Stu Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 A few weeks ago I took delivery of a CarPlay Lite C5 Motorcycle GPS Wireless Carplay/Android Auto for review. I used to mount my phone to the bike but I destroyed the camera on my phone due to vibrations and as a result I vowed never to mount my phone again! As such I have been looking for a solution for a better setup. The idea of this screen is to use Android auto or apple carplay on your motorcycle without having the need to mount your phone on the bike and in the elements and risk breaking your camera. I currently have a Garmin Zumo XT which works fine but I don't use phone calls or message notifications through it as its just totally inadequate for that! Plus having a bad experience while in Poland some years ago I always wanted some sort of back up if the sat nav went down. Which has brought me to this CarPlay Lite C5 Motorcycle GPS Wireless Carplay/Android Auto Waterproof Screen. https://www.ottocast.com/collections/portable-motorcycle-wireless-carplay-screen Once ordered I sat and waited thinking it will take a few weeks to turn up due to it coming from China! But keeping an eye on the tracking I was shocked to find it at my door within 4 days. You can't get most things in the UK that quick. What's In the Box? Opening the box there was the screen sat there looking all pretty along with various mounting brackets and cables On first look the screen looks pretty decent quality and comes with a cradle with a built in sunshade. It has a ramball type mounting on the back with a short ramball arm which can attach to various mountings that are supplied. There is also some cables for connecting the screen to the motorbike to power it up and a cable for connecting the phone which was not needed in my case. Mounting the screen I already had a ramball on the bike so I used that but as you can see from the attached images there is a few options to use which will probably suit most bikes if not there is plenty of solutions out there to enable you to attach it to the bike. Power options You can power this via a permanent lead that you can attach to your battery or a switched live which is highly recommended or you can connect it to a usb power supply There is some waterproof screw connectors supplied too which can aid quick removal and the permanent power lead is pretty long Connecting your phone I first powered the screen via USB and a power adaptor in the house to set it up before fitting to the bike. The first thing I noticed about the screen is that there was no power at all when I took it out the box so my initial thought was that it needs a good charge well it turns out that it doesn't have an internal battery! Little downside but not a major selling point as you wouldn't use the screen off the bike anyway you would use your phone. Once powered on I connected my phone via bluetooth and everything just connected up and Android auto started up and connected straight away. Immediately showing google maps I changed this to waze to see how this worked then I also tried MyRoute App navigation too and all 3 worked great. I then took to mounting the device to the bike and making sure everything works as expected which it didn't! The phone would not connect again until I had restarted the phone. It turns out that this is an issue with Android auto and not the screen but I have noticed that if you exit Android auto from the screen then turn it off it will reconnect just fine. Connecting Bluetooth headset The screen has a built in speaker but this is pretty much useless on a bike! I have a Cardo Packtalk bold headset which I connected up to the screen which went flawlessly except for a few settings I had to tweak on the phone to get the audio/phone calls to work Satellite Navigation I opted to use MyRoute App Navigation for this as I use MyRoute App for all my route planning on the Zumo XT so it made sense use it seen as though all routes where there already. I was pretty impressed with MyRoute App Navigation and how it interacted with the CarPlay Lite C5 and the spoken instructions were very clear through the headset. The screen is visible in direct sunlight and is plenty bright enough. Phone calls Phone calls are easy to make through the unit either via the contacts app, shortcuts or using google assistant with voice commands The phone call quality was far much better than through the Garmin Zumo XT! Other ramblings! Playing and controlling music from your phone is a breeze and decent sound too my music is on my phone and not through spotify/amazon music as you have to rely on internet signal for these and I'm not a fan of that although amazon musi worked fine in the garage. The screen is glove friendly although some of the buttons a little small to use There is an SD card slot if you wanted to play music from that although I can't see a way to do that when using Android auto. The SD car slot is accessed via a side compartment and secured using two screws Overall I was really impressed with the CarPlay Lite C5 and it is a great alternative to mounting your phone to the bike if you fear damaging it or if you don't want to fork out for an expensive dedicated sat nav Couple of links to other reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Z1Q4OEzok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtPc9lmSn4 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Which one did you get @Stu? The Lite C5 or the Lite C5 SE? Seems to me the SE has additional features (mirroring) and is cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 4 minutes ago, bonio said: Which one did you get @Stu? The Lite C5 or the Lite C5 SE? Seems to me the SE has additional features (mirroring) and is cheaper The Lite C5 as in the title To be honest I am not sure what the differences are in them I have fixed the links to point to the correct one though 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 Hey @Stu. I'm toying with getting one of these. And they're currently discounted a bit for Black Friday. A couple of qs: * When powering with the USB, does it have to be a 12V USB socket? Will 5V do? * Sounds like you decided not go with USB in the end; why did you change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted November 13, 2023 Author Share Posted November 13, 2023 @bonio I only powered it via USB to get it working in the house then fitted it to the bike. I used a phone charger I'm not aware of a 12v USB? The cable that you fit and connect direct to the battery has a converter to drop the voltage to 5v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 Sounds like good news. Ta. I'll sleep on it and think again in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onesea Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) I have been using similar with car play in the car, it’s a little lumpy. But it does work. Not certain how it works with headset will have a play. I have been tempted for bike. Temu have similar with cams for £130-£150. https://www.temu.com/goods.html?_bg_fs=1&goods_id=601099514613774 however it’s allot to pay for cheap stuff from China if it doesn’t work. Edited November 14, 2023 by onesea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 Just bought the C5 SE Lite. $1.25 to the £1 helped the price. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 Just realised that by sleeping on it, I got a better deal. Reminds of a time back in the spring of 2000. A guy I knew was going to cash in some options on shares for the company he worked for (it was a startup, everyone got options). The price had been steadily going up month by month for quite a while, and as a result he was looking to make a cool quarter of a million. Back then that would have bought a very handsome house. He had kids; this was a really big thing for him. It was the morning, and he kept refreshing the web page to get the latest price, and it was still going up with each hit of the F5 button. So he hesitated; perhaps he'd get a better deal after lunch? There was a crowd of us standing behind him. I remember the moment. Because by the afternoon the share price had dropped 25%. And the way options work, that meant him settling for half the cash. So he left it for the next day, waiting for the price to bounce back. But by the next day share price was 50% down and the options were worthless. Life is odd: he hesitated and lost a fortune. I hesitated and saved myself a tenner. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender Posted November 15, 2023 Share Posted November 15, 2023 9 hours ago, bonio said: Just realised that by sleeping on it, I got a better deal. Reminds of a time back in the spring of 2000. A guy I knew was going to cash in some options on shares for the company he worked for (it was a startup, everyone got options). The price had been steadily going up month by month for quite a while, and as a result he was looking to make a cool quarter of a million. Back then that would have bought a very handsome house. He had kids; this was a really big thing for him. It was the morning, and he kept refreshing the web page to get the latest price, and it was still going up with each hit of the F5 button. So he hesitated; perhaps he'd get a better deal after lunch? There was a crowd of us standing behind him. I remember the moment. Because by the afternoon the share price had dropped 25%. And the way options work, that meant him settling for half the cash. So he left it for the next day, waiting for the price to bounce back. But by the next day share price was 50% down and the options were worthless. Life is odd: he hesitated and lost a fortune. I hesitated and saved myself a tenner. I got some of those northern rock shares years ago, cashed straight in, not like my sensible mate who kept them till they went bust life is a gamble, sometimes you win sometimes you don't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonio Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 The ottocast device arrived today. But oh noes, the version I've ordered doesn't come with a USB power cable. I've asked them if they can supply one, but I might have to send it back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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