Apple CarPlay/Android Auto Retrofit

[PACarGuy]

Originally Posted by derbo

I finally updated like the rest of you. No real change. Going to tell Michael this is terrible.

Yeah, calls are unusable. I also started having issues with wireless connection occasionally too - would drop connection or be laggy so I switched to wired carplay only and that actually works better for me. And when I am on a call on my Airpods (bluetooth) and then get into my car, now the box actually will connect to CarPlay, whereas with wireless it waits until the call is over to connect to Carplay because bluetooth is in use.

[derbo]

I also noticed my Apple Maps does not turn to night mode.

Waze and Google work fine.


I'm on iOS 13 Beta..but that shouldn't affect it as it works in my Civic.

[derbo]

Just to confirm with the folks with the Kremersino one,

In ACP, does your ACP have a BMW logo with a BMW title underneath it? Originally, I thought I updated correctly, and it was showing Limecet Logo, Limecet text. After doing it correctly, it shows BMW/BMW.

Wrongly updated:


Updated correctly:



I've been chatting with Michael the sales guy and said the new units will be using the wired carplay PCB board with a revision to adopt for Wireless ACP. I'm going to swap my brother's JoyeAuto wired ACP only (Kremersino produced) module into my car with the existing wiring as they are the same minus PCB revisions with cheaper components to see if the quality of the streaming audio improves. I can confirm my brother's module sounds better in his E90D which has the same 676 HiFi as my car but to rule out everything, I'll swap the modules tomorrow for testing. I believe the better audio quality will follow the wired module vs the wireless module.

Current wireless ACP module:
I'm noticing alerts from Waze or Google are full of static, and audio in the music is not clear as well. It's basically piss poor for even the stock HiFi.
Phone calls are poor with the unit as well as others have expressed.
Apple Maps seems to stay in day mode, but Waze/google maps seem to be okay.


Anyways, I'll keep you guys updated.

[MJBO]

Originally Posted by derbo

Just to confirm with the folks with the Kremersino one,

In ACP, does your ACP have a BMW logo with a BMW title underneath it? Originally, I thought I updated correctly, and it was showing Limecet Logo, Limecet text. After doing it correctly, it shows BMW/BMW.

What do you mean by updated correctly?

Mine originally showed BMW text on the CP screen, but pretty sure it doesn't now after the updates.

As for audio quality, mines only ever been flat, not crackly.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by MJBO

What do you mean by updated correctly?

Mine originally showed BMW text on the CP screen, but pretty sure it doesn't now after the updates.

As for audio quality, mines only ever been flat, not crackly.

I guess the update process isn't fully complete until the logo says bmw and is a bmw rounded in the logo.

[derbo]

This morning, I swapped my brother's JoyeAuto (made by Kremersino) wired ACP module into my M3. I only swapped the module itself and left all the wiring the same since it is the same wiring as our Kremersino wireless ACP module.

The wired ACP module restored audio quality to an acceptable level with lots of bass. I was unable to test the phone calls but I suspect that will still be poor.

This definitely confirms the wireless module PCB hardware is the issue and we will need new units to get this fixed. I contacted Micheal with this information to see what the next steps are. It currently is Autumm Festival in China (think asian thanksgiving) and I believe they are all on holidays till October.

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by derbo

This morning, I swapped my brother's JoyeAuto (made by Kremersino) wired ACP module into my M3. I only swapped the module itself and left all the wiring the same since it is the same wiring as our Kremersino wireless ACP module.

The wired ACP module restored audio quality to an acceptable level with lots of bass. I was unable to test the phone calls but I suspect that will still be poor.

This definitely confirms the wireless module PCB hardware is the issue and we will need new units to get this fixed. I contacted Micheal with this information to see what the next steps are. It currently is Autumm Festival in China (think asian thanksgiving) and I believe they are all on holidays till October.

Thanks for your testing and for keeping us posted.. looks like I'll be waiting until they revise these units before placing an order..

Still wondering about the Unichip version and if will exhibit similar issues.. they claim its not the same as the joyeauto/kremesino units.

[luckyse7en]

Originally Posted by PACarGuy

Are you getting full bass in streaming audio as well? Because even when I used wired (USB) Carplay, the bass is lacking. If the Joyeauto box has better bass then clearly it is processing it differently than the Kremersino unit and may be incentive enough to switch.

Sorry for the late reply. I've been super MIA from the forums.

As you guys already have figured out from derbo's testing. Yeah my wired unit has decent bass. Sound is clear and very little drop in quality over OEM bluetooth streaming. Playing around with the EQ in idrive and also my spotify app I was able to get nice audio. I have the premium individual audio package (S752A).

Hope you guys get to do an exchange after they revise the hardware. It really is a great product if it is working correctly. Good luck.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by brettcp

Thanks for your testing and for keeping us posted.. looks like I'll be waiting until they revise these units before placing an order..

Still wondering about the Unichip version and if will exhibit similar issues.. they claim its not the same as the joyeauto/kremesino units.

No problem!

Just to be specific, the wired Joyauto is a Kremersino unit without wireless capability.
The new Joyeauto wireless is the same unit as the BimmerRetrofit unit.
Unichip is an unknown one as well.

So from what I can tell, there are 3 different types of units at the moment.

[MJBO]

I messaged Michael last night asking for updates, and he sent through a new file to try. Also reiterated this thing about the update not being complete without the BMW logo appearing in CarPlay, honestly not sure how to make that happen.

Hope to try the new update today, if the BMW logo doesn't appear I might try running it a second time in succession and see if that helps.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by MJBO

I messaged Michael last night asking for updates, and he sent through a new file to try. Also reiterated this thing about the update not being complete without the BMW logo appearing in CarPlay, honestly not sure how to make that happen.

Hope to try the new update today, if the BMW logo doesn't appear I might try running it a second time in succession and see if that helps.

Micheal said to stick the USB in, let it update twice, unplug the USB then select the right button in the message and it should reboot without the USB plugged in to finish the update.

[MJBO]

Heh, got to give the update a go before seeing your message. Not quite sure what mix of things I did to finally get it there, but I now have a BMW icon on my CarPlay screen again.

Audio still sucks (flat with no bass, but not crackly like others have reported), will have to see how the connection reliability fairs.

[rod.bearings]

So I just bought one couple days ago and installed it. Music sounds okay. Michael reassured me I had the better chip (from the old wired one)

I have not kept up with the thread, so how can I check it’s the old chip and what kind of sound issues did you guys experneice?

[brettcp]

Originally Posted by krazi3azn

So I just bought one couple days ago and installed it. Music sounds okay. Michael reassured me I had the better chip (from the old wired one)

I have not kept up with the thread, so how can I check it’s the old chip and what kind of sound issues did you guys experneice?

That's interesting they were able to revise the hardware so quickly... I'd be curious how you can verify this as well.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by brettcp

That's interesting they were able to revise the hardware so quickly... I'd be curious how you can verify this as well.

The "revised" wireless PCB would be reusing the old wired version PCB. That doesn't seem to require too much work considering its an older design. Michael said it uses more expensive components. Their cost reduction PCB in the wireless version is definitely subpar compared to the one in the wired one.

[MJBO]

Originally Posted by krazi3azn

So I just bought one couple days ago and installed it. Music sounds okay. Michael reassured me I had the better chip (from the old wired one)

I have not kept up with the thread, so how can I check it’s the old chip and what kind of sound issues did you guys experneice?

For starters could take a photo of the system info screen to see how the software details are different from those of us with the crap unit?

I'm yet again back to using mine in wired mode with music streaming over factory BMW bluetooth.

[rod.bearings]

Update - the carplay sounds just like regular aux and has bass. Doesn't sound flat like other members are experiencing.

That being said, aux in these cars suck to begin with. Went on amazon and got a Aux ground isolator and made it 10x better. Overall I love this system. Also installed a rear view camera.

[Fede16]

Some of you could scan the car with the ISTA or INPA to see what failures you had?

If anyone has them I would thank them too much!

I uploaded mine in a previous post.
Thank you!

[akkando]

I've read through I think every post in this thread and I'm trying to understand the state of things.

Let me know if I have this correct.

Most people are getting the wireless Kremersino unit because it's slightly cheaper, but they're not happy with the audio quality. Bass problems and maybe some audio dropping out.

The Joyaudio unit has the same audio problems as the Kremersino and has basically same features, but costs sightly more.

Unichip also makes a wireless box but no one has it, and no one knows how it compares to the other units or if it even works at all.

The wired versions have better audio quality currently, but Kremersino claims to be looking into updating the hardware on the wireless to have better audio, but the parts are more expensive.


Is the correct state of things?

[Kuoj]

Anyone having issues with Apple Maps not going into night mode in IOS 13 CarPlay? Mine is stuck on day mode with no way of changing it at night

[derbo]

Originally Posted by Kuoj

Anyone having issues with Apple Maps not going into night mode in IOS 13 CarPlay? Mine is stuck on day mode with no way of changing it at night

same. I told Michael@Kremersino this.

Originally Posted by akkando

I've read through I think every post in this thread and I'm trying to understand the state of things.

Let me know if I have this correct.

Most people are getting the wireless Kremersino unit because it's slightly cheaper, but they're not happy with the audio quality. Bass problems and maybe some audio dropping out.

The Joyaudio unit has the same audio problems as the Kremersino and has basically same features, but costs sightly more.

Unichip also makes a wireless box but no one has it, and no one knows how it compares to the other units or if it even works at all.

The wired versions have better audio quality currently, but Kremersino claims to be looking into updating the hardware on the wireless to have better audio, but the parts are more expensive.


Is the correct state of things?

Sorta?

Kremersino = bad audio quality
JoyAuto Wired = Equal to AUX quality but way better than Kremer. Kremer also makes this unit
JoyAuto Wireless = Bimmertech also uses this manufacturer and is a different unit than the existing kremer ones. I'm not sure what this one sounds like as I don't remember if anyone on the forums is as vocal as the Kremersino owners.

Kremer is planning to use the wired PCB components to replace the wireless PCB components to aid in the audio quality. It is supposedly more expensive in components which I presume is why they decided to change the PCB in the first place.

Originally Posted by Fede16

Some of you could scan the car with the ISTA or INPA to see what failures you had?

If anyone has them I would thank them too much!

I uploaded mine in a previous post.
Thank you!

This is the remaining fault when I clear memory. It is not present there when the module is not present. That says mileage but its really KM.

[PACarGuy]

Originally Posted by derbo

This is the remaining fault when I clear memory. It is not present there when the module is not present. That says mileage but its really KM.

I get the same fault. Carly shows it as:

"Fault Code: 00E2C4
Fault Explanation: :Bus Low line fault / Bus line fault CAN / Error
physical CAN errors"