03-27-2019, 04:06 AM | #1 |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Unique-AD Wireless CarPlay
Recently Unique Auto Developments (https://unique-ad.co.uk) added a product to their portfolio that I've been wanting for a while now:
Wireless CarPlay for BMW (https://unique-ad.co.uk/product/CarP...ies-2013-2016/) At this moment only the 6.5" screens are supported but "Wireless CarPlay for NBT 8.8″ and 10.2″ are coming soon.", so I thought let's keep an eye on the development of this product as I can imagine many are waiting for this. I saw that user AlbertoSONIC already has a unit in his car and these are his findings. He has found two ways of connecting and using CarPlay: 1. "CarPlay outputs audio thru aux. iPhone pairs with CarPlay via bluetooth and then it streams video and audio via wifi. So on the iPhone you can still be connected to iDrive bluetooth (as the connection with CarPlay is via wifi) and choose it as audio destination. So you could use CarPlay together with iDrive bluetooth, listen iPhone audio via bluetooth, answer calls from iDrive, see the caller in the kombi display etc, while seeing CarPlay in the iDrive screen. But it's too good to be true and actually it's not doable, because it has a serious issue: in this state the iPhone doesn't know if to get the microphone from CarPlay or from the car, so it keeps switching audio destination from CarPlay to iDrive. For example, you're listening iPhone music thru iDrive bluetooth. You get a call, iPhone thinks CarPlay should handle it so the mic has to be CarPlay one, audio switches to CarPlay, so you have to select aux in the iDrive. Call ends, audio switches back to bluetooth, so you have to select bluetooth in iDrive. It's a mess. So what you have to do is: Do everything with CarPlay. Forget iDrive completely. Remove the bluetooth connection from iPhone to iDrive and use only CarPlay. Listen music on CarPlay, listen radio on CarPlay, answer calls on CarPlay. Never exit it or you will lose calls because if the screen is showing iDrive interface, and audio is not on aux, you will never ever notice you're receiving a call. Remember that you aren't paired with the iDrive anymore, so kombi won't show anything." 2. "This is the setup: - iDrive with factory mic - CarPlay with external mic - iPhone and CarPlay paired (wifi) - iPhone and iDrive paired (bluetooth) - aux selected in iDrive The requisite is that the iPhone connects first to iDrive and then to CarPlay. If it connects to CarPlay first, you have to change audio destination to CarPlay on the iPhone, as it normally chooses the last connected device. With this setup, you can see CarPlay, listen CarPlay songs/indications and use siri (with CarPlay external mic). At the same time, when you do or receive a call, the call interface is shown in CarPlay BUT it's actually handled by the iDrive. Infact, you see the caller name in kombi AND you can call from kombi contact list AND the call goes thru iDrive bluetooth so it uses car oem mic! And when the call ends, audio goes back to aux for CarPlay, automatically! This means that you can use CarPlay, then hide it and use iDrive normally, while having it still connected without losing calls as they're still shown in the iDrive, too! Using wired CarPlay will still use external mic. Remember that this wireless CarPlay is not an update of the old wired CarPlay interface, it's a totally new device. So it won't support car's mic in any way (and if you were interested in, it also doesn't support steering wheel control wheel like the wired one. Unique told me that they may add it later on) Also consider that if you use the setup I wrote about some posts above (CarPlay + iDrive bluetooth), calls are routed thru bluetooth so they use car'a mic. External mic is used only for siri voice commands and if it is worse in terms of quality, no one will notice (not even siri, which understands perfectly every command, without speaking loud)" Let's hope for an update from Unique-AD soon. EDIT 1: the full screen wireless CarPlay version for 8.8" and 10.25" screens is here! It's listed as a separate product: https://unique-ad.co.uk/product/carp...ies-2013-2016/ I've placed my order, so now we wait! EDIT 2: I have it installed! It works really really well. It's fast, smooth, wireless, widescreen, I basically never go back into iDrive anymore. Google Maps, Waze, Spotify, Tunein Radio, WhatsApp, Flitsmeister, etc, I really can't live without anymore. I'm in love with my car all over again. Last edited by steker; 05-21-2019 at 05:32 AM.. |
03-27-2019, 05:07 AM | #2 |
Captain
148
Rep 766
Posts |
I have the Unique AD box since July last year (the original wired version) - so happy with it and has been working great. Wired version can use the stock mic, is best to remove the iPhone/car bluetooth link, I now live within carplay and is all easy to navigate with the BMW controls and Siri.
Wireless was not available back then but I am cool with connecting the phone to the car, I am now used to it... Waze my preferred app as it offers speed cam alerts. Google maps is next best as it provides lane guidance (no speed limits in the UK just yet). My only issue now is no full wide screen support ... yet?... I just sent them an email to see if there are any updates - back in November they shared a new firmware (5.1.8) and said full screen support would come in March Last edited by x-m4n; 03-27-2019 at 05:14 AM.. |
Appreciate
1
frenchie101378.00 |
03-27-2019, 06:21 AM | #3 | |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Quote:
I expect the same for me, I will be living in the CarPlay environment and only look at iDrive for the car status info. iDrive feels so dated in comparison. So having the wired one has the advantage of using the cars mic and steering wheel controls. That might be a good reason for many to choose it over the wireless one. How do you by the way update your system? If they would deliver the full screen version, how do you get it on your unit? Does it have a cable with an USB-A female as output to which you normally connect your USB-A to Lightning cable and you put an USB stick in there to update it? I'm also curious to know how updates would be deployed on the wireless version. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 07:02 AM | #4 | ||
Captain
148
Rep 766
Posts |
Quote:
YES! Same screen but the resolution with Carplay is so much better. Quote:
On this subject, I did try to peak into the firmware files - to see if I could at least replace the side panel picture, but failed make much sense of the files or where things are... if anybody knows, could be a fun thing to try Last edited by x-m4n; 03-27-2019 at 07:11 AM.. |
||
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 08:38 AM | #5 | |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Quote:
It would be nice to be able to replace that image in the mean time while you are waiting for the fullscreen update. I'm really curious to know what the issue is with getting full screen support by the way. Also BimmerTech doesn't seem to be able to get a full screen image on the screen. They blame it on hardware limitations (which seems weird to me, it's just adding extra pixels in the width not a much higher resolution change). Let's hope Unique-AD can get it done. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 09:23 AM | #6 | |
Captain
148
Rep 766
Posts |
Quote:
To me looks like there is line of code somewhere where you tell the iphone the size of the destination screen but maybe is not just that... Note the Bimmertech and unichip boxes are different, not just the software... |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 09:33 AM | #7 | |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Quote:
Yeah I hope that the BimmerTech hardware issue is just the limitation of their solution, not a general one. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 11:46 AM | #8 | |
Captain
148
Rep 766
Posts |
Quote:
The box lunches Carplay automatically when you connect the phone - without the phone there are some options on display - the tiles have some titles like android auto, carplay, screen mirror... I never really go in there... |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-27-2019, 12:11 PM | #9 | |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Quote:
So that black static space, can that be used as a splitscreen part of iDrive? As in, show data from iDrive or is it really just sitting there doing nothing? Because in the built in CarPlay for new BMW's, the reason it shows that static part is to show splitscreen functionality when needed. I always assumed the CarPlay makes like Unique and Unichip and Bimmertech did it that way as it was BMW's way of showing it. But if there is no split screen, it's useless. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-28-2019, 06:27 AM | #10 | |
Captain
148
Rep 766
Posts |
Quote:
Nope - the Unique box takes over the screen, the side panel can not show any NBT info... but I see no need for any info from there when driving, that is why full screen carplay would be awesome. |
|
Appreciate
0
|
03-29-2019, 10:34 AM | #11 |
Lieutenant Colonel
885
Rep 1,699
Posts
Drives: 2014 428i and 2018 X5
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Buford, GA
|
You can now pre-order the fullscreen Carplay box from Unique AD... I just did! They ship April 7.
https://unique-ad.co.uk/product/carp...ies-2013-2016/
__________________
___________________ 2014 F32 428i M-Sport 2018 F15 M-Sport |
Appreciate
1
x-m4n148.00 |
03-29-2019, 05:14 PM | #12 | |
Private
74
Rep 64
Posts |
Quote:
|
|
Appreciate
1
MM198422.50 |
03-30-2019, 05:54 AM | #13 | ||
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
Quote:
Quote:
[IMG]https://unique-ad.co.uk/wp-content/u...-1-600x364.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://unique-ad.co.uk/wp-content/u...-4-600x450.jpg[/IMG] By the way... it's interesting that this is a separate purchase to the 6.5" wireless solution. I was expecting it to be the same product but with a software update. |
||
Appreciate
0
|
04-15-2019, 02:38 PM | #14 |
Private
187
Rep 90
Posts |
I just got an email saying that due to an upgrade of the sound chip the orders have been delayed till the 24th/25th. So let's hope next week some of us will be the first to try out wireless widescreen CarPlay! I can't wait
|
Appreciate
0
|
04-24-2019, 12:42 PM | #16 |
Lieutenant Colonel
885
Rep 1,699
Posts
Drives: 2014 428i and 2018 X5
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Buford, GA
|
__________________
___________________ 2014 F32 428i M-Sport 2018 F15 M-Sport |
Appreciate
0
|
04-26-2019, 12:43 PM | #21 |
Lieutenant
370
Rep 552
Posts |
Looks like they have this listed on eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-Ap...T/183762084839 May be worth waiting for a 10-15% off sitewide sale |
Appreciate
0
|
04-26-2019, 02:21 PM | #22 |
New Member
5
Rep 22
Posts |
I have just received mine :-)
I have tried a test fit and it works as they claimed. Will need to wire the microphone and put the things together properly tomorrow. |
Appreciate
0
|
Post Reply |
Bookmarks |
|
|