C238 E400 Coupe, is it possible to convert the usb-a Carplay requirement to use bluetooth ?

[anyweb]

hi,
i had a rental car in the US and it allowed me to pair via bluetooth for audio/music but also for Carplay, it worked great,
in my own C238 (E400) I have to physically connect a usb-A iphone cable to the inner second usb slot under the arm rest which is not convenient as the cable hangs out and it's just not a great experience

is it possible to upgrade the existing comand to use bluetooth or buy an adaptor to do it, does anyone know ?

cheers
niall

 

[anyweb]

I did some googling and ordered the first one shown in this video, i'll update you with my experience of how it well it goes (or not)

 

[mioba]

Look forward to the follow up. its mad what one can do with all these plug in devices

 

[anyweb]

I really hope it works as good as I hope, otherwise i'm sending it back (amazon)

 

[anyweb]

ok so i tried it out today and i'm so far pleasantly surprised. The documentation (instructions) with the product were non-existent, and only some poor Chinglish on the packaging. So here's how I got it to work.

1. disconnect the USB-A to lightning cable from my arm rest which i used to connect directly to the iphone 11 for carplay.
2. connect the USB-A carplay adaptor to the USB-A connector marked #2 and close the armrest
3. In the Carplay settings on my car, connect to the SmartDongle-E54C and select 'start automatically'
4. on my iphone, in bluetooth settings connect to the SmartDongle-E54C and pair the device, make sure to 'allow' any Carplay questions
5. drive around and enjoy Carplay the way it should have been from the factory !

some photos to help with the above...

 

[lewyboy]

I've used a couple of these and they are, on the whole, effective.

At least to start with, both of them did not always connect at the start of a journey and they also didn't work well if used on short journeys as struggled to reconnect.