aawireless blues

[djenson]

Really weird how your issue seemed to be permission based. Glad you got it fixed though.

 

[Avro]

Me too thanks

 

[Hot Red 5]

That worked thanks

Interesting install, might get one of those right angle usb leads, the one I purchased goes the wrong way

Just ordered two. One left hand and one right hand from Amazon cost £5.99

 

[smokie]

I bought an AA Wireless unit from a guy on here, who was selling because of a known problem which meant he couldn't use it with his Huawei. It was duly shoved in the cupboard to be given to me for Christmas, since when I've not been far but I've come across a fairly consistent fault.

The route disappears from the screen, at some random point. The map is still there, as it my position on it, and usually, but not always, the voice directions continue. Once or twice it has just come back at random, but usually rebooting the phone doesn't work but stopping and turning off/on the car gets it back. I've not gone further than about 20 minutes and I think it's happened most times, if not every time.

The phone is a pretty up to date Pocophone NFC (Android 13 I believe) and I've been through the settings here and they all look OK. I did come across a video where they put the phone in developer mode and change the default USB setting to file transfer, so I've made that change, but does anyone have any other thoughts on it?

 

[dragon2611]

The route disappears from the screen, at some random point. The map is still there, as it my position on it, and usually, but not always, the voice directions continue. Once or twice it has just come back at random, but usually rebooting the phone doesn't work but stopping and turning off/on the car gets it back. I've not gone further than about 20 minutes and I think it's happened most times, if not every time.

Does your adaptor have any kind of settings UI?

My Apple carplay one has a web interface you can access from the phone when you are joined to it via Wi-Fi.

When I used it with a 2017 leaf (with a modified infotainment firmware to allow carplay/aa) I had to go into this UI and set a cap on the FPS (Framerate) otherwise using navigation + audio would tend to cause carplay to lockup on the headunit. It seems it couldn't handle the rate at which the dongle was trying to update the screen.

 

[Gomev]

I bought an AA Wireless unit from a guy on here, who was selling because of a known problem which meant he couldn't use it with his Huawei. It was duly shoved in the cupboard to be given to me for Christmas, since when I've not been far but I've come across a fairly consistent fault.

The route disappears from the screen, at some random point. The map is still there, as it my position on it, and usually, but not always, the voice directions continue. Once or twice it has just come back at random, but usually rebooting the phone doesn't work but stopping and turning off/on the car gets it back. I've not gone further than about 20 minutes and I think it's happened most times, if not every time.

The phone is a pretty up to date Pocophone NFC (Android 13 I believe) and I've been through the settings here and they all look OK. I did come across a video where they put the phone in developer mode and change the default USB setting to file transfer, so I've made that change, but does anyone have any other thoughts on it?

What Satnav app are you using ? Does the same happen on any other apps ? Debugging... @smokie

 

[smokie]

I've not delved into it too much yet but I don't think there is a UI for the device.

I've seen the issue with Waze and Google Maps.

When I have some time I'll try it with a different phone.

I'm pretty sure it's losing comms. I say that, as I was going to take some pics today to post here so I set a random distant destination. I then rebooted the phone and put in my intended destination, but the unit still showed my random one. That wasn't a good test though cos I didn't really concentrate on what I was doing, so don't jump to any conclusions from it.

The car tell me to "please connect a phone by cable" for a good minute or two after starting up, but I would expect that while all the connections and software settle down.

 

[dragon2611]

I've not delved into it too much yet but I don't think there is a UI for the device.

I've seen the issue with Waze and Google Maps.

When I have some time I'll try it with a different phone.

I'm pretty sure it's losing comms. I say that, as I was going to take some pics today to post here so I set a random distant destination. I then rebooted the phone and put in my intended destination, but the unit still showed my random one. That wasn't a good test though cos I didn't really concentrate on what I was doing, so don't jump to any conclusions from it.

The car tell me to "please connect a phone by cable" for a good minute or two after starting up, but I would expect that while all the connections and software settle down.

on the carplay ones it's something like http://192.168.50.2 from the phone browser when connected.

I know the latest v4 one can supposedly do wireless AA as well, so not sure if they use similar firmware.

 

[smokie]

I'll have a look tomorrow, weather permitting. I have dashcam and a car charger to sort out too!!

 

[smokie]

Well I've had a poke about and changed a setting or two on the phone (in line with their help text, which I'd not previously seen) but can't really say whether it's cured or not without a few journeys.

While working on it, it did cross my mind that the reason for getting this was the frequent apparent disconnections when using a hard wired phone, and I wondered if maybe the device was losing connectivity in the same way as the phone did. Which could make it a car problem.

Still, having played with it a bit more and read the (skimpy) manual I now know what the light means and that might help me if it re-occurs.

I couldn't find a UI to look at.

Will update again once there is something to say... thanks for the help!!

 

[djenson]

Well I've had a poke about and changed a setting or two on the phone (in line with their help text, which I'd not previously seen) but can't really say whether it's cured or not without a few journeys.

While working on it, it did cross my mind that the reason for getting this was the frequent apparent disconnections when using a hard wired phone, and I wondered if maybe the device was losing connectivity in the same way as the phone did. Which could make it a car problem.

Still, having played with it a bit more and read the (skimpy) manual I now know what the light means and that might help me if it re-occurs.

I couldn't find a UI to look at.

Will update again once there is something to say... thanks for the help!!

The UI is available over the app: AAWireless for Android Auto™ - Apps on Google Play

 

[smokie]

Ah OK, thanks. I did download that but I missed the only useful screen, the device settings one. Not that there is much in there...

 

[smokie]

This is still happening with the AA Wireless device but I've now found (and proven) the cause for me.

In my case it's because if I lose mobile signal, the phone momentarily turns off WiFi which disconnects Android Auto. That is a fact, though I'm not sure I quite get it because AA connects over wireless.

As far as I can see this mostly affects Xiaomi phones on MIUI version above and including 12.5.

I can reproduce the problem at will by connecting via AA Wireless then turning off mobile data on the phone. The phone reconnects once you turn mobile data back on, but often (but not always) in my case the display has lost the (Waze) route and just shows the updated map, although sometimes the voice commands continue - and sometimes everything comes back.

It has been reported against other car headsets (i.e. not just MG, which maybe isn't really surprising) but some other phone brand users have reported the same problem.

I did a quick test and it doesn't appear to be related to the disconnects people are seeing when connected via USB cable.

It seems that Xiaomi have released a few versions since the problem first arose but none have yet fixed it.

The folks in the threads discussing this suggest it is possible to put one of the unofficial ROM variants on the phone instead of using MIUI but for me, although I've done it before on other phones, I don't need to make that effort for this minor problem. I guess Xiaomi will eventually fix it...

It did also occur to me that the actual Google Android Auto product could maybe be changed to retry connections for a while (say 20 seconds) rather than just crashing out straight away. That would be a better solution IMO.

 

[Avro]

Interesting, I get this on my setup with the Moto G6 too. I haven't had the time or inclination to investigate the cause but thanks Smokie it looks like you have saved me the bother
I despair at these software types who think catastrophic failure on error is acceptable. Sadly it looks like they are writing the code for safety critical systems on the car too!

 

[smokie]

Just to correct myself a little, the AA Wireless disconnection happens when the mobile data is reconnected after having been disconnected (rather than at the time it is disconnected)

 

[Gomev]

Interesting, I get this on my setup with the Moto G6 too. I haven't had the time or inclination to investigate the cause but thanks Smokie it looks like you have saved me the bother
I despair at these software types who think catastrophic failure on error is acceptable. Sadly it looks like they are writing the code for safety critical systems on the car too!

The Moto phones have almost pure Android operating systems so no manufacturer overlays/GUIs on them. My Moto G9 does not appear to suffer your problem, well at least not yet.

 

[Avro]

Yes that's why I like them
I've not done any significantly long trips since adding the AA wireless dongle so I am still in the testing phase. In most respects it works fine, connecting soon after entering the car. Currently two issues, 1: it occasionally decides not connect at all ...flashing green for a while then red. I have tracked this down to the phone losing bluetooth pairing with the car. Now I know the problem, and the fix is relatively quick and simple I can live with that. 2: The drop-outs like Smokie is getting are more of a concern, it can take quite a while to re-connect and any running apps need to be restarted, which is pretty bad news if you are relying on the navigation! I see this problem at exactly the same spot a few miles up the road from here which I have assumed is indeed loss of signal, but as cell phone coverage around these parts is very patchy I would expect more problems than just this this one spot. More investigation required me thinks.....if I can be bothered

 

[dragon2611]

I had to set an FPS limit on my carplay dongle or using waze + playing music would cause it to lag behind until eventually carplay (or the dongle) crashes

Since doing that it's been fine with the MG other than occasionally not connecting on startup (Set a 5s delay to see if that solves it, although I've had that with other cars so I think it's the dongle not the car)

 

[smokie]

@Avro - the test I do is quite easy. I sit in the car on my drive, start up and connect the phone etc.

Once Android Auto has loaded on the car screen just turn off your mobile data. For me, the AAWireless device continues with solid blue light but when I turn mobile data back on it goes to green flashing and the car screen goes back to the normal startup one.

Eventually (usually, not always though) the AA Wireless light goes back to blue, and reconnects itself, and the map comes back on the screen. Sometimes it has lost the route display, or it takes a while longer to recover but the voice continues to give correct commands but sometimes the route on screen doesn't come back at all.

I think I said earlier that people seem to have pinned this down to a version of the MIUI which comes with Xiaomi phones, but a few people with other brand phones have jumped on the threads to say they also have the problem.