CarPlay Lite C5 Motorcycle GPS Wireless Carplay/Android review

[Stu]

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.

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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.

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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

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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

[Doctor T]

Looks very similar to the Fodsport sat nav.
Hope you find it better than the Garmin

[Stu]

Looks very similar to the Fodsport sat nav.
Hope you find it better than the Garmin

This isn't a sat nav as such

Its a screen that uses Android auto or apple carplay through your mobile phone so it runs off your phone and you can use all sorts of different apps for navigation and would also be constantly up to date

there is a couple manufacturers that are starting to do this now to their TFT screen but typical BMW style they have their own system that runs off their own app

[Glenn]

[Loopers]

Surely you need to rely on the internet signal for your maps and navigation though despite you not being a fan. I'm curious to see how you get on, totally agree that the Zumo XT can have issues with phone calls but personally I've not really had any issues but I use a Sena system after having connection issues with Cardo. I did have problems with Spotify through the Garmin but that was with a Zumo 595 which has the Spotify app and normally could be traced to the phone. I will watch out for further reports to see how successful your set up is as I could well follow in your footsteps.

[Stu]

Surely you need to rely on the internet signal for your maps and navigation though despite you not being a fan.

No as the apps I use you can download the maps to your phone to work offline and the navigation runs off the GPS on the phone

[Loopers]

Understood, at present I'm using both the BMW system and a Xumo XT as I've only had the bike for a month and not sure if I want to keep relying on the BMW one as it does appear to be a bit hit and miss on the connection at times and also the XT gives me a lot more info regarding traffic updates, road closures and rest / fuel option's. I also have the advantage of an unlimited data plan but it doe's have a limit outside of the UK though but big enough for my needs.
I'm still interested in your results though as always look for future options to cover my needs when currant ones are discontinued or outdated.

[Stu]

The XT is a good sat nav but you need to know what the quirks are and how to fix them otherwise you will end up wanting to launch it in to the closest river

masses of info on my other forum
https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/

[Loopers]

Already got your Zumo forum bookmarked, just need to sort out the time to go through it

[gadgetgaz]

I really like these units, I have one from a different Chinese manufacturer but think they're basically the same units.

I'm using the Connected Ride app with the TFT on the R1250RT with audio system and Sena bluetooth headset. This works great for phonecalls, radio, streamed audio from the phone and satnav.

But, the text messages aren't displayed or read out, I'm always concerned that the TFT nav connection will fail and there's no facility to play music from a memory card.

All of these downsides can be fixed by using one of these Android Auto/carplay screens. The only difficulty is getting the audio from the CarPlay unit into the bike's audio system because the Sena cannot connect to both at the same time. The CarPlay does not have an audio output other than bluetooth and the bike's audio system on the 2021+ bikes no longer have an AUX input.

I'm going to try a small FM radio transmitter that pairs to the phone's bluetooth and re-transmits it on FM radio so the audio (but not the microphone) can be played through the bike's audio system. I think it should work OK but I'll be testing it out soon.

One like this product - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XYY9W2X? ... ct_details

[jclaudej]

I really like these units, I have one from a different Chinese manufacturer but think they're basically the same units.

I'm using the Connected Ride app with the TFT on the R1250RT with audio system and Sena bluetooth headset. This works great for phonecalls, radio, streamed audio from the phone and satnav.

But, the text messages aren't displayed or read out, I'm always concerned that the TFT nav connection will fail and there's no facility to play music from a memory card.

All of these downsides can be fixed by using one of these Android Auto/carplay screens. The only difficulty is getting the audio from the CarPlay unit into the bike's audio system because the Sena cannot connect to both at the same time. The CarPlay does not have an audio output other than bluetooth and the bike's audio system on the 2021+ bikes no longer have an AUX input.

I'm going to try a small FM radio transmitter that pairs to the phone's bluetooth and re-transmits it on FM radio so the audio (but not the microphone) can be played through the bike's audio system. I think it should work OK but I'll be testing it out soon.

One like this product - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XYY9W2X? ... ct_details

Hi,

I don't know your Sena model but normaly almost headset Sena are able to manage two connexion. For example in the past my SMH5-FM was connected with my smartphone and in the same time to my old Garmin GPS LM340.

[Steve398]

My Sena 10R connects with my phone/satnav/passenger with no problem. I seem to remember it can take up to 4 pairings?

[gadgetgaz]

I think all Senas are the same in this respect - only one device per BT profile. So Sena can connect to TFT using the handsfree profile but cannot then connect to a phone with a handsfree profile. It can simultaneously connect to one music player using the A2DP profile. At the same time it can connect to another helmet etc. but only one of any profile type.
Mine is a 50S and it seems to have all sorts of connections - mobile phone, second mobile phone, selective audio pairing, GPS pairing..... I'm not sure when Sena support they can't all be used at the same time.