Wired -> Wireless CarPlay Adaptor

yep, exactly. For the moment I’ve left the usb in dash but it’s not hooked up. There doesn’t seem to be a replacement blank for it, so I’ll either figure out how to turn it into a usb charging plug or get a Meso panel to delete it

 

Yeah waiting for the blank myself.

 

Let me know if you find one!

 

Not made yet, I have spent hours searching.

 

I received my Carlinkit today. Bid $65.00 on Ebay. Got it working in under 2 minutes. Have to see about long term reliability, as some have said it loses its connection. For $65 it is worth the experiment.

 

I recently bought the 2021 version of the Carlinkit (USB-A to USB-C) on Amazon and I love it. I was sick of plugging in and unplugging my phone every time I got in and out.

The wireless CarPlay connects in about 10 to 15 seconds after starting the vehicle and then my streaming music resumes, I can use Google Maps navigation, etc.

I’ve used the same dongle in a Tacoma, Wrangler and Equinox. It’s plug and play.

 

can multiple phones be paired to the carlink? say my wife and i can each have a phone paired at different times or is it a single device system?

 

Yes. And if you are both in the car with your phones a list of phones to link will come up on the screen.

 

I ordered the carlink 3.0 and it finally showed up... literally slow boat from China.

I've had some issues with it in my '21 with my iPhone 6S+ (yeah... time for a new phone). Audio cuts in and out. Tried tweaking their settings by upping the media delay to 2000 and changed the sound quality to CD from DVD. Also deleted the existing BT connection between the phone and the truck. Didn't fix the issue. Out of frustration cleaned out the cubby where the wireless charging pad is and threw my phone there instead of the cupholder. The Carlink basically sits on top of the phone now. THAT seemed to resolve the issue so i'm guessing there's a very tight proximity tolerance. Anyone else having similar issues?

Also, the sound quality while set to CD was pretty poor. I changed it back to DVD... will likely drop the media delay back down toward 1000 if the connection seems solid.

 

one more question. does this have to be plugged into the dashboard USB or can i plug it in and shove it in the center console storage box and be good to go?

 

Dashboard usb.

 

Good read. I was also thinking on buying one but was wondering if it took longer to connect then just using the CarPlay wire.

 

Here are my observations:

1) Takes a few seconds longer than wired to connect to CarPlay
2) CarLink needs to be connected to the USB port where your wired CarPlay connects (dash USB in most cases)
3) CarLink needs to be extremely close to your phone otherwise the jamz cut in and out randomly
4) Buttons on steering wheel, and on-screen, have a slight delay when trying to skip tracks, search, etc.
5) Disconnect your phone from your truck's bluetooth
6) CarLink has some configurable settings when connecting to it via WiFi, mostly delay timers
7) CarLink, at least the one I order, came directly from China ~2wks order to arrival

I think it's a solid product and solves the 1st World problem of having to plug in your phone to get CarPlay. The range on the box could be a lot better. Would be great to be able to keep it in my pocket and have it work but that just causes random cut out of the music currently.

 

I have the latest one, 3.0 and it works really well, I like how quick it connects and that you are able to chose the phone (if in the car) you want to connect to. I do leave mine in my pocket for short trips and have no audio issues, YMMV.

 

I've not had this problem. I normally have my phone in my back left pocket which is about as far away from the CarLink as it could be and still be on me.

 

It does take longer to wait for it to connect wirelessly than to just plug it in. I returned mine to Amazon to be honest if it was around $40-50 I would have ignored the issues but for close to a $100 I'd rather not deal with the problems and use that benjamin for something more useful...

 

I wonder if it's my old ass iPhone 6S Plus.

 

I love my Carlinkit which works most of the time without issue. Rarely I have to reboot it, but I had to do that straight to my head unit as well. However, I noticed something on CarPlay that has nothing to do with the Carlinkit. I have 10,000+ songs on my iPhone X and I noticed recently that some of the songs/albums on my phone are not displayed in CarPlay. If I access them on my phone, they will play on CarPlay, but I cannot otherwise find them in the interface. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a maximum of songs/albums/artists that can be transmitted to CarPlay?

 

I used the Car2Play adapter and returned it right before the month return policy was up. Once turning the truck on it wouldn’t connect for a solid minute or more which is an issue if you’re trying to get in and get GPS directions quickly, which leads me to my next issue. The GPS using google maps would just pause or stop directions periodically which is an issue when you’re in rush hour and having to reconnect things and take your eyes off the road. I would plug my phone in after awhile when this would happen and it would work flawlessly. I will say Spotify worked great and never had issues after you would wait awhile for your phone to connect. Overall as people have said before the issues make it not worth over $100 to me, if it was half the price I would’ve kept it.

 

Update on the Carlink I bought a short time ago... I broke down and upgraded my vintage iPhone 6S Plus to an iPhone 12 Pro. All of the issues I had with Carlink have been resolved. It connects within 20-30sec maximum, phone doesn't need to be right next to the receiver, CarPlay works MUCH faster when making on-screen selections, no audio issues.

Guessing that there's something with the Bluetooth or slower processor in the 6S Plus that caused the issues. Now I just have to find a place to affix it so it's not just flopping around on that short little cable.