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Old 26th October 2024, 12:56   #121
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by emmemm View Post

Anyone else having similar observation? Or any other suggestions to avoid this problem?

I may try the USB add-on board as a last ditch effort.
Mine is a Thar and I face the same issue as well but the problem is not the board. It's probably the cable. Thar is infamous for frequent disconnections for Android Auto as well.

Couldn't find any short length micro USB cable for this purpose. Need a wire for around 0.25m in length.

Have been using the same in Type C variation and it worked quite well.
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Old 26th October 2024, 13:52   #122
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by batish View Post
It's probably the cable.
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Originally Posted by Shrek8421 View Post
You can try a couple of things. Get the Duracell micro USB cable from Amazon and get a different phone, preferably with latest updates. Then reset your cars HU software.
Then try again..
I've gone through a lot of cables . Plus the fact that wired connection to the phone works flawlessly with any of those cables makes me think that this is a dongle problem - either hw or sw
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Old 26th October 2024, 20:18   #123
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by emmemm View Post
I've gone through a lot of cables . Plus the fact that wired connection to the phone works flawlessly with any of those cables makes me think that this is a dongle problem - either hw or sw
Yes I agree with you on this! Because I have changed, SD cards, changed the PI 2W BOARD also. Changed cable. Will try Duracell cable and last resort. Let's see
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Old 26th October 2024, 22:06   #124
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

Today I got my Pi Zero 2 W board, flashed the firmware image and tried the wireless Android Auto first time in my car during a short airport run where I only used the navigation. It was a short drive of 30 odd minutes total.

When I restarted the car after short waiting time at airport, the re-connection took long time, one or two minutes compared to the instant wired connectivity which I am used to. That time I got a doubt of having not so smooth experience with this DIY dongle but when it connected on its own, I got bit of relief.

Currently my cable connection is kind of jugaad with few convertors and cables in between since I don't have dedicated USB C to Micro USB cable or adapter. The Pi board is also placed naked. Still I haven't faced any issue of disconnections or so in this short initial run.

I have ordered the official Pi case along with an USB flush mount for my car which will ease out the things.

This connection was using my Pixel 6 on Sony XAV 5500 headunit. I haven't yet tried the music playback. I also have another old phone with secondary sim which is slow compared to my Pixel, I will do some experiments with that as well and will play with music and other features also.

Will keep updating here.
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Old 27th October 2024, 13:15   #125
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

Is there any project that can add HDMI port too? I saw some adapters that can convert carplay to HDMI, but there was no wireless Android auto. Since this one has wireless Android auto, wondering whether there exists a further mod that enables connecting hdmi to this box too. This will enable to connect fire tv stick to car.
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Old 27th October 2024, 17:23   #126
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by Tanat View Post
Yes I agree with you on this! Because I have changed, SD cards, changed the PI 2W BOARD also. Changed cable. Will try Duracell cable and last resort. Let's see
Bought A Duracell Cable Also. But even there the issue persists.

- Connected Device Not Responding
- Frequent Disconnecting
- Lag in music play
- Stuttering while playing music.

My specifications are:
Car - Nexon XZA plus O
Pi2w
Duracell micro usb cable
Oneplus 12
Amazon 32 gb SD card

Last edited by KarthikK : 27th October 2024 at 18:27.
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Old 27th October 2024, 18:59   #127
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by Tanat View Post
- Frequent Disconnecting
Frequent means how frequent? Home many times the connection drops in a particular time frame and what you do to restore the connection? Is there a pattern like after a certain time of say 5 minutes, 10 minutes or so? Or its just random?

One troubleshoot you can perform is to connect you Pi Zero board with computer/laptop and let your phone connect with it. Offcourse there won't be any Android Auto available but the connection will establish with a message saying "Waiting for Android Auto".

Let it be connected while you are working on your computer and observe if it still disconnects in same manner it does in your car.

Last edited by tbppjpr : 27th October 2024 at 19:01.
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Old 27th October 2024, 21:18   #128
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by tbppjpr View Post
Frequent means how frequent? Home many times the connection drops in a particular time frame and what you do to restore the connection? Is there a pattern like after a certain time of say 5 minutes, 10 minutes or so? Or its just random?

One troubleshoot you can perform is to connect you Pi Zero board with computer/laptop and let your phone connect with it. Offcourse there won't be any Android Auto available but the connection will establish with a message saying "Waiting for Android Auto".

Let it be connected while you are working on your computer and observe if it still disconnects in same manner it does in your car.

There is no fixed Interval as such.

Quite Often, it starts with Device No Response
Then the Music Play has lags, skips almost every 20-30 seconds.
Then I get a message connected Device Not Responding. And the Board connects back in 20-30 seconds and this goes on.....

Will certainly try connecting with my laptop and observe for Disconnecting pattern..
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Old 28th October 2024, 20:32   #129
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W - Experience Update

Today I had a typical urban driving session of around 5 hours with 5-6 stops where I drove around 30 odd kms. This also includes a high speed ring road section.

Equipment setup:
This time my test phone was old Motorola One Power with 4 GB RAM and Snapdragon 635 processor. Headunit is Sony XAV 5500. Pi boards is currently naked, waiting for the case to be delivered. Connecting wire has USB C end where I had to use an USB C to USB female adapter where a short cable is connecting it to Pi board.

Wireless Connectivity:
Connections were seamless every-time during this session. Experience was equally good like the wired connection I am used to since last 2-3 years, except the initial connectivity period which is longer than the wired, obviously.

Operations:
My usual operation is navigation using the voice commands when I drive, that worked seamlessly fine like the wired connection. Usually I listen Flac music files loaded on thumb drive which is connected on second USB port of the HU. But for the test purpose, I used Wynk streaming music to simulate typical usage. The online music worked perfectly fine through out the drive along with navigation despite my doubts on the slow 2.4Ghz wireless band, it surprisingly exceeded my expectations. I also used voice commands to play the music, that also worked fine, no lags, no skips whatsoever. Though I had bad voice during a call I received, but it was the only call during the whole drive so can't make any comment on that. Will check the calling experience later.

Mobile Battery and heat
Yes, I found mobile warm every time I was picking it up after my halts. But it was acceptable. I am surprised about the battery life. Battery was at 71% when I started and it was at 35% when I ended the session after 5 hours where I was in the car for around 2 hours. But then this is Motorola One power which lasts 2 days during my usual desk working days. Still I am happy that wireless Android Auto is usable during my urban runs, atleast on a phone like this.

But I am worried about my primary phone Pixel, which heats up a lot during mild usage and battery life is terrible on that compared to this 5 years old Motorola workhorse. I will update about that as well when I will do extensive testings on that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tanat View Post
Then the Music Play has lags, skips almost every 20-30 seconds.
As you may have read above, your experience does not seem usual, there is some issue somewhere which needs to identified and fixed.

One thing came in my mind is maybe the battery conservation mode kicks in your mobile, its been seen in many mobiles in the past in case of other background services, especially One Plus and Xiaomi. Looks like the mobile is going into deep sleep after screen locks which is causing the broken connection. Make sure all the permissions are granted to Android Auto. Also check the Advanced Settings of Android Auto in Setting>Apps.

Last edited by suhaas307 : 28th October 2024 at 21:18. Reason: Edited post as requested in RP
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Old 30th October 2024, 13:48   #130
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

Just wondering if there is any similar way to convert Apple CarPlay to wireless by using any similar single board computer.
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Old 30th October 2024, 20:31   #131
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Re: Wireless Android Auto Dongle for your car using Raspberry Pi Zero W

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Originally Posted by Kulvinder View Post
Just wondering if there is any similar way to convert Apple CarPlay to wireless by using any similar single board computer.
There are lot of ready-made dongles available for Carplay, slightly expensive. But then you are having Apple naa saar, must be a rich person able to afford rich hobbies, why bothering about DIY hassles.

Jokes apart, if dongles are available then DIY route should also be possible but looks like no one yet bothered to take the pain to make a firmware for the Apple system, more so when their APIs are closed unlike the open source Android environment where taking up such developments are easy.
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