Android Auto On E 300
#26
Yep, for now you are stuck. There's no update from MB coming as far as I can see. MB actually moved on from the version of MBUX in your car. You have MBUX 1.0. The new S Class etc. with the massive center screens have MBUX 2.0. There both CarPlay and AA are full screen taking up the upper half of the screen while the lower half remains available for MBUX functions. They really shoehorned MBUX 1.0 into the dual screen setup that was designed for COMAND and not MBUX.
#27
Hi, all
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We are Carlinkit Carplay Team. We are committed to producing a high-end, cost-effective Wireless CarPlay Adapter Dongle.
We have released new arrivals--Carlinkit 4.0 and T-box mini.
Carlinkit 4.0 supports wireless carplay and wireless Android auto. It is compatible with both iPhone and Android smartphones.
https://carlinkitcarplay.com/product...actory-carplay
T-box mini supports watching Youtube and Netflix on car's screen. It also supports wireless carplay and Android auto.
https://carlinkitcarplay.com/product...android-tablet
If you are interested in our products, you are welcome to take an 18% OFF coupon code "MBF" for your action.
#28
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
I wasn't able to get the AA Wireless to change the screen size on my 2018 but I was able to change the landscape on my brother's F150. I decided to try the OttoCast and it is indeed a game changer. Now that the traffic service no longer works, using Android Auto is a great substitute and it fills up the screen. I put my old AA wireless adapter in my laptop bag and I'll use it in rental cars going forward.
Took a road trip yesterday -- 140 miles each way -- and observed a few things about the OttoCast. First the good. It looks great in full screen version. Passengers are impressed. It reminds me of the vivid image displayed when I used the OEM nav with traffic subscription. I use satellite display on AA.
On the other hand, using the controller to make changes to AA can be a bear. The dial allows you to only go left or right. Pressing it or tugging it doesn't appear to do anything. I have to use the the home key on the steering to move to control a new function (music etc). And then the home button on the phone to return back to the map on the main screen.
Wired AA the jog dial can take you to any function.
Fortunately, when AA (with Ottocast) starts it automatically starts with the destination option available in Google Maps. I have a lifetime subscription to SiriusXM and AA opens it automatically. But occasionally since it is streaming if I go for an extended period without cell service the music will pause and has to be manually restarted. That requires a number of steps -- home button on the wheel. Dial to select the SiriusXM App. Dial to select play. Home button again on the wheel. Select google maps.
Doing this while driving can be a bit distracting. At one point one of my passengers pressed the screen directly thinking it was a touchscreen.
If someone knows of a short cut to move across Android Auto screens I'd love to hear of it.
#29
I installed the Ottocadt 2 in 1 wireless adapter (2 in 1 is for Android Auto and Carplay) and I was pleased to see that my 2020 E450 Coupe now uses up the entire screen. In addition, the wireless feature has been a nice improvement over having to physically connect each time.
So I have a W213 17 plate E220, but I believe is the same version of Comand so I'm hoping this will resolve my issue. I know there may be some disconnection bugs but tbh with cable I suffer with having to unplug once an hour anyway.
I have the UX-2 being delivered tomorrow which I'm looking forward to testing. I was wondering if you had tried any of the other firmwares, including the ux-2 pro beta firmware and which of these worked best for Comand? Were you able to continue using all your control functions?
As an aside I was talking to Ottocast support and while the "pro" is supposedly a bit faster and better, you cannot downgrade the firmware to the UX-2 version, including older versions. So may be safe to stick with UX-2 for now.
On the other hand, using the controller to make changes to AA can be a bear. The dial allows you to only go left or right. Pressing it or tugging it doesn't appear to do anything. I have to use the the home key on the steering to move to control a new function (music etc). And then the home button on the phone to return back to the map on the main screen.
#30
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
I had totally given up on this ever being fixed, and then last night just thought I'd have a quick check in case there was some miracle and found your post - you legend.
So I have a W213 17 plate E220, but I believe is the same version of Comand so I'm hoping this will resolve my issue. I know there may be some disconnection bugs but tbh with cable I suffer with having to unplug once an hour anyway.
I have the UX-2 being delivered tomorrow which I'm looking forward to testing. I was wondering if you had tried any of the other firmwares, including the ux-2 pro beta firmware and which of these worked best for Comand? Were you able to continue using all your control functions?
As an aside I was talking to Ottocast support and while the "pro" is supposedly a bit faster and better, you cannot downgrade the firmware to the UX-2 version, including older versions. So may be safe to stick with UX-2 for now.
Do the hard buttons on the dash for music / map etc no longer work with this implementation?
So I have a W213 17 plate E220, but I believe is the same version of Comand so I'm hoping this will resolve my issue. I know there may be some disconnection bugs but tbh with cable I suffer with having to unplug once an hour anyway.
I have the UX-2 being delivered tomorrow which I'm looking forward to testing. I was wondering if you had tried any of the other firmwares, including the ux-2 pro beta firmware and which of these worked best for Comand? Were you able to continue using all your control functions?
As an aside I was talking to Ottocast support and while the "pro" is supposedly a bit faster and better, you cannot downgrade the firmware to the UX-2 version, including older versions. So may be safe to stick with UX-2 for now.
Do the hard buttons on the dash for music / map etc no longer work with this implementation?
#31
I did have to update the firmware via USB to even get it to work at all though. But it does work.
You're right that it's only the home button on the steering wheel that takes you to the menu row, and you have to tap the touch panel to enter as to begin with. Weird but workable. Other than that the jog wheel works pretty much as before for me. Up down and left right were always weird even cabled.
My only other critism is that while it's now full wide-screen. For whatever reason the device must be presenting a slightly taller image so it's ever so slightly squashed in aspect ratio. Not too bad, and will eventually be ignored but I wish it was true AR and square was square etc. If you compare cable to the device you can see the difference easily.
I should note I tried manually restricting the image height using the options on the aa dev options, but the display looks the same for all except the smallest option, which doesn't work my guess is that the device is sending an incorrect margin width (the amount to cut off from the set 1920 x 1280 resolution profile that's been selected). I have emailed them with this big report, but there is a language barrier here, and I doubt that old mercedes owners are their target for development. It's likely Mercedes fault somewhat along the lines anyway.
On the plus side though the ux-2 works fine even with the ux-2 pro firmware and interface for now and is actually far more responsive than than my wired AA was. And if it doesn't feature the hourly corruption requiring a cable pull then it will be a decent upgrade. I tried all the firmwares from the original to the new beta. All worked except the first (that it shipped with).
I should note I tried manually restricting the image height using the options on the aa dev options, but the display looks the same for all except the smallest option, which doesn't work my guess is that the device is sending an incorrect margin width (the amount to cut off from the set 1920 x 1280 resolution profile that's been selected). I have emailed them with this bug report, but there is a language barrier here, and I doubt that old mercedes owners are their target for development. It's likely Mercedes fault somewhat along the lines anyway.
https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/85175002/wide-screen-not-being-fully-used-by-aa?hl=en
Another issue I had with cabled is it used to heat my phone up a lot, but this appears to be better thank goodness. This should allow me to keep my fold 3 out In the open and even potentially near fans to allow cooling while charging on long journeys (my office is 4 1/2 hours away so when I have to drive it's almost always an epic drive).
I'd give this mod a solid 8/10 if it continues to work reliably, losing points for the issues with navigating things on screen, and the squashed image. Also with the difficulty i had on first connection, many would have given up because nobody wants to be doing an offline update after installation and online update failures out of the box.
Last edited by DrExcess; 08-31-2022 at 02:48 AM. Reason: Typos
#32
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
What's the process for doing a firmware update? And approximately how long does yours now take to boot up? Mine takes a bit of time -- more than it takes to buckle up, open the garage door and back out of the garage. Would be nice if it was faster.
#33
it takes a bit of time I guess, but nothing excessive. TBH wired Android auto was never particularly fast.
It kind of does it's boot, the new UI flashes up for a second, then it goes to the phone select screen starts to connect and then a second or two later it boots.
Do me a favour, record how long it takes from absolute cold start to being on the screen and I'll do the same and we can compare. I have everything to auto connect also.
It kind of does it's boot, the new UI flashes up for a second, then it goes to the phone select screen starts to connect and then a second or two later it boots.
Do me a favour, record how long it takes from absolute cold start to being on the screen and I'll do the same and we can compare. I have everything to auto connect also.
#34
Instructions here:
Files here: https://www.ottocast.com/en-gb/pages/software-test
#35
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
Okay I found this website: https://www.ottocast.com/pages/update-u2-x. I did the firmware update. The booting process after the firmware update is way faster now. Plus it now shows the name of my phone on the screen. The hard phone key works but the others still take you out of AA/Carplay. I used the firmware link to send a message describing the problem I'm having with the hard keys and submitted it.
If they fix the keys I'll give this an A+.
If they fix the keys I'll give this an A+.
#37
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
32.4 seconds from starting the engine. The garage door wasn't even up yet when it appeared on the screen. Way faster now.
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DrExcess (08-31-2022)
#38
Okay I found this website: https://www.ottocast.com/pages/update-u2-x. I did the firmware update. The booting process after the firmware update is way faster now. Plus it now shows the name of my phone on the screen. The hard phone key works but the others still take you out of AA/Carplay. I used the firmware link to send a message describing the problem I'm having with the hard keys and submitted it.
If they fix the keys I'll give this an A+.
If they fix the keys I'll give this an A+.
I wouldn't say A+, if you look closely you'll notice the image is slightly fuzzier because it's no longer perfectly square, and that screen squash mean's theres no way it can be A+ until they fix that. Glad a little firmware update made such a difference for you!
What model and age of MB do you have?
#39
#40
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
w213 2018. I haven't disconnected that. I will do that now. But the speed is so much faster now which I really like.
#41
Regarding physical button mapping, then I believe that MB controls that, and the reason it varies for your guys, is because you have different firmware versions of comand.
my initial firmware version(the one that was installed when the car left the factory) had mapping that made carplay(and I assume AA) use physical buttons. So the map went to google maps, music went to spotify and phone went to the carplay version.
after I did a firmware update… this all changed. Now the physical buttons maps to MB map, mb music and mb connected phone.
I like this alot better, as I have gotten used to navigating carplay just fine with the touchbutton on steeringwheel or dial.
rgds, Jake
my initial firmware version(the one that was installed when the car left the factory) had mapping that made carplay(and I assume AA) use physical buttons. So the map went to google maps, music went to spotify and phone went to the carplay version.
after I did a firmware update… this all changed. Now the physical buttons maps to MB map, mb music and mb connected phone.
I like this alot better, as I have gotten used to navigating carplay just fine with the touchbutton on steeringwheel or dial.
rgds, Jake
#42
Regarding physical button mapping, then I believe that MB controls that, and the reason it varies for your guys, is because you have different firmware versions of comand.
my initial firmware version(the one that was installed when the car left the factory) had mapping that made carplay(and I assume AA) use physical buttons. So the map went to google maps, music went to spotify and phone went to the carplay version.
after I did a firmware update… this all changed. Now the physical buttons maps to MB map, mb music and mb connected phone.
I like this alot better, as I have gotten used to navigating carplay just fine with the touchbutton on steeringwheel or dial.
rgds, Jake
my initial firmware version(the one that was installed when the car left the factory) had mapping that made carplay(and I assume AA) use physical buttons. So the map went to google maps, music went to spotify and phone went to the carplay version.
after I did a firmware update… this all changed. Now the physical buttons maps to MB map, mb music and mb connected phone.
I like this alot better, as I have gotten used to navigating carplay just fine with the touchbutton on steeringwheel or dial.
rgds, Jake
Even with wired AA I used those buttons loads, why would I ever want to use mercedes terrible maps or phone functionality?
#43
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
Yes I'm stuck with the steering wheel instead of being able to use the hard buttons. And after deleting the bluetooth connection directly to my phone the boot time has increased. I may check today with my timer to see but yesterday I ran a quick errand in the car and noticed that it took far longer for AA to start.
#44
That's so weird really? Maybe I should reactivate my car Bluetooth then, it's already fast for me but I could have it faster.
Today I did first proper test, 4 hour drive. Absolutely flawless. My cabled android auto would have glitched out 3 or 4 times.
I've also worked out how you navigate between screen panels without ever needing to touch the steering wheel. You'll never need to use hard buttons once you understand it.
Uploaded a short videos to show this, but also so others can see what the functionality is like for me.
Check this:
Today I did first proper test, 4 hour drive. Absolutely flawless. My cabled android auto would have glitched out 3 or 4 times.
I've also worked out how you navigate between screen panels without ever needing to touch the steering wheel. You'll never need to use hard buttons once you understand it.
Uploaded a short videos to show this, but also so others can see what the functionality is like for me.
Check this:
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#45
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
Tried this out tonight and it works as advertised. However for some reason booting up tonight took 92 seconds. Nearly three times longer than it took on Tuesday morning.
#46
Nah, there's no way that's better. Not when you're using AA. Especially not with how difficult it is to navigate AA with the jogwheel and even moreso with the wireless adapter.
Even with wired AA I used those buttons loads, why would I ever want to use mercedes terrible maps or phone functionality?
Even with wired AA I used those buttons loads, why would I ever want to use mercedes terrible maps or phone functionality?
Switching to carplay would end your suffering… come to the darkside
#47
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 411
Likes: 85
From: Texas, Northern VA
Porsche Cayman S, Mercedes W213, Nissan Titan, BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban
Using the jog-wheel works just fine. In fact in less than a week it's become second nature. No need to change over.
#48
Bought the Ottocast on the evidence of the video above.
Just got it this evening and so far so good. Only complaint is my dash buttons don't work and I had to do a firmware update to get it to pair via BT with my Pixel 5.
Other than that quite happy. Thanks for posting the video! It's great to have wide-screen AA and just on time as my Live Traffic subscription is ending this month!
Just got it this evening and so far so good. Only complaint is my dash buttons don't work and I had to do a firmware update to get it to pair via BT with my Pixel 5.
Other than that quite happy. Thanks for posting the video! It's great to have wide-screen AA and just on time as my Live Traffic subscription is ending this month!
#49
Ah that sucks, it seems that ironically they removed the dash buttons working with AA at some point within the generation. Mine was an early 2017 w213 and so is still on old firmware, still at least the jog wheel works fine.
So a few weeks in now and I have had almost zero issues, no disconnects, no freezing, no overheating, no slow downs... The wireless version works faster (responsively) and far more stable than the cabled ever did in my car.
Also an unexpected improvement is that the voice recognition is also vastly improved. No idea why that would be. But the time to speak delay and the understanding is much much better, Weird.
I can only assume that this is really not so much Ottocast being good, but more MB being their usual slapdash self and just totally bodging the AA integration as we all expected they would and did. They just don't have the skills over their to get infortainment right. In decades of tech there's always something. Germany needs better QA.
Yes the aspect ratio is off. I wouldn't mind so much but I've been chatting directly with one of their devs and they can't even tell. They literally can't see that it looks fuzzy and that it's not a 1:1 pixel ratio despite me explaining specifically what they need to do in their implementation to fix it. I believe they're sending 1920 x 800 (standard) and the display is 1920 x 720 (fu Mercedes with your weird screen display size). So they need to send a margin for Mercedes integration but you try explaining that to a dev who 1) can't see the issue and 2) doesn't really care, 80% is good enough. That's so frustrating as it could clearly so easily be fixed but they're just not skilled or diligent enough to notice at Ottocast.
So it's a shame that we'll have to put up with it "almost" being a perfect solution, and with a very slightly hazy squashed screen, but you soon get used to it.
So a few weeks in now and I have had almost zero issues, no disconnects, no freezing, no overheating, no slow downs... The wireless version works faster (responsively) and far more stable than the cabled ever did in my car.
Also an unexpected improvement is that the voice recognition is also vastly improved. No idea why that would be. But the time to speak delay and the understanding is much much better, Weird.
I can only assume that this is really not so much Ottocast being good, but more MB being their usual slapdash self and just totally bodging the AA integration as we all expected they would and did. They just don't have the skills over their to get infortainment right. In decades of tech there's always something. Germany needs better QA.
Yes the aspect ratio is off. I wouldn't mind so much but I've been chatting directly with one of their devs and they can't even tell. They literally can't see that it looks fuzzy and that it's not a 1:1 pixel ratio despite me explaining specifically what they need to do in their implementation to fix it. I believe they're sending 1920 x 800 (standard) and the display is 1920 x 720 (fu Mercedes with your weird screen display size). So they need to send a margin for Mercedes integration but you try explaining that to a dev who 1) can't see the issue and 2) doesn't really care, 80% is good enough. That's so frustrating as it could clearly so easily be fixed but they're just not skilled or diligent enough to notice at Ottocast.
So it's a shame that we'll have to put up with it "almost" being a perfect solution, and with a very slightly hazy squashed screen, but you soon get used to it.
Last edited by DrExcess; 09-17-2022 at 06:17 AM.
#50
New arrival! Carlinkit A2A converts your wired Android Auto to Wireless! (Don't forget to use the discount code "MBF" for your action)
https://carlinkitcarplay.com/product...d-android-auto
https://carlinkitcarplay.com/product...d-android-auto