Apple CarPlay over bluetooth? | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Apple CarPlay over bluetooth?

Heck I would pay $500 a year if it meant Ford fixed the design layout of the portrait 10.1 and gave me useable CarPlay, much less actually getting wireless Carplay.

It's just one of those things that after all these years of buying new cars, I think I have my check list all figured out. So when I miss something as obvious as the horrible implementation of the portrait mode 10.1... it REALLY gets under my skin.
There is a wireless CarPlay dongle called “CarPlay2air” than converts usb plugged in CarPlay to wireless.it works great after some initial hiccups/ few updates.you can get Waze and google maps on the car scree through that dongle
 



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No subscription, cost you $159.00 only a one time charge/price.
 






TT, in the FAQ for carplay2air, I noticed this line:
"Make sure your phone is not connected to any other WiFi or Bluetooth networks and remove the hands-free connection from your phone and car system settings."

At home, my phone is connected to WiFi and Bluetooth. Is that saying I have to go into the phone and drop any connections for it to work? That kind of defeats an automatic wireless conneciton if that's the case. It would be easier for me to just connect up the cable. Can you speak on this?
 






It only applies when you first setup the dongle in the car
 






Just leave the iPhone Bluetooth connection to the car disabled
 






W
you are correct. Wireless CarPlay is not available (yet) for the explorer. I think BMW and one other manufacturer are the only ones who have it so far. I also agree it’s a pain to have to plug it in for full CarPlay features unless.

I have a 2020 explorer Ltd and wireless CarPlay can be achieved by using a “Carplay2air” dongle that will cost you $159 including taxes and shipping. Available on www.carplay2air.com and it works great. Only takes about a minute to hookup to your phone and me leave your phone in your pocket for short trips or drop it in the wireless charger for long trips
 






If your bluetooth to car is disabled, does that mean you no longer have handsfree calling?
 






The wireless adapter dongle that makes CarPlay wireless, first get connected to phone over Bluetooth and it relays all necessary info to phone and immediately change connection to WiFi and stays connected through WiFi to have wireless CarPlay
 






Ordered a carplay2air to try on the explorer and my Ram. If it works I'll get a 2nd one.
 






Here is how the carplay works, you need to forget/remove your car's BT from the phone. You plug in the carplay to the car, join that bluetooth, the device converts your phone to wifi connection and that is how carplay is pushed. You won't be able to use wifi on your phone if you are wirelessly connected to the carplay2air device.

If anyone is a programmer, knows C, this may be of interest. Looks like a company in China leaked the apple carplay code and it is what is used in that carplay2air dongle

What I am hoping to see in the future, is someone to take the above code/source and get this working on a raspberry pi zero w. This would allow us to make our own dongles for cheap.
 






I just received my new 2020 Platinum Explorer. It appears to me that Apple CarPlay can only be used with the USB cord attached. Apple says it can be used over bluetooth if the manufacturer allows it by holding down the voice activation button on the steering wheel for a few seconds. When I do that, I get Siri but it does not open up and start using CarPlay.

I can't find any specifics about this online. So, it appears to me that Ford is not allowing bluetooth connections with Apple CarPlay. Is this correct? If so, any idea why Ford would not allow it when it is possible from the Apple end of things? Since it has the wireless charge pad, makes no sense to have to plug into USB.
That may be because ford’s new infotainment system Sync 4 have that ability to connect to your iPhone wirelessly to bring CarPlay to the dash. Hopefully they will send us a software update to do that since our trucks have WiFi,Bluetooth and wireless charging. I am currently using the Carplay2air dongle to make CarPlay wireless and is working fine. It gets stuck in limbo if I put my truck in reverse before the Carplay2air is not completely booted up. Then I have to reboot the sync system.
 
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That may be because ford’s new infotainment system sync4 have that ability to connect to your iPhone wirelessly to bring CarPlay to the dash. Hopefully they will send us a software update to do that since our trucks have WiFi,Bluetooth and wireless charging. I am currently using the Carplay2air dongle to make CarPlay wireless and is working fine. It gets stuck in limbo if I put my truck in reverse before the Carplay2air is not completely booted up. Then I have to reboot the sync system.

I want to say someone said Sync 4 will not be an update to Sync3 but maybe UofM knows if he can even say.
 






I want to say someone said Sync 4 will not be an update to Sync3 but maybe UofM knows if he can even say.
He has already posted that Sync 4 is new hardware and not a software upgrade to Sync 3.

Peter
 






Here is how the carplay works, you need to forget/remove your car's BT from the phone. You plug in the carplay to the car, join that bluetooth, the device converts your phone to wifi connection and that is how carplay is pushed. You won't be able to use wifi on your phone if you are wirelessly connected to the carplay2air device.

If anyone is a programmer, knows C, this may be of interest. Looks like a company in China leaked the apple carplay code and it is what is used in that carplay2air dongle
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What I am hoping to see in the future, is someone to take the above code/source and get this working on a raspberry pi zero w. This would allow us to make our own dongles for cheap.
Thanks, this is a useful piece of info that I wondered about but didn't know for sure. So I have to disconnect my phone from the BT and the Wifi in the car to use the dongle?
 






Thanks, this is a useful piece of info that I wondered about but didn't know for sure. So I have to disconnect my phone from the BT and the Wifi in the car to use the dongle?


The first time you use this, you'll want to disconnect from the car's BT, otherwise the car and this dongle will fight for connection and both can connect at the same time as the car is BT and the dongle is wifi. I suggest deleting or forgetting the car's BT on the phone so the two don't fight for connection. Once you connect to the dongle, it will auto connect every time you start the car, if you leave your phones wifi and bt on.
 






If you tell it you have the 8" screen, dont you need to load the 8" software? And if that is the case, how would you control the massaging seats since that controll is only available with the 10" screen?

Seems to me you would lose that functionality since you would have the 8" display and settings/menus.

Using Forscan there is a setting in the APIM to display the massaging seat function ( as well as climate page, steering wheel heat, seat heat/cool functions. I have already turned all the climate and heated/cooled functions on to display on my screen. There is also a setting indicating 8" or 10" screen. As mentioned above (and I think as well), this should change the output of the APIM to display correctly for the 10" screen. I am new to the forum and was searching the web for upgrading from the 8" to the 10" screen. I found the screen for sale on Ebay but wanted to see if anyone did it first.
 






So if your iphone is normally connected to your home's wifi. Does it automatically switch to the carplay2air or do you have to switch it in settings? Also, how long do you have to wait to connect to the car before you can reverse out of your garage?
 






It automatically switch over. It takes about 30 seconds once the connection process starts. If you are in a hurry, just reboot your sync by holding power and ff buttons simultaneously when the car is in drive and it will reconnect to sync.
 






BMW charges $99/yr for wireless CarPlay to counteract the Apple cost - I believe.
Definitely wrong, Apple is not charging for CarPlay, BMW is charging for the service. Probably to have the software updated or because they can. Alpine makes a wireless CarPlay radio and the only fee you pay is the cost of the radio.
 



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Definitely wrong, Apple is not charging for CarPlay, BMW is charging for the service. Probably to have the software updated or because they can. Alpine makes a wireless CarPlay radio and the only fee you pay is the cost of the radio.
I think it's all about how you want to distribute the costs... I'm pretty sure Apple charges BMW a separate licensing fee to grant wireless access to carplay. So BMW can give it away, they could charge it as an option 100% up front, or as a subscription. However definitely true that Apple doesn't force BMW to charge customers a sub fee.
 






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