VW Carstick - does it work as standard?

snoop6060

Member
T6 Pro
Afternoon,

I cannot seam to get any decent information out the of the VW dealer on this. I have a 2016 highline with the composition media unit. Frequently have to work in the van on a laptop and just use my iphone normally to tether it. Which mostly works OK, but it does require me to drive about to settle on a decent 4G signal, which isn't always that easy if I am in the middle of the countryside or whatever. Someone mentioned that the carstick gets far better signal as it uses the van as an antenna. Any ideas if this works as standard? I know you need the discover media headunit to use the carstick with the it but not really that bothered by that. Literally just after the signal boost it will provide me for the wifi hotspot. Worth its weight in gold if this is the case, fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Si
 
I have a vw carstick plugged into my bus. It does pull in a good signal as the kids use it for wifi in the combi all the time without any screams from the back about the ipads not working......compared to my phone there is always a better signal showing on the carstick, but for some reason it only shows the 3G signal not 4G but never had a problem with it . I run a three data sim card in it.
 
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Thanks :)

Reliable 3G is enough, the work I do doesn't require vast bandwidth just a constant connection as it's over a VPN. Anything that increases the range of places I can work is a godsend.

Will get one ordered and see anyway, if it doesn't work I'll just send it back.

Cheers
Si
 
I have a vw carstick plugged into my bus. It does pull in a good signal as the kids use it for wifi in the combi all the time without any screams from the back about the ipads not working......compared to my phone there is always a better signal showing on the carstick, but for some reasomn it only shows the 3G signal not 4G but never had a problem with it . I run a three data sim card in it.


Actually can I just ask, does this come on if you turn the key one click? It occurred to me that I defo won't be working with the engine running so could be useless, though I'd imagine it comes on from a single click :)
 
Sorry to be a pain in the butt, but....

I'd never heard of one before until yesterday.

Does it just create a wifi hotspot in the van if you have the standard Stereo system (highline)?
 
Sorry to be a pain in the butt, but....

I'd never heard of one before until yesterday.

Does it just create a wifi hotspot in the van if you have the standard Stereo system (highline)?


Yes it does, obvously you need to add a sim card. If you also have the discover media head unit that will use the car stick as it's connection to the net.

I'd you don't have that unit you still get a WiFi hotspot. The difference to any other dongle is that the car stick uses the van or something in it as an attenanae so the cellular signal is stronger and more reliable . Least that's what I am told.
 
Yes it does, obvously you need to add a sim card. If you also have the discover media head unit that will use the car stick as it's connection to the net.

I'd you don't have that unit you still get a WiFi hotspot. The difference to any other dongle is that the car stick uses the van or something in it as an attenanae so the cellular signal is stronger and more reliable . Least that's what I am told.
Agree with all the above, never failed to get a signal yet, most of the time it's 4g, far better reception than a mobile.
 
Really really tempted to get myself a data sim and one of these....

Then get an Amazon echo to connect to my head unit via Bluetooth!

Prime music commanded by voice anybody?
 
I have a data only sim that's is on my phone contract and uses my phone data. Could I use this in one? It's only in my old phone and use that to run my iPad.
 
To use it camping would you need to get the discover media head unit switched over to a leisure battery so it didnt auto switch off ?
 
I have a vw carstick plugged into my bus. It does pull in a good signal as the kids use it for wifi in the combi all the time without any screams from the back about the ipads not working......compared to my phone there is always a better signal showing on the carstick, but for some reason it only shows the 3G signal not 4G but never had a problem with it . I run a three data sim card in it.
@StudleyGlass mine only shows 3g aswell ,mine is the Three data sim .I thought I had got a dodgy sim off the internet ,it came from Switzerland .
@Caravellet6 you get 4g ,what sim have you got ?
 
Considering that the antenna for these frequencies is tiny I can't see how the vehicle body would make any difference, I think you would find that any MiFi unit would work just as well and give you 4G, albeit without any integration.
 
Just before I order one of these , where does it display how strong the signal is - or does it not? If it's the head unit does that work with composition media unit?

Cheers! :)
 
Just before I order one of these , where does it display how strong the signal is - or does it not? If it's the head unit does that work with composition media unit?

Cheers! :)
On the discover media it shows in the top tool bar on the left ,it should show on composition media .
 
Does anyone have one of these working with the composition media unit?

I bought one and the unit has no options to set it up. The manual suggests menu-->settings-->network but that does not exist. The car static manual suggests a pop up will display the car stick is plugged in but I don't get that either.

Starting to think it's only configurable via the discover media head unit which means I've wasted 100quid :(

Cheers
 
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