Sportsmaserati CarPlay

[Guy]

Any news on this and whether I could purchase it as a kit - or you could install in Cape Town Just don’t take the wrong turn

He's not a Dr.

 

[dickygrace]

Any news on this and whether I could purchase it as a kit - or you could install in Cape Town Just don’t take the wrong turn

Bloody awful that, CT not good at the minute. Blooming nutcase Malema et al.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Can't see how GPS running on your phone can use anything but the phones own GPS antenna. Not heard of any phone that will take a GPS antenna input somehow!

Unless there is some API where Car play has it's own GPS unit and it somehow sends the location data to the phone, overriding the phones own GPS?

Eb

My thoughts exactly. Which while not impossible seems both unlikely and un-necessarily complex for basically zero gain.

C

The way CarPlay works in the Aston installation is that it uses the car's own GPS antenna. If that goes screwy, then whatever app you're using doesn't have the first clue where you are. In my case, it wasn't the aerial that was duff but the infotainment module, which went from seeing 12-0-12-0-12-0 etc satellites. Hence it was mostly confused. It then used the phone's own GPS antennae until the phone also lost connectivity and then tried unsuccessfully to rely on the car to tell it where it was.

 

[Ebenezer]

Car play must have it's own GPS gubbins if it's using it's own antenna.
Eb

 

[CatmanV2]

The way CarPlay works in the Aston installation is that it uses the car's own GPS antenna. If that goes screwy, then whatever app you're using doesn't have the first clue where you are. In my case, it wasn't the aerial that was duff but the infotainment module, which went from seeing 12-0-12-0-12-0 etc satellites. Hence it was mostly confused. It then used the phone's own GPS antennae until the phone also lost connectivity and then tried unsuccessfully to rely on the car to tell it where it was.

Well this piqued my interest, and the view on the tubes was mixed. So I just went down a rabbit hole of Apple developer documentation for Carplay and (while I am not a proper developer, or electrician) I can find absolutely zero mention of GPS data being passed from car to phone (or indeed, vice versa). It may be that I missed it, it may be it's not part of Carplay, it may be different in Android but that's what I found

C

 

[Felonious Crud]

Car play must have it's own GPS gubbins if it's using it's own antenna.
Eb

Not its own antennae, it uses the car's one that serves the OEM satnav.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Well this piqued my interest, and the view on the tubes was mixed. So I just went down a rabbit hole of Apple developer documentation for Carplay and (while I am not a proper developer, or electrician) I can find absolutely zero mention of GPS data being passed from car to phone (or indeed, vice versa). It may be that I missed it, it may be it's not part of Carplay, it may be different in Android but that's what I found

C

I don't think the data goes from car to phone. CarPlay's just a mirror of the phone screen (pretty much). But the exact location is determined by the car's own GPS aerial rather than just the phone's GPS antenna. Which makes sense, because the phone's likely chucked in a glove box and would have pretty dodgy GPS signal compared to a properly located aerial. As the infotainment module (which does the CarPlay blahblah as well as the native GPS, music etc etc) on mine had gone a bit screwy, the mirrored screen had no real idea where it was, and invariably guessed a few hundred yards away from reality, in a field or a quiet cul-de-sac.



Incidentally, this is the bit that had a gone a bit feckety:



Plus the VAT, sir. Happily, I was able to source one via other channels.

 

[MarkMas]

I don't think the data goes from car to phone. CarPlay's just a mirror of the phone screen (pretty much). But the exact location is determined by the car's own GPS aerial rather than just the phone's GPS antenna. Which makes sense, because the phone's likely chucked in a glove box and would have pretty dodgy GPS signal compared to a properly located aerial.

So how does the phone use the car's GPS antenna if it is just chucked in the cravat box?

Or, how does the phone's map App use the GPS info that the car's infotainment system has obtained from the car's antenna if iijcitcb?

 

[Gazcw]

I don't think the data goes from car to phone. CarPlay's just a mirror of the phone screen (pretty much). But the exact location is determined by the car's own GPS aerial rather than just the phone's GPS antenna. Which makes sense, because the phone's likely chucked in a glove box and would have pretty dodgy GPS signal compared to a properly located aerial. As the infotainment module (which does the CarPlay blahblah as well as the native GPS, music etc etc) on mine had gone a bit screwy, the mirrored screen had no real idea where it was, and invariably guessed a few hundred yards away from reality, in a field or a quiet cul-de-sac.

But it is the phone's satnav app that is shared through carplay surely. The cars GPS cannot talk to the phone or the app.

 

[Felonious Crud]

But it is the phone's satnav app that is shared through carplay surely. The cars GPS cannot talk to the phone or the app.

You'd think that... and logically it would make sense (apart from the car aerial being stronger than the phone GPS engine) but it was the failure of the car's satnav capabilities that buggered up all CarPlay nav apps. When the GPS went screwy, the OEM nav and CarPlay got lost. It all went to crarp.

tbh, it was a head-scratcher for the tech that unfucked it, but the process of elimination narrowed it down to the infotainment module's failure to know where it was. When it sat there flipping between seeing 12, 0, 12, 0 satellites, it was lost. New module and it could see a solid 12 and all worked fine.

 

[Gazcw]

You'd think that... and logically it would make sense (apart from the car aerial being stronger than the phone GPS engine) but it was the failure of the car's satnav capabilities that buggered up all CarPlay nav apps. When the GPS went screwy, the OEM nav and CarPlay got lost. It all went to crarp.

tbh, it was a head-scratcher for the tech that unfucked it, but the process of elimination narrowed it down to the infotainment module's failure to know where it was. When it sat there flipping between seeing 12, 0, 12, 0 satellites, it was lost. New module and it could see a solid 12 and all worked fine.

My Merc thinks it is in the ocean. When I select nav I just get a blue screen. Not that I use it. Might be time to chop it in and be an excuse to add some AMG letters into ownership.

 

[Felonious Crud]

My Merc thinks it is in the ocean. When I select nav I just get a blue screen. Not that I use it. Might be time to chop it in and be an excuse to add some AMG letters into ownership.

Now you're taking! Your man maths calculator is working well.

 

[CatmanV2]

But it is the phone's satnav app that is shared through carplay surely. The cars GPS cannot talk to the phone or the app.

This. I think that's all there is to it. The failure of the car system is a red herring. Happy for someone to logically demonstrate where the error is.

I don't think the data goes from car to phone

As a geek, I would absolutely say it *has* to. If Waze (for example) is running *on the phone* and it's not using internal GPS then the GPS location data *MUST* come from the car *to the phone*

But as ever...anyone want to out tech me, I'll be happy. My team do it regularly

C

 

[Gazcw]

This. I think that's all there is to it. The failure of the car system is a red herring. Happy for someone to logically demonstrate where the error is.


As a geek, I would absolutely say it *has* to. If Waze (for example) is running *on the phone* and it's not using internal GPS then the GPS location data *MUST* come from the car *to the phone*

But as ever...anyone want to out tech me, I'll be happy. My team do it regularly

C

Waze use internal GPS. I have never seen it pick up car GPS, but then it rarely loses signal, although mine is never in a glovebox or armrest. When it loses GPS it loses it.

How would the phone know how to link to a car satnav via what is basically a screen mirror type app. The Aston system may well be different and be more complex, but pretty sure most is just a source connection the same as a cd player and not linked to the system in any other manner other than the SI system which robs the screen input.

All guesswork and may well be BS.

 

[Felonious Crud]

As a geek, I would absolutely say it *has* to.

Sorry, I meant the other way around. As far as I know the phone's ability to know where it is should not be influenced by the car's inability to know where it is. So positioning data from car -> phone seems unlikely and unecessary.

What I do know is that there's a separate GPS antenna and CarPlay uses the info from it.

 

[Tallman]

Whilst we are on CarPlay and signal - what could disrupt the CarPlay (wireless) connection between phone and car? And even disconnect Bluetooth completely?

I’m having that problem on my new Defender at specific places. My BMW is fine at those same places.

 

[CatmanV2]

Sorry, I meant the other way around. As far as I know the phone's ability to know where it is should not be influenced by the car's inability to know where it is. So positioning data from car -> phone seems unlikely and unecessary.

What I do know is that there's a separate GPS antenna and CarPlay uses the info from it.

You have a separate carplay unit in the Aston?

C

 

[CatmanV2]

Whilst we are on CarPlay and signal - what could disrupt the CarPlay (wireless) connection between phone and car? And even disconnect Bluetooth completely?

I’m having that problem on my new Defender at specific places. My BMW is fine at those same places.

Just about anything that pumps out enough RF TBH. The simplest definition I read yesterday is that it's basically H264 video over wifi or bluetooth. A question would be is the BMW wifi or Bluetooth.

The quality of the bluetooth hardware (and firmware) can make a huge difference. Mrs C had a waterproof speaker for her shower room so she could listen to the radio via Alexa. Worked absolutely fine for months, then started just cutting out. Would restart absolutely fine just everything went silent.

Meh, it was only cheap, so I bought her a new different one. Which does exactly the same thing.

Further testing: Neither of them will sustain a connection with any of the multiple Alexas we have in the house. Our much older Bose however, is rock solid.

I can only surmise that Amazon did an OTA upgrade (as is their wont) and changed something (as is also their wont) and broke it for a specific class / model / firmware / whatever bluetooth stack.

Similar stuff used to happen when I was hacking Alexa for text to voice for my home automation stuff.
It might start working again with a new update, but I CBA really to test over and again.

Anyway that would be my guess, there's some incompatibility with the software versions in use. Standard advice would be to make sure they are all upgraded to the latest version....

C

 

[Felonious Crud]

You have a separate carplay unit in the Aston?

C

Yes, this fing:





It's not purely for CarPlay, but handles all infotainment.

 

[CatmanV2]

Yes, this fing:

View attachment 117680

View attachment 117681

It's not purely for CarPlay, but handles all infotainment.

That has its own built in Satnav, though surely. So it will need a GPS antenna. Notwithstanding what the guys at Aston have said, there appears to be no method of trans GPS data to the phone and Carplay is *just* a video display of what the phone is doing. All the built in Carplay units are doing is effectively giving up control of the screen to the phone. So when in Carplay it's all phone.

Apple tend to be really hot on Apps which don't follow their rules (we know this as one of our Apps takes months to get into the App store every time we try to do a new version) so I would be very surprised (with my current knowledge) if there wasn't something *else* wrong with that 'AstonNIT' that was causing issues, but........

...I've been wrong before

C