I donr have any experience with that particular one, but have bought a couple in that price range off Amazon. The first quit working after a year or so, but had connection issues prior to that. The current one is still working after a year and a half, but again there are some connection issues. Hard to tell if the problem is with the dongle or the Honda head unit. More recently I’ve gone back to using a wired connection, as I’m tired of messing with it.

 

Ditto that sentiment... Back to a cable only connection for me as well.
I bought a "AutoSky" dongle in April; it crapped out within a month, got a replacement from Amazon and it did very well - for a while. Locked up the head unit on numerous occasions - to the point that I had to shut down the truck to get the head unit back in operation. Frequent connection errors where CarPlay would not start; even though my iPhone indicated that it was connected to the dongle via BT & WIFI. Several firmware updates on the dongle did nothing for me.

I am also in agreement that some of the issues are the Honda head unit.
2017 RTLE - iPhone 11pro with iOS 18 - these issues also occurred on previous iOS versions.

 

Do you guys have older Ridgelines without the bluetooth or am I missing something.

 

2020 RL BE which is USB only for Carplay.

 

I've tried 3 different USB cables and I have had dropped Carplay connections and Carplay lockups with all of them. I'm hoping to have better luck with wireless but I also may go the aftermarket head unit route like I did with my Santa Fe. I went with a Kenwood unit and it was pretty reliable.

Thanks for posting your experiences.

 

I've had good luck with the Motorola MA1 Wireless Car Adapter.

I added a short right-angle USB extension cable and Velcro to better locate the adapter.

It connects wirelessly very quickly and is pretty reliable. In the 6 months I've had it, it has failed to connect a couple times. The green LED just flashes when this happens, and I just unplug the USB cable and plug it back in again to resolve the issue.

 

That’s a sweet setup. I wish Motorola made one for Apple CarPlay.

 

After receiving the CarlinKit 5.0 Wireless CarPlay Adapter today and updating the firmware I had dropped connections and could not get it to reliably stay connected. I went into my WiFi and Bluetooth settings on my iPhone and did a "Forget" on the CarlinKit network for both. I had connected to its WiFi connection for the firmware update. I then turned the truck off and back on and restarted my iPhone. Once I connected to the CarlinKit again it seemed to work fine. Music played and Google Maps worked. I'll see how it does for a few days and the report back.

 

Thanks for this heads up on the price...I just ordered 1 myself so hopefully they will be great buys for both of us

 

I hope your experience is better than mine. I updated the firmware and followed the troubleshooting recomendations but it continued to freeze up, blank out and the audio stuttered. I have an iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 18 for reference.

I returned it to Walmart and went back to a wired connection for now. I'm looking at an Ottocast device next.

 

After the @longball2go report on the Ottocast and other reports I found online about it not working well I went to a local car audio store I've done business with in the past and asked them for a recommendation. The guy was really helpful as usual. He said that a lot of the head units they install do not have wireless CarPlay / Android Auto so they use a USB wireless adapter. The one they have had good success with is the AC-W Wireless CarPlay / Wireless Android Auto Adapter found at the rdvft (.com) web site for $75.

I've been using it for 2 day's now with 4 instances of use and so far it has been flawless. It connects within 30 seconds of starting the truck and has not displayed any of the weirdness I've experienced with two other adapters. I'll report back with another update after using it a bit longer.

 

I am on my 1st day will the Carlin and have experienced some of the issues you have with the screen going blank randomly at times
However, I will say that overall it’s better than the ottocast and I have not had to change the source constantly like I did with OC
I am going to give it a couple of more days, but definitely look into your new recommendation
I’m glad you steered away from OC. I do not think you would’ve been happy with that at all.
Thank you for keeping us informed and best of luck with ACW if you go that route

 

Thank you for all the feedback! Can you tell me which Ottocast you tried? They make a few that range from &50 to nearly $300.

 

I’ll check gbtu

 

Argh! The AC-W has now started rebooting suddenly and locking up. Like @longball2go i need to change sources to get it to come back. Going to the RL home screen and then selecting CarPlay again works as well.

 

I had multiple issues with the Carlinkin and never got it to work with my iPhone 15 pro despite multiple contacts with CS and trying all their suggestions and multiple different cables (genuine apple cables as well). Would just blank out on me, freeze up at other times and had to go in and out nearly every 5 minutes.

I replaced it with the AutoSky which has worked very well for me with one exception. Google maps doesn’t play well with it or my Honda (22 RTL-E). Even wired G Maps would freeze up requiring me to go out of carplay and back in and I have read a few other automakers systems have this same issue. Waze or Apple maps work without issue. It starts up and connects usually before I am out of the driveway. Have had it for 4 months and use it almost daily

This same phone works perfect wirelessly in my wife’s Lexus and works perfectly also wireless with the zzplay system I had installed in my older Mercedes convertible.

Just my 2 cents, YMMV

 

I had multiple issues with the Carlinkin and never got it to work with my iPhone 15 pro despite multiple contacts with CS and trying all their suggestions and multiple different cables (genuine apple cables as well). Would just blank out on me, freeze up at other times and had to go in and out nearly every 5 minutes.

I replaced it with the AutoSky which has worked very well for me with one exception. Google maps doesn’t play well with it or my Honda (22 RTL-E). Even wired G Maps would freeze up requiring me to go out of carplay and back in and I have read a few other automakers systems have this same issue. Waze or Apple maps work without issue. It starts up and connects usually before I am out of the driveway. Have had it for 4 months and use it almost daily

This same phone works perfect wirelessly in my wife’s Lexus and works perfectly also wireless with the zzplay system I had installed in my older Mercedes convertible.

Just my 2 cents, YMMV

Can you provide the model # of the AutoSky you are using? They sell multiple units on Amazon but reviews are sketchy for most if not all of them.
I beginning to wonder if all of these devices have issues

 

I wanted to revisit this thread and recommend this wireless CarPlay adapter...

Amazon.com: MMB Mini Wireless Carplay Adapter, 2025 Carplay Adapter for Apple iPhone, Plug & Play, Smallest, Fastest for Converts OEM Wired to Wireless Car Play Only for Car Model 2017+ and iOS 10 USB & Type-C : Electronics

Amazon.com: MMB Mini Wireless Carplay Adapter, 2025 Carplay Adapter for Apple iPhone, Plug & Play, Smallest, Fastest for Converts OEM Wired to Wireless Car Play Only for Car Model 2017+ and iOS 10 USB & Type-C : Electronics

www.amazon.com

After trying all previously listed and returning for various reasons this has been the best by far for consistency, speed of load and playing nice with the Ridgeline head unit

 

Thanks for the review. Which navigation app do you use?

 

Yes but not nearly as intuitive imo

 

The Veosma 5.1 Wireless CarPlay Adapter I've been using for a couple months had the same issues as the two previous ones. Interestingly, while my Ridgeline was in the body shop getting repaired after a deer smacked into the driver side of the truck I had the opportunity to try the Veosma in two other vehicles. It performed without issue for 4 weeks evenly split between a Jeep Wrangler Hybrid and a Kia Sportage. No issues whatsoever.

As a gift I received an Ottocast U2AIR Pro Wireless CarPlay Adapter. This is my 4th wireless CarPlay adapter. Although it is the least laggy and fastest on startup it too has the random restart issue. On a 1.5 hour drive it restarted at 20 minutes and then after a stop it restarted at about 10 minutes. The restarts are quite fast but still a pain. I updated the firmware to the latest but it didn't help. I am now working through the issues with Ottocast tech support. After a few informational emails back and forth here is what they recommended:

"Please follow the steps below:
1.Please clear the bluetooth, wifi and carplay car connectivity records on your iPhone and reconnect the product's bluetooth and wifi on your cell phone.
(A) Please go to Apple Phone Settings - General - Transfer or Reset Iphone - Reset - Network Settings. After finished, please check whether the product can be used normally.
(B) Clear the car connection record: Phone Settings - General - Carplay Car - Clear all connection records.

2.Please reset the car. Under normal circumstances, there is an item in the car settings named “”“” personal information initialize “”“”. Please initialize the navigation settings, audio settings, etc. first. If you reset to factory default settings, all internal settings will also be reset.
Procedure Find Settings in the original car interface, follow the index to find the system settings and select Restore Factory Settings.

If it can't be solved, please contact us to send you a free replacement Y-cable to assist the connection, as it may be caused by the car unit experiencing insufficient power supply."

I completed the steps with no improvement in performance. I am waiting to hear back and am very interested in their theory that it might be the power supplied to the unit from the Ridgeline USB-A port.

 

This is the adapter they are sending me. It looks like one male end is for power only and the other for power + data. I see them on Amazon for under $10 but I’ve been dealing with this for so long I’ll just wait for them to send me one.

 

I received the splitter and for a while after installing it I thought maybe it had resolved the issue. It didn't. The restarts were more sporadic but still there. This led me to suspect the issue is indeed power related. I used a power pack I had on hand and plugged the splitter into it. I worked fine for a couple days until the power pack dipped below 75% capacity. Then the restarts began happening again.

I purchased an Inverter for $35 and received it yesterday. There are cheaper ones out there but this one has a display showing the battery voltage. After installing it I connected the splitter USB-A connector to one of the ports labeled FAST 24W on the inverter. I've now driven three times for a total of 75 minutes with this setup and no issues yet.

I'll try to update again in a few days.

 

Interesting stuff

Have tried many different CarPlay adapters in my 2020 Ridgeline
All of them had issues, although I finally settled on my current one which plays nicer than the rest of them with only a couple of bugs during the day I have to deal with
Bottom line is, I decided the Ridgeline head unit just does not like to play nice with these things but your theory of power through the USB port is plausible also
Either way both issues are hard to overcome easily and probably why I just deal with the bugs

 

The other two Carplay adapters that failed me were given to other people in my family. Both report having no issues at all.

 

Nice research on the power supply @ColtOne. I'm eager to hear the longer term results.
Longball2go, which unit did you settle on as being the best (least worst)?

 

Amazon.com

This one...
And it is by no means perfect but it starts up the most consistent and all I have to do is play with the "source" button a few times to get it playing through either bluetooth or carplay.
I think the post about the usb being buggy with power output may be on to something. That may be why it sometimes recognises and starts up but other times must be unplugged and restarted.

I am confident in one thing after trying several of these in my 2020 R/L...None of them work seamlessly with the R/L headunit setup. I took each and every one and put them in other vehicles and they worked great. My Son drives a Jeep truck and he has this same adapter. He said it has not failed to start,connect or play spotify through it without manipulation.

 

Using the AC outlet on the inverter I posted about earlier I am still getting restarts. Driving 25 minutes to and from work I experience one almost every trip over the last 10 days. Sometimes more than one. On longer trips same, one or more restarts. The LED display on the inverter has provided a possible clue to the cause of the restarts. Every time there was a restart I noticed the voltage on the display had dropped from the mostly consistent of 14.1 VDC to 12.1 VDC. Noticing this I checked the display more frequently. This showed that when the voltage dropped from 14.1 VDC to the 13's and even high 12's VDC the CarPlay adapter remained stable. Once it dropped to somewhere in the low 12's, 12.1 most of the time, the CarPlay adapter restarted.

Next I'll try to find out what is causing these fluctuations in voltage and more importantly, if they are truly the root cause of the instability.

 

That would be great. Hope you can figure it out

 

Reading up on the power going from 12 to 14 VDC is the difference between the vehicle running on battery alone and when the charging system kicks on. Monitoring the voltage on the inverter display over a longer term showed no correlation to the voltage readings at all. The next step I took to completely eliminate the RL power was to use a battery jump starter pack with a 115 VDC outlet on it. I used this with and without the inverter in between. The restarts continued and were as random and frequent as when the Ottocast was plugged in directly to the RL power.

All this has led me to believe the issue is with Honda's implementation of CarPlay in the head unit which means there is nothing we can do except hope that a future update addresses the issue. For now I've gone bak to a wired connection. It's only been a week and it is still buggy but with les frequent freezes. At least it appears that way for now.

 

I believe that too
It’s just a head unit that does not play nice with any wireless adapter.

 

If that were the case, everyone would have the same issues.
As you are not the original owner, take the head unit back to factory settings.
On your iPhone, make sure your iOS is up to date.
Perform a Forget this car (again)
Perform a Force restart

Force restart iPhone

If iPhone isn’t responding, try forcing it to restart.

support.apple.com

Set up CarPlay again (Do not allow the iPhone to connect to the RL via BlueTooth or WiFi)
I have a CPO '22 RTL-E that initally had (wired) CarPlay issues.
I did the above steps, and have had one freeze in over a year of use.

Learning how to reboot the head unit fixed it.​

https://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/threads/reboot-the-17-23-rtl-e-and-be-head-unit.244563/?post_id=3408588#post-3408588

I was recently given two cheap Amazon wireless adapters, both of which work well aside from the inherent Bluetooth lag, which only affects skipping audio tracks.

The Veosma 5.1 Wireless CarPlay Adapter I've been using for a couple months had the same issues as the two previous ones. Interestingly, while my Ridgeline was in the body shop getting repaired after a deer smacked into the driver side of the truck I had the opportunity to try the Veosma in two other vehicles. It performed without issue for 4 weeks evenly split between a Jeep Wrangler Hybrid and a Kia Sportage. No issues whatsoever.

As a gift I received an Ottocast U2AIR Pro Wireless CarPlay Adapter. This is my 4th wireless CarPlay adapter. Although it is the least laggy and fastest on startup it too has the random restart issue. On a 1.5 hour drive it restarted at 20 minutes and then after a stop it restarted at about 10 minutes. The restarts are quite fast but still a pain. I updated the firmware to the latest but it didn't help. I am now working through the issues with Ottocast tech support. After a few informational emails back and forth here is what they recommended:

"Please follow the steps below:
1.Please clear the bluetooth, wifi and carplay car connectivity records on your iPhone and reconnect the product's bluetooth and wifi on your cell phone.
(A) Please go to Apple Phone Settings - General - Transfer or Reset Iphone - Reset - Network Settings. After finished, please check whether the product can be used normally.
(B) Clear the car connection record: Phone Settings - General - Carplay Car - Clear all connection records.

2.Please reset the car. Under normal circumstances, there is an item in the car settings named “”“” personal information initialize “”“”. Please initialize the navigation settings, audio settings, etc. first. If you reset to factory default settings, all internal settings will also be reset.
Procedure Find Settings in the original car interface, follow the index to find the system settings and select Restore Factory Settings.

If it can't be solved, please contact us to send you a free replacement Y-cable to assist the connection, as it may be caused by the car unit experiencing insufficient power supply."

I completed the steps with no improvement in performance. I am waiting to hear back and am very interested in their theory that it might be the power supplied to the unit from the Ridgeline USB-A port.

I believe my post #33 quoted above covers all the steps you suggested. This did not resolve the issue for me.

 

Except the Force restart of the iPhone.
I'd reinstall the iOS via the IPSW, followed by a Force restart.