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Portable waterproof CarPlay units for your motorcycle

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Quote from mbirth on 19.02.2023, 12:34
Quote from 2BTSquared on 19.02.2023, 12:12

But, are you saying you can't access the USB port while the unit is in it's cradle? Every picture I've seen of the thing suggest that the USB is easily accessible when in the cradle. Or are you saying it would be difficult to remove the unit from the cradle with the USB cable plugged in? Why would one do that? Seems you would just unplug the cable then remove.

The latter. You'll have to remove the USB before taking the display with you and fiddle again with the plug after putting the display unit into the cradle. Or use the anti-theft screw and some Loctite to make the display a permanent one on your bike.

Thanks for the feedback. I'd be interested in what your experience reveals and if your opinion evolve with use.

Did a 1 hour test run with my Pixel 5a. It was connected to Android Auto via USB cable, but with no power (battery only). Waze was used for navigation. Car temperature was 70 degrees F. Battery dropped from 76% to 69% - 7%/hour.

Not great in my opinion. Could imagine worse results in extreme temperatures. Road trips with long days might put a significant hit on the phone's battery. Not sure I'd want to do this too often (wear and tear on battery).

I'd be curious to see what wireless Android Auto would do to the phone while plugged in. Probably have the phone setup not to quick charge for this experiment (~1.5 to 2 amps max). Would the phone get hot?

Of course, similar experiment with an iPhone, CarPlay and Scenic would be interesting. How would the iPhone fair here? Heat?

 

Hi,

I got my identical to Maxca Xplay C5, Ottocast Lite C5 a few days ago, did not test on a real ride, but fiddled around with it at home. It works very well together with my iPhone. But I can't establish a connection to my Midland BT Next helmet headset, it does not find it. I can pair it with my iPhone 11 without a problem.

Has someone paired his headset with the c5?

 

massi

Quote from massi on 24.02.2023, 17:18

Has someone paired his headset with the c5?

I've paired my Cardo Packtalk Bold without issues. Just make sure to use the BT_Transmit option on the Maxca to initiate pairing and use phone pairing on your headset.

Thanks for your answer, but it does not work, seems my BT Next is to old.:-/

 

 

Quote from 2BTSquared on 19.02.2023, 17:06

Battery dropped from 76% to 69% - 7%/hour.

What I’ve seen on iOS this battery usage is normal.

Apple CarPlay (and probably Android Auto as well, no experience yet), is more or less an extended display for your phone. Most of the processing (including GPS receiver) is still done on the phone.

You will use LESS battery by using Apple CarPlay  because your phone screen can be turned off. But you’ll use MORE because your phone needs to drive that second screen. In the end you’ll probably use a bit less battery compared to without CarPlay

In other words, if reducing battery consumption is your reason for getting such a unit, you’ll probably be disappointed.

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Marts
If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

About 3 weeks ago I ordered the MAXCA XPlay C5 Pro on AliExpress. I paid 150 EUR (incl shipping) and had to pay 300 Mexican pesos (around 15 EUR) taxes and customs fees. So, in total 165 EUR.

It arrived today and I unboxed it and installed it on my 2018 KTM 690 Enduro:

First Impressions:

- Reasonable to good build quality (the sun visor seemed a bit flimsy / cheap plastic, but hey, what can you expect for this price)

- It comes with mounting brackets to mount on your handlebars. The mounts seem very sturdy. The back of the unit has a RAM ball and the mount has a short RAM arm with another ball, so you get quite some flexibility position wise (of course you can always buy more RAM gadgets if you need more flexibility)

- It works even with ‘normal’ non-capacitive gloves. This was totally unexpected for me and a nice surprise.
UPDATE: Unfortunately this was wrong. It ONLY works with capacitive touch enabled gloves. The gloves I initially tested with were all capacitive I guess.

- Pairing my phone to the unit was super easy. (I do have some experience with pairing to CarPlay systems, but it’s basically like Bluetooth pairing).

- Pairing my Cardo Freecom 4x was also quite easy. I first thought I needed to ‘unpair’ the cardo from my phone, but turned out that was not necessary. I’m not sure how/if the cardo determines if it should connect to the phone or to the CarPlay unit. Will post more on that later if I have more experience with that.

- The interface is OK, but honestly you won’t use the built-in Maxca interface much. Once you have it set your way (I only connected the phone and cardo and adjusted the volume) you don’t need that interface anymore. Once the unit gets power it starts up and if the phone is near it automatically goes to CarPlay mode after a few seconds.

- Because it is wireless CarPlay no cable is required between your iPhone and the unit. Wireless CarPlay does have a bit of a delay between user input and actually executing the ‘command’. E.g. skipping to next song via the touch display has a delay of about 1 second before it actually skips to the next song. From what I know all wireless CarPlay units have this. At least in my experience.

-Because there is no cable your phone is not charging. You’ll probably still need a charging solution for your phone for longer rides (see my post just above this one) Perhaps cable to your tank bag, or power bank in pocket, etc.

- It comes with two ways to connect to power. One direct to the 12V power of your bike (I connected it to the ‘switched’ power so the unit turns on whenever my bike turns on)  It also comes with a USB connection so if you already have a USB (says it needs 2.5 amps so check that your USB outlet support at least that)  that might be an easy solution (although keep in mind… you might need that USB port to charge your phone).

- It’s easy enough to take it off from your bike. You can open the RAM leg by hand with a twist nut (not sure how you call those in English)  and the unit comes off. The cable also has a connector so that’s easy as well. So easy that theft might be a concern, so I might change that ‘twist nut’ with a normal nut and bolt so that at least  a tool is required to take the unit off. Not sure yet.
UPDATE: Thanks to @massi and @2BTSquared I found out it's much simpler to unmount. The Maxca actually comes in a cradle, which you can leave on your bike. By simply unscrewing a small screw at the back (can be done with your hand), the unit simply pops out. Cable, mount and cradle can stay on the bike.

All in all.  Happy so far.

Stay tuned for next steps when I actually go riding with it. I’m especially curious about brightness/sunlight, and how waterproof and vibration-proof it really is.

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

Thought this unit popped out of it's cradle for unmounting. Didn't think you need to remove from the Ram mount.

Thought this unit popped out of it's cradle for unmounting. Didn't think you need to remove from the Ram mount.

Maybe it does actually. That would be great. I’ll check tomorrow and let you know.

 

 

 

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

I'm guessing it should... Most of the adds for them show the unit and cradle separately...

 

You can see this dude popping the unit off the cradle in this video at about the 0:32 mark...

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256804558142313.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

 

Hi,

I have an Ottocast Lite C5, it's the same as the Maxca. You don't have to pull of the RAM Mount, there is a little screw on the back of the device you can losen by hand, then you can push the lever on the top and the device gets out of the cradle.

On my blog https://grossmaggul.de I yesterday published a post on how to "hack" a little bit the unit, it shows how to change the startup splash screen, the background images and the dashboards and some other things you can do.

It works even with ‘normal’ non-capacitive gloves.

Are you sure about this? I tested it with several gloves but only the special smartfon gloves worked.

Regards

Marc-Antón

You don't have to pull of the RAM Mount, there is a little Screw on the back of the device you can losen by hand, then you can push the lever on the top and the device gets out of the cradle.

Found it! Super! Thanks.

It works even with ‘normal’ non-capacitive gloves.

Are you sure about this?

Uhmmm... You're right. Doesnt'work with normal gloves. The gloves I tested with yesterday must be "all capacitive" because I even tested with the palm of the glove (because I was so surprised). In any case, tested with two other gloves now and only the fingers with capacitive capabilities work. Too bad, but not a very big deal. (I've adjusted my post above).

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

Did a little tour today, the display is good even in higher lights, but when the sun shines directly on the display you see nothing, but that's not a big problem. It's the same with my smartphone.

Unfortunately the carplay device lost several times the connection to the phone. I had the phone in the pocket of my trouser.

 

Regards

Marc-Antón

Unfortunately the carplay device lost several times the connection to the phone. I had the phone in the pocket of my trouser.

Same thing happened to me during my first ride. First hour of the ride was fine. Then, during about 5 minutes, it lost connection, reconnected, lost connection, reconnected, etc. After this 5 minutes it was stable for the remaining hour of the ride. Also phone in pocket. Not sure what the cause was. I assume the WiFi dropped away (wireless CarPlay start with Bluetooth to set up the connection, but then switches to WiFi).

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

That's a possible explanation. I will try it on the next trip to put the phone into a tank bag.

So, I asked Maxca about this on AliExpress. Here’s the response:

do you wear a smart watch?

please kindly power off the smart watch when you riding, also delete BT helmet from your phone bluetooth paired list

pair the BT helmet to C5 pro only

so your phone bluetooth won't keep trying to pair those bluetooth devices

that cut the wireless Android auto or carplay off

I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds plausible. I’m not wearing a smart watch, but I did have my Cardo linked to the c5 AND the phone. I will remove from my iPhone and try it like that on my next ride.

I also asked them for the new firmware. My unit is running the dec-22 firmware. There is a feb-23 firmware but doesn’t seem to address the connection drop issue according to the change log.

Here are the change logs:     
1,Volume settings ( CarPlay Navigation, CarPlay media, CarPlay Phonecall, Android auto volume) 

2, Logo preset ( Settings--Factory--123456--Settings--Logo--123456/000000)

If you dont find these 2 update useful for you, please ignore that.

They also have a Facebook page where they post news: https://m.facebook.com/100065678251410/

 

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

Second ride with the Maxca today. It was a ride of 1.5 hours. I did not experience any connection drops like on my first ride (see above).
I can only assume this is because I followed the recommendation of Maxca (to 'forget' my cardo in my phone's Bluetooth settings), see above as well. This is a bit of a nuisance because now I have to pair the Cardo to my phone temporarily every time I want to use it with the Cardo app and every time I want to use the Cardo with my phone, but without the Maxca (e.g. when I don't need navigation I don't need the Maxca for guidance, but I would like some music).

I did experience some very short audio drops just when I left my house. I'm not too worried about this though, because this also happens in my car (also wireless CarPlay) when I drive away. I'm guessing that's because my home Wifi is going out of range as I drive/ride away... or something related to that.

Before this ride, I updated the maxca firmware to the newest version. This firmware did not have any changes regarding the connection, but it did enable a customizable start-up screen and more detailed volume settings.

To get the latest firmware version you have to send Maxca a message through AliExpress. There's no link anywhere. They are pretty fast to respond though.

One small annoyance I found, but hopefully this was a one time thing. Because I installed the new firmware I had to reconnect my phone to get CarPlay. The first time it was pretty easy:... find the Maxca in your bluetooth settings on your iPhone, then connect. And rest went automatic. It wasn't automatic this time though. Not sure it was because I changed the default bluetooth name of the maxca, or if there was still some left-over bluetooth config on my phone. After about 5 tries I finally got it working. Not exactly sure why, but I turned off the Maxca. Then 'forgot' the maxca in my iPhone bluetooth settings. Turned off my phone, waited 2 minutes and turned it back on again. Then I turned on the maxca. Found it in my iPhone bluetooth settings and connected to it. That time everything went OK and iPhone asked me if I wanted to use the maxca for CarPlay...etc.

 

If you're enjoying Scenic and are happy with the support, please leave a nice rating in the App Store. It would mean a lot to me ❤️

I was hovering over the 'buy' button on AliExpress. Glad I checked here. The idea seems pretty solid but I'm gonna wait until the execution is done a little better. For now I ride 90% of the time with just Scenic, iPhone 13 and a Quadlock with wireless head and vibe damper. The other 10% or less (long road trips) I load the GPX files into my Garmin XT. Its a bit or a fuss/fiddle to get the Garmin to obey my wishes though. Looking forward to the springtime update and some hopeful improvements in that department. Good stuff Guido. Thank you for your guidance as always.

Thanks Guido, for the info, I will try this on my next ride and report if it works or not.

Because my old Midland BT next does not connect to the Maxca/Ottocast it's not that problem for me to remove the BT next from my phone, because I do not hear music when I ride and in the last time I also did not use the guiding voice with scenic.

 

Regards

Marc-Antón

I have the Maxca C5 pro, which I bought as my BMW Nav 6 died.

I’ve used it a few times, but today I gave in and bought a used iPhone XS Max and a WunderLINQ.

I really wanted to like CarPlay on the bike, but it just wasn’t up to the job. I missed being able to zoom in and out using the BMW wonder wheel; it is much more fiddly touching tiny CarPlay icons in thick winter gloves. The screen just isn’t big enough in my opinion.

Even with the latest firmware the connections were unstable and often required me to pair my phone again. The unit would also randomly drop the Cardo Packtalk bold connection and start outputting the audio through the device’s speaker.

There’s no battery in the units either, so when I turned the ignition on the unit would start to boot up, but then lose power as the GS cuts accessory power when starting the engine and the unit would then have to boot up again.

The Maxca units are 5” screens, but there’s too much bezel for my liking.  Elebest do a 7” version but seem to be constantly out of stock

I wouldn’t say the units are bad, but they need a bit of refinement before I’d consider them again. Once you’re used to the BMW wonder wheel everything else seems inferior. Maybe if they integrated WunderLINQ support into the unit, or even basic Bluetooth keyboard control so you could use a small joystick, the experience would be much better (similar to the native CarPlay on the Honda Africa Twin).

I’d give them 8/10 for the idea, but 5/10 for execution.

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