Apple Carplay - the good, the bad, and the really ugly

[racoon]

:::grumblegrumblegrumble:::

So I spent the time from my last post, about an hour, in the garage with my Spyder.
I did start the Spyder's engine and had it idling during all of the testing.
I then powered on the headset and confirmed that it connected.

I was testing four original Apple USB to Lightning cables and the one brand-spanking-new Belkin USB to Lightning cable I bought earlier today! So a total of 5 cables to test, and I tested each cable at least twice by completely unplugging the cable, then plugging it into the iPhone, and then plugging it into the USB connector in the glove box.

I did notice that it took from 6 to 10 seconds for Apple CarPlay to activate once the iPhone was connected.

Test results:
2 of the Apple cables succeeded each and every time.
2 of the Apple cables failed each and every time!
The brand-spanking-new Belkin cabled failed each and every time.

So I took the three cables that failed on the Spyder over to my Honda Ridgeline, and tested Apple CarPlay in my Ridgeline.
All three cables, including the new Belkin cable, worked perfectly with CarPlay in the Honda Ridgeline.
The Belkin cable is black, so it's going to be the main cable in my Ridgeline, which has a dark gray interior. I had been hiding the white Apple cable away in the storage compartment when I wasn't driving, now I won't have to do that with the black Belkin cable.
The 2 Apple cables that failed will be used in the house, one on my nightstand to charge my iPhone at night, and one in with my computer to download and install software updates to the iPhone. Both appear to work fine for that.

I will test the "working" cables again tomorrow, just to be sure.
And I will take the Spyder for a ride, using the "working" cables to eliminate the possibility that vibration is an issue with the iPhone.

I've mapped out a loop around town, about 25 miles total, 14 of which are on Interstate I-40.
If that works, I'll ride over to Hermitage, Tennessee for lunch, a distance of 135 miles round trip, 1/2 on a state highway at 50-55 MPH, and 1/2 on Interstate I-40 at 65-70 MPH.

I'll stop halfway through each trip to switch cables.

I'll be taking the Garmin Zumo XT GPS with me on the longer trip, just in case.

I did try Bluetooth pairing the iPhone to the Spyder during the first test, and then unpaired it during the second test.

Neither seemed to make a difference in terms of the CarPlay Navigation working.

 

[Peder]

The Can Am radio is really picky. You have to have what it considers to be the correct cable. I have a friend who has found that a
GoPro cable works best for him. You also need to make sure that the USB female port is clean. He uses this before he plugs
in the cable. The tight or ultra tight work best.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunstar-872FC-Proxabrush-Go-Betweens-Cleaners/dp/B07B9FFHS6/ref=sr_1_10?adgrpid=1225956474317441&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0HVBtsGAh7olFHlV-dUORx4XcBj7S5RLvJeF5HqTHSpSy1M7jS2jID8HlpjqT3hum53L9MWJpLBfeNBKSFMy1MzPtS5UVb3rUqtjVQRmRTE9FZ18n3xhOHJwJ7fOUBfJPmf1dnLVMfAhP30D5cMO5gLqE-lKOlaCXAO_Bd1vfWjIiIyBbr32eaNhV57dc3jtDbj-7ox9WXxYU_Ji72RClmCo3CYssGtHgUU9Yc5I54DN8N9m26UJ-ZTgxxRtSGBJdxLDgCzUe3F_xAuJQDOnOuXimfzkry5Vb0W9EReneoY.SIaLqADtNtx_M0Au0jj5RRmNCJ90S8_BbF-pl6qWng8&dib_tag=se&hvadid=76622410627818&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=109746&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-76622547670019%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=29208_14695881&keywords=brush%2Bpicks%2Bdental&mcid=14cbefd61b63336891ddf6f7a626951b&msclkid=c25586d51ca610ff73e8eeec0b974114&qid=1748571979&sr=8-10&th=1

 

[CassND]

I had trouble with SENA losing connection while using CarPlay. I see there was a firmware update and I installed. Hopefully that helps.

 

[racoon]

You also need to make sure that the USB female port is clean.

A good point, although I'm not sure I'd go quite that far. I do have some pipe cleaners, so I'll use one of them to clean it out.

A bit of research, and I found some plugs/dust covers for the USB connector, and also some wrist straps/lanyards designed to keep yourself connected to your cell phone.
Combining the plugs and the straps I should be able to tether a cap to the cable, so I don't lose the cap when I've got my cell phone connected.

Life intruded, so I haven't been for a ride, but hope to get out tomorrow.

 

[racoon]

HD's recommendation was use to use a vibration absorbing mount for the iPhone. Apparently the iPhone doesn't like vibrations, and sometimes disconnects due to the vibrations.

So while I like my current mount, and I love my Otterbox Defender iPhone case, I ordered a QuadLock handlebar mount for my Spyder and a QuadLock vibration dampener for the mount. And of course I had to order a QuadLock case for my iPhone, since the back has the mounting connector on it, and a QuadLock Poncho for the case. The Poncho keeps your phone "...safe from mud, dust and rain."

So the order from Quad Lock arrived:

1 Quad Lock Motorcycle Handlebar kit
1 Vibration Dampener
1 Quad Lock Anti-Theft Screw Kit
1 Quad Lock Case specific to my iPhone
1 Quad Lock Poncho specific to my iPhone

The components appear to be of a very good quality.
The instructions about assembling the pieces and installing them were...well, "sparse" would not be an exaggeration.

And a few of really annoying things.

1) The Anti-Theft Screw Kit came with 9 different screws and a special allen wrench to fit the odd security heads.
Installing the handlebar kit used the two shortest screws, leaving me with 7 screws that I have no use for. And those 7 screws are a different thread size than the two that I used.

Screws I used:
M4x16
M4x12

Screws I have no use for:
M5x50
M5x35
M5x25
M5x25
M5x20
M5x20
M5x16

So I paid US $15.99 for 9 screws, only 2 of which I actually needed.

2) The case fits very well, and took some effort to get it onto my iPhone. The mount on the back of the case works well with the Quad Lock, although again, the instructions on how to use it were very lacking. If you look at pictures of the Quad Lock, there's a black arm that sticks out to one side. In order to get the phone case to mate to the mount, you have to press down on the black arm, while then twisting the phone case into place.

And then there's the "Poncho", again lacking any useful instructions about how to use it.
I eventually figured out to mount it to the case, once my iPhone was in the case and then ran into a design "feature" that causes a big problem.

The connector on the iPhone is at one end. It's where you plug the cable into the iPhone, and then plug the other end of the cable into the USB port in the Spyder's glove box. The iPhone has to be connected to the USB port in order for Apple CarPlay to work.

The Poncho "...is designed to keep your iPhone screen and ports safe from mud, dust and rain."

Note that it says "ports".
Which includes the port where you connect the cable that must plugged in so you can use Apple CarPlay.
Yes. The Poncho covers that port.

Fortunately the Poncho did have a slight oval indentation over the port area, so a few minutes with a razor blade cutting tool opened up that area so I can plug my iPhone into my Spyder.

3) The base of the handlebar kit is a metal clamp that you use one of the screws to tighten the clamp around your handlebars. Since it's a metal clamp, it comes with several different sized plastic spacers. You put the appropriate spacer on your handlebar, then attach the clamp around it.

The Arkon mount I had been using previously also came with plastic spacers, which is important to my long winded story.

So I tried the mount using the thinnest spacer first, and found that the spacer was too thin. When tightened up, the mount easily spun around the handlebars.

So I tried the mount with the next thickest spacer and it didn't fit. The spacer was too thick, and didn't allow the mount to close enough that I could get the screw to thread.

I checked the packaging, and the other spacers were even thicker, so they obviously wouldn't work.

So I started thinking, maybe if I put a couple of layers of black electrical tape around the handlebars, and then the thin spacer it would work. But I wasn't really happy about that idea.

And then as I was trying the thin spacer and mount on different sections of the handlebar to see if it fit better somewhere else (yes, I really was grasping at straws), I noticed that I still had one of the Arkon mounts on the handlebars, which had a ball mount on it for use with the Garmin Zumo XT GPS. And yes, the Arkon mount uses a similar plastic spacer around the handlebars. The Arkon mount uses standard Allen head bolts for mounting, so I had to go find the correct Allen wrench, and then removed the Arkon mount, leaving the spacer on the bar.

Using just the Arkon spacer with the Quad Lock mount wasn't enough, but when I used both the thin Quad Lock spacer and the Arkon spacer I was able to tighten up the Quad Lock mount so it wouldn't move around.

I've attached a picture of the Quad Lock mounted to the handlebars. I put it next to the left handgrip, so it would be close to my left hand if I need to do something on the phone screen while riding.

I've also included a picture of the complete installation instructions.
The other side of the instructions has pictures showing to mount and unmount your phone onto the Quad Lock.

 

[GRHorst]

The Apple and the Spyder issue you first described is about what I experienced. I found that if I received any sort of text or email ping due to receiving these on my iphone, it would disconnect and probably for other things as well. Since this happens a lot, I found the Apple Connect feature to be worthless and just stopped using it, hoping that someday, there would be a fix in the Spyder system (which is obviously where the issue lies!)

 

[rhallanger]

I did take my '24 Spyder to a dealer, since the Apple Carplay definitely was working, then it stopped working. So they did get a couple of talks with BRP. But one thing is still making me confused - the music to my helmet works great, but when I call someone, they say I sound like Mickey Mouse, and they come out sounding like a 77 rpm record at 33.3 rpm to me! Any ideas on why this is happening?
ugh!
Rick.

 

[racoon]

but when I call someone, they say I sound like Mickey Mouse, and they come out sounding like a 77 rpm record at 33.3 rpm to me! Any ideas on why this is happening?

Is your headset paired directly to your phone?

My Sena headset allows for 3 separate Bluetooth pairings; two pairings to cell phones, and one pairing to a "GPS" device.
I have my iPhone paired as phone one, and the Spyder is paired as the GPS device.

 

[racoon]

Well, life interrupted my plans to take a short (~25 mile) ride to test things a couple of days ago, but I was able to get out for a ride today.
I ended up driving about 10 miles and then turned around and drove home.
I was doing something different than I had planned.

Apple Carplay supports a number of different apps (about 50!). The one I had been using for navigation is the "Apple Maps" app.
Apple Carplay also supports the Google Maps app.

Here's what the Apple Maps icon looks like:



And here's what the Google Maps icon looks like:



I decided to switch to using Google Maps because of a limitation with Apple Maps. If you want to share a map route with someone, the most common format to share is a GPX file. GPX stands for GPS Exchange file.

The problem I ran into is that Apple Maps doesn't support GPX files, at least not directly. There are apparently a few 3rd party apps that can translate/transform a GPX file into something that Apple Maps can use. I even found one with good user reviews that had a 5 day trial period before you had to pay for it. Despite help from that company's support staff, I was not able to get it to work. So that attempt failed.

Which is where the Google Maps application came into play. It does support GPX files, and it also will run under Apple Carplay.
So I created a route using the Google Maps website, which offers a "send to..." option so you can create a map and then send it to your phone.
Which I did, and got a message on my iPhone about receiving it.
But when I went for my ride and tried to bring up the route there was no route there!
So I pulled over into a gas station parking lot, tapped a lot of things on both my iPhone and my Spyder's display, and could not get it to work.
I did have my home address saved in Apple Maps, so I was able to get Apple Maps to take me home, not that I really needed it.

Some time with Google when I got home lead me to another application, Google Drive. It runs on Windows or Macintosh computers, and has Apple and Android apps for your phone. And Google Drive is capable of processing GPX files, and sending them to the Google Maps app on your phone.

Google Drive icon:



So my iPhone now has a copy of the Google Maps app and the Google Drive app.
I was able to get Google Drive to recognize the GPX file, and when I opened the GPX file with the Google Drive app on my iPhone, it immediately switched to the Google Maps app with the route from the GPX file displayed on the screen.

So another ride attempt tomorrow, using the Google Maps app on my iPhone, plugged into my Spyder. I'll use the Google Maps app in Apple Carplay on my Spyder to drive the GPX route that I've loaded into Google Maps app on my iPhone.

And now I have a headache, so I'm going to take a couple of aspirin and go to bed early.
Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight, but they'll be gone by morning. It's supposed to be cloudy in the low 70s F tomorrow.
I'll probably start early, so I can pick up a Sunday newspaper and some breakfast while I'm out riding (and hopefully navigating!)

 

[rhallanger]

Is your headset paired directly to your phone?

My Sena headset allows for 3 separate Bluetooth pairings; two pairings to cell phones, and one pairing to a "GPS" device.
I have my iPhone paired as phone one, and the Spyder is paired as the GPS device.

I do have the phone connected to my Sena helmet. But, in the pre '24 Spyder world, it was (android) run thru the bike... and calls were perfect. Now, they aren't... so that's the problem. Not sure about the answer.

 

[racoon]

Well, there was some rain today, so I didn't go for a ride. I did need to run an errand, so I drove my Honda Ridgeline, which also has Apple Carplay.

When I started up and plugged in my iPhone, the display started up in Google Maps. So I entered the destination where I was going, and drove off.

First impressions.
The Google Maps display is a lot more colorful than the Apple Maps. More background colors, brighter color for the route displayed on the screen.

There was also an interesting two part speed display in the upper right corner.
The left side of the two parts looked like a standard Speed Limit sign you'd see on the side of a US road, white background, black border, and black letters. And the numbers changed as I drove through different speed zones.

The right side was the same size, but didn't have the black border. And it showed the actual speed I was driving, which duplicated the speedometer display in the dash. But, if I was driving faster than the speed limit, even one mile per hour faster, the numbers changed to a muted red color.

I found an example of the number color changes online, in an article on ZDNet.com about using Google Maps.

How to use the speedometer and speed limit in Google Maps on an iPhone

A Google Maps navigation perk can display your speedometer and the current speed limit in miles or kilometers, depending on the region.

www.zdnet.com

Edit: And as I pulled into my driveway, Google Maps said "Welcome Home".
Really.
I'm not kidding.

 

[racoon]

So I went for a ride this morning in order to avoid the thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon.
I drove the same route as yesterday, using the same iPhone but connected to my Spyder this time.
It was not pretty.

Powered on my helmet headset, then plugged in my iPhone. It took several plug and unplugs to get the Spyder to recognize that the iPhone was connected. Google Maps opened up once it recognized my iPhone. So far, so good.

But then I tried to get it to navigate the route that was in Google Maps. Nope, it wouldn't do it.
Turned the Spyder off and on several times, even turned off my iPhone, and unplugged and plugged it several times.

It showed Google Maps on the display, so it was recognizing that my headset was paired, and my iPhone was plugged in, but - not - the route that was showing on my iPhone.

So I rode the route, stopping at each waypoint and doing the unplug/plug steps each time.
Google Maps displayed, but not any route information on the Spyder.

So I decided to grab some lunch on the way home and stopped at McDonalds.
Took off my gear and locked it in the top case, and of course took my iPhone into the store with me.
Got my food, went back to my Spyder. Stowed my lunch in the top case, donned all my gear, and switched to the second Apple Cable that I had tested before, and put the first cable in the top case.

Started the Spyder, plugged in my iPhone... and :::insertunprintablecursewords::: Google Maps started up - with - the first navigation direction, telling me how to exit the parking lot to head to the next waypoint.

And it continued to work all of the way home, although unlike my Honda, it did not say "Welcome Home" when I pulled into my driveway.
There was a message on the display about reaching my destination, just no "Welcome Home".


And suddenly I'm remembering a toy my Dad used to make and give away.
He called it a Whimmy Whammy, but I've also seen it called a Wham Doodle, a Whimmy Diddle, and a Hooey Stick.
Dad even had a song he sang while showing people how it worked.

Whimmy Whammy, Whimmy Whammy,
Please be good to me,
And turn around the other way,
when I say... ::: pause ::: ...1, 2... 3.

And on "3" the propeller on the end would spin the other direction.
When asked, my Dad always said you controlled it with how you held your mouth while singing.

So I guess I'm not holding my mouth right when I'm trying to use Carplay on my Spyder.