Betsy gets wireless Android Auto!

Mincey · February 19, 2022

My AA Wireless adapter arrived yesterday, and as I'm not allowed to do anything remotely fun when I return from work, I had to wait until I could sneak out this morning whilst the current Mrs Mincey was still asleep to install it. Installation was a breeze - zap a QR code on the back of the packaging, install the AA Wireless app, plug the dongle thing into a USB port, connect and boom! Job done.

When I returned to Betsy after the first test drive, AA asked me to unlock my phone to use it, which was annoying as I was expecting a seamless experience, but I have an idea that it hadn't set itself up fully. After rebooting Betsy, AA did start on its own and Spotify burst into action as expected. I've plugged it into a USB port in the back so that I can now close the front USB cover/compartment. It is rare that anyone travels in Betsy's passenger seat. Hell will have frozen over if anyone ever travels in the back.

TL-DR: AA Wireless works, owner happy.

Chrisfes · February 19, 2022

Probably a stupid question 🙈,can you get apple car play to work wireless ???

Tonyw · February 19, 2022

3 hours ago, Mincey said:

My AA Wireless adapter arrived yesterday, and as I'm not allowed to do anything remotely fun when I return from work, I had to wait until I could sneak out this morning whilst the current Mrs Mincey was still asleep to install it. Installation was a breeze - zap a QR code on the back of the packaging, install the AA Wireless app, plug the dongle thing into a USB port, connect and boom! Job done.

When I returned to Betsy after the first test drive, AA asked me to unlock my phone to use it, which was annoying as I was expecting a seamless experience, but I have an idea that it hadn't set itself up fully. After rebooting Betsy, AA did start on its own and Spotify burst into action as expected. I've plugged it into a USB port in the back so that I can now close the front USB cover/compartment. It is rare that anyone travels in Betsy's passenger seat. Hell will have frozen over if anyone ever travels in the back.

TL-DR: AA Wireless works, owner happy.

Interesting that it works off the rear USB, I thought only the front one was for data and the rears were simply power

Tonyw · February 19, 2022

2 hours ago, Chrisfes said:

Probably a stupid question 🙈,can you get apple car play to work wireless ???

Yes in the same way, wireless adaptors are on amazon and eBay

Vlady · February 19, 2022

Can AA adaptor work on GS 2012?

DO you have a link for the one you got?

steve2006 · February 19, 2022

I’m happy to leave mine with just 1 FM radio station, a choice of 6 CDs and a Japanese satellite navigation 😀

F.A. · February 19, 2022

1 hour ago, Vlady said:

Can AA adaptor work on GS 2012?

DO you have a link for the one you got?

No, unfortunately it’s not that simple. You need to have AA or AC in the first place. The adaptor / dongle just makes it wireless.

Mincey · February 19, 2022

1 hour ago, Tonyw said:

Interesting that it works off the rear USB, I thought only the front one was for data and the rears were simply power

This was a case of plug and walk away, and not plug and play! I've just been out again and everything went horribly wrong. It didn't connect with the adapter in the back so I put it back into the front socket. It still didn't work so I've gone away to do something else and will return later to do a proper test. Watch this space!

Mincey · February 19, 2022

Update time - it does NOT work in the back. As @Tonywrightly points out, it's just power in the back, not data. Everyone tells me that I always assume too much, and in this case I certainly did. Seeing the green light flashing on the wireless device LED me to believe that it was doing it's stuff. It was not sadly. Anyway, I've plugged it back into the front, and it handily fits into the slot meant for the phone. I'd still like to find a nice low profile 90 degree USB plug so that I could close the console lid. Not to worry though. My AA settings look like this:

When I start Betsy up, there's a delay as the phone talks to the wireless jobby but after say, 30 seconds or so, I've had two AA notifications on my phone and then Spotify starts. There's no need to unlock the phone, it just starts on its own which is exactly what I'd have ordered had I been a medical practitioner.

Mincey · February 19, 2022

1 hour ago, steve2006 said:

I’m happy to leave mine with just 1 FM radio station, a choice of 6 CDs and a Japanese satellite navigation 😀

Out of interest, do your sat nav always direct you to Harrow?

steve2006 · February 19, 2022

3 hours ago, Mincey said:

Out of interest, do your sat nav always direct you to Harrow?

Tokyo only and at that I get reminded my toll card is out of date every time I start the car 😀

Mincey · February 20, 2022

10 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Tokyo only and at that I get reminded my toll card is out of date every time I start the car 😀

Ah ok - as many Japanese (and more precisely according to the joke, Chinese) tourists getting into taxis at Heathrow end up in Harrow, I was just wondering whether a "tourist Lexus" might have the same setup on the satnav. Where did I leave my coat....?

Vlady · February 20, 2022

17 hours ago, Mincey said:

This was a case of plug and walk away, and not plug and play! I've just been out again and everything went horribly wrong. It didn't connect with the adapter in the back so I put it back into the front socket. It still didn't work so I've gone away to do something else and will return later to do a proper test. Watch this space!

The location of the front usb socket is not very well designed, how could designers come up with something like that is beyond my understanding, looks like they totally forgot about it at first!

This is the 1st thing I noticed when the car came out.

e-yes · February 20, 2022

FWIW, I have been able to plug in my phone and then actually store the phone in the 2-way opening cubby. It doesn’t “bite” the cable when closed. I use a cable which is just long enough to allow me to route it from the left side of the shifter and also not obstruct the touch pad.

I keep the phone on the charging pad (if plugged in, the wireless charging doesn’t kick in)

The worst part of plugging the phone and then storing it in the narrow phone storage next to the USB socket was that the phone and cable twists would rattle. With this arrangement of being able to store the phone in the 2-way opening cubby, the rattling is pretty much eliminated.

—E

Tonyw · February 20, 2022

2 hours ago, e-yes said:

FWIW, I have been able to plug in my phone and then actually store the phone in the 2-way opening cubby. It doesn’t “bite” the cable when closed. I use a cable which is just long enough to allow me to route it from the left side of the shifter and also not obstruct the touch pad.

I keep the phone on the charging pad (if plugged in, the wireless charging doesn’t kick in)

The worst part of plugging the phone and then storing it in the narrow phone storage next to the USB socket was that the phone and cable twists would rattle. With this arrangement of being able to store the phone in the 2-way opening cubby, the rattling is pretty much eliminated.

—E

My Iphone with chunky protective case fits snug in the gap and I am using a short 4” long usb cable, so no rattles or wires in the way on my side, just annoying that the wireless charging pad is pretty much redundant without the wireless connect to the stereo. I think the new NX is fully wireless and looks really nice, obviously with the ES it’s been a facelift and a fix rather than a new design.

Mincey · February 26, 2022

I had my first proper run with wireless AA this week. A few things which I have noted:

- AA seems to devour my mobile's Battery. I had it on the Qi charger on the way home and initially thought that the charger didn't work until I realised that AA was taking the charge as quickly as the charger was putting it in.

- Spotify does not appear to do random play on AA, even if the random option is selected. I keep getting the same songs again and again and again. I not 100% sure that I didn't have this issue using wired AA, but I am struggling to think of a reason why the method of connection should make any difference. I'm open to the wisdom of others here however.

- I haven't yet worked out how to read text messages via AA.

- There's none of the hiss which I got connecting via Bluetooth.

The lack of random play is the biggie. I've only half-googled for a solution so far - there must be one out there somewhere. If that can't be resolved then I'd go back to Bluetooth. First world problem I know but if there are nearly 4,000 songs on a play list, I'd like to hear some different ones every now and then.

mng70 · February 26, 2022

What adaptors are members using? There appears to be a huge selection on the market right now - all claiming to be the most reliable.
I may buy one at some stage when i work out how to conceal it in the cup holder with the tray down.
One thing that has been mentioned on other forums is the inability fir the adaptor to switch from day and night modes automatically. Anyone experienced this?

Andy B · February 27, 2022

21 hours ago, Mincey said:

I had my first proper run with wireless AA this week. A few things which I have noted:

- AA seems to devour my mobile's battery. I had it on the Qi charger on the way home and initially thought that the charger didn't work until I realised that AA was taking the charge as quickly as the charger was putting it in.

- Spotify does not appear to do random play on AA, even if the random option is selected. I keep getting the same songs again and again and again. I not 100% sure that I didn't have this issue using wired AA, but I am struggling to think of a reason why the method of connection should make any difference. I'm open to the wisdom of others here however.

- I haven't yet worked out how to read text messages via AA.

- There's none of the hiss which I got connecting via bluetooth.

The lack of random play is the biggie. I've only half-googled for a solution so far - there must be one out there somewhere. If that can't be resolved then I'd go back to bluetooth. First world problem I know but if there are nearly 4,000 songs on a play list, I'd like to hear some different ones every now and then.

Hi @Mincey

I'll try to help where I can.....

High Battery usage - this is to be expected I'm afraid with wireless AA, not much you can do about this. Also please note that using the AAWireless device will add to the workload of the phone and cause it to get quite warm and if the phone heats up to a certain degree it will automatically halt wireless charging therefore making the Battery drain even faster. On my longer trips (say, longer than 30-45 minutes) I switch back to wired AA.

Your Spotify issue - not much I can say to assist you with this I'm afraid as I don't use Spotify in "random" mode. My only suggestion would be to try to narrow down the cause of the problem, e.g. does it work better through wired AA or if you use Spotify outside of AA (e.g. in your house)?

Reading text messages - when you get a text message (SMS or WhatsApp) you should get a notification of this in the notification (bell) icon on the AA sidebar. Clicking on the icon will take you to the notification area where you can choose to play the message through the car's speakers.

Hope this helps.

Mincey · February 27, 2022

7 hours ago, Andy B said:

Hi @Mincey

I'll try to help where I can.....

High battery usage - this is to be expected I'm afraid with wireless AA, not much you can do about this. Also please note that using the AAWireless device will add to the workload of the phone and cause it to get quite warm and if the phone heats up to a certain degree it will automatically halt wireless charging therefore making the battery drain even faster. On my longer trips (say, longer than 30-45 minutes) I switch back to wired AA.

Your Spotify issue - not much I can say to assist you with this I'm afraid as I don't use Spotify in "random" mode. My only suggestion would be to try to narrow down the cause of the problem, e.g. does it work better through wired AA or if you use Spotify outside of AA (e.g. in your house)?

Reading text messages - when you get a text message (SMS or WhatsApp) you should get a notification of this in the notification (bell) icon on the AA sidebar. Clicking on the icon will take you to the notification area where you can choose to play the message through the car's speakers.

Hope this helps.

It does indeed, many thanks for all the tips. I'm off on a trip tomorrow so I'll revert to wired AA to see if Spotify behaves any better.

Mincey · March 1, 2022

Update: wired AA performed flawlessly. Tracks were played in random order from the entire 3000+ playlist, not just a subset of 10 or less. Who do I call to complain (and don't say "Ghostbusters") ...?

GregM · March 1, 2022

Dear Mincey

What set of AA wireless did you get? Can you specify the brand and the type ?

I've read that Motorola MA1 is quite good , but it is out of stock now and hard to predict when will be available in Europe

Mincey · March 2, 2022

20 hours ago, GregM said:

Dear Mincey

What set of AA wireless did you get? Can you specify the brand and the type ?

I've read that Motorola MA1 is quite good , but it is out of stock now and hard to predict when will be available in Europe

It's this one; https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aawireless#/

Mincey · March 8, 2022

I've updated the software from v1.50 to 1.80 and all looks well now. It's now playing randomly from the full playlist. Result.

Mincey · April 16, 2022

On 3/8/2022 at 5:56 AM, Mincey said:

I've updated the software from v1.50 to 1.80 and all looks well now. It's now playing randomly from the full playlist. Result.

I've been hearnig the same old songs in the car all week now. Just now, I checked what Spotify was playing outside the car and.... it was playing the same songs. I cleared the cache in the app and it seems to be playing some of the other 3950 songs on my Liked Songs list now. Squirrel that one away guys'n'gals.