hirsch014

Curious if anyone else has successfully set up a Carsifi dongle for wireless Android Auto yet, and what settings or tricks may have worked? '21 Q5 Prestige here. I saw some mentions of the AAWireless one, but was interested in the quick switch button on Carsifi for multiple phones, assumed they'd work similarly...haven't seen anyone here talk about Carsifi yet.

I've annoyingly spent hours trying to get it working (even though it's simple/few settings), all with different combinations of settings, erasing connection profiles, forgetting and re-pairing every bluetooth/wifi device, different cables, both usb ports, repeat repeat etc. Car kept giving me "cannot establish connection" each try (car added a connection profile, but then couldn't use it). I had given up and contacted support, but then randomly the next drive, it worked and auto-launched without me changing anything. Worked a few more times, then stopped again. Issue now seems to be my phone deleting or ignoring the bluetooth request (from carsifi)...I'm wondering if maybe because it remains powered on in the car, it keeps trying to connect to my phone, and eventually gets blocked/deleted by my phone, and so won't work next drive. Obviously unplugging the dongle each time defeats the purpose of wireless. Carsifi support was quick to respond and look at the debug log, but basically faulted the car for not initiating the connection correctly. (FYI, Android Auto works fine with the cable on my phone.)

So I suppose I'm curious...
1. Any successful Carsifi users out there?
2. How long do USB ports stay powered in the car, if not indefinitely? Does locking the car have any effect?
3. Any AAWireless users have issues with a persistent connection/requests after exiting the car?
4. Anyone using wireless Android Auto (via dongle or on 2022 model) able to use the Audi in-car wifi simultaneously, or just mobile data?

Thanks!

ribeye

I can't help you with the Carsifi, but I got a AAWireless back in April of 21 and it worked great out of the box. I know some people that have them with other cars have had to do some tweaking. There are various setting in the app to do it. I would assume that carsifi has setting as well.
When you get it working you will love it.

spindlewood

2. When a door is opened, the ports come on for maybe 5 minutes if it isn't started. On the other end, when the car is turned off, the usb also stays powered for maybe 5 minutes. Leaving the car (actually opening the door) has an impact on how long the usb stays powered. I haven't noticed a difference with locking.

3. AAWireless detects the break in the Bluetooth connection after turning off the car and completely shuts down and disconnects from the phone. The initial release had the device hanging on to the phone for a bit, but they wrote code to overcome that.

4. I believe they added the ability for in-car wifi simultaneously, but you'd have to check with them, as I do not use this feature.

They have a slew of new features on the way, but I forget details as I have everything I need.

Wires

That sounds more like a Carsifi issue / compatibility with your version on your car perhaps?

For the AAWireless, you just pair the phones to it's bluetooth, and then it initiates the AA through the phone Wifi (same deal if your car had integrated AA wireless). Once it's paired to your phone, I can take my AA dongle and plug into my other car and the AA just works. No fuss, nothing...

@spindlewood for your point #3, that is something you configure with their companion app, correct? I believe if you don't, then the phone stays linked to the dongle (might be wrong, I only played for it a bit on our Audi before I stole if for my BMW. )

spindlewood

Correct. I believe that it's called Start/Stop. It's been so long since I set it up that I forgot it's an option.

Carsifi

Hi
Can you please send us an email at support@carsifi.com
We will continue to investigate this issue. We are preparing new firmware and will release it soon. Also, we are working on a feature to turn off the adapter if you car powered the USB port after the engine turns off.

theshaftt

Hi
i have the RS5 2021 Sportsback and i just got my Carsifi today and im experiencing the exact same issues. Starting to think this gadget won't work on Audi.

Wires

I'd suggest you reach out to their support. Just because Audi gives us AA, doesn't mean that it runs 100% to the Google spec. A lot of times the dongle needs a change to firmware to deal with those hiccups.

hirsch014

Thanks for all the great replies!

I had contacted support to share a debug log, but had already tried the suggestions in their response (Kudos for quick, human reply!). Figured I'd see if other Audis were successful or not before digging deeper with support. There IS a setting in the Carsifi app that specifically calls out VAG possibly requiring the setting changed, but it's made no apparent difference for me. However, because it works sometimes, I'm a bit stumped. The bluetooth dropping/forgetting and needing to re-pair every few uses seems possibly unrelated to Audi...I saw that comment appear in other reviews elsewhere, so support might already be working on that. Maybe there's some odd USB power-only vs power+data sequence Audi does that's confusing the dongle...I notice when using Android Auto wired to my phone, it won't work if I just get in the car and push the volume **** to use the headunit (it'll just charge my phone), yet if I then cycle the ignition on/off (not start the engine at all), it'll start Android Auto, and continue working while sitting in the car.

I was able to buy the newly announced Motorola MA1 dongle too (supposedly arriving in a week)...it has no app, so at least I'd know right away whether it works or never will. I would prefer to stick with Carsifi since they seem to really care to improve it with updates, and it has a detachable cord (the Morotola one is permanently USB A so I'd have to hope an adapter would work to keep it hidden in the console USB C port). It'll be a good test to compare at least. The Motorola one has already stated it at least won't work for Mitsubishi, and I've seen some reviews already with issues on GM, Toyota, Kia, VW too...yikes! I'll be sure to post an update if one of them does/begins to work reliably...it really is nice those few times it works to just drop my phone on the wireless charger, where the phone sits nicely in place.

Wires

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the Motorola. I had bought 1 AAWireless (removable USB cord), and last week pulled the trigger on another due to the Motorola availability at the time.

Years ago I showed up on firmware development contract for a company doing a new product. I've used SD cards in embedded applications in the past since they were easy to connect to the microcontrollers, file storage stack was small, etc.

We went to the board room to meet with the embedded storage rep (who made SD cards as well as embedded USB). I asked why not SD, his response was "because the spec is so loosely written, one card from one mfr may work this time and not the next. So we recommend USB since it has to be approved by the USB consortium".

My experience with cars is that exact same deal.