Buy all your VW California Accessories at the Club Shop Visit Shop

Wireless Apple Car Play Dongle

soulstyledevon

soulstyledevon

Kennycalifornia
Super Poster
VIP Member
Messages
6,372
Vehicle
Cali now sold
Are there any decent, reliable wireless apple car play dongles yet…?

First world problems I know.
But sick of having to plug my phone in.

24A93368-B806-4143-ACD2-70D657B49BF2.jpeg
 
... in the meantime: just take a cheap iPhone hard case, cut out the front, glue your charger at the little plug hole, and stick the case with double tape in the box. Now you slide in the phone without cable fuzz.
This simple DIY has brought me pleasure really every single driving day since 2017. Count!

 
Can only recommend what I’ve bought, I’ve got two of these one in the California, head unit is a alpine halo though. The other is in a Fiat ducato and whatever the factory fit head unit Fiat install. Both work great. There’s a couple of gripes. Main one for me is, if your phone still thinks it’s connected to the head unit after you remove the key from the ignition and you stay close to the vehicle sometimes when you get straight back in then you just get a CarPlay black screen. I think the dongle likes to fully disconnect before it restarts again. Doesn’t do this all the time but enough to make it very slightly annoying.
Another dongle is this https://carlinkitcarplay.com/
Before you purchase anything I would take a read at this forum both for reviews and tips on how to set them up properly. Instructions shipped with both miss out one important setting up instruction. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/carplay-adapter-to-convert-to-wireless-carplay.2193978/ seems both use the same firmware, just buy whichever one is the cheapest. Initially it’s not a favourable read. It’s not until one poster gets both dongles working reliable with a custom firmware. Both of mine run the custom firmware.
 
Are there any solutions that also add wireless charging? Does the T6.1 have wireless charging?

I am slightly fed up that my VW CarPlay seems very cable sensitive and sometimes loses connection at the worst time possible despite keeping the lightning port on the phone clean. Maybe it's time to change the cable again but it's not ideal.
 
Are there any solutions that also add wireless charging? Does the T6.1 have wireless charging?

I am slightly fed up that my VW CarPlay seems very cable sensitive and sometimes loses connection at the worst time possible despite keeping the lightning port on the phone clean. Maybe it's time to change the cable again but it's not ideal.
looks like the linked one above includes a charge pad ?
 
I got one from AliExpress and it’s worked solidly for 6 months. Version 2.0 of this


£67.44 35% Off | Carlinkit 3.0 Wireless CarPlay Dongle IOS 14 Adapter for Audi Benz Mazda Porsche Volkswagen Volvo Ford Citroen Honda Nissan Opel
I got the same kit from the same supplier! Amazon was too expensive!
Happy with it so far in my T6
 
I've been pretty happy with Carlinkit T-box
There are several clever things about this. It will let you:
1.use an iPhone wirelessly for Car Play.
2.use an Android phone wirelessly
3.use independently as an Android Auto device, with a full range of google apps and account sync'ing.
if you put a SIM into this directly it'll act as a phone all on it's own
if it has a SIM it can then also act as a wifi hotspot
Right now I've used it as #3, but without a SIM in it. I'm using the SIM in the PCM itself, and have this joined to the PCM's WiFi hotspot. I don't get phone functionality with it this way, but my regular Bluetooth paired phone still works just fine for calling.
You can get them from carlinkitcarplay.com.
 
Looks like loads of small dongles now available, but anyone managed to fit wireless car play and wireless charging ? Having to plug in the phone to charge it anyway defeats the point somewhat.
 
Looks like loads of small dongles now available, but anyone managed to fit wireless car play and wireless charging ? Having to plug in the phone to charge it anyway defeats the point somewhat.
Well maybe. For short journeys it may not be worth to subject your phone's battery to an extra charge cycle.

For me the main advantage of the Carlinkit dongle is that carplay hardly ever disconnects now.
When I had the phone plugged in any movements of the cable done by passenger or dog disconnected me.
Now I keep the dongle safely in the glove box (T6) where VW has provided the 2nd USB scoket to connect to carplay. And the phone can be moved about without disconnections
 
I have the Cplay2air dongle as well - very happy with it. I have it attached to the glovebox USB which leaves the centre slot free. I would think you could put a wireless charging pad in where all your wires are now and solve charging too.
 
There's one mentioned / recommended here (I haven't looked at it, so it may duplicate what's been said above):


from the 11:57 post in this thread:

 
If it helps anyone, I got this and attached to the second USB in the glovebox. Connects automatically and works a treat. It's just treated as a second connection so you can swap between wired and wireless if you want via the head unit.
Car Play Dongle.jpg
 
Was branded Feinodi from Amazon but no doubt exactly the same thing.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top