Hi All,
I decided to try the Droid UK MMI box in my F20 for CarPlay. It's a 2019 F20 118i with the basic standard nav, although I have fitted the larger screen and larger iDrive wheel so it resembles Pro Nav.
Anyway, fit the MMI box the other day. Installation isn't very difficult, just need to pull some trim off and unscrew some bits, remove some cables, attach other cables, find space for the MMI box and wifi antenna, close it back up.
Is it any good then? Yes and no, let me explain...
1. My car does not have AUX. The MMI unit relies on "AUX" being selected as an audio output on your car, otherwise you won't hear anything. At the advice of Droid UK, I coded AUX to my car so that I could select it as a sound device. Whilst my coding worked as I can indeed select AUX, the audio does not work. I can hear it incredibly faintly at maximum volume. This means that I need to use the included USB to AUX adapter and somehow wire it so that it's plugged into the single USB port in the cars armrest; this does work but it's certainly not ideal.
2. My car doesn't have a touch screen display, although BMW have sold many cars with CarPlay and no touch screen display, in this case certain apps are not playing nicely. For example, WhatsApp displays buttons that cannot be selected using the iDrive wheel, the same goes for the Telegram App.
3. CarPlay does not recognise any buttons other than the iDrive wheel, the back button and the steering wheel scroller. This means that you cannot use the menu button to go all the way back from an app to the CarPlay home screen, instead having to press the back button many many times. It also means that you cannot use buttons like Nav or Media to open Waze or Spotify, as they do nothing inside CarPlay.
On the up side, the MMI box is responsive and CarPlay boots pretty quickly!
Does anyone know a good solution to the audio issue that I'm facing? It's not ideal to have to use the USB to AUX adapter as I only have one USB port in the car which is in the centre armrest.
I'm planning to make a video reviewing the unit at some point also, as I don't think there's enough information online about these units. Don't be fooled though, this isn't some special MMI box made by Droid UK. Droid UK have sourced this box from China and are reselling it like all other MMI sellers.
I decided to try the Droid UK MMI box in my F20 for CarPlay. It's a 2019 F20 118i with the basic standard nav, although I have fitted the larger screen and larger iDrive wheel so it resembles Pro Nav.
Anyway, fit the MMI box the other day. Installation isn't very difficult, just need to pull some trim off and unscrew some bits, remove some cables, attach other cables, find space for the MMI box and wifi antenna, close it back up.
Is it any good then? Yes and no, let me explain...
1. My car does not have AUX. The MMI unit relies on "AUX" being selected as an audio output on your car, otherwise you won't hear anything. At the advice of Droid UK, I coded AUX to my car so that I could select it as a sound device. Whilst my coding worked as I can indeed select AUX, the audio does not work. I can hear it incredibly faintly at maximum volume. This means that I need to use the included USB to AUX adapter and somehow wire it so that it's plugged into the single USB port in the cars armrest; this does work but it's certainly not ideal.
2. My car doesn't have a touch screen display, although BMW have sold many cars with CarPlay and no touch screen display, in this case certain apps are not playing nicely. For example, WhatsApp displays buttons that cannot be selected using the iDrive wheel, the same goes for the Telegram App.
3. CarPlay does not recognise any buttons other than the iDrive wheel, the back button and the steering wheel scroller. This means that you cannot use the menu button to go all the way back from an app to the CarPlay home screen, instead having to press the back button many many times. It also means that you cannot use buttons like Nav or Media to open Waze or Spotify, as they do nothing inside CarPlay.
On the up side, the MMI box is responsive and CarPlay boots pretty quickly!
Does anyone know a good solution to the audio issue that I'm facing? It's not ideal to have to use the USB to AUX adapter as I only have one USB port in the car which is in the centre armrest.
I'm planning to make a video reviewing the unit at some point also, as I don't think there's enough information online about these units. Don't be fooled though, this isn't some special MMI box made by Droid UK. Droid UK have sourced this box from China and are reselling it like all other MMI sellers.
