Despite statements by other forum members to the contrary, the option to disable the mic is still available in Digital Tech. I had a defective GTS radio that had to be replaced. We first updated the radio to the latest software, including POI updates and then were able to plug it into to Digital Tech to disable the microphone. We did this two days ago.

Whoever is telling you that Harley disabled the option in Digital Tech is not being straight with you. The option to disable the microphone in Digital Tech is found on the Accessories tab of the software and the options are wired, wireless, none, and disabled. All you have to do is set it to disabled. As soon as you plug in your phone, CarPlay pops right up.

The problem I have is that doing this means your microphone is definitely disabled. So if I want to use Siri to send a text to my wife or initiate a phone call, I am unable to do so, The only thing this gives me are non voice activated functions to CarPlay such as maps..

I have a WHIM and I use a Cardo PackTalk Bold. Even if I pair my PackTalk Bold to the WHIM, I have issues with the PackTalk and the bike fighting over control of the things like phone calls, For example, even when Audio Routing for phone calls is set to go to the PackTalk, when I receive an incoming call, the PackTalk answers it as it should but then after about 3 seconds, the GTS takes control of the call and I can no longer hear the caller and the caller cannot hear me. Once the GTS takes control of the call, even though it shouldn't, it makes sense that we cannot hear one another because the Audio Routing is set to the headset and not the speakers on the bike.

Now that I have a new GTS radio updated system software has been released. There has also been updated firmware for the PackTalk Bold recently. I am going to try a couple of things which which I had limited success previously and hopefully it works better time. First, I am going to make sure the make is not disabled for CarPlay, luckily my dealer will do this for free. I am then going to put the PackTalk Bold in GPS pairing mode and pair it to the bike as a GPS unit - you can do this with the WHIM and just about any Bluetooth headset unit. Doing it this way, allows you to use the wireless headset microphone to initiate Siri communication. I am then going to simply plug my iPhone into my bike's USB port and CarPlay should immediately show up as an option. The real test for me, because I have had problems with this in the past, is then test communication with my buddies in mesh mode - Cardo calls this DMC mode. If this all works, I am golden. If not, then on to plan B.

Plan B involves leaving the microphone disabled in Digital Tech and simply plugging in the phone to the bike's USB port. This will definitely trigger CarPlay because I just tested this yesterday. The next step would be to pair the phone with directly to the PackTalk Bold and not use the WHIM at all. The PackTalk Bold supports built in 'Hey Siri' functionality. I know this works because I have used it for the longest time to read new text messages, send text messages, initiate phone calls, ignore phone calls, use voice activate to get directions to the nearest gas station or a specific address, etc.. Sounds great right! The only downside to this option is it renders the voice activation button on the bike completely useless. Also, if for some reason you choose to use the built in GPS on the bike, you will not hear navigation prompts through the headset.

I will do some testing over the weekend and with the help of the dealer disabling and enabling the microphone once or twice, I should find a solution that works best for me. I will keep everyone posted if you care to know.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

...from my SENA, Freewire and Boom! experience make sure you DON'T have a BT pair from headset to phone, only headset pair to the WHIM (which your phone is cabled to)

once I removed that BT pair on my setup, and went headset to the Freewire all worked well with audio and call routing.

its known that call glitches happen with anything Boom! related, but this stabilised my routing so far.

YMMV


* and just re-reading your post, you DON'T have a Harley badged headset , so I suspect THAT'S half your problem with mic issues. It's why the motoco bang on about H-D branded headsets ONLY.

 

We did disable the microphone in Digital Tech just as you described and it did not resolve the issue for my iPhone 11 pro. We verified that CarPlay was working by plugging in the techs older iPhone and CarPlay worked perfect. We then tried a second techs older iPhone and his also worked. However, when we plugged my iPhone 11 Pro I was not able to have audio on phone calls. Just curious what iPhone do you have?

 

Please pay particular attention to the order in which you plug everything in and turn everything on.

 

All this information is fine but it does not fix the issue with iPhone 11 and CarPlay phone audio not working issues. How do you communicate with the CB radio without using the Boombox? Anyone can connect a phone to a Bluetooth headset so this is not really a workaround at all. Apple and Harley-Davidson need to get the problem ironed out and work with the iPhone 11’s using the wired mic or the WHIM Bluetooth systems.

 

These instructions were never intended to resolve issues when using a CB. They are intended to be followed when one is using a wireless headset, with or without a WHIM and HD branded or not.

You cannot get CarPlay to work with any non-Harley branded headset, unless you have the microphone disabled in Digital Tech. This is factually true. So these instructions enable those of us who want to use a better headset and not have to pay for a WHIM, even though I have one, to use CarPlay.