Some Questions for Wireless Carplay

Greetings,

Does anyone use this dongle - Carlinkit? (or a device similar to it). Where it turns the factory installed Apple CarPlay in your Mazdas- into a wireless solution.

And if so, if you could please assist with the following two questions:
Does it reliably connect every single time? Or do you find yourself having to frequently adjust the settings.
Does your phone automatically & quickly connect once you start your vehicle?
Thanks so much for the insight, I really want to place an order on a CX-9, but not having wireless CarPlay is a dealbreaker.
 
I have version 2 and it’s mostly reliable. There have been a handful of times where I’ve had to unplug and plug back it for it to connect my phone but nothing too bad. What normally happens in that situation is the connect screen will keep rebooting and it will never recognize my phone. Again, it doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it’s frustrating. There is a version 3 now so maybe it’s a bit more reliable than previous generations.

Once cranked my phone is CarPlay connected within 10 seconds
 
The new ones are pretty reliable. You get the odd time when it doesnt work, but thats not because of the wireless kit. Its because Mazda infotainment royally sucks and it freezes even when you use it the regular cable method. We have an aftermarket wireless kit in our second car which is a mercedes. It works 100% of the time and has never failed once.
 
I use the Ottocast dongle, and have also tried the Carlinkit you use. I find every time I start car I get a slightly different result. Sometimes within 30 seconds, but very rarely. Usually more like a minute or so. And sometimes nothing at all. I'll keep trying these as I really want the wireless option, but not sure these dongles are the answer. They all use more or less the same technology and chipset so I think its now a matter of waiting for someone to come up with a new way of doing this. I'll keep buying and returning (thanks Amazon) until one is consistent, but for now, haven't found that to be the case. Like others, I think the Mazda infotainment system might be the culprit. As a side note and to maybe help others - remove your existing bluetooth connection from the system as it will always try that first and that tends to take priority when booting up.
 
I finally got the carlinkit 3.0 purchased directly from the official. It will work well for any one that tends to leave there phone in a pocket or purse. My observations-
1 - it takes about 30 seconds from key on to active CarPlay.
2- if you interact with your phone at all during those 30 seconds the connection will fail. 95% success if I don’t touch my phone from key on until connection done. 95% fail if I try to do anything on the phone during that time.

Doesn’t seem to matter if phone is locked in my pocket or fully open to an app during connection process. Works either way if I leave it alone… Just any interaction with phone interrupts and fails the connection. Easy to plan around but slows my departure as I tend to start the car and then set a destination/music and then pull away. This adds 30 compared to direct cable CarPlay or you have to set destination/music while driving.

I have found that I’m more likely to leave it in my pocket for short trips with wireless available vs plugging in where I automatically put in the dash mount when I plugged it."
 
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