DIY Carplay/Android Auto Carsara Install and Setup Tips

[blk33]

Originally Posted by blk33

Thanks for your replys.
Yours looks a little better than mine originally did. I cut mine up and reduced the angle. Unfortunately it lifted slightly and now is too close to the top, which cuts the top of the screen off.
I don't know how they are IP68/67 rated! The CCD circuit board is held in position on the lens with a dob of silicon, and in turn held in the housing with a dob of silicon.
I think I will try another one (maybe a different brand) and see if I can improve it.

Buy the way I fitted an INDUKTIV Wireless Charger. Very, very pleased!

An update on my rear view camera.

I originally purchase and installed this camera: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GE7NQH6/
It is certainly not waterproof with only a few drops of silicon to seal the unit.
It's claim to fame is it has the the narrow connector and is easily fed through trunk rubber tube, but the image parking lines points too close to the ground.

I purchased a replacement camera (cyberdemon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P3NV68D..._ztn9FbZA689DG
I'm very happy with this camera, better resolution and is waterproofed properly in a pot of silicon like material.
Unfortunately the camera image parking lines also points too close to the ground and unlike the camera above, it has a wide connector (hard to get through the trunk rubber tube).
I re-ran the cable and had to keep the big video connector and line switch in the trunk. No big deal.

Using a Dremel, I worked out by trial and error I could cut a narrow slot in the camera housing which repositioned the camera angle up.
This left a wedge shaped gap between the camera and the trunk housing.
I used some butyl windscreen sealant and was able to able to seal the camera to the trunk.

The camera lines are much better now - not quite as good as the factory fitted cameras in my other cars, but OK.

[blk33]

Old Carsara and New Carsara AUX input.

I'm trying to understand how the audio from the Carsara is moved around the vehicle. Any clarification or corrections would be appreciated.

Old Carsara
1. Carsara audio out is fed into the AUX input in the centre console via a 3.5mm plug. From there it doesn't appear to go to the quadlock connector.
Does the AUX input in the centre console feed directly to amplifiers in the rear of the vehicle in ANALOG. ie. Not through the CIC Headunit?

2. Looking at the information supplied by Cyberdemon, an improved audio sound can the achieved by directing the Carsara audio output to the CIC Headunit using:
CDMM_AUX_HU
aktiv
CDMM_USB_AUDIO_SINGLE
nicht_aktiv
CDMM_USB_AUDIO_DOUBLE_0B
nicht_aktiv

I am assuming the audio out of the Old Carsara is ANALOG and is directed through the quadlock connector into the CIC Headunit. ?? (Possibly the same way SocialM3 is using for the New Carsara)
From there, it is DIGITISED ?? and streamed over the MOST fibre bus to the rear of the vehicle where it is amplified and fed to the speakers ??

New Carsara
The new Carsara does not have a quadlock connector, and only has an ANALOG output which is fed into the centre AUX connector via a 3.5mm plug as in the first example above.

SocialM3 in post #551 shows how 3.5mm socket can be connected via the quadlock connector to CIC Headunit and programmed as in the second example above.
If this is the case, would this improve the sound quality of the New Carsara and effectively make it similar to the second example of the Old Carsara ??

I have purchased a plug and connector similar to what SocialM3 did and are ready to pull the dash to bits again and fit an input to the quadlock connector. Will it be worth it ??

Looking at Mr12Volt, I guess the DIGITISED audio would be streamed directly onto the MOST fibre bus, keeping the audio digitised all the way ??

Thanks for any help and clarification.

[drwankel]

Originally Posted by blk33

Looking at Mr12Volt, I guess the DIGITISED audio would be streamed directly onto the MOST fibre bus, keeping the audio digitised all the way ??

Thanks for any help and clarification.

yes that is the beauty of it. No extra DAC in the mix. Digital all the way to the head unit.

[Iyzmi]

Originally Posted by blk33

An update on my rear view camera.

I originally purchase and installed this camera: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GE7NQH6/
It is certainly not waterproof with only a few drops of silicon to seal the unit.
It's claim to fame is it has the the narrow connector and is easily fed through trunk rubber tube, but the image parking lines points too close to the ground.

I purchased a replacement camera (cyberdemon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P3NV68D..._ztn9FbZA689DG
I'm very happy with this camera, better resolution and is waterproofed properly in a pot of silicon like material.
Unfortunately the camera image parking lines also points too close to the ground and unlike the camera above, it has a wide connector (hard to get through the trunk rubber tube).
I re-ran the cable and had to keep the big video connector and line switch in the trunk. No big deal.

Using a Dremel, I worked out by trial and error I could cut a narrow slot in the camera housing which repositioned the camera angle up.
This left a wedge shaped gap between the camera and the trunk housing.
I used some butyl windscreen sealant and was able to able to seal the camera to the trunk.

The camera lines are much better now - not quite as good as the factory fitted cameras in my other cars, but OK.

That angle does look much better. Strange that in the Amazon pictures it shows the small connector, same as the first camera, but in your pictures it appears to use a full size RCA.

[blk33]

Originally Posted by Iyzmi

That angle does look much better. Strange that in the Amazon pictures it shows the small connector, same as the first camera, but in your pictures it appears to use a full size RCA.

It has a small connector on the cable from the camera to the guide line switch (on the left), but this cable is not long enough to get through the rubber tube into the trunk.

[Bungers]

Anyone know if the glovebox USB should stop functioning after fitting this?

Trying to update the CIC's maps and it's not recognising a map file on the USB, nor the 1B script on a separate USB stick (both drives flash when plugged in).

[blk33]

Originally Posted by Bungers

Anyone know if the glovebox USB should stop functioning after fitting this?

Trying to update the CIC's maps and it's not recognising a map file on the USB, nor the 1B script on a separate USB stick (both drives flash when plugged in).

I'm not sure if the Carsara bypasses the USB, but you cannot code the CIC with the Carsara plugged in.
See post 641 on how to bypass the Carsara and try USB again.
Good luck.

[Bungers]

Originally Posted by blk33

I'm not sure if the Carsara bypasses the USB, but you cannot code the CIC with the Carsara plugged in.
See post 641 on how to bypass the Carsara and try USB again.
Good luck.

Thanks, turns out that having the Carsara installed doesn't interfere with the glovebox USB port comms with the CIC.

[unrulyteach]

Anyone figured out how to use oem mic with new box

[tdott]

I have an older carsara box for sale, the one with the quadlock connector.
Brand new in box, didn't install it.

I went with the Mr12Volt instead.

PM if interested.

[Hivand_M]

Does anyone know how I can fix below issue?:

My phone connects to the box right when I unlock my car, or if i'm walking by and my door is open but headunit has been off for some time. This is very annoying and the only flaw for me.

[Cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Hivand_M

Does anyone know how I can fix below issue?:

My phone connects to the box right when I unlock my car, or if i'm walking by and my door is open but headunit has been off for some time. This is very annoying and the only flaw for me.

Unfortunately as long as the car has power your phone will want to Bluetooth to it. I just recommend locking your door because that'll stop extra drain on the battery anyway. The iPhone has a quick setting to disconnect from Bluetooth temporarily if that helps.

[mike5124]

Originally Posted by Bungers

Anyone know if the glovebox USB should stop functioning after fitting this?

Trying to update the CIC's maps and it's not recognising a map file on the USB, nor the 1B script on a separate USB stick (both drives flash when plugged in).

Is the flash drive formatted to FAT32?

[dylim]

Originally Posted by M3DE

https://www.ampire.de/LDS-CIC-CP.htm...CIC-CP&p=59912

I think this unit is basically a non-quad lock model Carsara with a CE certification and local support.

I should have read through this entire thread before ordering a carsara unit around thanksgiving! The seller told me that the new unit (without the quadlock) has upgraded audio.

The unit you linked to looks very different with a lot of different connectors from the carsara unit I just got. I suspect they are actually very different. In any case, with the carsara unit I installed, the audio through aux is horrible and barely usable. And I just upgraded the amp and speakers to the bimmertech alpha ones...

I tried changing the eq and such to no avail, all quite bad. Now I'm just trying to read through the threads on how good the mr12volt ones are...

EDIT:

Also I find the reverse camera/PDC interface unusable. First the PDC button no longer works, and second there is no delay for coming out of the reverse gear - i.e. it jumps out of the reverse camera/PDC interface immediately once you change gears. This effectively makes the front PDC worthless.

Does any one know what the "factory mode" option does? I thought to try entering 688612 like the other units, but the interface seems to only allow 4 digits (with + and - buttons to change the digits...).

[Boston4]

Well, an unfortunate update from my install, which was completed with the version described in this guide back in September about 2500 miles ago. During this time, the system has worked well - I had two occasional issues that didn't occur regularly and that I figured were just a quirk:
1. This one happened twice - while driving, the screen went black for 10-20 seconds before returning to normal. Music continued to play but oddly there was just nothing on the screen.
2. Every once in a while, when I turned off the car and hit the power button to shut off the iDrive screen after the engine was already stopped, the screen would go from the Carplay screen to the factory iDrive screen and remain lit up - despite this, the iDrive controller wouldn't actually do anything. In these cases, I'd hit the start/stop button a few time to cycle it into ignition on mode and then turn it back off and the screen would shut down as expected.

Last night, I took a trip a few miles to see a show nearby - on the way there, had the Carplay running normally and everything worked great. When I went to leave, the entire infotainment system was dead - no screen, audio at all, or parking sensor functionality. The car still ran, thankfully, and everything else (climate control, comfort access, headlights, etc) seemed to be unaffected. I pulled the codes this morning and have some 60+ errors stored across the modules - most are related to CANBUS timeouts, CAN LOW errors, CAN physical errors, CAN bus off errors, CAN short circuits, CAN message errors, and one especially troubling one ("K-CAN error, bus is missing").

I figure that the correct troubleshooting steps here are to remove the CarPlay system entirely and see if the issues persist before beginning to reinstall and see if the issue returns. I'm guessing either something came unplugged or (worst case scenario) one of the factory wiring harnesses was cut inside the dash and is shorting to ground.

If anyone has seen an issue like this in the past and has any diagnostic steps aside from those above, please let me know. I'll keep the thread updated when I have a chance to pull the dash apart later this week.

[Bungers]

I've had multiple occurrences of your 2nd point.

[Boston4]

My intuition here suggests that this is a failure within the Carsara set of components. Everything worked perfectly for my entire drive and when I shut down the car - it wasn't until a few hours later when I went to restart it that all of the symptoms appeared simultaneously. I suppose there's a chance that the cold weather caused some of the wiring components to shift and come unplugged but I'd imagine that that if something were cut or disconnected, the symptoms would have appeared immediately rather than on the next startup.

[Cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Boston4

My intuition here suggests that this is a failure within the Carsara set of components. Everything worked perfectly for my entire drive and when I shut down the car - it wasn't until a few hours later when I went to restart it that all of the symptoms appeared simultaneously. I suppose there's a chance that the cold weather caused some of the wiring components to shift and come unplugged but I'd imagine that that if something were cut or disconnected, the symptoms would have appeared immediately rather than on the next startup.

Your second set of symptoms definitely sounds like a connection issue - if there is a failure along one of the CANBUS lines either from a bad wiring connection or something else it'll propagate across the whole system.

If you park outside in a cold area it's possible some expansion/contraction caused something to get out of whack, but I would also check your battery voltage with a meter to make sure that a low voltage issue isn't causing problems. When my battery started to go it caused all kinds of havoc and codes that all went away once the battery was replaced.

If your voltage is good and the battery being topped off doesn't help, I'd first try just to loosen and pull out the CIC unit and with everything still connected see if it fixes the issue. That might give you a hint if its a pinched or bad connection.

If that fails, then you can try to remove the entire Carsara and see if things go back to normal.

It seems clear the wiring harnesses they used are not the highest grade and others have had similar issues from intermittent connections, so might just need a good jiggle and reseat.

[Boston4]

Originally Posted by Cyberdemon

Your second set of symptoms definitely sounds like a connection issue - if there is a failure along one of the CANBUS lines either from a bad wiring connection or something else it'll propagate across the whole system.

If you park outside in a cold area it's possible some expansion/contraction caused something to get out of whack, but I would also check your battery voltage with a meter to make sure that a low voltage issue isn't causing problems. When my battery started to go it caused all kinds of havoc and codes that all went away once the battery was replaced.

If your voltage is good and the battery being topped off doesn't help, I'd first try just to loosen and pull out the CIC unit and with everything still connected see if it fixes the issue. That might give you a hint if its a pinched or bad connection.

If that fails, then you can try to remove the entire Carsara and see if things go back to normal.

It seems clear the wiring harnesses they used are not the highest grade and others have had similar issues from intermittent connections, so might just need a good jiggle and reseat.

Can you remind me which of the connectors are related to the Canbus or is it just generally anything loose could cause the issue?

[Cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Boston4

Can you remind me which of the connectors are related to the Canbus or is it just generally anything loose could cause the issue?

The quadlock, or if you used the iDrive controller connector harness would be the two to check.

[Boston4]

Originally Posted by Cyberdemon

The quadlock, or if you used the iDrive controller connector harness would be the two to check.

After I removed the CarPlay MMI and returned it to stock form this afternoon, normal functionality is back. Most of codes for the CAN system are gone but there are 15-20 that keep coming back after I clear them, related to the CAN network. This is down from almost 70 this morning. No symptoms aside from the stored codes though so hopefully they will clear out over the next couple days. Battery is from mid-2019 and reads 12.7v at the posts so I don’t think that’s a problem. Connectors in the MMI looked fine when I took it back apart (I’d used the quad lock and no iDrive connector) - no smoking gun, at least. I’m wondering if my box just failed.

[Nazty Naze One!]

Any equalizer settings you guys might recommend?