retractable screen install in cubby

I installed a 7-inch rectractable touchscreen monitor MTSVO-SC in the cubby hole, with the help of the Avo single din in cubby face plate thing.

Avo shipping was real fast by the way, and the piece looked real nice (hard to see the full price in such a small piece of plastic, but it is worth the price).

First problem I ran into was that my single din was 178mm and it was just this --><-- much off from making it a happy work-free install. So, I had to file that thing off. I don't have a real great track record with "doing stuff to things" so modifying this face plate without cracking it was a huge accomplishment for me.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0024.jpg

I covered the parts I didn't want scratched with some electrical tape because I use that for everything.

And this is the fit after I had finished the sides but still hadn't sorted out the corners (I couldn't get the file edge in there and had to utility knife it). You can see how it's pushed up a little big from the corners... I took care of that before installing though.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0027.jpg

Next, it didn't really fit into the cubby whole place because it's obviously a different design over there across the water (I can't imagine why it's not more economical to design all the pieces the same but mirrored for other markets... but I'm not all that bright). The first thing I did was remove the top horizontal mounting holes which didn't have anywhere to screw into (this is the stuff I had anticipated from reading other posts here).

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0030.jpg

That wasn't enough and I had to start taking bigger chunks off of those top arms

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0031.jpg

Here you can see how it fit into the faceplate after the modifreakations and with the clock back in place.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0034.jpg

This is the installed avo piece in the center console thing - there are scuff marks on the sides where I filed... I tried sanding it with smaller grained paper and got tired of doing that before it looked too good. Any way, all the test fits indicated that I would be real lucky if the monitor unit fit back far enough to show that.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0034.jpg

Here is the test fit (sitting on top of the car computer and my AC to DC converter - aka Dell left over computer).

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0036.jpg

Little movie action

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0037.jpg

...

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0037.jpg

In the car with everything apart, I fumbled my way through my second car install project after the fm modulator), and I cursed everyone else who had done this before and hadn't taken good pictures. But then I got punchy and tired and stopped taking any pictures - so someone will curse me

Here's the saw going to nibble out the vertical plastic supports - funny thing is the bottom part of this thing I'm hacking up says right on it "RADIO BOX" on it or something like that.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0053.jpg

After the cutting - with various wires hanging out, you can ignore those.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0061.jpg

Almost finished product... I ran into a minor rookie error here - I hadn't accounted for the moniter connection adding ~3 inches to the depth of the unit. It was hitting a very serious cross bar thing. So the unit sits farther forward then it should, but it's fine for now until I build my own vga cable.

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0062.jpg

Final picture that's way too dark and tilted..

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0065.jpg

Finishing off the screen to make it perfect may take a back seat to getting rid of my alternator whine with my car computer... but eventually I will flush it bitter and I'll take off the face plate and paint over the text "7-inch touch screen GO AHEAD AND STEAL ME NOW" from the front.

TIGHT! Very nice install...and I assume it works correctly? how about when going over any bumps? Have you noticed any issues?

Man, I know it must suck for us US LGT owners to have to go through all this crap, just to get a better system. But in the end, it seems well worth all the cutting/hacking, and installing.

Good luck with it.

I got the screen from mp3car.com so you can see it there. I went with this one because it was bright and because it had a pretty plain face when shut.

Yes, it does work - a bit too well actually. I had notions of playing movies for my kid (who's car seat is right in the middle of the back seat) because I knew I could ignore the screen while driving... or maybe get a hood like the football replay review things so that only he could see. But that screen is really frigging bright. I put a movie on and I could see it clearly through the tint from 30 feet away - so that just won't be happening at night. I'm sure a cop could spot it doing 90 in the opposite direction.

As for installs... I'm not insured or anything... but I might be able to work something out for a nominal fee

For anyone else doing this... some places out there tell you that if you use it for your car computer that you should connect the power to your dc-dc powersupply, so I made this cable that attached inside the computer - only to find out that the monitor needs constant power to remember to open or close and which signal was selected. So that cable was useless. Without it the monitor has been working just fine on straight power tapped off the radio's "memory 12v+" (blue/red wire).

http://www.slowburn.net/Subaru/Subaputer/thumbnails/img_0012.jpg

I did the same.

Hey, that's me in the black tshirt. Damn it was hot that day

So pardon me for asking, but what could you do with a screen like that? I guess play DVD's and such right? I know a guy who has one just like that in his Scion and it's just cool to watch movies in the car.

Hey, that's me in the black tshirt. Damn it was hot that day

 

So pardon me for asking, but what could you do with a screen like that? I guess play DVD's and such right? I know a guy who has one just like that in his Scion and it's just cool to watch movies in the car.

its a Kenwood piece and yes you can play DVD's ,hook up a nav module from Kenwood so you can you the touch screen feature any gaming system PS2/xbox etc. and also a camera for backing. and also additional screens can be added so the people in the back can be watching movies and the people in the front can be listening to the radio or sat radio.

its a Kenwood piece and yes you can play DVD's ,hook up a nav module from Kenwood so you can you the touch screen feature any gaming system PS2/xbox etc. and also a camera for backing. and also additional screens can be added so the people in the back can be watching movies and the people in the front can be listening to the radio or sat radio.

noice!! I think that might be my next investment..

Yeah, I should probably post an update. I'll do some pictures tomorrow of where I stand right now.

There are a couple problems with my carputer which there really isn't much of a solution to. One problem is that while the monitor fits - because of the video connector it's still a bit too far forward (out from the dash) then I'd like it to be. I sanded down the plastic so that the text print is gone, and I made a couple little black buttons out of a cheap watch wrist band so that the buttons were matte black instead of the green LED back-lit thing that was there.

The touch screen part of it is almost completely unuseable for windows operation while driving. It's okay with any number of the front-ends out there, but I can't stand to use any of those because they are just piles of crap.

I have been using FreeDrive (with the destinator SDK) and QCD as my mp3 player (with a skin I made). And it's almost there. On long trips the car computer completely rocks. But it's slow to boot (about 1 full minute) and the bluetooth gps antenna is real neat, but not mission critical.