Nexus 7 in car project

randomshenans

randomshenans

randomshenans

Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2009
Posts
14,064
Location
France, Alsace
Well since buying the audi the thing that I didn't like was it's clunky nav that didn't have EU maps, the cd changer and anything else about it, so thought I'd stick a nexus 7 there instead. I'm by no means finished, in fact the real start was only today, but hey, it's a start. Here's how I'm getting on anyway.

After buying a few things, namely a aftermarket headunit fascia, few cables, a bluetooth receiver etc. I thought I should start having a bash at it.

I basically cut all the back out of the fascia as the size was good, I just needed the screen to be able to sit flush. Dremel out, cut bits.

I cut the tabs off that are used to hold the fascia in place off and thought they'd be useful so reused them to hold the tablet in place. Meaning I could slide it down the back and back out again. Soldering iron out with some cut off plastic and got them in place, and I've even now tidied them up since these pics and made them a bit stronger. :p OK, I'll put the pics up later. This conn is being useless and I have to go to a meeting with a French Teacher. Joy.

Slapped it all in and it's not bad at all. Going to get some sticky back foam stuff to stick right along the edges to cushion it all a bit. Then, when my removal keys arrive, I can take out the standard one and have it in place.

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I have some magnets I might use to hold it in place at the top, and hinge it at the bottom with some rubber straps. There is a crap aftermarket car phone kit in there, which I'll also remove but steal the cabling for the charging.

OK, I'll put the pics up later. This conn is being useless and I have to go to a meeting with a French Teacher. Joy.


See how it comes together...:)
 
Be careful with the magnets, I think there are sensors on some edges of the 7 that puts it to sleep when a magnet touches them. Its for cases so they can put the 7 to sleep when you close the case.

How are you going to manage turning it off and on?
 
Magnets will also make the compass go a bit mental too I expect, which would be mildly annoying given whatever that software is displays a compass readout :p
 
I'm looking at doing this soon, as other comments i'd be wary of magnets - I know my phone doesn't like them much anyway, update the thread as you go along, i'm currently having a look at how to increase the storage in it so I can access my whole music library...
 
Haha good point about the magnets! I think I have a much better plan then. Velcro. Strong enough and it'll all be hidden.

To turn it on I have an app called llama that is like tasker, it works on conditions and performs actions. So when it senses a charge it turns the screen on, no screen time out etc.
When the charge is lost it hibernates and has a 5sec screen timeout. Everything then turns off.
Have set up night mode too which should help at night.
 
I'm currently looking at storage as well. I want a USB hub mounted in the glovebox where the cd changer is, which I can then use for plugging in storage or something. I'm working on that... Need to do some testing.
 
For USB storage without root you can get read only access of USB drives using Nexus Media Importer and an OTG cable.

If you have root then full write access and 'proper' mounting (like SD cards in other devices) can be done with stickmount and an OTG cable.
 
Buy a strip of double sided velcro and you will just be able to put it in. Think about having it slightly receded back so you could put a double din cover over the front of it to hide it away when you need.
 
That's car ultra home or something like that. You can set the buttons to any app you like and there are multiple pages.
I've also got the torque app and the Bluetooth obd II connector for engine data, which is nice.
 
Yanked the RNS-D out last night to see what I was up against. This is the first time fit results.

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Excuse the marks all over it from my fingering. I need to remove that god awful handsfree kit now, and trim some metal off the back, as well as a little "fettling" with the plastic bits I attached hitting the metal cage. Will use some special techniques to try and get it properly snug in there. Also still waiting on some adhesive foam to come so I can trim it in to the back of the fascia, at the moment as you can just make out it has some random bits I found lying about, so I could gauge the gap size.

More to come...
 
You are removing a factory nav/entertainment system for a gimmicky tablet? Rather you than me - I give it a few months before you realise you never use any of the awesome features and you just use it for nav and music, for which it isn't as well suited as a proper dedicated device.
 
Thank you Fox for your opinion which means the sum total of jack.

The current unit has no means of getting my media on to it, no bluetooth, although I could buy something to add this. The Nav doesn't have EU maps, although I could buy this. Both of which are very clunky and the Nav is terribly horrible. The upgrade OEM part is the RNS-E which is like 500 second hand. This gives me more, cost me hardly anything at all.

I thought I would stick to not doing anything, sitting on my hands fingering my ring, but then thought I would do something different, because I could and I enjoy it. Rather me than yourself as well, but thank you again for your opinion.
 
Looks terrible imho, hopefully you can improve the fit and finish, because at the moment it looks like someone has had a go at stealing your HU.
 
Not very good at taking criticism are you? I think it looks a bit tacky, and it'll constantly shine with fingerprints all over it, keeping that type of display clean is a PITA!
 
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