Wireless Android Auto adaptor

Wireless Android Auto adaptor

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Discussion

eccles

Original Poster:

13,812 posts

229 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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I've recently bought a car with wired android auto and wanted to get one of those adaptors that you leave plugged in to make it wireless android auto.
I've read quite a few reviews and they all seem fairly similar, with no particular one standing out.
Before I buy one, I was just wondering if anyone has any experience of these adaptors and can warn me off or recommend any particular models.

random_username

156 posts

107 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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I've got a couple of AAWireless (https://www.aawireless.io/) boxes in my cars connected to Sony and Alpine AA headunits. They work perfectly - connects within a few seconds of the headunit booting and the connection is very reliable (more so that the wired connection!). You can also set precedence across multiple devices, so it will work with the missus phone too if she's in the car on her own, but mine if we are both in the car. The developers look to be pretty responsive on their forums too.

Wireless Android Auto hammers the battery a bit though as it's running the GPS all of the time, but other than that it works very well. The Alpine HU has a GPS receiver which Google Nav may be able to use instead of the phone GPS, but Waze doesn't appear to be able to.

eccles

Original Poster:

13,812 posts

229 months

Friday 7th April 2023
quotequote all
random_username said:
I've got a couple of AAWireless (https://www.aawireless.io/) boxes in my cars connected to Sony and Alpine AA headunits. They work perfectly - connects within a few seconds of the headunit booting and the connection is very reliable (more so that the wired connection!). You can also set precedence across multiple devices, so it will work with the missus phone too if she's in the car on her own, but mine if we are both in the car. The developers look to be pretty responsive on their forums too.

Wireless Android Auto hammers the battery a bit though as it's running the GPS all of the time, but other than that it works very well. The Alpine HU has a GPS receiver which Google Nav may be able to use instead of the phone GPS, but Waze doesn't appear to be able to.
Thanks for that. I actually had one of their boxes when they had a kickstarter deal going on. By the time it arrived though I had got rid of my car! The upside was that it sold for about three times what I paid for it!
My last car had wireless android auto,and a wireless charging pad, and on a long run, it would just about keep up with the battery drain when running Waze.

Can these boxes plug into any usb port or do they have to plug into the port used for Android auto?

random_username

156 posts

107 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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They need to be plugged into an android auto enabled USB port - they won't work otherwise...

eccles

Original Poster:

13,812 posts

229 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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Cheers.

giantdefy

691 posts

120 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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I have one but gave up with it as it was so hard on the phone battery as it is supporting both the GPS and the wireless hotspot at the same time. Meant I needed the phone plugged in to charge for any journey of >30 minutes so seemed a waste of time, went back to usb AA.

random_username

156 posts

107 months

Friday 7th April 2023
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My Pixel 6 pro can cope with probably 4 hours of driving before I'd need to put it on charge early before I turn in for the night - but the battery life is pretty good on it normally.

Having to plug it in for a long journey isn't so much of a hassle - the added convenience of AA working every time you jump in the car for short journeys outweighs that for me...

JurassicGTS

1,617 posts

202 months

Thursday 27th April 2023
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I tried one of the Ebay Calinkit but it didn't work. Another thread about this on here somewhere others also have had a problem. However NMAUTOMOTIVE's that I subsequently bought works great.

spookly

4,200 posts

102 months

Monday 8th May 2023
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I have an AA wireless adapter in my Golf. Works perfectly for android auto, but as others have said the battery drain can be an issue on a long journey. I think the problem isn't the battle between charge/discharge, more that the thermal cutout feature in the QI pad is activated due to a combination of the phone getting generating heat from working hard added to the heat from wireless charging. So it'll charge for the first hour or so of a long drive and then the QI charger will cut out due to heat and then the phone discharges. Get in the car with a full charge and it'll be dead in 3 to 4 hours.

I find it very convenient for short trips as it will be on and connected in seconds. On longer trips where I don't want to arrive with a flat phone I plug the phone in using a wire. I don't drive very long trips often due to working from home, so it works well for me other than the very infrequent long trips.

eccles

Original Poster:

13,812 posts

229 months

Tuesday 9th May 2023
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My Last car (SEAT Arona) had wireless android auto built in, and a wireless charging pad.
On my fairly regular 5 hour journeys to Wales to see my Mum my phone would start off at about 70 - 80% and by the end of the journey would be on about 60% battery. That's using Waze and maybe BBC sounds at the same time.

eccles

Original Poster:

13,812 posts

229 months

Saturday 27th May 2023
quotequote all
Just updating this thread, picked up an AAwireless box a couple of weeks ago, seems to work well. Had a couple of drop outs on connectivity, but it quickly reconnects.
Just done a long, 6hr drive to Wales. Started off with a full phone battery (pixel 7 pro), by the time we parked up it was on 49%. That was just using Waze for navigation, so not too bad really.