AAWireless - General discussion and support

[Dangze]

I struggled for four days, trying to get my Motorola G7 Power (official Android 10) to get a cellular connection. Then I stumbled on another XDA thread, & it had a clue!

My solution? Under:

1. Settings
2. Network & Internet
3. WiFi
4. Scroll down to WiFi preferences.
5. Advanced
6. Turn on Avoid bad WiFi connections

Of course you must have Mobile data on.

This causes the phone to treat the lack of an Internet connect as "bad", & that turns on mobile data: The "4G/LTE" icon lights up, & I was "on the air".

I hope this works for others.

+1 !
This is the obvious and basic setting to be done, even before trying to connect AAW !

 

[welshblob]

Using a MIUI POCO F33 (Do not buy, forgetting about AAwireless it's a piece of **** anyway).

I live near a coverage black spot, which is also between two countries, so my mobile network connection drops and changes frequently. This never causes an issue with wired Android Auto.
The issue seems to stem from how AAwireless sets up the WiFi connection. However it's done, the phone will temporarily close the Android Auto connection when:

1. Mobile network was lost, and has now reconnected.
2. I cross into another country and the phone connects to a different network.

It will reestablish it within a minute.
I had a day off work today and so spent the whole day working on this... Things I have tried:

1. AAWiress connection types - Default, Direct, MTP.
2. AAwireless passthrough is on.
3. Force 2.4Ghz.
4. Disable MIUI optimisations in android settings.
5. Disable MIUI WiFi connectivity thing (name escapes me, it decides which network to use, WiFi or mobile).
6. Enabled always use mobile data in Android developer settings.
7. Ensured projection was enabled in Android Auto developer settings.

I have also reset and reestablished the connection between the phone and AAwireless multiple times, clearing all settings applicable on the phone (Android auto, AAwireless, Bluetooth etc).
The only thing I haven't tried was a suggestion to manually setup the WiFi connection on the phone, but I need the AAwireless WiFi password for this (anyone any suggestions on this? I haven't got the share connection option to get the QR code).
I spent months waiting for this and this is a massive disappointment. Never mind the large sum of cash spent. Has anyone any other suggestions? Is there a refund window?

Well done on the effort you've gone to here on testing this. I do wonder if MIUI is handling loss of mobile network differently from stock Android devices and maybe compounded but AAwireless not using a standard AA way to set up the wifi connection. However I don't completely understand how all this works and what is / isn't standard.

As for the Poco F3, I don't particularly like MIUI but on the whole I find it good value other than the camera which is below par.

 

[welshblob]

I got my Motorola MA1 yesterday and just tested it today. My home->work route has 2 disconnection spots for AAW; it disconnects around these spots. Every single time.

MA1 didn't have a disconnection problem at the same route. I had to buy the right USB c cable for AAW to work with my car(Genesis); MA1 didn't have this problem. Just plug-play worked out of the box.

The only problem with MA1 was that the first pairing process was confusing. First, you need to connect via BT and then it connects to WIFI(like AAW), but it doesn't have an app, so you can't see the process or problem at all. WIFI is password-protected, and we don't have the password. I had to reset MA1 a couple of times to make a connection (I saw some people had the same problem, but it eventually connected)

MA1 uses 149(155) channel

It looks like MA1 is a keeper for me; AAW goes to eBay

Edit: work-> home route, usually got at least 2 disconnects with AAW, none with MA1. I'm really happy with it

That's an interesting comparison. I wonder what is so different with AAwireless then? The MA1 only supports newer Android versions so it maybe something to do with AAWireless needing to use a different method to support the older versions?

 

[muxer107]

Well done on the effort you've gone to here on testing this. I do wonder if MIUI is handling loss of mobile network differently from stock Android devices and maybe compounded but AAwireless not using a standard AA way to set up the wifi connection. However I don't completely understand how all this works and what is / isn't standard.

As for the Poco F3, I don't particularly like MIUI but on the whole I find it good value other than the camera which is below par.

Just to quickly cover the POCO F3 itself: It's constantly pushing ads and bloatware on me. I've removed some with ADB, but it's still jank. I should have paid extra to get a 'proper' phone and not deal with this. Yes the underlying hardware is great for the price. If you're into custom ROM messing, I'd say it's a good buy.

Back on topic:
I'm fairly confident it's due to how MIUI is handling the network recovery which is killing the connection. You'll notice people on here with an MIUI device not understanding why their device is cutting out at particular places, however none have mentioned the state of the cell/mobile network when this occurs. I'd place a bet they're losing network coverage temporarily and that's kicking it off.

Two things I'd love to test if I could:

1. Try the phone with a car that actually supports Android Auto to see if this works fine, it would indicate the 'hack' AAwireless is using to make this work is incompatible with the MIUI software and AAwireless probably needs a fix to make this work.
2. Try an MA1 and see if it also has the same issue. If it doesn't, then maybe AAwireless can look at how they're handling the connection and learn from it.

I'm also in the process of obtaining the WiFi password and will update here if manually setting the WiFi connection fixes the issue.

 

[DeanGibson]

+1 !
This is the obvious and basic setting to be done, even before trying to connect AAW !

I had previously turned it off, as I am often in areas of marginal but usable WiFi coverage.

 

[welshblob]

Just to quickly cover the POCO F3 itself: It's constantly pushing ads and bloatware on me. I've removed some with ADB, but it's still jank. I should have paid extra to get a 'proper' phone and not deal with this. Yes the underlying hardware is great for the price. If you're into custom ROM messing, I'd say it's a good buy.

Back on topic:
I'm fairly confident it's due to how MIUI is handling the network recovery which is killing the connection. You'll notice people on here with an MIUI device not understanding why their device is cutting out at particular places, however none have mentioned the state of the cell/mobile network when this occurs. I'd place a bet they're losing network coverage temporarily and that's kicking it off.

Two things I'd love to test if I could:

1. Try the phone with a car that actually supports Android Auto to see if this works fine, it would indicate the 'hack' AAwireless is using to make this work is incompatible with the MIUI software and AAwireless probably needs a fix to make this work.
2. Try an MA1 and see if it also has the same issue. If it doesn't, then maybe AAwireless can look at how they're handling the connection and learn from it.

I'm also in the process of obtaining the WiFi password and will update here if manually setting the WiFi connection fixes the issue.

That is currently my thinking as well given my experience in a very rural, hilly area where it was disconnecting every minute and only when I disabled the mobile network data connection was it stable with no disconnects. I did remember today to look at the signal strength icon when it disconnected a couple of times and AAwireless reconnected, first time full bars with 4G and second time no bars, no data. Its not ideal though as its once it had reconnected and i never trust the signal indicator on android especially for data connection.

I am tempted to look at a custom rom to replace miui on my poco f3 partly to see if it resolves this issue but also as I like a stock android experience. Also just to note that I have very little ads on mine which is using the global rom. I can only think of two times I see ads and the first is when I install something from the play store but its easily ignored. The only other time was the annoying space cleaner app which tends to stop being able to run when it needs an update .... which I haven't done.

 

[huppejue]

That is currently my thinking as well given my experience in a very rural, hilly area where it was disconnecting every minute and only when I disabled the mobile network data connection was it stable with no disconnects. I did remember today to look at the signal strength icon when it disconnected a couple of times and AAwireless reconnected, first time full bars with 4G and second time no bars, no data. Its not ideal though as its once it had reconnected and i never trust the signal indicator on android especially for data connection.

I am tempted to look at a custom rom to replace miui on my poco f3 partly to see if it resolves this issue but also as I like a stock android experience. Also just to note that I have very little ads on mine which is using the global rom. I can only think of two times I see ads and the first is when I install something from the play store but its easily ignored. The only other time was the annoying space cleaner app which tends to stop being able to run when it needs an update .... which I haven't done.

Hi there,

which cell phone do you use?

Regards

 

[welshblob]

Hi there,

which cell phone do you use?

Regards

Poco F3 using MIUI Global 12.5.8

 

[1qazwsx4]

Just to quickly cover the POCO F3 itself: It's constantly pushing ads and bloatware on me. I've removed some with ADB, but it's still jank. I should have paid extra to get a 'proper' phone and not deal with this. Yes the underlying hardware is great for the price. If you're into custom ROM messing, I'd say it's a good buy.

Back on topic:
I'm fairly confident it's due to how MIUI is handling the network recovery which is killing the connection. You'll notice people on here with an MIUI device not understanding why their device is cutting out at particular places, however none have mentioned the state of the cell/mobile network when this occurs. I'd place a bet they're losing network coverage temporarily and that's kicking it off.

Two things I'd love to test if I could:

1. Try the phone with a car that actually supports Android Auto to see if this works fine, it would indicate the 'hack' AAwireless is using to make this work is incompatible with the MIUI software and AAwireless probably needs a fix to make this work.
2. Try an MA1 and see if it also has the same issue. If it doesn't, then maybe AAwireless can look at how they're handling the connection and learn from it.

I'm also in the process of obtaining the WiFi password and will update here if manually setting the WiFi connection fixes the issue.

I'm not entirely sure WHY we don't have an option within the app to check the devices wifi password so we can actually test these methods - also a way to "downgrade" the current firmware to previous versions to check compatibility. My previous phone an Xiaomi note 9s ran perfect on lower firmware versions, updating it caused it to no longer automatically connect and display onto the headunit without clicking android auto and required me to setup tasker profiles to make it connect with Bluetooth properly. There was no android auto update nor headunit update so yes I've locally isolated that issue.

I know the devs have got a lot on their plate but their focus seems to be more towards getting customers their devices shipped while alot of other people are simply waiting for a functioning firmware/fix. I know alot of these errors come down to custom roms having the bugs vs AA/AAW.
Now I brought this KNOWING that it would have bugs as it was a new device with a method that previously worked using a host phone but I kind of thought that perhaps with the global shortage of *insert chips here* maybe there would be a little love/development sent to those with paperweights.

Would be interesting to set up a poll with three options... Do you have
1. A working device that they're happy with
2. A device that's currently a paperweight
3. A devices that drops more than water from a tap

We are all tinkers here on XDA and more adept than most people at modifying and trialing options to fix phone related issues but there's only so far that can take us here.
Some transparency, some information or something would be nice...

I think it's great that this custom device is being produced and I wish it all the best.
I know asking for an ETA is against the rules so rather than ask I'm simply stating: I hope 2.0 firmware is coming soon and gives people a working device. I hope that they're soon done with the indigo campaign so they can focus on the devices they've sold.

 

[josefsch]

Hello,

I am new to this thread, but have learned a lot by actually reading most of the 126 pages of about 2500 posts!

My car is a 2018 Renault Espace with R-LINK2, my phone a Huawei P20 lite with Android 9, which is not the most up to date combination to use AAWireless.

I have succeeded in reaching a quite stable setup. I received my AAWireless box (firmware 1.8.0) at the end of January and got it connected and working pretty fast. I will skip the topics of enabling wireless projection in the Android Auto app or having internet access through mobile data on a Huawei phone while connected to the AAWireless WLAN - those are covered in the FAQ already.

However, in about 50% of the tests AAWireless would keep flashing blue and not connecting Android Auto on the phone to the R-LINK2. I fixed that by turning off the automatic App-Start settings for Android Auto and turning all manual settings on. From previous posts I learned that phone vendors have different ways to handle such power-saving functions.

Since I am involved in software development myself, I very soon tried to dig deeper and find additional information, like logfiles - the following findings might help others:

AAWireless WIFI and password
During setup AAWireless installs a WIFI network "AAWireless-xxxxxxxx" and an unknown password on your phone. You can get the password by requesting it from AAWireless support or following these steps:

1. go to WLAN settings on your phone when connected to the AAWireless WIFI network
2. tap that network
3. the phone shows details about the WIFI network, including a QR Code
4. either scan the QR Code with a QR code scanner on another phone or make a screenshot to scan later
5. the QR code scanner will show the information in the QR code, which also contains the WIFI password

AAWireless logfile
You can download and analyze the AAWireless logfile

1. While connected to the AAWireless WIFI you can open http://10.42.1.1:8000/syslog in your browser to download file syslog.gz (you probably have to disable mobile data on your phone first to reach the IP of the AAWireless)
2. unzip the file syslog.gz (e.g. using 7-Zip)
3. open the file in your editor

The logfile is pretty detailed, containing lots of interesting information.
There are multiple logs of different "sessions" in the same logfile, all sessions starting with the same timestamp "2020-09-20T10:44". I wonder if AAWireless could get the current date/time somewhere in the boot process from the headunit or the phone? This would make analyzing the logfile easier. Meanwhile I am "tagging" the logfile by setting the "Wifi connect timeout" to a unique number in the AAWireless companion app and later searching for that unique number in the logfile.
There also is some kind of wrap-around and reuse mechanism to prevent growing logfiles, but with the same timestamps all over, it is difficult to understand.

Enjoy trying this for yourself!

 

[malimal]

Been reading through the thread. Really want to give AAwireless shot, but for now the Start/Stop feature does not shut it down.

Have a fold 3, Android 12,
AAWireless App version - 1.9.3
AAwireless version 1.12 Edit - in OTA update is says current versions 1.12? Is that the latest? I only see version 1.8

I when my cars Bluetooth turns off, i briefly see the AAW app say disconnecting, but it never shuts down Android auto.

Not sure its worth the frustration.

 

[muxer107]

Hello,

I am new to this thread, but have learned a lot by actually reading most of the 126 pages of about 2500 posts!

My car is a 2018 Renault Espace with R-LINK2, my phone a Huawei P20 lite with Android 9, which is not the most up to date combination to use AAWireless.

I have succeeded in reaching a quite stable setup. I received my AAWireless box (firmware 1.8.0) at the end of January and got it connected and working pretty fast. I will skip the topics of enabling wireless projection in the Android Auto app or having internet access through mobile data on a Huawei phone while connected to the AAWireless WLAN - those are covered in the FAQ already.

However, in about 50% of the tests AAWireless would keep flashing blue and not connecting Android Auto on the phone to the R-LINK2. I fixed that by turning off the automatic App-Start settings for Android Auto and turning all manual settings on. From previous posts I learned that phone vendors have different ways to handle such power-saving functions.

Since I am involved in software development myself, I very soon tried to dig deeper and find additional information, like logfiles - the following findings might help others:

AAWireless WIFI and password
During setup AAWireless installs a WIFI network "AAWireless-xxxxxxxx" and an unknown password on your phone. You can get the password by requesting it from AAWireless support or following these steps:

1. go to WLAN settings on your phone when connected to the AAWireless WIFI network
2. tap that network
3. the phone shows details about the WIFI network, including a QR Code
4. either scan the QR Code with a QR code scanner on another phone or make a screenshot to scan later
5. the QR code scanner will show the information in the QR code, which also contains the WIFI password

AAWireless logfile
You can download and analyze the AAWireless logfile

1. While connected to the AAWireless WIFI you can open http://10.42.1.1:8000/syslog in your browser to download file syslog.gz (you probably have to disable mobile data on your phone first to reach the IP of the AAWireless)
2. unzip the file syslog.gz (e.g. using 7-Zip)
3. open the file in your editor

The logfile is pretty detailed, containing lots of interesting information.
There are multiple logs of different "sessions" in the same logfile, all sessions starting with the same timestamp "2020-09-20T10:44". I wonder if AAWireless could get the current date/time somewhere in the boot process from the headunit or the phone? This would make analyzing the logfile easier. Meanwhile I am "tagging" the logfile by setting the "Wifi connect timeout" to a unique number in the AAWireless companion app and later searching for that unique number in the logfile.
There also is some kind of wrap-around and reuse mechanism to prevent growing logfiles, but with the same timestamps all over, it is difficult to understand.

Enjoy trying this for yourself!

On the POCO F3, the option of getting a QR code for the WiFI password for Android auto is unavailble, which is why I can't currently test this one.

 

[malimal]

Been reading through the thread. Really want to give AAwireless shot, but for now the Start/Stop feature does not shut it down.

Have a fold 3, Android 12,
AAWireless App version - 1.9.3
AAwireless version 1.12 Edit - in OTA update is says current versions 1.12? Is that the latest? I only see version 1.8

I when my cars Bluetooth turns off, i briefly see the AAW app say disconnecting, but it never shuts down Android auto.

Not sure its worth the frustration.

So updated the app to beta version. This time the app asked for the display over apps permission. It worked

Still not sure why my device has version 1.12.0.

 

[valeri_s_k]

Two things I'd love to test if I could:

1. Try the phone with a car that actually supports Android Auto to see if this works fine, it would indicate the 'hack' AAwireless is using to make this work is incompatible with the MIUI software and AAwireless probably needs a fix to make this work.
2. Try an MA1 and see if it also has the same issue. If it doesn't, then maybe AAwireless can look at how they're handling the connection and learn from it.

I'm also in the process of obtaining the WiFi password and will update here if manually setting the WiFi connection fixes the issue.

Mi11 MIUI 13 tested on car with native AA wireless - same behavior - disconnects/reconnects in bad coverage area.
This definetely is MIUI bug, not AAWireles dongle/firmware bug.

 

[SteveI]

Hi, sorry if I may have missed this (due to the size of this thread) but I've changed a couple of settings in my Samsung GS22+ on Android 12 and the random disconnects appear to have stopped; I've had a few journeys now without any disconnects at all.

WIFI > More Settings (3 dots) > Advanced > Turn off "Switch to mobile data" & "Turn on WIFI automatically".

Knowing my luck now I've posted this I'll get a disconnect on my next trip.

EDIT: I've since been on several more journeys and I've not had a single disconnect, so the above works for me.

Further EDIT: Nevermind, had a disconnect this evening.

 

[SOFO888]

Hello,

Short update from my side: only one disconnect during the past days (since my last post).

One more question to all GM/Chevrolet/Buick/Cadillac users:
I noticed with my second AAWireless device that on our 2017 Chevy with MyLink the AAWireless conection is no problem.

But the bluetooth connection and USB power is turned on as soon as you are near by the car with your keys. That's fine for the connection time. Unfortunately it stays on as soon as you exit the car (as long as your key is nearby).
That means everytime I walk by the car with my phone and my keys in my pocket my phone starts playing music.

Is there a way to prevent this? The problem is: as soon as you are nearby the car with your key even the car's bluetooth connection starts. That means the start/stop fix of AAWireless does not help with this issue.

Thank you.

 

[muxer107]

Got the WiFi password for the AAwirelss device to try and solve the MiUi issue where it disconnects Android Auto when the mobile network drops.

Manually connected the WiFi to the dongle fine, but the issue is that invoking Android Auto causes it to take over the default WiFi connection anyway. So you end up with the same WiFi setup and hence the issue persists.

If I could find some straight forward info on ROM flashing for the POCO F3, I'd have got rid of this MiUi **** already. It's showing ads in the file browser now!

 

[SOFO888]

@Snirpo
Can you please explain how the start/stop function works?

 

[Dangze]

I am not Snirpo, but as far as I understand, the Start/Stop option works as follows :
- when the head unit switches off (bluetooth signal disconnects with the phone), AAW switches off (no more bluetooth and wifi links with the phone) and fixed white led is shown on the dongle.
- as soon as the head unit is powered on and its bluetooth connects to the phone, AAW wakes up and connects to the phone (normal process : green led, then flashing blue, then fixed blue)....

 

[SOFO888]

Thank you very much.

I was just thinking how a start/stop option should look like in my case. See post no. 2518.
My head unit's bluetooth is on as soon as get near enough to the car with my car key.