The Android 10.25" Screen Journey Begins...

[subbu001]

Wow. Not sure if the Vendor did anything. But it connects now. No more error. Wireless CarPlay is cool and seamless. Nice to have big icons esp Waze.

[Aferanova]

Wow, glad you got your CarPlay working! Very odd.

On the microphone issues, I recently confirmed how I got the oem mic working on 1 phone but not the other.

When my phone is connected to Bluetooth on the bmw side as a phone, then I connect and use it on the android side, it uses OEM microphone only in a regular android call and CarPlay.

If I disconnect Bluetooth from the bmw side, it then uses the android microphone!

I’ll test around and see if I can get both our phones connected on bmw side so it works seemlessly on android side. But I’ll likely just also buy an external mic for android to install just in case.

[subbu001]

Update - Carplay connects sometimes 50/50. Highest success at the start of the day. After that the error persists for the rest of the day. Have sent videos and photos to the vendor who said they will have their engineer investigate. Let us see....

[argento]

Originally Posted by subbu001

Update - Carplay connects sometimes 50/50. Highest success at the start of the day. After that the error persists for the rest of the day. Have sent videos and photos to the vendor who said they will have their engineer investigate. Let us see....

Are you saying the error occurs 50% of the time? Or it's just not connecting, stuck waiting?

[subbu001]

When I connect after the night rest, so first time in the morning , it seems to connect the last 2 days. Thereafter when I come back to the car after an errand when the Bluetooth gets disconnected, the error reappears.

The vendor is asking me to press reset.

Will try that tomorrow.

[subbu001]

Hi Guys - I get this normal notice " Do not connect Bluetooth while CarPlay is running". Do any of you get it?

So whenever that error occurs - on the main dash when I press home, the Bluetooth says connected. Phone is connected to Android unit.

When CarPlay does connect the first time in the morning (no luck later on), the Bluetooth on the main dash says phone NOT connected. So phone is not connected to the android apps etc.

I am wondering if the error is bec my Bluetooth connects with my android unit before it connects / activates the Zlink app.

[argento]

Originally Posted by subbu001

Hi Guys - I get this normal notice " Do not connect Bluetooth while CarPlay is running". Do any of you get it?

So whenever that error occurs - on the main dash when I press home, the Bluetooth says connected. Phone is connected to Android unit.

When CarPlay does connect the first time in the morning (no luck later on), the Bluetooth on the main dash says phone NOT connected. So phone is not connected to the android apps etc.

I am wondering if the error is bec my Bluetooth connects with my android unit before it connects / activates the Zlink app.

I haven't got that error, where does it show up?

I do have trouble reconnecting after I've disconnected. It requires a hard reboot of the monitor, waiting some time after engine off.

Is there a way to hard reboot wo waiting?

[argento]

My updates on CarPlay:

1. Connects fine on startup; I can select the CAR icon and return to the main menu, but then it shows BT disconnected. I can return to carplay if I use the window cascade icon in the upper left. If I click the app to return it shows 'waiting'.

2. When WIFI or HOTSPOT connects, I'm immediately disconnected from CarPlay. Every time. I am then not able to get back into carplay without powering down for a couple minutes.

I'll keep testing and list notes here...

[subbu001]

Hello - Carplay has been working the last few days.

One thing I did notice is when Carplay is "connected" -
1. I do not see the Bluetooth Icon as connected in my Android Screen.
2. Even more surprisingly my phone is now connected to wifi / hotspot from the Android Screen. I only noticed is as I lost my normal wifi connection and hence my surf / search speed slowed down as I only had 1 bar on the LTE. To connect back to the normal wifi I had to get rid of the android hotspot connection on my phone. And that kills the Carplay!

Hope this helps.

[EvaaWilli]

Originally Posted by jvirgi

thanks argento, super helpful!

Any reason you went with the SIIG aux instead of something just like the anker aux like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R11WPK4?

For the sound i'm also wondering if theres a way to bypass using the aux and run it the same way the factory unit came. If theres an optical cable coming from the amp (for the top end audio packages), i'm wondering if we can just run that into the new setup for the audio. Any ideas?

You can look at aliexpress some things.

[Aferanova]

Originally Posted by EvaaWilli

You can look at aliexpress some things.

Sorry, can you say a little more? I think we determined you can’t avoid using the aux - I believe for all e70/e71 but can use any aux.

[argento]

Originally Posted by jvirgi

Sorry, can you say a little more? I think we determined you can’t avoid using the aux - I believe for all e70/e71 but can use any aux.

I'm still working audio through the USB cable...some varying success, but not one final solution yet. I'm still testing DACs...I have two more options to test soon. The Aux Out from the Android Monitor is pretty good and definitely an upgrade over previous monitors.

[Konradical6]

Hey guys two questions

1. I see people are having issues with wireless CarPlay does it work better if you connect the phone via dongle to the usb?

2. Can I leave the phone connected to the bmw BT and disconnect the aux sound so when I play Spotify or google maps from car play im the android it goes through the bmw BT?

[Konradical6]

Originally Posted by subbu001

Sighhh. Never connected. Contacting the vendor now. Using iPhone for CarPlay. Tried with another iPhone as well. Same error.

Would you have a picture of which hole you fished the aux cable through when you removed the side trim?

[argento]

Originally Posted by Konradical6

Hey guys two questions

1. I see people are having issues with wireless CarPlay does it work better if you connect the phone via dongle to the usb?

2. Can I leave the phone connected to the bmw BT and disconnect the aux sound so when I play Spotify or google maps from car play im the android it goes through the bmw BT?

Sorry for slow reply, I don't really have too much to contribute on these...

1. Most of don't have the dongle b/c we paid a lot extra for wireless BT. I have a dongle with the older AVIN unit I'm selling, but it's packed away.

2. For wireless carplay to work properly, you have to disconnect oem BT.

[Konradical6]

Thank you very much. This thread has been super helpful. I posted this in another one but maybe you can help?


Can you help me with how to route the harness to the screen? Is it behind the metal part in the pictures (circle on the left) or the plastic circle in the right? I tried behind the black plastic first but then the cables come out the front over the radio and it's too tight. When I try behind the metal part there doesn't seem to be space to go up as the cavity is a plastic bucket like piece for the radio that goes all the way to the top. It's unclear in the videos can someone help?

Like the guy does it in this video at 15:10 where he goes just behind the first black plastic is this correct?

[argento]

Do these help?

[subbu001]

Originally Posted by Konradical6

Would you have a picture of which hole you fished the aux cable through when you removed the side trim?

Hi. Sorry for the late reply. Here are 2 pics.

One pic shows the torch light shining into the center console after the USB Panel and Aux Panel is prayed open. Did not need to disconnect them. But you could to improve access.

The other pic shows the wire hanger going thru the hole on the top left corner of the 1st side panel towards the light (click open the pic to see the wire hanger). Once you get the wire hanger to the light area you can go back to the center console and pull the Aux cable and later on USB cables out as well. Pls don't try to pull the wire hanger as that might be too stiff. I just used tape to loosely attach the top of the wire hanger to the top of the Aux cable.

[Konradical6]

Perfect thank you both. Yea Argento looks like you routed yours behind the metal piece. It's ok I got my to work as well.

[subbu001]

Carplay - dunno what happened. But wireless CarPlay works perfectly now after 2 weeks. Fingers crossed. No more just working in the morning and once a day only.

In the first 2 weeks I did order the usb dongle out of frustration. But it needed another app and not android auto so it did not work straight out of the box. I just returned it feeling even more pissed.

[Konradical6]

Anyone factory reset their unit? My is from 4x4 shop and I'm waiting for their tech to respond but figured I'd ask here.

I still had issues with some freezing on the BT screen And couldn't figure it out so I did the factory reset on the android. The BT connects now but some of the apps disappeared and some are in Chinese.

I used the apk installer app to install zlink back as it was missing but it says now it's not registered/activated and some of the writing is in Chinese, anyone experience this?

[subbu001]

Originally Posted by Konradical6

Anyone factory reset their unit? My is from 4x4 shop and I'm waiting for their tech to respond but figured I'd ask here.

I still had issues with some freezing on the BT screen And couldn't figure it out so I did the factory reset on the android. The BT connects now but some of the apps disappeared and some are in Chinese.

I used the apk installer app to install zlink back as it was missing but it says now it's not registered/activated and some of the writing is in Chinese, anyone experience this?

I did the factory reset on the instruction of the Seller. Thankfully that did not kill the Zlink app. In fact it did not anything I think. Everything looked the same. The problems were still there. Also to activate the Zlink, I figured out accidentally that you connect the android to your phone hotspot so that it has a internet connection and press the about or activate or some button and it said activated. This did not help with my initial problems but my error message never said NOt Activated.