Tablet PC as Carputer?

Take a look at these:

http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_54_60&products_id=109

http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_54_60&products_id=108

The first has an opening of 180mm X 119mm, the second, 200mm x 100mm. At least you won't have the button holes from the Spec B to cover up. Also, they are Subaru OEM, so they'll fit like a glove. They're not cheap though.....

Yikes, if google's conversion is accurate that's over $260.

I appreciate the links but until I win the lottery I'll have to pass. On the plus side it makes the other one look cheaper by comparison

Dade, be aware that the opening in the stock Nav/Spec B. unit is 6.5" and doesn't maintain the 16x9 aspect ratio of the thrive's screen. You can try to shave off the additional half-inch, and I'd definitely be interested to see it if you go this route.

On the software front, this bad boy does a pretty good job as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=AutomateItPro.mainPackage&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIkF1dG9tYXRlSXRQcm8ubWFpblBhY2thZ2UiXQ..

It maintains my power profiles, as well as radios. Explore it.

I have been thinking about this. One device could do what my

Garmin and iPod touch are doing separately. Do want.

Dade, be aware that the opening in the stock Nav/Spec B. unit is 6.5" and doesn't maintain the 16x9 aspect ratio of the thrive's screen. You can try to shave off the additional half-inch, and I'd definitely be interested to see it if you go this route.

 

On the software front, this bad boy does a pretty good job as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=AutomateItPro.mainPackage&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIkF1dG9tYXRlSXRQcm8ubWFpblBhY2thZ2UiXQ..

It maintains my power profiles, as well as radios. Explore it.

I was trying to find the specs on that. I foound JeffK's For Sale thread here: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/fs-pa-09-spec-b-silver-bbs-brembo-etc-187813.html where he says it was 7". I decided to order the tablet first and compare it to my current cubby slot and go from there. If I need to have a shop custom fabricate one I will. Does anybody know a good shop in the Seattle area? Preferably North of Seattle.

On the software front that looks like a nice program but since I already purchased Setting Profiles I'm going to stick with that. They seem pretty comparable.

I could have sworn it was 6.5". I'll look for my source, but will humbly concede if I'm wrong. Also, if I'm wrong it means it's a good way to go!

As for covering up the buttons, you could bondo and respray the whole thing so it becomes invisible. FastWRX.com has the nav bezel if you are looking to buy new. I don't know how the prices compare to other OEM vendors. I'm looking forward to hear your progress.

Sounds good dude, Ill be back in NY end of June.

If you and Eqx do this i'm more then willing to help out since we're all local and about to undergo a similar project on our cars.

WB Spawn

Project update - I got my Toshiba tablet earlier this week.

After setting up the software/homescreen to something I liked I started messing with the stock bezel. I cut the crossbar out using poor mans tools (basically anything I had around the house) and stuck the tablet in there.

It ended up being a much tighter fit than I had hoped. 1 or 2 mm shorter on the sides would have made a big difference.

At this point I stopped taking pictures and started cutting holes for cables. Nothing pretty but it's all hidden anyway. The power cable (which is fairly large) comes right out the center of the passenger side into the vent. I ended up removing the back fins of the vent so the cable had room. The audio cable is at the bottom corner on the drivers side. I ran it into the other vent using a 90 degree plug.

Once I got everything in place I realized it was in there so tight I didn't need to add any brackets to hold it in place. I will eventually do that but for now it's holding firm.

For power I purchased a 150 watt inverter to plug into the front ac power port. I pulled the plug back behind the factory stereo and placed the inverter in a small area behind the glove box. I haven't hard mounted it yet either. That will be a project for another day.

So here it is, for now.

It's a little rough around the edges and the chrome around the camera bugs me a little. I'll need to get someone to do some custom fabrication to make it better but for now, I'm happy.

Wy are you using an inverter? Just buy a one amp usb car charger and use that. You can buy a specific usb cable on ebay that will make the tab thinks it is running ac instead of usb. Because it already has the data pins shorted.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

Wouldn't recommend it for two reasons:

1) These tablets can get finicky on the charge. I had a 2amp USB charger and it still didn't take.

2) When I used the official car charger for it, the phantom draw when the car was off killed my battery twice. With the inverter it never draws without power.

I'm so stoked to see someone else tackle this.

I just put together something similar with a nexus7

I ended picking up one of these so I didn't have to hack apart the stock bezel. This bezel had lots of room for the tablet so I had to make a brace to hold the tablet in place

http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_54_60&products_id=108

Running jellybean with the go launcher app so I can have the landscape home screen.

I'll try it out for the next few days and see how it goes

That's exactly what I want to do. I just bought a Nexus 7 for this purpose. Is there any difference in the size/distance of the two vents between the stock bezel and the JDM bezel? In other words, if I hack up the stock bezel, should I be able to fit the N7 between the vents?

BTW I just finished rooting/unlocking the N7 with the tool kit found here. I'll be playing with different roms and setting it up to be more "car friendly" in the next little bit.

I just put together something similar with a nexus7

 

I ended picking up one of these so I didn't have to hack apart the stock bezel. This bezel had lots of room for the tablet so I had to make a brace to hold the tablet in place

 

http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_54_60&products_id=109

 

Running jellybean with the go launcher app so I can have the landscape home screen.

 

 

I'll try it out for the next few days and see how it goes

That's exactly what I want to do. I just bought a Nexus 7 for this purpose. Is there any difference in the size/distance of the two vents between the stock bezel and the JDM bezel? In other words, if I hack up the stock bezel, should I be able to fit the N7 between the vents?

 

BTW I just finished rooting/unlocking the N7 with the tool kit found here. I'll be playing with different roms and setting it up to be more "car friendly" in the next little bit.

The bezel I bought is quite a bit wider. There's 205mm between the two vents compared to stock bezel's 185mm. The nexus7 is 198.5mm across so it wouldn't fit in the stock bezel anyway without hacking apart the vents. I made a really ghetto brace to hold the tablet in place behind the new bezel. Glue and cardboard.... it works...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Recca168/Forums/IMG_20120909_144502.jpg

One of the major annoyances was trying to figure out how to get the tablet to turn on when I start the car. The tablet will wake up front sleep mode whenever it is charging, but the car charger's I tried wouldn't charge the tablet. Turns out the Nexus7 will only go into charging mode if plug it in to a charger where the data lines are shorted. I ended up hacking up the usb cable to do this.

As for general usage I'm sticking with the Go Launch HD. Its allows a landscape homescreen and let you resize widgets as you please.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Recca168/Forums/IMG_20120909_152531.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Recca168/Forums/IMG_20120909_152522.jpg

For the GPS I settled on Waze. Seems there's quite a few people in the city using it so its pretty up to day on traffic/accidents/etc

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Recca168/Forums/IMG_20120909_152455.jpg

Also picked up the garmin ecoroute HD. It plugs into the OBDII port and connects to the tablet over bluetooth. It's suppose to give real time diagnostic information. Haven't played with it much yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Recca168/Forums/IMG_20120909_153038.jpg

The last thing I'll probably do is the mod to have the cigarette lighter port on all the time. Didn't drive the car for the weekend and the tablet ran out of power. Had to pull it out to turn it back on.

+1 for 181.fm

You should try installing the free torque app. You can monitor lots of variables from the ECU and check CEL+ clear them if needed.

I mounted a desktop dock on two pieces of all-thread with inverted wing nuts into slight depressions (from a dremmel)

I secured the back of the threaded rods to holes in the top rear of the cubby to get the correct angle. I pushed the rods through the holes such that the back of the tablet lined up just forward of the bottom of the cubby door. I put soft velcro on the door and the stiff stuff on the tablet.

The soft velco lays on top of the connector of the desktop dock. The power goes to the stock car power adapter for the streak which plugs into a vampire tapped 12v outlet behind the ash tray. The headphone goes to a ground loop isolator under the radio, then into the jazzy mt mod.

I just put together something similar with a nexus7

 

I ended picking up one of these so I didn't have to hack apart the stock bezel. This bezel had lots of room for the tablet so I had to make a brace to hold the tablet in place

 

http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_54_60&products_id=108

 

Running jellybean with the go launcher app so I can have the landscape home screen.

 

 

I'll try it out for the next few days and see how it goes

Looks really neat. I've thought about doing this for a while now too. How well does the jdm bezel fit in the usmd spot? Big Gaps at all?

Sure, I'll snap more photos so you can see the finished product.

For the surround I used a bunch of different things, but in the end they either didn't last or didn't look professional. This is actually a tupperware box that I ended up dremeling out the bottom to the sze of my tablet. Works perfectly and looks professional. Everyone thinks it's a stock screen.

Sure, I'll snap more photos so you can see the finished product.

 

For the surround I used a bunch of different things, but in the end they either didn't last or didn't look professional. This is actually a tupperware box that I ended up dremeling out the bottom to the sze of my tablet. Works perfectly and looks professional. Everything thinks it's a stick screen.

Did you use the USDM stock bezel or the JDM bezel with a wider opening?

did you use the usdm stock bezel or the jdm bezel with a wider opening?

+1

Relocated the info panel to where the ashtray is and carefully dremelled out the opening.

^ pics?