Android Auto / Carplay on MY2016 S212 - what a saga

[reverend]

I bought a May 2015 facelift S212 a few weeks ago and wanted to enable CarPlay & Android Auto.

I discovered as long as I had the right headunit, in my case an NTG 5.1, it was possible with the right firmware installed. Luckily these started to be installed in the W212 / S212 in March 2015 for the MY2016 vehicles with SA531 on the datacard which I had.

Unfortunately I'm at the other end of the country to COMAND Online so I went down the route of sorting it myself (in hindsight I should have driven to them and saved myself from a world of pain).

I took the car to a local specialist in Skipton who said they could do it, left the car with them for a few hours and got back to find out they couldn't do it as their diags were too old (you need DoIP for the update). They still charged me and after paying revealed they'd tried to do it for another customer and just assumed it was a one off issue but after seeing this they were going to get their diags updated. Shame they couldn't have warned me off first. Sh1t happens.

I then went down the route of doing it myself with a Vxdiag C6 I bought but that was another palava. I was sent a BMW licensed version and it took a week to sort out adding a Mercedes license to it instead so I could use it with Xentry. So I sorted that out and now have a fully working system with online coding seeming to work well on the CAN side of things.

It turned out after buying an SCN login and getting the 3 Telematics disks it needed that it had issues with DoIP with the new Xentry build. Initially it passed the DoIP tests but an update killed it and they're sending me another disk over from China with the right configs so the jury is out on that one.

Anyway, I then found out that the Live Traffic service I was paying for via Mercedes Me wasn't working either, so using a mixture of that and various other issues I'd been having I booked it into Mercedes who got it all updated for me today to the latest COMAND Online, DAB & Sound System software versions. This has tweaked some of the look and feel of the original 2015 software and will hopefully cure my Bluetooth issues (sometimes the other end was getting pure silence).

I don't know if it was pure luck or a coincidence but literally as the dealer finished the updates, the ticket I'd logged with Mercedes Me got looked at and they disabled the service and reactivated from their location in Germany and confirmed it was now working - I'm guessing the newer software probably helped matters.

So in all good news today - my COMAND Online, DAB & Sound System got the latest update, the car flew through it's health check and the Eastern European eBay CarPlay / Android Auto activation tool worked fine with my facelift S212.

I didn't realise TomTom Go doesn't work with Android Auto yet so I'll probably flick between using the phone for that and trying Android Auto.

Software wise I had High_CY15_5 installed from 2015 and the latest version I've had installed today was High_CY15_9 18/24 which works with CarPlay and Android Auto (just adding that info in case anyone else tries).

This was the activator I used - some of the cheaper ones I read don't work with the latest software version but whether that's true I don't know.

The eBay ad says it's quick but in my car today it took over 8 minutes from plugging it in to it succeeding in everything it needed to do.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-COMAND-Audio20-CarPlay-Android-Auto-OBD-unlock-activator-2016-2019-cars/262451909947

So it is possible to do all this yourself, but it can be a right ballache. There's always the risk with these units that a future COMAND Online update could disable the features as they're not on my datacard but at least I now have Vediamo (I just need to learn how it works and my first trick will be working out video in motion)

Time wise I'm probably better off although with all the faffing I've done it's debatable.

 

[markjay]

Good result!

Just wondering, why do you also need TomTom Go on Android Auto, if you have COMAND with the TomTom Live Traffic subscription?

 

[reverend]

Purely habit as I've been using it for years now - it's cheaper but have to admit I haven't found a good place to put my phone yet so if the built in works as well then I'll just try moving over. I keep meaning to add the speed cameras so that's next on my to-do list.

I did see iPhone got a new TomTom update to work with Carplay so hopefully Android won't be far behind.

It doesn't seem like you have any control over the equalizer or Logic 7 etc when in Android Auto, it's all new to me but I do like the fact it lets you play all the music services - I think the W213 has this anyway.

 

[ordessa]

Follow on from this ...as it was very helpful...

Can anyone explain why this model of B Class W246 2015 plate seems to have "just missed" the option to get the necessary firmware to allow me to use Android Auto.

Im certainly not going to plug some "dodgy" OBDII plug in and brick my system.. but no where can I find out a reason.
Is it memory, hardware, or licensing? what??

Genuiely interested... as I'd love to ditch the awful Garmin Sat nav chip and remove the phone from a holder... move to a sensible use of Waze?

Over to the gurus.

 

[400ixl]

Just use Waze over Android Auto and forget Tomtom altogether.

 

[reverend]

Follow on from this ...as it was very helpful...

Can anyone explain why this model of B Class W246 2015 plate seems to have "just missed" the option to get the necessary firmware to allow me to use Android Auto.

Im certainly not going to plug some "dodgy" OBDII plug in and brick my system.. but no where can I find out a reason.
Is it memory, hardware, or licensing? what??

Genuiely interested... as I'd love to ditch the awful Garmin Sat nav chip and remove the phone from a holder... move to a sensible use of Waze?

Over to the gurus.

What was your build date, which head unit do you have in your car and what is listed on the datacard?

The tool I used says that B W246 models had the needed headunit from December 2015 onwards - the earliest cars that can be enabled are the CLS from 07.2014 and the E class from 03.2015.

There's a different tool used for the later 2018 models - the Chinese diagnostics tool I use got an update yesterday mentioning NTG 6 support - not sure if that's what MBUX is referred to as in the USA maybe.

Carplay was announced early 2014 with Android Auto Q2 2015 - my car on the original software did have references to Carplay and Google AL I think it was from memory which I guess was an early codename for Android Auto.

The latest software update means the units have the latest code installed with all the bits for Carplay and Android Auto (where the base hardware supports it) and then it's just a case of enabling it via the likes of the OBD dongles or Vediamo coding. That's dangerous software and changing the wrong setting could potentially bugger your car up if you go and virginize ECUs etc.

It's most likely a licensing issue at it's core - you can get the Carplay and Android Auto bits added to your datacard if MB do the official upgrade (my car wasn't on the list unfortunately) or you can go third party for about $200. I'm guessing the COMAND Online option also updates the datacard entries.

From memory the units are Mitsubishi made (at least my NTG 5.1 is) and they run QNX Neutrino, I'm going to have a tinker at some point but at some point I'd expect someone may release an enabling tool which works off the SD card like the video in motion enabling cards.

You can do the NTG 5.1 update from SD card but they wanted $1000 for the solution for people to resell (I only wanted to update my own car so it wasn't worth it).

It was similar in the VW world when I had the RNS510s, people were charging a fortune to enable things like video in motion and then it was discovered you just burn a disk with the right config files to change a couple of settings and it was done.

 

[ordessa]

What was your build date, which head unit do you have in your car and what is listed on the datacard?

The tool I used says that B W246 models had the needed headunit from December 2015 onwards - the earliest cars that can be enabled are the CLS from 07.2014 and the E class from 03.2015.

There's a different tool used for the later 2018 models - the Chinese diagnostics tool I use got an update yesterday mentioning NTG 6 support - not sure if that's what MBUX is referred to as in the USA maybe.

Carplay was announced early 2014 with Android Auto Q2 2015 - my car on the original software did have references to Carplay and Google AL I think it was from memory which I guess was an early codename for Android Auto.

The latest software update means the units have the latest code installed with all the bits for Carplay and Android Auto (where the base hardware supports it) and then it's just a case of enabling it via the likes of the OBD dongles or Vediamo coding. That's dangerous software and changing the wrong setting could potentially bugger your car up if you go and virginize ECUs etc.

It's most likely a licensing issue at it's core - you can get the Carplay and Android Auto bits added to your datacard if MB do the official upgrade (my car wasn't on the list unfortunately) or you can go third party for about $200. I'm guessing the COMAND Online option also updates the datacard entries.

From memory the units are Mitsubishi made (at least my NTG 5.1 is) and they run QNX Neutrino, I'm going to have a tinker at some point but at some point I'd expect someone may release an enabling tool which works off the SD card like the video in motion enabling cards.

You can do the NTG 5.1 update from SD card but they wanted $1000 for the solution for people to resell (I only wanted to update my own car so it wasn't worth it).

It was similar in the VW world when I had the RNS510s, people were charging a fortune to enable things like video in motion and then it was discovered you just burn a disk with the right config files to change a couple of settings and it was done.

WOW that comprehensive.
the VIN decoder shows (Ithink the relevant data)

Delivery date: 25 09 2015

3U1 EUROPE/CIS COUNTRIES/MONGOLIA HEAD UNIT

522 aUDIO 20 RADIO NAVIGATION CAPABLE NTG5

857 COLOUR DISPLAY 8" DIAGONAL

 

[ordessa]

not looking good...too early

 

[reverend]

One of the posts I saw over on Mercedes Medic mentioned the 522 can be done as long as the latest software updates are installed at Mercedes first.

To find the software version you're running you can either use Xentry or if you drop into the dealer mode there was an option to copy crash logs to a USB stick - I did that initially and in one of those it was listed too (along with the music the previous owner listened too in the screenshots!)

If you send your VIN to VladimirCDI on the eBay link he'll tell you for sure either way whether it will work or not for your vehicle - he's very clued up and helped me out a lot:
MERCEDES COMAND Audio20 CarPlay+Android Auto OBD unlock activator 2016-2019 cars | eBay

It does seem strange that mine started in March yet your model was December as you'd expect the new model year to kick in at the same time. Maybe drop VladimirCDI a message who is the seller of the one I used - it was more expensive than the Chinese ones but it did the job for me.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
When you upgrade to Airplay or Android Auto do you not have to replace/modify the USB ports?

 

[reverend]

Hi,
When you upgrade to Airplay or Android Auto do you not have to replace/modify the USB ports?

It is listed as a requirement but works via Port 2 on the ones I have installed in my S212. The new ones also have the icon to make it more obvious.

I've not had a USB charger doctor on there yet to see how many volts / what ampage the phone is pulling but guessing it may be related to a better quality charging path for devices that try to pull more ampage. Although saying that I did 200 miles yesterday and didn't see any sign of the phone draining while Android Auto was in use.