Carista

Hi A5 convertible owners,

We at Carista are developing the ability to open the convertible top via the remote. And we need people who have cabriolet to try this functionality for us before we release it officially. Comment here if you are interested in trying it or write us an email at support@caristaapp.com

Thanks very much in advance.

P.S. There is a hardware requirement though - you must have an ELM327 OBD adapter (or our official Carista OBD adapter). But hopefully some of you already have that.

acitrano

2015 RS5 here - would be happy to try it. Ordered your official OBD adapter from Amazon and will have it Monday.

Tifosi

You folks must have missed the memo. If your car has Advanced Key option then the module is already build in from the factory. All you need is Vag-Com to activated it.

See link: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/aud...y-fob-2886852/

Carista

Thanks for your purchase and looking forward to your feedback! Please email us at support@caristaapp.com so we can give you instructions on what exactly to try in Carista.

Right... we didn't miss the memo, we're just trying to allow people to enable this functionality via our app (Carista) instead of Vag-com. Vag-com is our competitor.

acitrano

I emailed you almost three days ago (with a link to this thread) asking for those instructions and mentioning a minor glitch that I experienced.

I got a response ~48 hours later, and it only addressed the minor glitch while totally ignoring my main question. I replied asking again, and still haven't heard back.

So, at best, we're off to a slow start.

acitrano

For other members' sake / future searches, here's an update.

Very shortly after my post above, I heard from Todor, founder and lead engineer of Carista. He was very helpful and responsive. He set me up with a beta version of the app and we tried a few different settings. After some futzing around we finally were able to get the settings right to enable remote top-down and top-up. So once they come out with the next version I'm pretty sure it will work for this function on the B8/8.5 A5/S5/RS5s.

[For reference: when I say "top down" I mean top is open. "Top up" means top is closed.]

I have some gripes about how it works - which are not at all Carista's fault. I'll share them here then I'll get back to my thoughts about Carista. For example, I still can't figure out how to make the windows lower when the top goes down. The car insists, after completing the top-down sequence, in raising all the windows up. Also someday I'd like to figure out what the heck the car is doing with the climate control when the top is raised/closed. It sometimes seems like random behavior (was the same with my S5), but I need to study this a little further. It would be nice to configure this behavior.

Also - and again, not Carista's fault - you have to hold the button on the key fob down for the entire convertible opening or closing sequence (20 seconds or so.) I noticed a few times, it just stopped mid-way, even though I was definitely keeping the button held down. It was as if the car was losing the signal from the key occasionally, or "timing out", even though I was standing right next to it. This is what makes something like SmartTop very attractive - you just click three times and move on with your business and the entire sequence happens, no need for you to stand there holding the button down, waiting...

So I'm probably going to grab a SmartTop module - it seems like it will eliminate these annoyances and also allow me to configure the window lowering/raising as I'd like.

Back to Carista...

I also used the app to disable the "wink" function of my front LED lamps which I personally find ugly and annoying (this is where, when a turn signal is activated in US vehicles, the DRL LED on that side turns off). I also used it to enable the "hidden" MMI menu (which, to be honest, I don't dare to eff with.) I also enabled the "strobe" function of the tail lights for emergency braking. There's a few dozen other settings you can change with it - I'm sure Carista has a list online somewhere. There were some things I really wanted to do, but Carista can't do them yet - for example, enabling voice commands (in US cabriolets it is disabled) and setting the transmission to be in "Sport" mode automatically (default) at startup.

Overall I think Carista is very promising and has a bright future for a certain segment - what I'd describe as the very casual modder. Carista is far more accessible (both economically and ease-of-use) than Ross-Tech. This is almost an apples-and-oranges comparison, but I know it's a comparison people are going to make (because let's face it, some people merely want to change a few settings here and there, but will still find themselves considering both.)

With Carista you get everything (adapter and the pro version of the app) for ~$60 ($40 adapter + $20 app). The app is clean, intuitive, simple (in a good way) and approachable. There's no screwing around with bits and mappings and all that. It's also dramatically more limited in what it can do. There are basic customization settings, ability to read fault codes, etc. I am sure this will evolve over time.

I'll be interested to see how Carista develops. I think there is plenty of room in the market for both (Ross-Tech & Carista) - they're clearly aimed at a different 'set'; Ross-Tech at the serious enthusiasts on up to the master professional. And as most of us know, Ross-Tech is very very well developed over many years, deeply supported, and they provide truly full-fledged pro tools. You can basically do anything with Ross-Tech. And you pay for all that (as you should!)

So there are my thoughts.

Jedinyte120

Help please.
I got the pro app and obd2 adapter and plugged it in and the app won't let me turn off the wink feature. I'm so confused about how to activate the footwell lights. The app says its enabled and I went into the hidden menu and did the interior light to 5. What am I doing wrong? Argh it's so frustrating