Wireless carplay

Discussion in 'Kia Niro' started by PB+J, Jan 6, 2022.

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  1. PB+J

    PB+J New Member

    I apologize for taking up so much bandwidth.

    Am I right that the Niro EV has wired carplay only? That you can get carplay by plugging a lightning cable to the iphone, but not over bluetooth?

    This is odd, because the car has a very nice wireless charging feature, but having to plug the cable in make the wireless charger redundant.

    Is it true that the car does not allow wireless carplay? The manual is kind of ambiguous on this
     
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  3. skidad68

    skidad68 New Member

    My 2021 Niro EV EX has both wireless AA and ACP. I don't know if that changed for 2022.

    FWIW, wireless AA and ACP don't use Bluetooth. They are implemented with WiFi.
     
  4. Crash

    Crash Member

    No wireless Apple Car Play (my 2022 EV EX, and premium when I looked at specsheet). but it has wireless charging :)

    From the spec sheet, the following is not available for EX and EX Premium: 8 in. touchscreen color display with MP3, Satellite Radio, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, integrated rear camera and dynamic guidelines (DA 2.0)

    Both have: 10.25 in. touchscreen Navigation display system with Premium sound system, Satellite, wired Android Auto and Apply CarPlay and HD radio (AVN5.0)
     
  5. PB+J

    PB+J New Member

    What a weird thing to do--have wireless charging but requiring a wire for car play.

    It's practically the definition of a "first world problem," but I ordered a dongle that will supposedly allow me to use wireless car play while the phone is sitting in the wireless charger. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08P1GWQDB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

    I'm hoping I can put the dongle in the center console, out of sight and out of mind, and park the phone in the wireless charger and use car play.
     
  6. Crash

    Crash Member

    I agree.

    Let us know how that dongle works.
     
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  8. PB+J

    PB+J New Member

    I just got the dongle todayjust now and it works really well so far. It needs to be plugged into the center USB port under the screen, but once it's plugged in you can connect your phone to it and then the car will initiate car play over the dongle. Wireless charging works fine, car play works fine. The dongle comes with a USC-C port and a USB-A port. I'm going to add a longer USB cable and place it on the "floor" of the center console, out of the way. It was very easy to set up and I did it in the parking lot of the grocery store. I'll given it a more elaborate test tomorrow

    It's a fairly expensive way to address a really dumb situation with a car that's otherwise pretty great.
     
  9. Robert Besen

    Robert Besen Member

    Thanks for posting PB+J!
     
  10. PB+J

    PB+J New Member

    I've spent some more time with it and it works as advertised. There is a slight delay while it finds the phone--it says "reading USB" and then it connects. Just a few seconds. There is a slight lag or latency when you press the screen to stop a tune or fast forward to the next track--press the screen, nothing happens for a second, then the action you wanted follows.

    I have it stuck just beneath the central USB port, using blu-tack putty
     
  11. Kimbie

    Kimbie New Member

    In the UK, the top end trims 3 and 4+ do not have wireless carplay but have a 10" infotainment screen, the 2 and 2LR have the smaller newer 8" infotainment screen with wireless car play.

    I have a wireless dongle for my e-Niro and works fine with no issues.
     
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  13. Emotiv

    Emotiv New Member

    I received my Carlinkit earlier this week and it has been good so far aside from one issue - Carplay does not disconnect and audio does not pause when my Niro is turned off, so I have to manually disconnect or pause audio. It does disconnect after a set time or when you're out of range but, if you don't pay attention, it's easy to have an audiobook or podcast play all the way through and lose your progress. Anyone know a potential solution for this?

    Either way, I'm mostly satisfied with this solution as never having to take my phone out of my pocket is really convenient.

    I grabbed mine from LightInTheBox for $54.90+tax with code CPC50.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2022
  14. Crash

    Crash Member

    I have had my for a month or so. I would give it 3 stars out of 5. When it works, it is nice. Main issue is with failed connections. It is kind of a crap shoot on if it will connect every time I get in the car.
     
    pootify likes this.
  15. I have had mine for a few days now. I’m finding the experience. I just found the tiny users manual that came with it. Apparently there’s a way to do dongle firmware updates so gonna try and maybe there’s some other clues in there.




    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  16. techydude

    techydude New Member

    Hey David,
    Actually, leaving a modern smartphone/tablet/laptop connect to the ‘charger’ beyond the battery reaching 100% doesn’t ‘overcharge’ the battery or in any way negatively impact it; the device stops charging once it reaches 100%. The notion of ‘over-charging’ pretty much disappeared with older NiCd/NiMH & Lead-Acid batteries, and really cheap&nasty Li-battery powered gadgets that don’t treat batteries well/safely. These things we call “chargers” are just power supplies - it’s the device itself, the electronics inside it, whether smartphone, tablet, laptop, even EV, that manage the recharging process and stop it once “100%” has been reached.

    This is, however, a tangential issue to charing Lithium-based batteries (whether the smallest smartphone Li-Ion/Polymer batteries, to the biggest Lithium-based EV batteries, the chemistry is all very similar) up to 100%, and the fairly dramatic increase in cycle-life you get by NOT discharging below 20% and NOT recharging above 70-80% capacity as much as possible.

    The key difference is that smartphone batteries are easily and relatively cheaply replaced, not so much for an EV ;-), and that for moderate-to-heavy users, smartphones thrash their batteries almost every day from 100% down to pretty low %, to be able to get a full day of use out of them. What this means, in practise, is that using a smartphone/tablet/laptop/etc on battery is guaranteed to consume its limited lifecycles, but if you have plug-in power available - like with USB/Lightning-connected CarPlay - you avoid that discharge of the battery you’d otherwise have to cop. Sure, not as convenient as wireless CarPlay, but from the phone’s battery perspective, wired carplay is better because there’s no discharge of the battery (and no risk of overcharge), whereas wireless CarPlay is the worst combination - a heavy load with continuous wireless comms, while on battery.
     
  17. Keeping a lithium ion battery at 100% charge (higher voltage) is known to reduce battery capacity faster than when it is sitting at a lower state of charge.

    When the cells are at higher electrical potential (voltage), electrolyte oxidation takes place at the cathode, increasing resistance between the cathode and the electrolyte dropping the energy storage of the battery. That layer acts like a resistor in a voltage divider. Energy ends up getting dissipated in that layer instead of doing work in the rest of the circuit. The higher the voltage, the faster this oxidation reaction takes place. The longer the period spent at higher voltage the more electroyte oxidizes and layers the cathode.

    One protection built into to some battery management systems is to halt the charging at a somewhat lower volatage (< 100% electrochemical potential). This will increase battery life . Apple's battery management does take better care of the battery than it used to, but it will continue cycling power to it on and off as it drops a touch below whatever their 100% setting is, keeping it a higher voltage and a faster rate of electrolytic oxidation for an extended period.

    If you doubt this, heat adds to the stress. Try charging two batteries, one to 50% and one to 100% and then hold them both at 70 degrees C for several hours. You will see significantly lower capacity in the one that was at 100% charge than the one that was at 50%

    This is why many battery vendors recommend 40-60% charge when they are going to be stored for long periods (going to true zero is also not good for them.)
    https://www.dnkpower.com/lithium-ion-battery-storage/

    I
    try to keep my phone between around 20-80% just like my Niro, except on the rate occasions I need the extra, and on those occasions, I try to time things so I start discharging a decent rate pretty soon after hitting 100%
     
  18. Jgcomms

    Jgcomms New Member

    Hi
    Would recommend the Carlinkit unit which plugs in to the usb socket and then allows wireless carplay. Used it on a few vehicles and it works really well.
     

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