Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for Audi MMI 2G

1. Your MMI Head Unit  must have FBAS (video input) connector circuit installed (needed on 2004-2006) or 4E0 035 729 A (2007+)

2. Audi Analog TV tuner – 4E0 919 146 and cables for power, AV1 and AV2 inputs (composite video + 2 audio) and an optical splitter. Fakra video cable from TV tuner to Head Unit or RVC controller.

3. An Android TV box – Tanix TX3 mini is proven to work with capacitive touch screen on Ebay. Must have analog AV output – correct cable is needed. Search on aliexpress.com, 2GB/16GB is preferred.

4. Android CarPlay/Android Auto USB dongle: Wired and Wireless, I recommend wireless –

Wireless_CarPlay_Android

5. USB extension, USB 12V-5V, Ground Loop Noise Filter.

So, finally I got the system to work with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto perfectly with . Thanks to , showed me how to do it with the that enable the touchscreen module.  For people who don’t want to mess around with Android Coding, just download the and run it with the hid-multitouch.ko.

To get the touch screen area to display correctly on the 7″ screen, we may have to set the position with zoom out function (90% is optimum). For the color to display well in 720×480, the resolution must be set with 480cvbs and not 560.

Zoom in Screen Set Resolution to 480

There are many Android USB CarPlay dongle out there, but I’m not sure if all dongles will support Android Auto, but mine did and it’s made to work as Zjinnova-carplay. You need the , the latest version is 4.5.13.

If you can find a thin screen, just mount it outside the original frame, if not, a thick one like mine, just let the MMI sit in the open position and It will have a little gap but with a nice black or carbon fiber tape, it will look nice. No more gearing problem, noise and stuff from the motor. You do need the touchscreen for CarPlay and Android Auto.

Original MMI Screen with Frame The Touchscreen on original MMI screen

The Gap due to thick screen outside the frame MMI with TouchScreen

This video shows how to remove the display screen very well. We don’t need to remove everything, just the front LED panel to access the screen for TouchScreen installation.

CarPlay on Audi MMI 2G Apple CarPlay Screen Waze on CarPlay

TV Tuner 20 Pin Pinout

Apple CarPlay is a great program for car iOS devices. For older MMI 2G, there aren’t much choices since it’s an old technology. There’s a program by third party who claims to mimic the Apple CarPlay from Apple, but it doesn’t work as well as Apple original software.

If the App can access the iMessage data and work like the original Apple CarPlay, it may worth the money, but without the iMessage hand free feature, it defeats the purpose. I’m glad that they have 7 days trial.

 

 

Apple CarPlay exists in 2017 eGolf and it works wonder with the touch screen, but since Audi MMI 2G doesn’t have touch screen but we can use the Analog TV tuner to mirror the iOS screen to MMI screen and use our iOS device as touch screen.

HDMI mirroring device and HDMI to RCA converter HDMI mirroring device and HDMI to RCA converter

Original Apple CarPlay CarPlay iOS on MMI 2G Mirroring

9 Comments

  • Hi, awesome writeup! I have been thinking about adding Android Auto to my MMI2G for a while now and landed on your page.
    Is there any reason why you went the Android TV Box route instead of a RaspberryPi as the device to run Android Auto (or Carplay) on ?

    Thanks!

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