Carplay / Android Auto Recommendations

[basespec1series]

Hey fanatics, are there any recommendations on a reliable Apple Carplay / Android Auto HU upgrade for F Series cars (I have a f20 116i)

I've burnt through 1 android unit already in 2019 (the unit sits on the dash, and gets a tonne of sun, and I assume heatsinc is pretty bad) so the unit ended up dying 3ish years later in 2022 and only 1) the native BMW system and 2) the aftermarket reverse camera remained functional). Had gotten it from Kakadi, the guys in pretoria. Couple issues I had while it was working
- Still had to buy a (normal, and then) wireless carplay adapter
- Mic quality was terrible
- Boot time was long - sometimes the car would warm up before the carplay loaded 🤣

Last year, 2023, I bought a linux-based system off Aliexpress, it boots Carplay in seconds, carplay is built in wirelessly (no adapater needed) and the mic quality is way better.
Yet, on long distance trips with constant heat on the dash, this system too crashes and defaults to the BMW system (despite running effectively no apps aside from carplay, and a very light linux OS).

So on that note - Any reccos ona reliable solution?

 

[TurboLlew]

These systems don’t always do well with SA heat. There is a reason the native units have the electronics in the dash. These have too much processing in the screen (it’s just a piggyback system in essence). Even Samsung/Apple phones overheat in the sun after a few minutes on very hot days. I have a Joying unit which wasn’t exactly cheap with a single DIN chassis and seperate screen in my Alfa which is “architecturally” much better. Even This needed a capacitor or three changed inside and it handled heat better. I am not sure what to tell you in terms of what was changed but with chinesium some modification is usually required 😂. An electronics person may be able to advise and put some extra cooling or heat sinks to try. You might find even using some copper heat sinks improves things.

IMHO There is no way for this to be aesthetically pleasing for that location and have the processing power AND be able to sit in 40 degrees without some trade offs though. Architecturally it’s a touch one to handle. If we had a climate even a couple of degrees lower you probably wouldn’t even notice.

 

[PsyCLown]

Hmm, sounds as if you need to turn your aircon on while driving... Don't you get hot?

What Llew has mentioned above is probably the best, you'd likely need to look at making some modifications.
Open it up and see whats on the inside and where you can improve. I'd even consider a small fan blowing over the heatsink on the SoC - something like what one uses for a Raspberry Pi.

The capacitors would have a heat rating, although that is more for the lifespan of the cap.
@TurboLlew Did the headunit stop working at some point which lead you to replace some of the caps?

 

[TurboLlew]

Hmm, sounds as if you need to turn your aircon on while driving... Don't you get hot?

What Llew has mentioned above is probably the best, you'd likely need to look at making some modifications.
Open it up and see whats on the inside and where you can improve. I'd even consider a small fan blowing over the heatsink on the SoC - something like what one uses for a Raspberry Pi.

The capacitors would have a heat rating, although that is more for the lifespan of the cap.
@TurboLlew Did the headunit stop working at some point which lead you to replace some of the caps?

Yes it did fail and if it was a R2k unit I’d probably not have bothered even checking. That said R450 later at a professional who checked things out and it was fixed with more stable capacitors too. I would look at repairing one of the failed head units or at least peeking inside.

I would normally be first in line for Alpine or something high end but this was a unit that many of the Alfa guys had because the aspect ratio fits between the vents and buttons without blocking them. You also have a sim and GPS onboard so you can have native Waze, race chrono and other things without killing your battery on your phone. Alpine Halos are too big. Nothing else is really any better and if there is any more SQ to be had in a 4C than you get out of that joying unit you’re a magician 😂. The hardware itself is all decent (intel chips, decent memory and mosfets etc) but capacitors just didn’t work in the warmer climates. The company itself made some changes to later revisions.

You can try mailing the companies for specs and schematics. Worst they can do is ignore you or say no. You’d be surprised at how helpful they sometimes are!

Also aircon won’t help. It’s the actual radiation soaking into it that causes this while the car is parked. The energy flowing through it during startup is enough to push it into protection of some kind… or even blow the main power delivery capacitors.

 

[PsyCLown]

I was joking with the aircon.

Not a bad idea to have one of the broken headunits checked out, I know a guy near Cresta who does repairs on headunits, amps, turn tables etc.

Google Search

g.co

Maybe reach out to him and see what he says. I have used him a few times, he is fantastic and priced reasonably - I am actually heading through this weekend to collect one my Harmon Kardon amps which went in for a recap and relay replacement as its an older amp (built 2005).

 

[Morribiscuit]

Hey fanatics, are there any recommendations on a reliable Apple Carplay / Android Auto HU upgrade for F Series cars (I have a f20 116i)

I've burnt through 1 android unit already in 2019 (the unit sits on the dash, and gets a tonne of sun, and I assume heatsinc is pretty bad) so the unit ended up dying 3ish years later in 2022 and only 1) the native BMW system and 2) the aftermarket reverse camera remained functional). Had gotten it from Kakadi, the guys in pretoria. Couple issues I had while it was working
- Still had to buy a (normal, and then) wireless carplay adapter
- Mic quality was terrible
- Boot time was long - sometimes the car would warm up before the carplay loaded 🤣

Last year, 2023, I bought a linux-based system off Aliexpress, it boots Carplay in seconds, carplay is built in wirelessly (no adapater needed) and the mic quality is way better.
Yet, on long distance trips with constant heat on the dash, this system too crashes and defaults to the BMW system (despite running effectively no apps aside from carplay, and a very light linux OS).

So on that note - Any reccos ona reliable solution?

Dude! Depending on your Headunit model and year, carplay can be coded as a software upgrade.

Dylan from CT carbon can do this!

As for ANDROID AUTO, eyyyy whole other story, need an MMI unit or similar like Llew and others have suggested.

But if you are a fruit-phone user, you may have an easy solution.

 

[TurboLlew]

I was joking with the aircon.

Not a bad idea to have one of the broken headunits checked out, I know a guy near Cresta who does repairs on headunits, amps, turn tables etc.

Google Search

g.co

Maybe reach out to him and see what he says. I have used him a few times, he is fantastic and priced reasonably - I am actually heading through this weekend to collect one my Harmon Kardon amps which went in for a recap and relay replacement as its an older amp (built 2005).

Karsten repaired my unit 👆🏽👍🏽

 

[Yulz9081]

Dude! Depending on your Headunit model and year, carplay can be coded as a software upgrade.

Dylan from CT carbon can do this!

As for ANDROID AUTO, eyyyy whole other story, need an MMI unit or similar like Llew and others have suggested.

But if you are a fruit-phone user, you may have an easy solution.

There was even a guy at one of the BMW CCG skid pan events that offered his services to load car play on the existing head units in the much older F-series cars as far back as 2012 with the small OEM screens. It is a concealed unit he fits somewhere in the car and it uses the existing HU. Who knew the older gen car screens were capable of running full colour Carplay.

 

[Morribiscuit]

There was even a guy at one of the BMW CCG skid pan events that offered his services to load car play on the existing head units in the much older F-series cars as far back as 2012 with the small OEM screens. It is a concealed unit he fits somewhere in the car and it uses the existing HU. Who knew the older gen car screens were capable of running full colour Carplay.

Yeah, but OP is specifically trying to avoid an external unit IIUC.

 

[basespec1series]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

@Llew - On the suggestion to opening it I have the old unit sitting in a cupboard so may be worth it - may end up being salvagable, let's see. will reach out to Karstens
@Morribiscuit and @Yulz9081- I did consider the software upgrade (there's also a small module that can be integrated), but this wouldn't have touchscreen functionality, and i wasn't sure if the (aftermarket) reverse camera would work. [Aliexpress link]. It also looks like it's pretty much similar price to the android/linux head unit upgrade.

However, having said that, I think the module/software solution is better long term as you (ideally) shouldn't suffer with the heatsinc issues.

 

[Teezoh]

I have a 10.25-inch unit that came with the car when I bought it (the previous owner had it installed), never had any overheating trouble with it to date. Using wireless Android Auto just fine via Z-link and the connetion is fast and automatic after setup ofc, can also be used with Carplay apparently but I can't give any feedback around that.

I unfortunately have no idea regarding make and model since I don't have the box nor the user manual but when I searched around the net this one seems 99% accurate.