New Carlinkit dongle (tiny)

[Susanna]

I have been quite happy with my Carlinkit 3.0 for over 9 years, but when I saw this teeny tiny dongle, I thought I would treat myself to one. I’m not sure of the retail price, but Amazon has them priced between £40-50. Aliexpress has them for £10+, so I ordered one. It arrived in a week, and I am very happy with it. It’s suitable for iOS (10 and above), and Android, connects immediately with no need of a 20 second delay which my old one needed, and of course takes up no space. I can thoroughly recommend.

 

[slmorgan42]

I have been quite happy with my Carlinkit 3.0 for over 9 years, but when I saw this teeny tiny dongle, I thought I would treat myself to one. I’m not sure of the retail price, but Amazon has them priced between £40/50. Aliexpress has them for £10+, so I ordered one. It arrived in a week, and I am very happy with it. It’s suitable for iOS (10 and above), and android, connects immediately with no need of a 20 second delay which my old one needed, and of course takes up no space. I can thoroughly recommend.

Hey,
That’s very cute!

Quick question—does this dongle let the car tell Apple CarPlay that it’s an EV?

It might seem like a small thing, but when CarPlay recognises the car as an EV using a cabled connection, it shows local EV chargers on the map and even asks if you want to search for one nearby.

When I’ve used these dongles before, it only shows petrol stations and suggests searching for those instead. I think there might be a missing signal that tells the phone it’s an electric vehicle.

 

[siteguru]

Are you sure it's a car-to-CarPlay communication thing? Or is it simply an Apple Maps/Google Maps/Whatever Maps thing? (i.e. you configure your vehicle options in the Maps app).

 

[slmorgan42]

Are you sure it's a car-to-CarPlay communication thing? Or is it simply an Apple Maps/Google Maps/Whatever Maps thing? (i.e. you configure your vehicle options in the Maps app).

Definitely a CarPlay signal thing. Same phone and car. If I use cable it works as expected if I use the dongle it doesn’t.

I did speak to CarKit and they said not enough people had complained about it so no rush to fix. :-(

 

[Susanna]

@slmorgan42 - I have no idea! I didn’t even know that was an option. I generally use Apple Maps. I have never seen an option to ‘add your car’ nor seen anything on a display for EV charging. I should probably pay more attention to!

 

[slmorgan42]

@slmorgan42 - I have no idea! I didn’t even know that was an option. I generally use Apple Maps. I have never seen an option to ‘add your car’ nor seen anything on a display for EV charging. I should probably pay more attention to!

I may have caused confusion. There is no setting to add car in Apple map. I use this as well.

When connecting the phone via the cable the phone knows automatically it is connected to an EV and shows ev charging options.

If it was connected to a petrol car it would know this and show petrol station.

When using these dongles they always tell the phone it is connected to a petrol car so the phone shows petrol station.

Its a small thing but annoying

 

[siteguru]

With Android Auto I don't think that is even a "thing" ... I've certainly never seen it. That said, I've always configured my navigation apps with my car details.

 

[Susanna]

I shall have a look later……..

 

[slmorgan42]

I don’t have the EV one handy but this is a photo through the dongle. Says search for petrol station. When connected via cable it says charging stations.

There are a few other differences when it knows the car is an EV via the cable.

 

[Susanna]

@slmorgan42 - I have checked my new dongle, and it is exactly as you described; petrol stations with dongle, EVSEs with phone. However, how useful EV chargers in Scotland would be for me in Northamptonshire, I wouldn’t like to say!!

 

[slmorgan42]

@slmorgan42 - I have checked my new dongle, and it is exactly as you described; petrol stations with dongle, EVSE’s with phone. However, how useful EV chargers in Scotland would be for me in Northamptonshire, I wouldn’t like to say!!

lol yeah that would be a long drive to charge up ha ha

Thank you for checking though.

 

[Susanna]

@slmorgan42 - I have added my request to Carlinkit for an update. Although I never used (or even knew about) the search feature, now that I do know, I want it to show EVSE’s. Not that filthy petrol and diesel stuff……..

 

[slmorgan42]

@slmorgan42 - I have added my request to Carlinkit for an update. Although I never used (or even knew about) the search feature, now I do know, I want it to show EVSE’s. Not that filthy petrol and diesel stuff……..

Well I went ahead and ordered one from AliExpress. At £10 figured I'd give it another go.

 

[Gomev]

I have been quite happy with my Carlinkit 3.0 for over 9 years, but when I saw this teeny tiny dongle, I thought I would treat myself to one. I’m not sure of the retail price, but Amazon has them priced between £40-50. Aliexpress has them for £10+, so I ordered one. It arrived in a week, and I am very happy with it. It’s suitable for iOS (10 and above), and Android, connects immediately with no need of a 20 second delay which my old one needed, and of course takes up no space. I can thoroughly recommend.

I currently use AA Wireless and am very happy with it but I decided I needed a new toy to play with and for a tenner thought , why not !
Went on to AliExpress and saw it at £10 something (£9 and a bit today !!) so logged on as a new user and ordered one and it charged me £6.04. I am not complaining.
I did have an account already but thought I'd try the new user trick and it seemed to work.

With Android Auto I don't think that is even a "thing" ... I've certainly never seen it. That said, I've always configured my navigation apps with my car details.

Precisely, you tell Google Maps that you have an EV. (Settings -> Your vehicle), and AA uses that provided you use Google Maps for the Satnav.
Also if using Waze, again Settings -> Vehicle Details -> Electric Vehicles - turn on EV features via toggle.

 

[Rolfe]

With me, AA shows chargers on the map (I got a surprise when they first showed up last November!) but routinely asks me if I want to search for petrol stations!

 

[slmorgan42]

I currently use AA Wireless and am very happy with it but I decided I needed a new toy to play with and for a tenner thought , why not !
Went on to AliExpress and saw it at £10 something (£9 and a bit today !!) so logged on as a new user and ordered one and it charged me £6.04. I am not complaining.
I did have an account already but thought I'd try the new user trick and it seemed to work.


Precisely, you tell Google Maps that you have an EV. (Settings -> Your vehicle), and AA uses that provided you use Google Maps for the Satnav.
Also if using Waze, again Settings -> Vehicle Details -> Electric Vehicles - turn on EV features via toggle.

Have to see whose arrives first lol

 

[Gomev]

Have to see whose arrives first lol

Mine arrived yesterday. Absolutely tiny. Not had a chance to try it yet, will do later today

P.S. Plugged it in and it worked straight way after pairing the Bluetooth. It did say CarPlay when I first started but soon changed to AA. Not really tested it yet but seems to be as good as the AAWireless dongle. It got a bit warm in the 2 miles I was out, will obviously need checking on longer trips to make sure it doesn't get too hot, and am going to check for any updates shortly.

 

[slmorgan42]

Mine arrived yesterday. Absolutely tiny. Not had a chance to try it yet, will do later today

P.S. Plugged it in and it worked straight way after pairing the Bluetooth. It did say CarPlay when I first started but soon changed to AA. Not really tested it yet but seems to be as good as the AAWireless dongle. It got a bit warm in the 2 miles I was out, will obviously need checking on longer trips to make sure it doesn't get too hot, and am going to check for any updates shortly.

Sounds good.

Mine is at the Ervi depot so who knows if I will ever see it. lol My neighbour may soon get a new toy they didn't order.

 

[Susanna]

@slmorgan42 - fingers crossed for a safe delivery! I have an excellent Evri courier, but I have heard that some deliveries can be problematic.

 

[slmorgan42]

@slmorgan42 - fingers crossed for a safe delivery! I have an excellent Evri courier, but I have heard that some deliveries can be problematic.

Sadly in my area they are terrible. We have a street WhatsApp group and half the time it’s people asking if someone got their package.

I did manage to find mine but they had not bothered ringing the doorbell and let themselves in. Went up to the top floor and just left it in the public walk way. Lucky a neighbour spotted it and put it to one side. I will try it out tomorrow