Android Auto missing on Citroën SpaceTourer 2017

[SpaceSandman]

Hi all. Bought a 2017 SpaceTourer. Love the van. However, only the Apple CarPlay and MirrorLink icons are visible in the app menu. Android Auto is not there. The Android Auto compatibility site however, shows that the this model is compatible with Android Auto. I have updated the NAC firmware, tried multiple cables and Android phones, including a Google Pixel, but doesn't work.

When connecting an iPhone, it works perfectly. Here a picture of the NAC:

Anyone has seen this before? I feel like the feature should be there, it just needs to be activated. Maybe through OBD2 port?

*update* I have put some more research in this. My SpaceTourer has a Wave 1 NAC. I read on some other forums that Wave 1 does not support Android Auto because the hardware of the main unit doesn't support it. To add Android Auto, you would have to replace the main unit of the NAC with a Wave 2 or higher NAC. If this is true, Android Auto will never work on a NAC Wave 1. Is this true? Is there anybody with a NAC Wave 1 system with Android Auto? The firmware would be 7.3.1-r1.

Cheers!

[robdevil]

Try to do update first via Citroen app or from Citroen website.

[Sloppysod]

Not sure about the firmware your system runs, is it Android based?
Have a look/read of this, I may be of help.
https://www.b3itlabs.com/prod.php?id=1.

[SpaceSandman]

Try to do update first via Citroen app or from Citroen website.

Yes, thanks for the tip. I have updated all the firmware using the app and installing it in the car using a USB stick. No luck.

[SpaceSandman]

Not sure about the firmware your system runs, is it Android based?
Have a look/read of this, I may be of help.
https://www.b3itlabs.com/prod.php?id=1.

Thanks for your response. It's the factory fitted NAC unit. It's proprietary and I cannot install any OS myself. Will have to find a way to enable the Android Auto feature another way.

[robdevil]

Buy Arduino and try that way then. But it require latest software too.

[autopia]

Hi all, have just joined as am expecting to get my 2018 Spacetourer this week. When I viewed the car, it has Carplay and Mirrorlink, but Android Auto was missing from the (7inch?) touch screen head unit, but as the vendor was selling it to me on the basis it had AA, they spoke to the local Citroen dealer service who initially advised they could update the firmware and reflash the software as the MY2018 did support AA. However they've backtracked and can't do so, my local dealer service say it's Citroen policy to remove AA as it never worked properly, anyway. I wonder if anyone on here can throw any light on that decision and whether anyone else has successfully installed Android Auto on a similar year Spacetourer, Dispatch, or the other PSA/Badge engineered equivalents, e.g. Peugeot, Vauxhall, Toyota? Alternatively, has anyone tried and can recommend one of the widely available tablet units that offer Android Auto, perhaps sitting happily in the dashboard glove box (I wont know the aperture size when the lid is open until I get the car?). Thanks all.

[tricoloured]

Hi Autopia

I find the comment from Citroen that it never worked properly odd as have a 2018 Peugeot Expert van and it has wired AA and I have been using a cheap dongle to make things wireless, it all works well. My unit is NAC Wave 2, as said above it may not be possible to run AA on NAC Wave 1 units.

I would have thought it would be the same setup on the 2018 Spacetourer though I have read a couple of threads on here and The Peugeot Forums that it is disabled on the Toyota Proace Verso.

This member of the Peugeot Forums seems the know the systems very well.

https://www.peugeotforums.com/members/428658/

He also has a link to a site that identifies the units from VIN.

Hope you can sort it.

Regards

Bobby

[autopia]

Many thanks for responding Bobby, the link on his profile identifies my head unit as a Bosch RCC EU (RCC-firmware) Wave 2, which may not support AA, even though it has Mirrorlink and Car Play apparently works on it. I've just found the Citroen update software and it has downloaded a firmware update, will give it a try when I have the vehicle, but thanks again.

[rui_saraiva]

I'm that member from the other forum.

The NAC Wave 1 infotainment system (NAC_EUR_WAVE1) doesn't support Android Auto (AA) and never will because it lacks hardware.
With the NAC Wave 2 (NAC_EUR_WAVE2), it really depends on the firmware version: you need a 21.0*.*.*_NAC-r* version to support AA (older 5.15.*.*-r0 versions, released before Jan 2017, don't have that support). This is the only case in which you could enable AA with a firmware update.

For the RCC units (without satnav), either Wave 2 or 3 (RCC_EU_W2 or RCC_EU_W3 / RCC_EU_W3_ECO), there are 4 different hardware variants:

RCC	Only AM/FM	Also DAB
Without MirrorScreen (A1)	A	B
With MirrorScreen (A2)	C	D

The MirrorScreen is what PSA/Stellantis calls their systems that support Apple CarPlay (CP), Google Android Auto or MirrorLink.

So to have AA support, you'll need an RCC A2 hardware, which could be identified by the last letter of the system version, either a xxxC or xxxD. For instance, with the latest RCC Wave 2 firmware, 1_076_16.1B116.4, you should see a "076C" or "076D".

NAC Wave 3 and 4 systems (NAC_EUR_WAVE3 and NAC_EUR_WAVE4) should all have AA support, except some Toyota vehicles that have it disabled (but CP is enabled). Those are the only ones that could be enabled through the OBD port and telecoding.

[autopia]

Thank you Rui, that's really helpful, I hope to get the car tomorrow so presume i'll be able to check system version through the interface. In the meantime, I'd set up a MyCitroen account and in the app; the vehicle touchscreen indicated there was a firmware update due, I emailed myself the link to download the software update and it dropped the firmware update onto a USB stick, I'll try figure out which version it downloaded and check against your RCC updates list. I've tried to check the MyCitroen touchscreen update since, but the updates service seems to be temporarily unavailable. Many thanks again.

[autopia]

Hi again Rui,

I checked the downloaded firmware that Citroen's update software downloaded and dropped to my USB key, it concurs with the latest RCC Wave 2 firmware, 1_076_16.1B116.4 as listed on your NACC-RCC versions site - https://sites.google.com/view/nac-rcc/, so I should be upto date. I will note the existing revision before I perform the update, just in case.

Checking my VIN on your site confirms the head unit is an RCC Wave 2, it definitely has Car Play and MirrorLink so from your table above it should be an A2 unit, and I can't 100% remember, but I thought it had DAB, either way, it should still be an A2, and I will look for the firmware revision ending in a C or D.

My latest question based on having read through other threads on this forum, about NAC-RCC updates is that firmware updates are usually bug fixes rather than feature updates, my car was registered in April 2018 and I understand that Android Auto was installed on Spacetourer head units from 2017, does my assumption suggest that it was installed and subsequently removed, or was it perhaps never installed - perhaps the vehicle was manufactured outside the dates from which AA was installed?

Either way, have any firmware updates resulted in Android Auto being installed or would that be a completely separate task requiring a different installation process?

Best regards

[rui_saraiva]

In the RCC systems, installing any firmware update won't change the state of the AA. Either it has support (and I mean hardware support) from the factory (C and D variants), or it doesn't (A and B). And it is very unlikely that AA support was disabled through telecoding.
Did you use a good USB cable? Some cheap USB cables only have 2 wire conductors inside (VCC +5V and GND) and no data wires (DATA+ and DATA-, 4 wires in total) and can only be used for charging. That USB port should also read any FAT32-formatted USB flash drive with some .mp3 files.

[autopia]

Thank you Rui,

I did see lots of comments about data cables on the Peugeot forum that you also provide assistance on, so I've tried a number of different cables, I will order a Samsung OEM data cable just to be sure but the head unit only shows Apple Car Play and Mirrorlink through the telephone menu, and my Android cell phone is too new to support Mirrorlink, so I wonder if it's just not been installed with AA.
I reviewed the System Information but they don't correlate with the firmware updates listed in your website and none of the installed versions end in C or D, although I can confirm it is a DAB headunit, so am confused as to the version of the hardware, maybe I need to pull the head unit out and find the manufacturing label, but these are the System information versions:

HMI version 20.522.45.4.0
IMX version: x0011046_161020_15.7A133.5
V850 version: W2.0_16.1C26.1

Rather than blithely updating the firmware, I'll wait for the OEM cable and do some more research on the software versions above to understand why AA might not be installed on my head unit, it's also secondary to a heating problem that the car arrived with, so I need to try get that resolved as a priority.

Thanks for all your help.

Best regards

[rui_saraiva]

Those HMI, iMX and V850 versions you could see in the tooltips of each version at https://sites.google.com/view/nac-rcc/system/rcc/wave-2
But that's a very old version 0_12F_15.7A133.5, no longer available, that you can only see when you double-click the "Version" (upper left corner of the table).

In your car, in the previous menu, you should see "System version: 12Fx". If you have DAB, that "x" should be a "B" or a "D".