[DesertBike]

I also have a spare RAM ball on the clutch side (the socket for the handlebar mirrors that the FJR does not have...I suppose the perch is a recycled part originally designed for a different motorcycle).

Still have my old QuickGrip XL. So I can mount the phone there to charge from the existing USB charger on handlebars, if required.

It does add some handlebar clutter, but there's no way around if I want to charge the phone on the go, without merely draining a battery pack I'll have to recharge eventually.

 

[Whooshka]

I don't understand why you're so adverse to keeping the phone in your jacket pocket and run the charging cable to that. It's probably cooler there than on the handlebar in the desert heat you've talked about.

I know I used that unit on an 8 hour ride using maps and listening to music and my phone (iPhone 13) only used like 40% of its battery if I remember right. It's OK to run a phone battery down once in a while, it's good for it.

 

[Griff557]

My whole purpose of running the Carpuride 502 was to save my phone from heat and vibration. I put my phone in the tank bag but it’s probably safer on your person especially if you have an accident and are separated from the bike

 

[DesertBike]

Believe it or not, my phone doesn't stay much cooler in a tank bag than on handlebars, despite lack of direct sunlight. I've tried it, on the Vstrom (which does have a tank bag). Same problem with slow or no charging as when exposed. When it's 100°F out, there's no getting away from it.

That suggests being in a pocket also won't keep it meaningfully cooler.

I'll see what the battery temp says next time I go for a ride.

 

[DesertBike]

My whole purpose of running the Carpuride 502 was to save my phone from heat and vibration. I put my phone in the tank bag but it’s probably safer on your person especially if you have an accident and are separated from the bike

Unfortunately, your phone is probably not going to stay a lot cooler in a pocket, what with the lack of air circulation.

My experience has been that the absence of direct sunlight heating the phone, is more of less made up for by having it inside a non-ventilated enclosure (pocket). If you're hot, your phone in a pocket will also be hot.

I wouldn't worry about it. The phone will shut itself off before it gets hot enough to cause damage. Mine has never done that, in years of riding in very hot weather.

That is distinct from the slow- or no-charging when hot behavior. That is a feature to protect the battery.

FWIW, I tried riding with a charging cable going into my (thigh) pocket with the phone.

Did not care for it. Extra hassle getting on and off the bike, and a loose cable will flap in the breeze on the highway.

There might be a way to route the cable to (mostly) avoid that problem, but I think I'll stick with an in-pocket battery pack, rotated with another as required.

Can always re-mount the RAM Quick Grip XL, it's clutter-y, but does the job. Might do that for long trips, where rotating battery packs would be a hassle.

I don't rely upon the phone for emergency comms, so I'm not real concerned about its location. I have a Garmin Messenger for that job.

Here's one small problem I'm still having with the Carpuride W502: When I place or receive a phone call, for some reason the audio output gets directed to phone speaker instead of my helmet headset, by default.

I can change this setting, but it resets each time the Carpuride goes off and back on again. Kind of annoying.

I asked Carpuride support if there was a way to change that default.

Anyone else run into that?

Remember that I'm not using the "BT Trans" feature, since that caused audio quality and headset button function problems. BT headset is connected directly to phone, so the Carpuride merely acts as a remote control for making and receiving calls, not an audio pipe.

 

[DesertBike]

Carpuride replies that no, you cannot pick a different default for call audio (instead of using phone speaker until you switch it) when using phone as described above. Rats.

Rode around the state for 5+ hours yesterday. Keeping the phone topped off with a portable battery pack in-pocket worked pretty well.

About 2 hours from home, I unplugged the battery pack, put it in the locking compartment to charge, and let the phone run down inside my pocket, to see how dead it would be by the time I got home.

I don't remember the charge percentage on arrival, but I do remember the phone was quite toasty once I pulled it out of my pocket. Outside air temperature was about 100°F, phone battery temperature 121°F.

 

[DesertBike]

Trying to get the problems with BT Trans mode resolved.

Carpuride support has offered me a software (firmware?) update for my W502. They seemed reluctant to offer it - I suspect because, they've had customers botch the process, and brick their unit.

I might manage that, but I've updated firmware on plenty of other devices without screwing it up, so this one shouldn't differ.

Be cool if the update fixed the problems. There are some advantages to the BT Trans mode.

 

[DesertBike]

Firmware update installed. Now to try BT Trans mode again.

 

[DesertBike]

Tested on the ride to work.

FAIL. Mostly. But also, some improvement.

With the new firmware, BT Trans mode is still useless.

The "AM radio audio quality after making a phone call" problem seems to be gone, if a brief call to voicemail is any indication (still need to try an actual phone conversation of some duration).

However, my headset buttons still don't do anything when in BT Trans mode, which is unacceptable.

So I'm back at "AAuto" mode (Carpuride not between headset and phone). And...it looks like the phone call audio output now defaults to BT headset, instead of phone speaker. Again, based on a quick call to voicemail, so still need to test with a real call, but looks like an improvement so far.

FWIW, the firmware version is now 1.4, where the device had 1.0 when I got it. You may want to check your Carpuride device, and ask Carpuride support about a firmware upgrade if you're having problems. The upgrade process is pretty easy.

update:

Started a support request with the OSMAnd+ folks so we'll see where that goes. OSMAnd+ is hot garbage on my W502 so far, as described previously.

In researching the problem, I ran across some complaints of OSMAnd+ also misbehaving when used via CarPlay, which is partly why I think the problem is with OSMAnd+ rather than Android Auto or phone. OSMAnd+ is the only app that doesn't play nicely with the Carpuride so far, others (Spotify, Google Maps, PowerAmp) behaves fine.

 

[DesertBike]

update to the update: newest OSMAnd+ release, version 4.8, seems to have fixed noted problems.

I hadn't even got around to trying the suggested troubleshooting steps from OSMAnd+ support. Guess I won't, don't seem to need any further troubleshooting.

I installed OSMAnd+ v4.8 on 8/11, but didn't try any trips using OSMAnd+ in Android Auto mode until several days later. It suddenly worked as expected, which is nice.

I still haven't figured out exactly what's up with phone call audio in Auto/iPlay mode (aka not BT Trans). It seems as if sometimes, either my phone or the Carpuride will mistakenly direct call audio somewhere other than my BT headset, but it worked fine when I tried earlier today. At least for dialing voicemail.

When it does work, audio defaults to the BT headset, which is the feature I requested from Carpuride support. So good for them.

 

[ice_station_zebra]

Wanted to give this CarPlay thing a try so I can keep my phone in my Jacket. Took a while to figure out the mounting, but I think this will work! First impressions are good for all the positive reasons given in this thread. The one negative for me is that when I use BT Trans mode the audio repeatedly breaks up and falls off. The only way around this is to disconnect headset from Carpuride and use the phone alone. What I lose in doing this is the equilizer function (very good!) and the volume control. Not sure this is a big deal in the long run, but still I should be able to use all the features the unit advertises. Carpuride reached out to me for a review and I told them about the audio problem. They immediately contacted me (next day) and asked for the version number of my unit....maybe they are working on a fix, or have one already since this appears to be a software problem. We'll see.

 

[DesertBike]

Seems as if "BT Trans" mode rarely works as advertised. Anyone using it routinely?

After a few weeks of testing, some more observations since I got a newer firmware, as noted in post #69 above (nice):

Operating in "AAuto" mode (BT headset connects only to phone, not Carpuride), phone call audio output will sometimes default to BT headset, sometimes not. I have to assume it won't, and be ready to manually select output. Lovely.

Not that big of a deal for placing a call. I rarely do that anyway, and I find it too distracting to try to do so while riding, so I pull over.

Bigger deal for receiving a call. I'll still want to pull over somewhere to have a real conversation, but the first piece of it will be awkward as I can't hear the caller and they can't hear me, until I switch phone audio source to headset.

In general I don't like to make or take calls while riding, so not that big of a problem.

The one negative for me is that when I use BT Trans mode the audio repeatedly breaks up and falls off. The only way around this is to disconnect headset from Carpuride and use the phone alone. What I lose in doing this is the equilizer function (very good!) and the volume control.

When in BT Trans mode, do the buttons on your headset still work?

They don't for me, which made BT Trans mode useless to me even once the audio quality problem I noted previously was seemingly fixed, with the newer firmware.

I don't want to control volume through the Carpuride menus. Haven't tried the equalizer.

I updated Carpuride support on my experiences with the 1.4 firmware over the last few weeks. Who knows, maybe they'll eventually figure it out.

I asked them to add a way to adjust screen brightness from within the Android Auto GUI. As it is now, I have to exit Android Auto mode entirely to get to the brightness control.

I did my first night ride with the W502 on Friday, and found that I wanted to turn the screen brightness down about halfway riding around the city. I'd probably want to turn it down all the way, if on the interstate or a rural highway after dark.

 

[Whooshka]

I use the BT Trans mode. It goes to a BT/Aux converter that I plug my ear buds into. No issues whatsoever. Then again I am not using a BT helmet headset with mic. I wonder if the mic is picking up noise and the unit does a noise cancelling thing causing the volume on calls to go low.

I have no need to talk to anyone while I'm riding. If I see an important text come across I'll find somewhere to pull over and make a call if I have to.

 

[DesertBike]

Carpuride support replied: they apparently have no plans to make brightness adjustment accessible without exiting Android Auto mode.

Requires some extra setup if I was last riding at night & had the brightness turned down, or the other way around.

For me, phone calls are a distant second to listening to music/podcasts while riding, but at least now work properly in BT Trans mode. Still, not a useful mode, as then my headset buttons don't work.

This seems to vary among users. In theory, it should be a standardized thing, but clearly it doesn't work that way in practice.

 

[ROUS]

I've used my 502 for five thousand miles now and feel like I've got it working well. My only problem is my Galaxy 22+ (somehow) stopping Android Auto during rides. Most of my rides are long ones and I'm trying to identify a pattern as to when/why/how this is happening. I'm about 95% sure that it's on the phone side, not the Carpuride. It usually happens a couple times a day and the problem is unrecoverable. To get it all working again I have to restart my phone and restart the 502, which means pulling over and restarting the bike. And, of course, it usually happens at an inconvenient time. The phone rides in a tank bag and the problem is probably related to phone heat. I'll be tinkering with ways to get air flow running through that phone compartment and hopefully that will help.

 

[DesertBike]

I've had AA die once with my W502, while using OSMAnd+. That was with the old version of OSMAnd+ (pre-4.8) so maybe that was the reason.

Or phone and heat. This was back during the peak of summer heat.

I pulled over when I had a chance, and I believe I had to restart my phone to get it to reconnect.

Carpuride support hasn't yet asked a single question about my phone or Bluetooth helmet headset, which is notable because most mfgs. are quick to blame the other guy's gear.

To be fair, it could be either my phone or BT headset at the rooot all of the irregularities I've noted. Either Nokia or Lexin or both may have skipped a step or two & put out a not-100%-compliant-with-the-spec Bluetooth device.

On phone heat - I was at first surprised at how hot my phone got in my pocket, during the peak of summer. It would stay cooler on the handlebars, what with the airflow. But then, my jacket pocket has a waterproof lining, so it's pretty much a plastic bag.

I had the same observation on my Vstrom re: phone in tank bag. It didn't help any with the heat issue.

A way to keep one's phone exposed to the airflow, while shaded from the sun, might help. I haven't worked anything out yet.

 

[DesertBike]

Back from a 5-day road trip. The Carpuride W502 worked well.


For keeping my phone charged, there was no good choice but to put my RAM QuickGrip on the handlebars, so I could plug phone into USB 12V charger. I'll be sticking with that setup for future trips.

 

[DesertBike]

I think I've figured out one of the frustrating malfunctions of making phone calls using the Carpuride GUI.

Even if you use it only in "AA/iPlay" mode (Carpuride does not act as audio hub, headset connects only to phone), you need to have your phone paired with the Carpuride via Bluetooth. In this mode, the W502 basically acts as a Bluetooth remote control for the phone.

Sometimes, when I dial a call on the Carpuride, it will say it is using "Bluetooth" for the phone call audio, BUT....the phone will wrongly select the Carpuride itself as the device for call audio, instead of my BT headset (Lexin B4-FM).

Clearly, that won't work. I won't hear anything in my helmet headset, and won't be able to talk to the other party.

I went into the Carpuride's BT profile on my phone and disabled the "Phone calls" setting. TBD whether this fixes the issue.

 

[DesertBike]

Early results are promising. I made 2 calls to voicemail in a row, didn't have to manually select Bluetooth as audio output either time.

Typically, it's been a coin flip whether the Carpuride would pick the correct audio output without intervention.

That doesn't determine a pattern though. Need to try it a bunch more, on the ride home and later on.

 

[DesertBike]

Seems stable.

One wrinkle: After disabling phone calls in the Carpuride's BT profile on my phone, AA connection at startup takes longer.

I get an error message that suggests the phone and Carpuride aren't going to connect, but then they do, after maybe 15-30 seconds.

Worth it. Was a pain in the butt when phone call audio got directed to a dead end.