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In anticipation of @coyotek finishing the W702 mount I was eyeballing them on Amazon. What to my surprise do I find but they had a $30 coupon AND a 10% off promo on top. So I ordered the new 2024 version for $228.43 which includes tax.

If you're sitting on the fence or anything...

 

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I'll have the first prototype mount for the GS in about an hour. If I measured everything OK.

Awesome but I'm waiting on the K16 version you teased!

 

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About a week. I'm waiting on pc boards which shipped yesterday.

I'll order as soon as you're live!

 

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Ah disappointment.

Got my Carpuride W702 in today. Looks pretty good but the outer plastic is not BMW quality - but once you get it mounted and turned on you no longer care. It looks very good lit up! (Did not test in sunlight though.) I set it all up and was quickly into Android Auto and hit play on some AC/DC through my Cardo Edge - sounded great!

I then tanked my day by trying to use the Cardo volume control. Nope. Nothing. I then hit pause. Nothing. So it appears that the volume and media controls on the Cardo do not pass through to the Carpuride.

Now you can just hit play/pause on the screen for music BUT the volume control on the Carpuride just isn't going to work for me. You have to short press the volume behind the top left of the display to pull up the volume control onscreen. Well I can hit the button bare handed if I can get a fingernail to touch it, but I could not push it with a glove on. It's too recessed and close to the back of the display. Even if that were easy, you'd still have to tap the screen afterward to set the volume.

On top of that, if your phone isn't paired with your Cardo then the Cardo FW check/update won't work either.

I then tried repairing to the phone so the media controls would work but I could not get any sound to play on the Cardo at all. I unchecked media and phone in the W702 BT options and no dice.

I've emailed Carpuride tech support (but I'm not optimistic.) I'll keep you posted.

 

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Here's a shot of the screen in full sunlight at 14:45 in the afternoon. Full brightness. I was impressed.

I'm digging the USB power cord they supply. I'm walking around with it plugged into my trucks' jump start battery.

And here's the power button on the side you have to push for volume control:

 

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After a lot of playing around I got the Cardo volume to work but only by powering on the Cardo after the Carpuride is up and running. And then it's odd because they are separate volumes. When it's Cardo to phone, the Cardo volume controls the phone volume. With the Carpuride it's two different volumes. So I left the Carpuride at 30 and can then dial it down via the Cardo wheel. Overall louder than previously. You just have to watch out if you don't have the Cardo volume because 30 is loud!

The media controls still do not work but now I get a Cardo beep that they are trying. It's odd because when I push stop on the Cardo, it makes the "playback stopping" tone and the music stops - for half a second - and then starts back up automatically.

Another oddity - on Android Auto settings on the phone it identifies the Carpuride as "Rolls-Royce". Guess the devs were aiming high!

 

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So, having the same basic setup as you do and trying all the same things, I've found that it's just better for me to not pair the carpuride to my cardo and continue to leave the phone paired to the cardo. I can still hear music (although I don't listen to music when I'm riding) and turn by turn instructions from my google maps as well as have the android carplay icons on my dash. This setup seems to be the best for me personally while using this unit.

I'll try that again today but yesterday I could not get any sound when I had the Cardo paired to the phone. Seemed like the audio was forced through Android Auto.

 

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There's a bluetooth trans button that allows the carpuride to pair with your cardo. If you just pair your phone to the helmet first them get the android auto up and running, it should be fine.

I originally began by following their directions which state to unpair Cardo from phone and only pair Cardo to the Carpuride. Anyway, I unpaired everything, factory reset the Carpuride and then:

1. Repaired Cardo to phone - audio controls work normally.
2. Setup AA on Carpuride by pairing. AA launches and Cardo media controls work (play/pause and presumably volume) - but no audio.

I then went into Spotify on the phone and it states that it is playing on Android Auto. I don't see any way to re-route the audio from AA to the local device. That seems to be the root of the problem. Seems AA overrides every other setting.

I also went into the BT properties for the AA Carupuride entry and unchecked media and phone. Media stays unchecked (but doesn't change anything) but phone just rechecks itself after a few seconds.

I did hear from Carpuride support and they just wanted all of the SW version numbers from the system screen.

 

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I'm a little confused about the Cardo/Sena to phone vs Cardo/Sena to Carpuride. If Carpuride basically mirrors your phone, what's wrong with a headset to phone only connection?

That's the problem, at least on Android. It does not mirror your phone. It's using Android Auto to specifically do what it wants as in display it's interface and only the AA-approved apps. It's also taking over the audio on mine, forcing it through AA/Carpuride so that you have to pair to the Carpuride to hear anything.

That's what their instructions state and lining up with my experience as well.

 

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That was one of the things I looked at last weekend. I read the reviews from folks who have used it and all said it is quirky. There are several apps for "mirrorlink" and all of them are a pay app and none of them have good reviews. No verification if carpuride supports mirrorlink either. I wasn't ready to buy a crappy product to see if it worked.

I looked at 3 of them yesterday and got a slimy vibe from all three. One wanted me to rate their app as the first step in "activating" it before I could even use it. Nope.

 

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Thought I was on to something yesterday. I remembered that the Cardo Edge can pair two BT devices (i.e. phone and GPS) so I paired the phone first then paired the Carpuride as the GPS on the Cardo. My thinking was the phone pairing would control the phone and allow all Cardo features and the "GPS" would simply play what being broadcast from the Carpuride.

Everything paired up fine but doesn't work any better. Seems like the Cardo knows when it's playing the GPS audio and disables all of the controls since they aren't used there.

Anyway, Carpuride support sent me a new FW to try. According to them, "The latest software has added a connection method, that is, the cell phone can connect to the Carpuride device and the headset at the same time. In this connection, the phone first connects to the device via Bluetooth, and after successfully connecting to the device, the device will automatically disconnect from Bluetooth, but still maintains the connection with the phone, and then the phone can connect to the headset via Bluetooth to play music and answer phone calls, etc. on the car stereo."

Will report back.

 

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Edit [changed to FAT32 like they sent me instead of ExFAT like they told me so it will update]

Here's what they sent me. Keeps failing - as soon as the MPEGBOOT upgrade dialog pops up it crashes the unit (never gets the update started). I'm using a 4GB Micro SD card (update is 78MB).

Please use a PC Windows computer to copy the latest version of the software ISPBOOOT.BIN to the TF Card, power on the Carpuride 702 unit, and wait for 10 seconds to display the operation interface. After inserting the TF Card, the "upgrade MPEGBOOTI" will pop up. Check √ -> Wait for the upgrade progress bar to reach 100% -> Update success and pull out the TF Card.



Need to pay attention to these situations.
1. Only one software can be copied to the TF Card. If there are other files, it will cause interference and cause the upgrade to fail. It is recommended to format the TF card with exFat FAT32 as the file system before copying the software to the TF card.
2. The file name cannot be changed or added characters, it must be the same as the attachment.
3. The memory of the TF Card does not exceed 32GB.
4. Please do not remove the TF Card during the upgrade in case of damage to the device. Thank you.

 

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Here is the finished mount for the outside-the-dash 7" Carpuride.

This mount will also work for almost any device you have and supply power from the stock GPS mount.


View attachment 186429


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View attachment 186427

Do you happen to have a photo from the side showing how far it sits from the dash? Thanks!

 

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Followed all of Cap's support instructions and cannot get the 702 to FW update. It displays the upgrade prompt and then immediately shuts down requiring an unplug to reset. They are shipping me an upgrade TF card to try so we'll see what that does. Assume it's coming from China.

 

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Thanks @coyotek! I just placed the order on your site. I'm still on the fence about the W702 but since you made the mount so modular I realized it's perfect to use with anything requiring a Ram mount with the ability to wire in 12V! Really like the way you designed it.

 

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OK, got the update TF card from China. They told me to format mine with ExFAT but sent me a FAT32 card. Oh well. It flashed the unit and it has a slightly different UI. Set up the phone and Cardo again and - no love. The difference is that it outputs the audio through the BT Trans output instead of the AA BT output which in reality doesn't change a thing. The Cardo BT functions other than volume still do not work and while I was able to use voice to make a call, I could barely hear the other side and they could not hear me at all. I tried every option there and no sound from me went through.

I've documented all of this back to Carp support so we'll see if they can make any progress. If not, I'm probably returning it. This is exactly what I wanted, but the inability to take calls on top of having to push a touchscreen button to pause music just won't fly for me.

 

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Some success!

Carp support got back to me with the revised user's manual for the new firmware. Looks like they are rolling it out as production now. You can also see the revised UI in the photos. The thing not well documented is that when it starts a popup appears that says something like "audio is played through BT Trans." So I initially paired the helmet to that with no luck. What you have to do is pair up AA (or CarPlay, I assume) and then go to the audio output app on the main screen (#3 on page 3) and then choose iplay/Auto. It will restart AA and now the media/calls are routed from the phone to the helmet. In my case (AA with Cardo Edge) everything now works as intended - volume, media controls, etc.

My one sticking point is that the Google Assistant is not getting helmet audio properly. When I say "Hey Google" through the helmet mic, it prompts Google Assistant with a full volume (painful) ding and the phone and 702 screen show it's waiting but nothing I say is picked up. It then cancels audio input more quickly than normal - like it's been cancelled. If I touch the Google mic icon on the 702 the same thing happens where the audio is not routing through to the assistant. If I manually open the Assistant on the phone it does work properly.

That's a small workaround such that I've cancelled my return of the unit and will keep working with it.

If you have a 702 and want to flash it to the new firmware - it's here. Just note that you have to format your TF card to FAT32.

 

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Hey @coyotek - any suggestions for vibration? I've been on a few rides with the 702 now and notice it vibrates a fair amount. Was wondering if putting a rubber coating on the two Ram mount balls (like the actual Ram versions have) would settle things down? Would need to be judicious on the 702 end as the ball mount is also the heatsink.

 

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Does Carpuride have a link to the new firmware on their website?

Not that I've ever seen, but they will send it to you if you have a technical need. I don't think they want users regularly updating.