CARabc carplay

I've played around with mine a little bit more since yesterday's install. Figured out some of the quirks on MY unit. What's really interesting, is I seem to have the opposite experience as Danner... so I don't know if it's firmware updates or anything like that? I did just get a firmware update from the seller with no instructions how to install. Probably throw it on a flash drive and plug it in type of update... we'll see if they give me any more guidance.

But here's what I've learned:

1) Wireless Carplay now works for me. The issue was I had disconnected from factory bluetooth (forget device). This little Carplay box is apparently piggybacking on the factory bluetooth. I thought by forgetting the factory bluetooth, it would force my phone to always auto-connect to what I wanted (Carplay box). Wrong. I've now re-connected my phone to the factory bluetooth, and now when I get in the car, the phone auto-connects wirelessly to the Carplay box.

2) As Danner said, it is not automatic load-up of Carplay. However, I have a 2021 Mazda CX-5 that has factory Carplay and it's not auto-load either so this wasn't a shock to my system. There are a few extra clicks to get Carplay loaded up, but for an aftermarket solution I think it's not too bad.
Here's my personal preferred order of operations after throwing out the Chinese recommendations and just experimenting on my own.
- Phone in pocket, turn on your car
- Dismiss the Entune warnings about trying to drive without looking at the road
- Double-click volume/power button
- Carplay Box Menu appears. Click Carplay on your Entune touch screen.

At this point, you no longer need to click anything. You'll be sitting on a "connection instructions" screen while your phone auto-connects wirelessly and I'd say this takes 4-5 seconds or so. But basically once you have clicked Carplay, you can allow the box and your phone to do the rest. So this is where you can go ahead and throw it in reverse and start driving. By the time you put it in D and backup camera switches off, your Carplay interface should be all connected and running.

The back-up camera disconnection issue is interesting... that hasn't happened to me (yet). I did just go out and try to get it to happen by backing up all the way down my street. I also thought maybe it would disconnect if I started backing up prior to Carplay auto-connecting and then if in the middle of me backing up the Carplay auto-connected, maybe it would throw off the camera and put me straight into the menu or something? But I tried that too and got Carplay to auto-connect while my backup camera was on and nothing happened except music started playing and I kept staring at my backup camera. So I'm not sure what could be going on there... very odd. I'll definitely keep an eye out to see if it ever happens to me if I can pinpoint what scenarios it happens in.

All in all, still would recommend. Feel better about it this morning after troubleshooting the wireless connection issue and figuring out the ideal order of operations. Yes, it's a few buttons to push. But it will just become part of the get-in-the-car routine like foot on the brake, push-start, seatbelt, check mirrors, make sure the kids are buckled, etc. Just throw a few button clicks into the routine and pretty soon you probably will hardly notice that you're doing it.

 

I agree. My initial impression wasnt that great, but now that I have tinkered with it, it does have value. I would still recommend it. Excited for firmware updates.

 

Would you mind trying the wired Carplay functionality of this unit to see if it's any more seamless than the wireless?

 

Oh yeah wired is definitely more seamless if you do not really take into account the fact you need to get your phone out and plug it in. So with wired, you get in, turn car on, plug in phone - that is enough to get the music playing. But still with mine if you want to get the display, you need to double-tap power/volume knob. So basically you need to double-tap power button regardless of wired/wireless, and the question is are you waiting on a wireless connection to be made or are you manually plugging in your phone in which case no waiting.

 

What I have discovered with my unit is that when start your car the unit will auto-connect and will start playing a music source from your phone. My unit auto opens pandora, once it does this I go to the phone and fire up Waze and when I execute the this particular start sequence it works as advertised.
Waze is runs normally 100% of the time, when I do it any other way I have to play games with disconnecting the bluetooth and reconnecting and that gets old quick especially if your driving in traffic. I have not had issues with the backup camera. My only issue was getting it to start normally with music. Waze always works, pandora would play but you could not hear it over the speakers.

I'm still happy with the unit, I wish the image would be sharper but it is what it is.

Does anyone have some decent screen values (settings) they want to share?

 

I just picked one of these up on Amazon lightning deal for $166. Figured I'd give it a shot. Plan on running android auto with it. Can anyone tell me;
1- does this work wireless as well?
2- does it have an option to do screen mirroring?

 

I use it for Apple Carplay, and wireless works fine. Can't weigh in on Android Auto, but I believe screen mirroring is a feature. I've never used it but I believe the functionality is in there.

Question for the rest of you - I've discovered recently that if I switch audio input from AUX (Carplay) to something else (e.g. Bluetooth, AM/FM/XM) and then back to AUX, I lose audio on AUX/Carplay and can't get it back unless I restart the car. Are other people experiencing that or is that maybe an issue with my specific device?

 

Did you figure anything out or is it still happening?

 

Yeah figured a lot out actually. There were really two problems -
1) on phone calls, I could hear the caller but the caller couldn't hear me. That problem was due to some sort of product defect and was resolved with a replacement device. Support was actually pretty solid - never even had to initiate a return on Amazon. Dude wanted to Whatsapp me from China to send some videos back and forth and then just shipped me out a replacement.
2) the switching from one input to the next and losing audio on Carplay. It's actually more specific - if you switch to OEM bluetooth input and then back to carplay, that's the only time you lose audio. Switching to FM/XM/AM and back is no issue. But the car does seem to frequently automatically try and pick up phone calls via OEM bluetooth, so still an issue I wanted to resolve. Option 1 in the call scenario is go ahead and pick up with bluetooth, but on your iPhone call screen you switch the audio source back to carplay. You never lose audio that way. Option 2 if you don't want to do that or if for some other reason you switch to bluetooth and need to switch back; switch back to Carplay and then click the voice button on your steering wheel (which brings up Siri) and then just close out of Siri as soon as it comes up (touch the screen or whatever - no need to say anything to Siri). Somehow that reactivates the audio on Carplay. Not sure how, but it works. My objective is definitely to just not switch to bluetooth so I don't have to deal with it, but having some sort of solution to get my audio back on Carplay if something in advertent happens is crucial. I'm sure as hell not restarting my car to get audio back...

 

Glad you found a work around. Would you still recommend this or is it not worth the hassle?

 

I'd still recommend it, but I would give Naviks a harder look. Some days it seems silly to pay an extra $350 to Naviks for effectively the same product, but Naviks CLAIMS to not have the audio source/lose audio issue. If that's really true, I would say maybe the extra $350 is worthwhile if you're going to keep the car forever. But I go back and forth whether that's worth it. Now that I found a workaround, the current plan is to keep the Carabc box and use the workaround if I really need it. Switching to Bluetooth while I'm running Carplay is an edge case for me since I don't do a lot of calls from the car. If I did a lot of calling, I'd probably try the Naviks and see if what they say is true.

Another interesting note - the call quality is significantly upgraded both from my end and from the caller's end when using Carplay over OEM Bluetooth. I don't really know how that's possible since it's using the same mic... maybe I have screwy OEM bluetooth call settings somewhere?

 

Hmm. For $550 it may be better to spend some more and buy a 2020 head unit and do the retrofit wire harness yourself of buy one.

 

Very much agree with that. I went around and around and around on these solutions and ultimately decided Android HU was a bad idea and would turn into a money pit. That leaves Carabc (cheap solution - works "fine"), Naviks (mid-level expense - supposedly works "better"), and full Toyota OEM buy an Entune 3.0 (expensive, full OEM). What I couldn't get past was paying that much for a bad head unit. Plus the wiring harness, etc. And I have a JBL unit, which seems harder to find overall and a little more complex. Now obviously I'm not factoring in the fact that I could probably sell the existing Entune 2.0 unit as used and get a lot of that money back, but I could do that if I bought a non-Toyota head unit as well, so that sort of cancels out in my mind. Ultimately it's just... do you really want to spend $750-$1000 for a crappy Entune? At that point why not just take a better aftermarket head unit. But didn't want to lose screen size but wanted flush fit... so basically nothing on the market today - hopeful that maybe someday there are some other better options and an aftermarket head unit replacement might be in my future.

In the meantime, that left me with basically deciding between Carabc and Naviks and again I figured if I'm going the cheap route, just keep it the cheap route. The only kicker would be if I did a ton of calling.

I bet a Naviks or a Carabc could be sold for half price used if someday a better solution presents itself. There will always be people like me looking for the cheapest functional route lol.

 

With aftermarket, it's also the costs of adapters, losing some functionality of OEM system and dealing with the stock amp. JBL and non-jbl both have amps and I have heard unless you replace them, a aftermarket HU doesn't sound good going through them-as in worse sounding that stock. Also, if you can bypass stock amps, our OEM speakers are 2 ohms, so have to consider that may overheat an aftermarket HU. No great solutions unless money is no object it seams.

 

Hmm... yeah I wasn't aware how much of a rabbit hole a normal aftermarket HU would be. But I guess all in all that makes me feel better about the Carabc route I took. Couple hundred bucks and some tinkering and another $30 or so for 3-year Asurion full replacement plan if it craps out. Think I'll stick with this unless something comes out that is obviously a much better option. I don't really want to go too far down any rabbit holes just to add Carplay. I'd either want to cheaply add it (current solution) - or truly upgrade... which sounds impossible without really running down the rabbit hole.

 

I agree. I am leaning towards the Carabc. Any chance you could post some pics of the screen? Curious how bad the resolution is while in Carplay mode.

 

Just installed mine yesterday. Tinkered with it for an hour or so. Changed settings and switched between Entune OS and CarAbc OS and testing all buttons and functionality to a point where i was satisfied in knowing what does what. Initially, i thought it sounded flat and muted and i was already thinking about returning it based on that. I am pleased overall after tuning the EQ on the CarAbc module itself once I found those settings. I set it to ELECTRIC for the best sound to my ears on the factory speakers. Other EQ presets like ROCK were too distorted. It seemed that as i was switching between the presets, it would become more distorted like a stacking effect. Maybe the module has an issue with that in the software. I have a 2019 SR with the non-JBL radio. I played rock, classical, hip hop, and some tunes that i was just thinking "if these don't sound good or sound like compressed crap, then I'm returning it". Thankfully it's not bad at all once you play with it a bit.
The screen... Wish the resolution was about 20% more clear and sharp because there seems to be some clarity/sharpness or color bleed or something going on but I'm going to keep it in the truck for a couple weeks and give my thoughts after that.

 

Thanks for posting and let us know if you end up keeping it.

 

Interesting - and big thanks on the EQ recommendation - I gave up on the EQ cause I don't know what the hell I'm doing and the Rock/Pop (only two I tried) sounded so bad I just stuck with standard. I'm going to give Electronic a shot. Only way I know to get to settings is to disconnect the phone... is there a way to have the phone connected and be fiddling with the EQ settings while you're in there so that you can hear the changes? Or do you just switch the setting, reconnect phone, turn something on again, and repeat?

 

Mr. Brown,
The settings menu is accessed at any time once the module is fully booted up about 5 or 6 seconds after starting your car. Look at my screen shot of android auto and you see the CAR icon on the top left. You click on that and you can see the module menu buttons and go to settings, audio, EQ. You do not need to disconnect your phone or reboot or anything like that.

 

Aha - awesome. I haven't checked my main apps screen. I'll have to see if that Car app is replicated on Carplay. Thank you!

 

can you add ONx GPS, Google Maps, Or Gaia GPS to the headunit screen?

 

That should be done under Android Auto or Carplay settings on your phones once those apps are installed.

 

Anyone using android auto and waze with this unit? Having an issue with the waze navigation voice volume. All volumes on the CARabc and waze app are turned up and the it's sounds like a whisper. Anyone else having this issue that can advise with a fix?

 

I installed this in my Tundra yesterday, and so far it seems to work good. My question is how do you get back to the Toyota OS to listen to over the air radio? When I start the truck it goes straight to the CarABC OS.

 

Don't you double push the radio volume knob?

 

Following this for updates as it seems several of you guys have now purchased.

 

That worked! Thanks

 

I have mine up and running, not impressed with the graphics, seems blurry but was aware of that before I bought it. What I don't like is not being able to listen to the radio and have carplay.

 

Well this thread was enough to sell me, I just bought one. I agree it would be nice to still be able to listen to XM while using CarPlay but that’s not a dealbreaker for me because I can always use the XM app too, that said sounds like maybe the manufacturer will be open to feedback and if enough of us buy this we could start toying with the firmware too