Wireless Carplay with Carlinkit

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Mine (the older A2A model) connects to my phone by wifi.
The phone remains connected to the car via bluetooth for calls, etc.

 

[snurt]

Doesn't sound good. I have one on the way (ordered after reading this thread) and would also be using android so let's hope it works better with the MG4.

Edit : Actually, reading back through this thread @snurt seems to be using it ok in the MG4 with android...

It works fine. As mentioned I have a phone that doesn't charge wirelessly (Android) so plug in anyway.. negating the benefit.

 

[pharrison84]

Mine (the older A2A model) connects to my phone by wifi.
The phone remains connected to the car via bluetooth for calls, etc.

Wonko I am searching for comments on wireless options and found this. I hoping you can help please.

a) do you now have an MG4? and
b) if you do, does the A2A model work as expected?

I think I've now sourced a red Trophy and this is one of the first things I'd like to sort. Given I only anticipate connecting with Android phones, the A2A would probably be my preference.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Wonko I am searching for comments on wireless options and found this. I hoping you can help please.

a) do you now have an MG4? and
b) if you do, does the A2A model work as expected?

I think I've now sourced a red Trophy and this is one of the first things I'd like to sort. Given I only anticipate connecting with Android phones, the A2A would probably be my preference.

I sorta have an MG4 (It's been in my dealer's storage yard waiting for the finance agreement to come through). Haven't tried the A2A yet.

BTW - Apparently, you can now get the newer Carlinkit 4.0 at "The Range" here in the UK.

 

[Hallix73]

Wonko I am searching for comments on wireless options and found this. I hoping you can help please.

a) do you now have an MG4? and
b) if you do, does the A2A model work as expected?

I think I've now sourced a red Trophy and this is one of the first things I'd like to sort. Given I only anticipate connecting with Android phones, the A2A would probably be my preference.

Hi, I have the Carlink 4.0 iOS & Android. I only use iPhone and works perfect for over 2 months now. Ali Express Carlink kit 4.0 presently at £37.55 + Tax = £45 if in no hurry.
Make sure you pick the correct one. Its the one on the left of the icons.

 

[TechNick]

By way of warning, if my testing of this device against my current petrol car (Seat Leon) is anything to go by, there is a world of difference in experience between using an iPhone and an Android phone...

I've been attempting to work with their support team for several days, now, to manually change all the 'advanced' settings within the unit to get it to refresh the screen properly, when using my Samsung S22 (Android 13) against it. All attempts have been unsuccessful, thus far.

Obviously, it may prove quite different when combining the unit, Android, and the MG4 (as opposed to my current car), but it would probably be beneficial to mention in any feedback posts here whether you're using an iPhone or an Android phone, as I suspect the experience may well prove to be quite different between the two, if my testing is anything to go by!

Just a quick update (in case of use to anyone)...

My original plan was to temporarily use the Carlinkit 4.0 (that I got from AliExpress) in my Seat Leon until the MG4 got delivered (in conjunction with Android Auto and my Samsung S22, in both cases).

Because it took so much messing around to get the Carlinkit 4.0 'advanced settings' sorted out to work correctly within the Leon, I opted to leave it be, once I got it to the stage where it worked reliably there.
(For reference, all of the various Video Resolution / Video Bit Rate / Frames per second / Start Delay / etc. settings, that Carlinkit Support suggested I try, didn't resolve it - I had to instead 'rollback' the firmware to version 2022.07.29.1635 from the latest, at the time, 2022.07.29.1751 - this resolved it for the Seat Leon, at least!).

I also purchased and installed a wireless charging mat, so that the phone could both communicate and be charged wirelessly - the Leon has a tray/shelf not too dissimilar to the MG4, so figured it was a good test (as well as enabling the Leon, of course!).

How it looks in the Leon (until I get around to integrating the wiring a bit better):

End result is that I simply get in the car, place my phone on the mat, and everything kicks into life!

So... on to the MG4...

I opted to purchase another Carlinkit 4.0, but this time from eBay (and a UK seller), for around £50.
Ironically, it actually took a few days longer to arrive than it did from AliExpress, but did at least arrive!

Despite the units (and packaging) appearing identical, the web UI to the new Carlinkit 4.0 was quite different (as well as being a newer firmware, as you would expect):

Anyhow, it appears to have been delivered with the latest firmware (as no newer updates available) and seemed to work fine, straight out of the box, within the MG4.

However, as others have mentioned, the Android Auto display did seem quite laggy and the icons stretched/deformed (in as much as the circular icons appeared oval).
Out of the box, the 'Video Resolution' is set to 'Auto', so I tried various other combinations (including what I understand to be the native resolution of the MG4 central screen - 1920 x 720), but none seemed to rectify the 'stretching' of the icons, etc. They also seemed to make it even more laggy!

As such, with the above firmware, at least, I'd suggest sticking with all the settings as they come, straight out of the box (including the video resolution as 'Auto'), and just accept the slight deformation of the appearance, as it doesn't seem to be straightforward to rectify (unless another, possibly older, firmware works better in that respect).

I plan to install a wireless charger pad in the MG4 also (as we have an SE), but the shelf seems to have a slightly shallower lip to it than in the Leon, so I may either need a thinner charging pad or else try and recess it into the shelf better, so that the phone doesn't slide off and out easily.

Apologies for the lengthy post, but I thought it relevant to include the detail of firmwares, etc., in case it varies from suppliers from the otherwise seemingly identical Carlinkit 4.0 devices!

I do, personally, like the simplicity of wireless charging and Android Auto connectivity (along with reduced wear on the phone's charging port and the connecting cable), even if it is sometimes a bit of a faff to get it all setup and working in the first instance!

 

[pharrison84]

Just a quick update (in case of use to anyone)...

My original plan was to temporarily use the Carlinkit 4.0 (that I got from AliExpress) in my Seat Leon until the MG4 got delivered (in conjunction with Android Auto and my Samsung S22, in both cases).

Because it took so much messing around to get the Carlinkit 4.0 'advanced settings' sorted out to work correctly within the Leon, I opted to leave it be, once I got it to the stage where it worked reliably there.
(For reference, all of the various Video Resolution / Video Bit Rate / Frames per second / Start Delay / etc. settings, that Carlinkit Support suggested I try, didn't resolve it - I had to instead 'rollback' the firmware to version 2022.07.29.1635 from the latest, at the time, 2022.07.29.1751 - this resolved it for the Seat Leon, at least!).

View attachment 15444

I also purchased and installed a wireless charging mat, so that the phone could both communicate and be charged wirelessly - the Leon has a tray/shelf not too dissimilar to the MG4, so figured it was a good test (as well as enabling the Leon, of course!).

How it looks in the Leon (until I get around to integrating the wiring a bit better):

View attachment 15442

View attachment 15443

End result is that I simply get in the car, place my phone on the mat, and everything kicks into life!

So... on to the MG4...

I opted to purchase another Carlinkit 4.0, but this time from eBay (and a UK seller), for around £50.
Ironically, it actually took a few days longer to arrive than it did from AliExpress, but did at least arrive!

Despite the units (and packaging) appearing identical, the web UI to the new Carlinkit 4.0 was quite different (as well as being a newer firmware, as you would expect):

View attachment 15445

Anyhow, it appears to have been delivered with the latest firmware (as no newer updates available) and seemed to work fine, straight out of the box, within the MG4.

However, as others have mentioned, the Android Auto display did seem quite laggy and the icons stretched/deformed (in as much as the circular icons appeared oval).
Out of the box, the 'Video Resolution' is set to 'Auto', so I tried various other combinations (including what I understand to be the native resolution of the MG4 central screen - 1920 x 720), but none seemed to rectify the 'stretching' of the icons, etc. They also seemed to make it even more laggy!

As such, with the above firmware, at least, I'd suggest sticking with all the settings as they come, straight out of the box (including the video resolution as 'Auto'), and just accept the slight deformation of the appearance, as it doesn't seem to be straightforward to rectify (unless another, possibly older, firmware works better in that respect).

I plan to install a wireless charger pad in the MG4 also (as we have an SE), but the shelf seems to have a slightly shallower lip to it than in the Leon, so I may either need a thinner charging pad or else try and recess it into the shelf better, so that the phone doesn't slide off and out easily.

Apologies for the lengthy post, but I thought it relevant to include the detail of firmwares, etc., in case it varies from suppliers from the otherwise seemingly identical Carlinkit 4.0 devices!

I do, personally, like the simplicity of wireless charging and Android Auto connectivity (along with reduced wear on the phone's charging port and the connecting cable), even if it is sometimes a bit of a faff to get it all setup and working in the first instance!

There's no chance I could cope with the wonky resolution. I'd end up reverting to wired.

I'm leaning towards the A2A version as I suspect that might be the better option for android phones, but would ideally like to know of someone who has used that successfully before splurging.

Hopefully @WonkoTheSaneUK will be able to test it shortly.

 

[nbenn]

So I bit the bullet and bought a Carlinkit 4.0 the other day from Amazon.

£87 and two days later and it has arrived this morning. I thought I'd throw up a quick post about it in case anyone else is tempted by the purchase and wants some more info. The MG4 isn't on the compatibility list for the device (MG as a manufacturer isn't even listed) so I was a little worried that it wasn't going to work, hence the purchase from Amazon for easy returnability should it not go to plan.

The unit supports wireless carplay and android auto (although I dont currently have an android phone to test with). I also own another car (BMW) which has wireless carplay and android auto built into the car, so we'll see how it compares to a manufacturer-provided solution.

So firstly, it came pretty well packaged but it's much, much smaller than I thought it would be:

View attachment 12015


View attachment 12016
(banana for scale)

Fitting it to the car was very simple. The unit comes with both a USB type-c to type-c cable, and a type-a to type-c cable in the box. The unit itself has a type-c port on one end (for connecting to the car) and a full-size type-a port on the other (apparently you can use this to do wired carplay/android auto through the unit - though why is beyond me).

Upon plugging it into the car, the MG4 immediately recognized that there was a carplay device plugged into the USB port and connected to it. The device seems to emulate apple carplay to the car and will pop up its own pairing screen if there isn't a device connected to it. This is actually quite neat; the car will always think that there is an apple device plugged in as long as the unit is plugged in (the "carplay" widget on the home screen is always available) so even if there isn't a phone connected to the carlinkit, you can easily get into its settings by launching "carplay" from the car.

It also seems like this holds true for android auto - it seems that the unit always presents itself as a carplay device to the car, and then once you pair an android device the carlinkit handles android auto directly, still showing as a carplay device to the car - although I've not been able to confirm this as of yet as I don't currently have access to an android phone. If this is the case, this probably means you can use the unit to do android auto on a car that only supports carplay (assuming such a thing exists) - although not really relevant here.

Pairing my phone was easy, fire up the unit and it provides you with a bluetooth network to join, once joined the phone seemed to auto-connect to the wifi component and carplay popped right up:

View attachment 12017
(taken from the phone that was connected)

It was also very easy to hide the unit under the center pedestal with some sticky-back velcro, making it essentially invisible from the seated positions in the car:

View attachment 12018

So far, I haven't used this in anger, just in the driveway this morning. I do have a ~200mi trip in the car on Sunday morning during which I'll be using this for music and navigation, so I'll see how it fares on a longer trip and I'll post another update on Sunday night or Monday morning.

One thing to be aware of is that there is a slight delay in the unit powering up and getting connected once you start the car - the unit itself takes 10-15 seconds to boot and then the phone takes another 10 seconds or so to get connected and for the unit to end up fully working, so maybe 20-25 seconds from sitting in the car to being at the carplay home screen. I don't really see this as a huge deal but it's definitely a lot slower in getting started up than the built-in system in the BMW, which is usually connected by the time I get my seatbelt on.

All-in-all though it seems to be a neat little device and it was easy to setup. It is, however, it's the best part of £90 and that is a bit pricey for something that I feel should have been included with the car to be honest. I don't regret the purchase (assuming all goes well on Sunday) but it seems that if someone can make a seperate standalone box that both works with android and apple phones wirelessly, and then emulates a carplay device to a car for "just" £90, then surely it shouldn't have really been a big deal for a car manufacturer to include it with the car, especially considering the car already has wifi hotspot capability anyway.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions let me know.

@t3rminalV any chance of a long term review update? Looking to get one at moment and this is looking like a good relatively cheap option.

 

[kimptoc]

I've had one for about four months now - I find it a bit flaky - connects ok about 80% of the time. Other times, I get a blank screen. Have to unplug and plug it back in, and that usually does the trick. I have got it to update itself a few times, but that hasn't helped much so far. The cable option is generally more reliable, I find.

 

[nbenn]

I've had one for about four months now - I find it a bit flaky - connects ok about 80% of the time. Other times, I get a blank screen. Have to unplug and plug it back in, and that usually does the trick. I have got it to update itself a few times, but that hasn't helped much so far. The cable option is generally more reliable, I find.

It was pretty good (disconnected if phone moved too much) for me until about two weeks ago. it was raining and my phone was a little bit wet. I plugged the phone in and got a water type warning. It charges fine now but the carplay won't connect. My wife's iphone works away fine. Even better than mine before the water issue. Missing carplay and I'm not buying a new phone for a while so was thinking this might be a good stopgap. Thanks from the update. Something to consider.

 

[bigalfromwigan]

Am I missing something, I ve seen people posting this at £80+ but its all over ebay for about £55 like here.

I have seen them all over ebay as well, but the people who buy them off Amazon are prepared to pay the extra for the security of knowing that Amazon will refund with no reason given if it is incompatible. That's why I am watching this with interest, so if I decide to go for one, I will save money and buy from ebay.

 

[rmoyao]

Can anybody confirm that it also works with 2021 ZS EV?

 

[Deleted member 9692]

I have seen them all over ebay as well, but the people who buy them off Amazon are prepared to pay the extra for the security of knowing that Amazon will refund with no reason given if it is incompatible. That's why I am watching this with interest, so if I decide to go for one, I will save money and buy from ebay.

As you say, exactly why I purchased from Amazon. Glad I did as performance was far too glitchy and unreliable for me with my iPhone. Just plug in the cable and have done with it.

Can anybody confirm that it also works with 2021 ZS EV?

Perhaps post in the MG ZS forum

 

[dan1845]

I have recently bought the Carlink 4 for mine as the cable connection kept dropping out.
The sound and connection is better than wired and very small and discrete

Highly recommend

 

[JoeJ]

Do these come pre-loaded with YouTube/Netflix etc or do you have to install them?

 

[dan1845]

You maybe after a slightly different device as this simply projects your phones CarPlay or android auto without the use of the wire to the USB.

 

[JoeJ]

You maybe after a slightly different device as this simply projects your phones CarPlay or android auto without the use of the wire to the USB.

Ah, thanks! Will have a look around. I know some carlinkits come pre-loaded. Would be good to have while charging at the BP.

 

[dan1845]

There is a device that does exactly that and has been talked on here before. Try searching through maybe but I am sure someone else maybe able to direct you

 

[siteguru]

There is a device that does exactly that and has been talked on here before. Try searching through maybe but I am sure someone else maybe able to direct you

 

[JoeJ]

Thanks!