Wireless Android Auto Indiegogo project

[jimlloyd40]

Used my AA wireless dongle for the first time this weekend. I have a rebooting issue (every 5-10 minutes) but my unit is an earlier one that needs the OTA update. I didn't feel comfortable trying to do it using the MIB USB jack and didn't have a 12V plug in the car. I'll update it later this week. But it's pretty sweet... plug in and it connects within 30 seconds or so, I don't notice any difference from using it wired.

What happened to your 12V plug? One difference for wireless is your phone won't be charging anymore.

 

[Cuzoe]

What happened to your 12V plug? One difference for wireless is your phone won't be charging anymore.

I should have said I didn't have a 12V USB port charger in the car, haha. My 12V plugs are working okay AFAIK .

I let it fun for about an hour using AA Wireless, even with the random reboots. I went from 100% to 92%... and that includes me messing around on the phone, downloading the companion app, looking up some info about the resets, etc. It will be a non-issue for me I think... and I usually have a USB charger in the car anyway, don't know what I did with it.

 

[KyACRASH]

"planning on"

dont kill the messenger, just relaying what i saw in the news

ha, sorry. I use AA every day (I imagine lots do), so your comment was alarming. Don't know why Google would make that move unless they had a replacement upcoming.

 

[Cuzoe]

They're only discontinuing the standalone AA app on your phone, not car.

I would imagine most in here have never used the standalone AA app. It's pretty awful IMO, I use it if I have to go somewhere I haven't been in the Corolla. It has less functionality than AA when used on a car screen and you have to go through too many confirmation screens to turn it off. My pixel, when not connected to the car, goes into a "driving mode" which I also found annoying but it was better than the standalone AA app.

 

[imthanick_a]

ha, sorry. I use AA every day (I imagine lots do), so your comment was alarming. Don't know why Google would make that move unless they had a replacement upcoming.

I use it all the time too. I imagined that once the app is gone the functionality won't work in cars anymore. Auto makers will presumably have to update software to change from android auto to the "google experience" or whatever they are rolling out, if they even decide to do so. I'm not sure this is how it will actually happen, but thats my best guess.

I see support for android just fizzling out more and more every year and its really disheartening so whenever i see news like this i just prepare myself for it to be killed off completely. Guess I didn't read enough about it to know that the features will still work in the car

 

[Cuzoe]

I figured this was coming down the line when they started making Android Auto a system app on some devices. It indicated they want it to work in the background in a way that should be seamless. How seamless it turns out to be is always the question. I found it annoying because it made changing AA settings a pain. Had to go to Main Phone Settings > Apps > AA > AA Settings... uggghhhh.

 

[odessa.filez]

couldn't a cheap android phone, tethering off my 'go to' phone serve the purpose of this device? granted I'd need to turn the hotspot setting on and off.

 

[Cuzoe]

Technically yes but you would still have to deal with some clunkiness...

Using it to make and take phone calls would be inconvenient because your cheap phone and you go to will both be connected via Bluetooth. Because of the SIM card you would receive calls from you go to phone, which the car can handle fine, but it will not able to integrate with navigation instructions, for example.

I use Android Auto to respond to text messages. On your "AA phone" Facebook Messenger would probably work because it's data only... but SMS and WhatsApp won't play nice because your AA phone won't have a sim card.

I suppose the other data only things that android auto allows should all work okay.

But overall it doesn't seem worth the hassle, imo. Your go-to phone acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot isn't going to be any more battery efficient than wireless AA (and possibly worse). Now have two phones using data, though that doesn't matter if your data plan is unlimited. You now got two phones to keep updated and charged. You have to enable the hotspot like you said, although that can be automated with free apps. For the price I'll take the convenience of the dongle.

Edit: fixed all the speech-to-text nonsense, .

 

[Acadia18]

couldn't a cheap android phone, tethering off my 'go to' phone serve the purpose of this device? granted I'd need to turn the hotspot setting on and off.

Yes. That's exactly how this project started out years ago.

 

[odessa.filez]

thanks everyone

 

[jimlloyd40]

Why not google this? Or at least read the whole article in which you're talking about.

AA will no longer work alone on the phone, as it's being discontinued.

AA built into head units and its functionality is going to continue to work, get updates, and get support.

Only the stand-alone app on phone, separate from the head units, will be discontinued.

Welcome to the forum. Good first post.

 

[laxman2001]

before I order, wanted to bump this up to see if people were still happy with it!

Think it'd be great for the daily commute, and could always plug in for longer journeys

 

[Sub-to-Dub]

My gen. 1 unit has worked flawlessly; boots up quickly, has never dropped a connection, and seems as responsive as a wired connection. I love it, sooo convenient for short trips!

It's definitely a battery drain so I plug in for longer trips but that's just the nature of the beast.

 

[Acadia18]

My gen. 1 unit has worked flawlessly; boots up quickly, has never dropped a connection, and seems as responsive as a wired connection. I love it, sooo convenient for short trips!

It's definitely a battery drain so I plug in for longer trips but that's just the nature of the beast.

That's my exact experiences. Works great, plug in for longer trips.

 

[Cuzoe]

I just received a replacement unit for a problem I had with disconnects. The first connection after startup would typically work for ~10 minutes, 2 maybe 3 songs. Then it would disconnect, car shows Android Auto connection "cancelled," and the dongle would restart. It will then reconnect on it's own, without me touching anything. After the first time it never stayed connected for more than 5 minutes, typically I couldn't get through a song. I opened a support case and tried all their suggestions, nothing worked.

They eventually asked me to send in the unit, which they replaced. This one does the same thing unfortunately . While it's connected it works great, no difference from having the phone wired. But the constant restart/reconnects make it unusable for me at this point. I don't think it's an MIB software issue, although I've only ever tried it on my MIB 2.5. I've sat and watched and this is how it goes for me...

1. The dongle LED is green on startup
2. Turns blue shortly (less than 25 seconds I would guess) once connected
3. Wireless AA works great, usually about 10 minutes
4. Blue LED goes out, car says connection was cancelled
5. About 5 seconds later LED comes on green as the dongle restarts
6. Again turns blue shortly and all is reconnected/working
7. Then it repeats 4, 5, 6 every few minutes (but while connected works with zero issue)

I don't suspect it's a heat issue (despite the first connection always lasting the longest). Car is garaged, it does this even when I've had the dongle in the house, and I have yet to feel the dongle even get warm. Wired connection with my phone is solid. I get an unexplained disconnect maybe once/twice a month but I reconnect and have no problems. The restart behavior makes me think the dongle isn't getting enough power from the USB port. It's the only thing I can think of that would be different between having a phone connected and having the AA Wireless dongle connected. I know the phone charges (slowly) while connected, but even if the USB port stopped supplying power it wouldn't impact AA, the phone would just stop charging.

Can anybody with it working send me their options from the app? And maybe also share your MIB info? I would really appreciate it.