Lexus4Me?

Hi Herbie, Thank you very much for your post and for not giving up on me. I wrote two MacroDroid macros copying yours and this time they worked! Maybe sliding the ON/OFF slider to ON on the MacroDroid homepage may have helped! I got this message during the process:- but I'm running EMUI 12 which is equivalent to Android 10 so it has less chance of being problematic. We will see if Huawei rejects it at some later date but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. My apologies for not sorting this out when you first advised me about MacroDroid, Herbie, and again thank you very much for reiterating the information. You mention an intention to buy a TP-Link M7350? Was this a joke? I'm intending to send mine back now that you have helped me get an automated system. I would have thought that 75 Gb of data is going to keep you going for a good few years yet. MY mobile contract is with EE where I get 10 GB a month, not able to be accumulated, for £11. I think that amount of data should be OK unless I want to watch movies on my phone, or on the Lexus come to that. Right now back to domestic problems - how to fit a 1200 mm shower tray in a room that is only big enough for a 1100 mm one. I have a cunning plan..... I'll let you know about both the Vline/Huawei phone and the shower tray as time progresses. Regards, Barry

Hi again Mick, Yes, I had caught that post in my searches but not followed up on it because the device is quite large and I doubt that it would fit in the central storage so it would have to stick out in the middle of the back footwell using the rear 12V outlet at the back of the central console. Perhaps I'll send back the TP-link and try one of those though. Regards, Barry

Hi Mick and thank you for your post. My phone, an Huawei, is of Chinese manufacture but in fact the hotspot works splendidly. What doesn't work is MacroDroid, or at least not without a lot of hacking to remove the phone's battery saving programs so I would have to turn the hotspot on manually each time I started the car. What I am looking for is a modem which turns on when the ignition turns on, and off when it turns off again. Not too much to ask one might think and on searching the net there are many others wanting the same thing but completely, as far as I can see, unavailable. I suspect that the small thumbdrive? (100 X 35 X 12 mm) sized USB modems without a battery may do this but the one I purchased was useless at picking up a signal. I'm presently using a TP-link 7350 which is great apart from the fact that I need to turn it on or off manually and if I forget to turn it off and its battery goes flat I need to wait 20 minutes for it to charge before it starts working again. Car manufactures obviously have found a way to achieve what I want but perhaps they can purchase special modems from the modem manufacturers. ATB Barry

Hi Guys, Well I regret that I've not managed to check things for Auto Android yet. I've not had the car out for over a week and when I took it out today the battery in the TP-Link had gone flat and there was no internet available from it. It appeared to take over 20 minutes for it to charge and send out an internet signal to the Vline which isn't at all what I wanted. i could turn on the battery saver in the TP-link but again this would require me to turn it on every time I wanted to use it. Surely it isn't too much to expect a mobile hotspot to turn on with the car ignition. I suppose I must send the TP-Link back and try something else. All the best Guys, Barry

Hi Exdee, Thank you for your post. So I go to the Bluetooth settings on my phone and select Vline/settings. Call audio and Media audio are already turned off so I'll leave them like that. Internet access and Contact sharing are also off but I'll turn Contact sharing on because I'd like my contacts available for phone call information and maybe for address location on the SatNav map. I'm using the TP-link for internet access so I guess that I won't need to turn the Internet access on here. Do you know if this is the same as setting the phone as a Hotspot? But you say that " If using AA wirelessly the initial connection for android auto is made using Bluetooth however Bluetooth is not powerful enough for wireless display. A simultaneous connection is also made using wifi for wireless display purposes." So do I turn on Bluetooth on the phone and then turn it off again? Will I need to do this for each journey or will it sort itself out after the initial set up? Lastly, I think I can only have one wifi connection at a time. Vline is set up to connect to the TP-link for its Internet connection. How can I set the phone up for wifi connection at the same time? I do have an AA symbol on the Vline menu screen, perhaps I set that up using Bluetooth some time ago. I really appreciate your guidance, Exdee. Many thanks, Barry

Hi Guys, Sorry no video. I went to the car this morning and just got a black screen on the Vline side of the screen. I turned the ignition off then on again and not only a black screen but, on the speedo display, a plethora of warning about virtually every system that the Lexus runs. As I suspected a flat auxiliary battery. I'm charging it up now and hope that I've not flattened it too much with all this sitting in the garage fiddling with the Vline with the ignition off - it would add about another £200 to the price of the Vline if I have to replace it. The Vline appears to be a bit more sensitive to low voltage than the main Lexus system so starts misbehaving first by flashing. I've still not tried the TP-Link 7350 in earnest and I also need to test out Android Auto and the various methods of making a phone call that Herbie suggested. On that point, Herbie, could you please tell me what I have to do to set, and use the Lexus OEM to handle phone calls, please. Regards and thank you, Enjoy the rest of the weekend, Barry

Thank you for Hi Exdee, I'll have a look and see if it might suit me. Regards, Barry

Hi Herbie, Thank you for the post. I was aware that you weren't a fan of Android Auto and I reasoned that if it were bad enough for you it would probably be bad enough for me. I've certainly no wish to watch YouTube and Netflix while driving nor having them on for someone else to watch. I even doubt that I'd watch either of them in the car at all. I'll try both methods of phone calls and see how well they work. Last time I tried, I phoned my daughter while Vline was running - the call got through but then my mic cut out - or was it the sound? Certainly phone calls via Lexus with my mobile phone worked very well and the phone wasn't even bad at making a call to a contact using a voice command. The Lexus calling system, as with voice navigation was brilliant as a joke eg. Me, in front of a friend, "Navigate to Bristol" Lexus "Dialling 234234567". Not so amusing when one actually did want to go to Bristol of course. I've tried to get a video of the screen and interestingly the flashing is just the Grom screen, which was displaying Google Maps, the right hand third was displaying fuel consumption and was solid and clear. Unfortunately I've recorded virtually every other part of the car when I thought I had the camera off, but it was on, then when I got the screen into view I turned the camera off! It is getting on for 10 pm and I'm in my dressing gown so I will await until tomorrow. In any event the flashing screen isn't causing me any trouble in normal use. One other oddity that you guys may be able answer to save my contacting Grom is the microphone on the bottom right of the Vline screen. If I press it, it asks "Where do you want to go?No match" with no space to squeeze in even the briefest destination. Any ideas. Using the microphone on Google Maps does the job well enough. The question it poses occurs whether one is on a navigation screen or otherwise. Regards, and thank you again. Barry

Hi Herbie and Dave, Well, initially things are looking good although I still haven't moved the car out of the garage. The TP-link turned on when I turned on the ignition although the Vline had chosen my home WiFi in preference. I forced it to use the TP-Link router and it worked fine and transitioned from one to the other without problems. I can't see any reason why it shouldn't work OK when I take the car out for a drive - I'll let you know. I also managed to turn off power saving mode on the TP-Link, which ought to be a Good Thing. I abandoned things because the screen started flashing again. Regards, Barry

Hi Exdee, Thank you for your post. I am aware that there the Vline2 does have android auto capabilities, and I seem to recall that Grom suggested that using them may be a good start to using the Vline2. I know they work using Bluetooth but I don't know what their advantage is. There seem to be quite a few Grom videos staring Android Auto and phone calls. Is this what I need to do if I want to make calls? Once it is set up will the Vline2 initiate Android Automatically when I start the car if my phone is nearby with Bluetooth turned on. Can I still use the other apps stored on the Vline, please? Regards, Barry

Hi Dave, Well I've bought a TP-Liink 7350 and it seems to work in the car even with the USB connection charging it. However I did some more internet research and this is not recommended:- From the TP-link https://www.tp-link.com/fi/support/faq/793/ Q7: Can I buy an extra battery from TP-Link? A: Sorry to tell that we do not have separate batteries for sale. If you want to use the MiFi device for a longer time, power bank is a good choice. Q8: Can I use the 4G Mobile Wi-Fi when charging it? A: Yes, but after it is fully charged, it is recommended to disconnect it from the charger. Q9: Can I use the 4G Mobile Wi-Fi without a battery? A: No, In order to protect the Mobile Wi-Fi device, it cannot work without battery by directly connected to a charger. I've not had chance to give the device a thorough test and I've only used it in the garage. The Vline starts flashing on and off after a while and I think this may be because of the car battery getting flat - I hope I won't need to buy another. Anyway I had to stop as a result. I'm concerned that the power saving mode, which turns off the Wi-Fi if it hasn't anything connected to it for a period will mean that I have to turn it on at the beginning of every journey. Not what I wanted which is why I abandoned the mobile phone. It looks like it is possible to turn the power saving mode off but I've yet to achieve this. As long as I can get it to stay on or turn on automatically I shall keep it. I hope that neither you nor I suffer from any connection or battery problems. Regards, Barry

Hi Herbie, Well, I'd be happy to run it without a battery, getting its power supply via a USB connection, so it turns on when the ignition turns on and off when the ignition turns off. I don't mind having the battery there but I don't want to find that it goes flat over a period of time when I'm not using the car - a long holiday in the Bahamas comes to mind as it does on any wet winter's day in England - and then the modem won't operate on USB alone. My mobile phone will operate from a USB supply when the battery is fairly flat but if the battery falls below 2% the supply is given over just to charging the battery and the phone won't operate. To be fair it won't do this for long because it charges quickly. Let's hope the TP-link behaves OK although it is going to take a long time for the battery to flatten so I can find out - perhaps, with luck, I never will. All the best, Barry

Hi Dave, Thank you for those reassuring words. I feel considerably more optimistic about my purchase now. I've been struggling on with trying to use an Huawei mobile for far too long. I just hope the broadband reception is good enough. All the best, Barry

Hi Herbie, Thank you for the suggestions. It appears to be not quite as straightforward as one might think. I've done some internet searches on some of the mobile routers suggested by Techadvisor and apparently running them from a USB supply can be problematic. The Huawei 5576 apparently won't work without a battery in it and people have gone to quite a lot of trouble cutting the terminals off a battery and wiring these up with a cable to a USB port - so presumably without the battery the supply won't work the router. Makes no sense to me and there were some doubtful reasons to justify the situation. The TP-link M7350 also seems fussy about its supply. Some members of the forum I was looking at said it didn't work without a battery, others said it did. One contributor said "Its HW defects, you lacks) Normal modem not working without battery" - make of that what you will. Apparently the battery can overcharge causing it to swell (and goodness knows what else - I hope not to find my lovely Lexus on fire). However, it will only be charging when the ignition is on and it has a biggish battery giving 10 hours of use with a long standby so I'm hoping it will be OK. I've ordered one from Amazon at £65 and I'll give it a thorough test and return it if it doesn't come up to scratch. I hope it works because the present situation is frustrating my use of the Vline2, which seems to have its own idiosyncrasies anyway. Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know how I get on. Now back to ripping plaster off my bedroom's walls. All the best, Barry

Hi again Herbie, What a helpful and knowledgeable chap you are. Thank you for the link which I've studied but I note that all these mi-fi routers have a battery which suggests they need charging and I suspect from the mains. What I really need is a dongle which plugs into the usb socket in the Lexus and starts working when I turn on the engine. The Yantan one I tried did this but it was useless at picking up a broadband connection - I'd like to find on that works well. I have two Huawei mobile phones (great at picking up a signal) and I'm using one permanently connected to the car but I'm having to fiddle about trying to use MacroDroid, which you put me on to, thanks again, and various dodges to defeat Huawei's efforts to stop my using it. At the moment I can connect the phone to the Vline but I have to turn it on each time. I hope that all is good with you, Barry

I fitted a Grom Vline2 to my 2012 GS Premier with ML (an early Mk 4, the latest and last GS model) . Had some difficulties but Grom suport in the USA and in the UK as well as Herbie from this forum were very helpful. It now works well when connected through my Huwaei Mate 20 pro mobile phone personal hotspot but I'd like to use a permanent dedicated mobile modem it is ready working when I turn on the ignition and I don't have to set up the hotspot on my phone each time. I tried a Yantan Portable 4G/3G LTE car wi-fi router hotspot 150MBps USB dongle mobile broadband modem but the connection to the internet was very poor - poor aerial?. Does anyone have any recommendations for a mobile modem that works well? Grom Audio US suggested a modem supplied with a SIM from one of the major mobile broadband suppliers but these seem expensive for my purposes and I'm hoping to use a cheap Lebara SIM (about a fiver a month) and to just pay once for the modem rather than rent it monthly. Herbie suggested programming the mobile phone with MacroDroid but Huwaei kill off such programs. Thanks in advance, Barry

Thanks for the advice fellow members. In the event I decided to follow instructions posted elsewhere and remove the trim around the infotainment screen, the trim around the radio/cd player, the cup holder/seat heater/vent controls and the gear shift plate and run the charging cable behind these back to the back of the "cigar lighter" socket from a small gap I filed out on the top right of the screen surround. Most of these were surprisingly easy to pop out (two hex headed screws on the gear shift plate) although the trim around the screen is held in at the top by three poppers with small weakly threaded screws retaining them. Unscrewing the screw didn't work - the screws just turned but didn't withdraw and just levering the poppers out was brutal and difficult. What one needs to do is to lever under the head of the popper and then use a short screwdriver to undo the screws. Both the poppers and the screws can just be pushed back in for refitting - on doesn't need a screwdriver. Since the mobile phone would normally be connected to the "cigar lighter" outlet this seemed safest and is easier than trying to connect to a spare terminal on a fuse box. Slightly worrying however was just how thin the wires to the socket were (key fob for comparison) and I've put "cigar lighter" in inverted commas because I suspect trying to use the socket for lighting a cigar would at the least blow a fuse if it didn't melt the wiring! The socket is labelled 12 V 20 W and my phone charger is using most of that. I'm pleased with the neatness of the arrangement - the short length of lead in the photo below is all that can be seen of the wiriing. Using an inductive charging phone holder means that the lead is connected to the holder not the mobile phone so it doesn't need connecting and disconnecting each time it is used. In the end I elected for a CHOETECH 15 W Wireless car phone holder/charger because it had a suitably higher power compared to the Voltbeam (7.5 W) which i initially considered. I like the way it automatically grips the phone when the latter is placed in the holder but wish I had bought a model which would release even when the supply was turned off. As it is I have to turn the car back on to to free the phone. I'm just a bit disappointed by the bulk of the suction cup and hinged parts supporting the holder. The abundance of cheap fittings which are available with action cameras like the Hero Go Pro seem much better but are, as far as I can see anyway, incompatible with mobile phone holders.

Hi all, I have had a good search involving mobile phone fitting on the GS (mine is a 2012 Mk 4 450h with Mark Levinson). I've decided I need a secure location for my mobile phone and want it charging on the go and to be visible so I can use it as a Sat Nav. I've narrowed my search for a holder down to a Voltbeam Sensor 2 which provides wireless charging and a clever automatic hold and release facility. I've no doubt that I can locate it suitably somewhere above the dashboard but, and here is the thing, I don't want a charging wire dangling across the car to the USB socket in the armrest. I can find a 12V to 5V regulator and I'm pretty sure I can lead a wire with a micro USB plug attached neatly out from around the screen to go to the holder. I would really value advice on locating suitable switched 12V wires that I can tap into behind the nav screen or radio. I know that I can delve around with a voltmeter but one never really knows what one is connecting to and if doing so might have adverse affects elsewhere in the car. Any advice greatly received.

OK fellow members I've found its location but I shall leave the quiz open for a while although sadly the answer isn't interesting.

Well fellow forum members I'm very disappointed in the response to my last picture quiz way back in summer 2016. The answer was the emergency parking brake release located in the bottom of the boot and operated by the pointed tool in the tool kit. No prizes! Here is my latest quiz. What is this and where does it fit? I'll give you a clue. I believe it came off when I was removing the left side (as one looks in the boot from the rear) boot liner. There was a snap and I thought I'd broken something plastic. but I can't find anything broken.I found it behind the battery in the boot of the car. All the edges are smooth and it does not appear to have broken off anywhere. No prizes I regret except the enjoyment of helping a member put his car back together. I hope this might offer you some distraction in these difficult times of isolation caused by the Coronavirus.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried one of these mirroring devices. It looks like one needs to control it with the phone not the mouse thingy built into the car which I imagine is fiddly.

Yes, Keith, you may be right although from the reports I read there seems to be a knack to it involving a kick under the bumper and back. I've made an enquiry with one of the Alibaba suppliers but it looks like the $40 might be the price per kit if I were to order 500,000 kits a month. Any interest Forum members - we may be able to put in a bid for two minutes worth? No Rayaans, not sexist, possibly rude, but not sexist. I'm happily at one with my female side but all man despite that. I get no joy out of getting dirty unlike "you blokes" but I'm happy as a sandboy taking an engine to bits just as I am taking an attractive woman out for a drive in a car, the ivory upholstery of which is not smeared by grubby fingerprints. But each to his own.

In the recent wet weather I've noticed how quickly the rear of my GS gets dirty. I'm surprised that Norfolk need to have road sweepers there is so much dirt accumulated on the back of the car. A particular irritation is that the boot release switch outside on the boot of my model gets very grubby and transfers the muck onto my finger when I operate it - especially when I use the same finger to adjust my white bow tie . I'm well aware that I could use the button inside the car or the button on the key fob (which sometimes does the job by itself when I don't want it to) but I've got used to the keyless opening and ignition and I'm getting terribly lazy in my old age and I'd much rather just leave the key in my pocket. And yes I ought to clean the car more often but the button can get filthy after just one journey. I've noticed that some marques are now being made with a foot activated boot opener (just make a kicking motion under the bumper) and this would seem to be just the job. I've had a look on the internet and they do appear to be available from China through Alibaba but I thought I'd ask you guys and gals before I risk investing the equivalent of about $40 plus P&P - if I can in fact order a single kit. It appears that they are available with their own proximity key fob which I wouldn't need. I'd appreciate any observations or advice from forum members. Barry

Hi guys, I'll add my two-penneth as I started this thread. In the event I paid my £80 for the navigation update (half price) and got a decent cup of coffee and a nice clean car back too. It is something of a relief now to travel down the A11 and find that the sat-nav has me securely placed on a road an not in the middle of a field but I know it is only a matter of time before I'll need to buy a further update (at full price this time) or find some other navigation system. I additionally bought from e-bay an inexpensive Bakeey NonSlip 360° Rotation Dashboard Car Mobile Phone Mount Holder GPS PDA to hold my mobile phone which, as holders for mobile phones in cars go, does a very good job. holding the phone in an excellent position for viewing above the cowl to the screen but it isn't that convenient to control and I haven't got a power supply to it. The mobile I own has good battery life and charges rapidly so the latter hasn't been a problem so far. I also note that Beat Sonic now appear to make a screen mirror (ID IF-04EP) for many Mk 4 GS models. Videos are available on the internet and I think I found a UK supplier while surfing on this topic (but I can't quickly locate it now). It was expensive but as I noted above so is buying navigation updates every year or so. I'd welcome a review from anyone who has purchased this item so that I can further consider this option when I feel the present built in navigation maps are beyond their useful life.

Ah, thank you again Edwardo, in that case it seems worthwhile to give the BlueDUN month's free trial app a try. If I get any success I'll post it here.