkit. While I loved the big display and the latest update made it snappier, the work required to enable and disable the device made it increasingly inconvenient. If I forgot to switch it off when I got home my iPhone was still wirelessly connected to my car while I was in my house and that messed up Wi-Fi, audio and phone calls.
I also ran into another issue on a roadtrip recently which was my iPhone was overheating on the wireless charger when it was connected - someone mentioned it was related to the hotspot being on - this made charging stop and it dropped the Carlinkit connection every few minutes.
I have switched to the Hansshow 9” which offers several benefits:-
- Powers on and off automatically
- Connects quickly (10-15 seconds)
- Display is right in front of me as I drive
- Has car info as well as CarPlay (range, lights, gear)
- UI can be controlled from steering wheel versus trying to reach across to hit screen buttons
- Display is fast and smooth
- Doesn’t mess with the Tesla Wi-Fi/LTE connectivity
The downsides are:-
- Screen is much smaller
- There is a bug with the audio routing (Hansshow say they are testing a fix now)
Until there is a bug fix I have the Hansshow BT connected to the Tesla so all audio comes through the car speakers and I just manually switch the BT connection on the Tesla to my iPhone directly if I have a phone call - I tend to need directions more frequently than I have phone calls.
I also ran into another issue on a roadtrip recently which was my iPhone was overheating on the wireless charger when it was connected - someone mentioned it was related to the hotspot being on - this made charging stop and it dropped the Carlinkit connection every few minutes.
I have switched to the Hansshow 9” which offers several benefits:-
- Powers on and off automatically
- Connects quickly (10-15 seconds)
- Display is right in front of me as I drive
- Has car info as well as CarPlay (range, lights, gear)
- UI can be controlled from steering wheel versus trying to reach across to hit screen buttons
- Display is fast and smooth
- Doesn’t mess with the Tesla Wi-Fi/LTE connectivity
The downsides are:-
- Screen is much smaller
- There is a bug with the audio routing (Hansshow say they are testing a fix now)
Until there is a bug fix I have the Hansshow BT connected to the Tesla so all audio comes through the car speakers and I just manually switch the BT connection on the Tesla to my iPhone directly if I have a phone call - I tend to need directions more frequently than I have phone calls.
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Your first problem could be solved pretty easily with automations, eg: 1. when your phone connects to your car or the T2C it toggles personal hotspot on, 2. when you arrive home your phone turns hotspot off then something like wait 30/60 seconds, toggle Bluetooth/wifi off then on so it wouldn’t reconnect to the t2c easily since you’re further away. You likely wouldn’t even notice the interruption.
That’s just off the top of my head but there’s probably smarter ways to use automations to make the t2c more seamless.
Edit: I just tested my cars LTE connectivity while connected to the t2c and it appears to work fine. My cars parked at home about 150 feet away connected to the t2c’s wifi network, and I’m able to do things like view sentry live cameras like normal.
Were you having issues with that?
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Isn’t another downside the need to wire directly into the bus requiring a more complicated installation?
Yes, fair point. There is an installation step but I have the AMD flavor and that install was pretty straightforward - two snap-in connectors in the passenger footwell and that’s it - no need to touch the MCU or route wires through to the battery.
Are you saying this from actually having this working or is this speculation? In practice I found that the iPhone is very tightly entwined with CarPlay Wi-Fi networks and will reconnect every time it even gets a sniff. It always reconnected after manually toggling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or hotspot. I am sure this is designed to make wireless Carplay more reliable in noisy wireless environments but it makes “breaking” the connection very tough.
If you have this working reliably I am sure many people on this thread would love to have it - I’m going in a different direction.
I haven’t set it up yet with the t2c as I only installed it yesterday, but I have a lot of experience with shortcuts and automations with physical products in both my home and our cars, so I have very little doubt I can get it working properly without much effort. And we’ve never had an issue with the Carlinkit wireless CarPlay adapter that we use in my wife’s car.
Worst case scenario you could at least make an automation that opens the settings screen where you can enable/disable CarPlay that triggers when you arrive home or get to your car, where it would be a simple toggle click the same as a physical on/off button would work.
(Edit: this simple shortcut opens the CarPlay settings page- Shortcuts)
I’ll update everyone here with how I ultimately go about setting all this up.
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I think anyone who buys this device has to keep in mind that this is a hack. Don't expect a seemless experience, almighty Elon has decided we shouldn't have CarPlay or Android Auto.
If you go into it knowing the limitations, you will get what you paid for.
If you go into it knowing the limitations, you will get what you paid for.
ElectricAnt54
Active Member
True true…and remember. Tesla can disable the functionality that this system & others rely upon without much effort. Sorry that carlinkit did not mention this. May tesla decide to not block our systems….enjoy CarPlay like it’s the last day you’ll have it…much like life. Advice from a person who almost died a few years ago.
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