Android Tablet for Car Sat Nav ?

Bint Box

Bint Box

Bint Box

Associate
Joined
22 Dec 2009
Posts
1,297
Location
Upper Skurt
Hi,

I have a spare 10" android tablet that rarely gets used and was thinking it might make a decent size sat nav unit for the car?
If anyone can please help, I have a couple of questions?

1. Can a 10" tablet be easily and safely mounted using the dashboard central air vents for some type of fixing?
2. Is there a recommended Android sat nav app? I have heard of Waze and Google maps, which would be the better of the two?


Thx
Bintos
 
Last edited:
Doughnut007 said:
Seams like a lot of effort when you can just get mount for your phone.
Most in car usb will not put out enough power to keep a tablet charged anyway.
Click to expand...
This TBH. I dabbled with the same idea years ago when I had an old 7 or 8 inch tablet going spare and as much as I wanted to give it a second use I just couldn't get it to stack up verses just using my current phone.
 
There's also a security issue to consider.

Yes, modern cars are coming with big screens etc but they're far from easy to remove. A tablet in a mount however is a flashing beacon of a target.

Then there's all the faf of updates and connecting it to the internet via a hotspot when you want to update everything like maps, music etc.

I looked into it and concluded it's not worth it, I just bought a wireless charging phone mount in the end and use my phone.
 
Tablet could be used although as others have stated, you will need to hotspot off your mobile to it to really be effective. As others have mentioned I would personally use your phone.

Irregardless to apps, I personally prefer waze as user can update accidents and police easer than gmaps.
 
Last edited:
My current (!) mobile phone is a few years old and works with everything except Android Auto. It's some hardware / interface issue as it used to work OK. Now seems to take several goes at connecting to the car screen and it sometimes disconnects. SO I bought a new sim-free Motorola mobile and use this with Android Auto - I create a wifi hot spot using my old phone and tether my Motorola the that. works fine and consistently. Saves me having to transfer of of my contacts etc from my Huawei to the newer Motorola phone.
 
I've got all kinds of connection problems with my Android phone and Motorola MA1 wireless adapter but only whilst I'm in the underground car park. As soon as I exit the car park its totally stable.

I'm thinking of only turning the head unit on when I'm leaving the car park, but even now it will connect eventually and it doesn't take long to leave the car park.
 
can use a larger tablet mount , to attach it securely half way down central consol central panell, maybe partially obscuring heater buttons,
I've looked at android tab as a big/readable screen option to get tidal hi-fi into a car with a chromecast to provide aux-in.

I don't think there's much of a security problem if you just use it on significant journeys - where overhead of hiding it away/re-attaching is small vs journey time.

as said, charging sems an issue unless you have a big power bank - I thought 12V car systems (who knows about mild hybrid 48v) have limited usb-c power output unless they had an up convertor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom