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Well...I forgot today was the wife's early day so I decided not to wait for the weekend.
The install was super easy, you only have to remove the glove box which is a few screws and pop the climatronic unit out. EVERYTHING is plug and play no need to splice or install anything extra. This is the CarPlay I have been waiting for! I never pulled the trigger on the other units because it didn't use the factory microphone and you had to splice CAN BUS wires. Everything so far works flawlessly. Thank you to the OP for giving this a shot and showing it to all of us!

I also forgot to mention...the harness provided for USB was long enough so I routed it right into the arm rest







 
I just got a notice that the Carplay interface was in the local area for delivery!
It may come in today, but I have an ABS/ overall error excitement issue going on now and until I get that fixed the installation will be delayed.
The ABS light and the instrument panel light up like a pinball machine according to the wife (her car). The ABS and headlamp out of range errors are still lit on the panel and come back after clearing with VCDS. Lots of other things like the AC will not run etc. The AC says it is not working because of other problems with modules etc. I think that VW wants to really irritate you to fix the ABS issues, or at least I hope that is what is happening!
The new ABS sensor for the left rear should be in maybe Wednesday and I will see if that sets everything straight.
Your battery may be failing; you might want to get it tested.
 
Discussion starter · #88 ·
I also forgot to mention...the harness provided for USB was long enough so I routed it right into the arm rest
Thanks for your report and pics, I’m real glad this is working well for others (phew!).

I am also planning to route the USB into the arm rest, and ordered a USB extension from Amazon, since there’s an unused corresponding size hole in my arm rest compartment. Would you mind sharing how you managed to route the cable? Thanks!
 
Is anyone that has installed this unit having issues? On startup, I’m having a case where the CarPlay music won’t be playing through the speakers unless I select the default radio, then select media, then Bluetooth, then I have to reopen the CarPlay and now the sound will come through. However, I can see that it's playing on CarPlay as the song timer is counting down. Just not getting audio through the BT part of the RNS. The other issue I am having is when I use CarPlay and try to use the steering wheel control it will skip two (2) songs instead of just to the next song. The steering wheel controls work fine otherwise, only have an issue while using CarPlay.

I sent a message out to the company a few days ago, still awaiting a reply. I'm not sure if I hit a dipswitch on the back during installation or if I've done something wrong. But it sounds like you can keep the "Auto Connect on Startup" checked and other people have it work perfectly. My CarPlay connects right away, just not sounds coming through even though it's trying haha.
 
Hmmm, odd. What comes mind, 1. are the apps configured to use cellular data? 2. is the phone's data connection good enough (couple of bars)? Otherwise I'm stumped.
yes cellular is active for both apps and the cell signal seems to be fine..

one other thing i see from time to time is that when i start the car instead of carplay staring again because it was the last thing running, sometimes i get the cars stock aux input start instead, and i need to hold setup to get carplay to launch
 
Discussion starter · #92 ·
Is anyone that has installed this unit having issues? On startup, I’m having a case where the CarPlay music won’t be playing through the speakers unless I select the default radio, then select media, then Bluetooth, then I have to reopen the CarPlay and now the sound will come through. However, I can see that it's playing on CarPlay as the song timer is counting down. Just not getting audio through the BT part of the RNS. The other issue I am having is when I use CarPlay and try to use the steering wheel control it will skip two (2) songs instead of just to the next song. The steering wheel controls work fine otherwise, only have an issue while using CarPlay.

I sent a message out to the company a few days ago, still awaiting a reply. I'm not sure if I hit a dipswitch on the back during installation or if I've done something wrong. But it sounds like you can keep the "Auto Connect on Startup" checked and other people have it work perfectly. My CarPlay connects right away, just not sounds coming through even though it's trying haha.
You should not need the BT connection for CarPlay audio, but rather set the RNS input to AUX. That's where the Ksmart sends the sound via the wiring harness that it comes with. I have actually deleted my phones BT connection to the RNS, since the automatic BT connection caused the problem you describe.

As for skipping a song, maybe you are holding the button down too long? Since there is switching lag for wireless CarPlay, one might inadvertently do so methinks.
 
Thanks for your report and pics, I’m real glad this is working well for others (phew!).

I am also planning to route the USB into the arm rest, and ordered a USB extension from Amazon, since there’s an unused corresponding size hole in my arm rest compartment. Would you mind sharing how you managed to route the cable? Thanks!
I also routed the USB cable into the arm rest by running it through the inside of the center console. I removed the shifter shroud, the little cup that seemingly has no use,the bottom of the center console, and the cubby in the back of the center console to run the cable. I then stuck the end of the USB cable through the cutout that has the little plug in it in the back right corner of the compartment
 
I also routed the USB cable into the arm rest by running it through the inside of the center console. I removed the shifter shroud, the little cup that seemingly has no use,the bottom of the center console, and the cubby in the back of the center console to run the cable. I then stuck the end of the USB cable through the cutout that has the little plug in it in the back right corner of the compartment
Can you show a pict of the armrest with the USB cable? Just ordered this so am interested in the USB connection. I assume this is more reliable than using BT and charges simultaneously?
 
Can you show a pict of the armrest with the USB cable? Just ordered this so am interested in the USB connection. I assume this is more reliable than using BT and charges simultaneously?
ill see if i can take a pic later but the cable is just hanging out of the hole in the center console, was thinking of maybe trying to 3d print an adapter to make it more secure because when i asked one of the kids to plug in a usb drive to the cable he pushed it back through the hole and i had to fish it out again. (incidentally the floor of the center console is really easy to take out to make things more accessible. you just need to pull up the rubber mat and then a little cover and you have access to the guts underneath )

my phone will charge if i plug it in with a lightning cable but i haven't really spent any time using the phone wired as the wireless connection is pretty nice.... but maybe i should see if the issues im having with sirius and spofity persist if the phone is plugged in vs. wireless
 
You should not need the BT connection for CarPlay audio, but rather set the RNS input to AUX. That's where the Ksmart sends the sound via the wiring harness that it comes with. I have actually deleted my phones BT connection to the RNS, since the automatic BT connection caused the problem you describe.

As for skipping a song, maybe you are holding the button down too long? Since there is switching lag for wireless CarPlay, one might inadvertently do so methinks.
I will have to try to delete the BT connection from my phone. Maybe that is the issue. Also, I am sure I'm not holding it long, just a quick normal press. Maybe it's related to the BT/AUX connection trying at the same time. I'll report back once I get a chance to try it.
 
So I noticed today after Krischan stated it was using the "aux" option. My option is actually greyed out when I got into media. It appears I can't use aux? only the HDD and BT are available. Is this something I must enable or does the aux cable have to be plugged in?
 
Well for future reference - I have resolved both issues. My problem was the AUX option was not enabled. So I had to first use VCDS to enable the green screen for the radio, then I had to uninstall my CarPlay unit so I could use the "SETUP + CAR" button to enable the green menu. Boy if anyone knows a workaround this would be great. Every time you try to hold the "SETUP" button it just goes into the CarPlay menu. Anywho, once I uninstalled I was able to access the green menu and enable the AUX feature. I then reinstalled the CarPlay unit and now AUX is used so I am able to skip one song at a time and the sound plays correctly. Thank you for the input Krischan, helped resolve the issue.

I'm about to update my maps on the RNS 850 - Does anyone know how to access the Engineering menu with this CarPlay unit installed?
 
Well for future reference - I have resolved both issues. My problem was the AUX option was not enabled. So I had to first use VCDS to enable the green screen for the radio, then I had to uninstall my CarPlay unit so I could use the "Setting + Car" button to enable the green menu. Boy if anyone knows a workaround this would be great. Every time you try to hold the setting button it just goes into the CarPlay menu. Anywho, once I uninstalled I was able to access the green menu and enable the AUX feature. I then reinstalled the CarPlay unit and now AUX is used so I am able to skip one song at a time and the sound plays correctly. Thank you for the input Krischan, helped resolve the issue.

I'm about to update my maps on the RNS 850 - I hope I don't have to use the green menu for that, some instructions stated I would others said just make the two flash drives. So we shall see. Does anyone know how to access the green menu with this CarPlay unit installed?
I have never enabled my green menu. I did the update no problem...not sure what you mean by two flash drives but I just used one SD card
 
I have never enabled my green menu. I did the update no problem...not sure what you mean by two flash drives but I just used one SD card
Well, I would assume your AUX feature was already enabled. The green menu was just something more I had to do to enable my AUX as it was turned off for some reason. As for the update, I was referring to having to get into the engineering menu to start the installation. You have to hold "SETUP" and "PHONE" the issue is that if you hold "SETUP" you'll go into the CarPlay menu, hence why I had to uninstall/remove the unit temporarily as I am not educated enough to know if there is a work around haha.
 
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