Just a little write up for those that are wanting to get Apple carplay and Android auto into their early MK7 cars and don't want to spend moonbeams on making it work.

I have done a bit of work on my 2014 GTI
It's a Jap import with the 8" Discover Pro MIB1 unit. But I really wanted to have my maps and Android Auto working.
I am not really in a position to spend the $3k+++ on upgrading it to the 9.2' MIB2.5 unit and getting hold an earlier MIB2 unit seems nearly impossible and almost as expensive. So I went the cheap route and bought one of those AliExpress plug in boxes that hooks into the back of the existing unit.

Anyone that has one of these knows how annoying they are. It forces the use of the Bluetooth that comes with the add on unit, which only works if you are on the right audio setting on the head deck. i.e. if you are listening to the radio or just good old bluetooth to the head deck, then it just doesn't work. Plus the sound quality on bluetooth phone calls with the chinese box is horrible. It echos something chronic, no matter how much you try and fix the echo cancellation.

Yesterday I decided that I had, had enough of it. I pulled it all back out again and decided to open up the box and try and disable the crappy bluetooth and make it use the VW factory Bluetooth. I disconnected the bluetooth antenna and even went as far as removing the connection back to the motherboard. Still it persisted in forcing the connection.
Eventually I took a stanley knife and just cut the bluetooth chip off.

Believe it or not, it works perferctly.   

Turn on the car. The phone connects to the VW factory bluetooth. Connect up the phone to the USB cable for Android auto, the screen switches over to AA and that works. Making and receiving calls through AA simply uses the factory bluetooth now. So much better.

The solution is still not 100% the way it should be in a factory setup, as you still need to switch the head deck to aux if you want to listen to music through Android auto and long press the media button to get to any of the other functions on the radio. But for under $300 it now works about 90% like it was there from the factory. I don't have to panic and try to switch the audio source when I get a phone call and people on the other end can actually hear what I'm saying.

I'd love to be able to reprogram the box a bit so that the factory "Nav" button switches over to the AA screen and then a single press of the media button uses it as the audio source. But I don't think that's really an option.

Nice one,

Any links to the head unit? Also when are those pretoria's going on that you snagged from under me Had it on my watchlist for a wee while awaiting on the price to come down

Pretorias are on already. My Stock Austins got a bit wrecked through some pothole damage.
Tornado red MK7 looks bloody good on some black 19s

The unit I bought was this
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002796349818.html

But I think they are pretty generic. I bought this one at the time just because it was cheaper than the rest.
I should have probably taken pic during my hacking apart process, but my phone was playing up a bit so couln't be bothered fighting it.

Hey, revisiting this old thread - I'm also looking at installing a similar plug in box. How does it handle switching between reverse camera/parking sensor graphic/DCC controls while carplay is active? Wanting to know if I'm driving with carplay on, and wanting to change DCC to sport, whether the screen can switch back and forth seamlessly. Cheers!

I had one. I?m pretty sure it doesn?t. As mentioned, you have to exit the CarPlay box (long press media) to get back to the factory screen and see any factory things like park pilot etc

Quote from: mturleyy on November 08, 2022, 01:41:33 PM
Hey, revisiting this old thread - I'm also looking at installing a similar plug in box. How does it handle switching between reverse camera/parking sensor graphic/DCC controls while carplay is active? Wanting to know if I'm driving with carplay on, and wanting to change DCC to sport, whether the screen can switch back and forth seamlessly. Cheers!

When the AA/Carplay is active, the reverse camera works fine.

DCC and parking sensor graphic not so much. So you have to hold down the media button before you change your DCC. I most cases I only use the audio queues for the parking sensors anyway.

Like I say, it's not perfect, but it works pretty well for most cases.

Consider that a MIB2 replacement will set you back at least $1500 for a basic 8" unit if you can find one to well over $3k for 9.2" version.