Android Auto This year turned ten years old, and most vehicle manufacturers have adopted it so far. But until you drive a car for the last few years, it is likely that this wireless does not support Android auto. A good number of vehicles require a wired USB connection to establish a connection with your phone every time you need to use Android Auto. This is not a big problem, but I think it seems a bit annoying in small trips or when I am working.

Luckily, like a simple USB dongle Aawireless two dongle Do you need to make that wired connection wireless. This dongle works well, and its price is $ 65, but I recently discovered that you can make your own for a fraction of the cost. And after driving with such a DIY wireless Android auto adapter for two weeks, I wondering why I didn’t try it soon. The experience is almost wired and equal to the best, its cost only $ 15 and in a few minutes of your time.

Wireless Android Auto’s appeal is rather straight: You hope in your car, push the ignition, and your phone automatically connects within seconds. You do not have to worry about staggering in darkness or keeping ugly cables clean. My car’s USB ports are in a specific position, and I do not like how the cable gears run with the selector. A wireless Android auto dongle operates all this, allowing you to tuck a device in the USB port and forget about it.

The DIY solution with which I finished Rasbhari pie The infotainment system of my phone and car was configured to act as a wireless bridge. PI is a small, low-power computer that connects my phone to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It draws electricity from the car’s USB port and passes Android auto data on it in the infotainment system. The car feels that the phone is plugged, and the raspberry pie is completely transparent.

All this is possible for an open-source project-under the title titled WirelessandroidetodongalYou can find detailed instructions to set it down, but first, how well it works in the real world?

While a DIY solution may seem incredible, I wondered knowing that PI-based wireless Android Auto Dongle worked almost innocent. Every time the car starts, my phone automatically connects to the dongle. The initial handshake occurs on Bluetooth, but the phone then connects the Wi-Fi direct network of the raspberry pie for more stable connections.

The car does not know the difference and I used it in two weeks, I did not get any unexpected Android auto disconnect Or drop-out. Music and navigation worked well, even with a split-screen scene together. The interface did not leave even a beat.

Older dongle users such as Moto MA1 have long complained of legs performance and intermittent audio stores. There is no such problem here – navigation worked innocent even after receiving a phone call, and the music always resumed immediately after the call.

After saying this, I notice inconsistent performance in an area: Google Support Voice Command. Basic commands such as navigating at a particular place and notification readouts worked well, but answering text messages was sometimes a hit and miss experience. It worked well in about half the time, but sometimes I was waiting for a long time after reacting to me. Discussion on the Github page of the project suggests that the issue can be linked to special raspberry pie, which I used – this may not be a problem in a more powerful model. Or this can be the infotainment display of my car because this issue does not affect everyone.

Unlike Aawireless two, DIY Dongle does not have a fellow smartphone app. This is not a big deal-the Aawireless app has limited settings anyway, but it also means that you cannot remove or order smartphone connection priorities. After two phones were added to the raspberry pie, both would compete to connect every time I enter the car. If you driving with your partner, it can quickly be annoying. The commercial dongle has a push button to quickly switch between coupled tools, but DIY dongle has a deficiency. The only way to work around it is to disable Bluetooth on the phone you do not want to connect to the dongle.

Both these annoyance on one side, I had almost innocent experience with DIY dongle. The Android Auto takes a little longer to pop up compared to the wired method, but it is still a tolerant in 30 seconds. This cannot be done because the raspberry pie needs to boot a light linux OS when operated every time. But this is also true about commercial dongle like Aawireless two.

If you are sold on the idea of ​​creating your own wireless Android auto dongle, the good news is that you only need $ 15 raspberry pie and a microSD card. The cheapest model that you can overcome is Pi Zero 2 W, but you can also use Pi 4 or Pi 3 A+. Older models do not support USB OTG functionality.

Next, you have to flash the adapter software on the microSD card using the computer. This way:

1. Insert a microSD card in your PC or Mac, either straight or using adapters. You don’t need much storage – I used an old 8GB card.
2. Download an image shining equipment Balenetcher And pre-made SD card from image Wireless Android Auto Dongle Jethb page,
3. Open the baleneacher, click on “Flash from File” and browse the image you download in the previous stage.
4. Click “Select Target” and select the microSD card you first made.
5. Hit flash and wait for the process to complete.
6. Once flashing, you can remove the microSD card from your computer and put it in the raspberry pie.

With the image loaded on the PI, it is ready for the car. But first, make sure that you are connected to your car’s Android auto in wired mode at least once. After that, you can disconnect your phone and connect the raspberry pie to the car instead. PI at zero, you have to use the MicroUSB port with USB -labeled – not power.

Assuming that the car is running and the PI is operated, your phone has a head in the Bluetooth settings and search for the name device. Wirelessadongal-*. Connect it and accept the Prompt to connect the PI to the Wi-Fi network. Now you should see Android auto pop up on your car display.

Once coupled, your phone will automatically connect to PI once the head unit starts every time the head unit starts. And since then, you will never have to plug your phone again for Android auto – perhaps to keep the battery on the drive for a long time.