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Tablet PC as Carputer?


MatsuDano

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Finally got all set up in my Subaru.

 

- I'm using an OBDII Bluetooth adapter to get the car's data into the Torque app.

- When the tablet resumes, Tasker resumes the music automatically and launches Waze. This can be changed to do whatever I want.

- For the gestures, I have GMD which allows me to do next/previous using swipes. A pinch takes me home.I need to play with this more and add more gestures.

- I have other gestures through Nova Launcher: two finger swipe up brings up the app drawer, two taps brings up Google Now, two finger swipe down launches the quick settings panel.

- To get data, I am tethering from my Nexus 5. When the tablet turns on, it connects to the Nexus 5 over Bluetooth, and this triggers the WiFi Hotspot as well as Tablet Talk. When the Nexus 7 disconnects, Tasker turns the WiFi hotspot off and disables Tablet Talk.

- The audio is being sent to the original headunit from a USB DAC at the 3.5mm Aux jack in the armrest through a very short audio cable. This pretty much eliminates ground loop noise. Using the original HU, I keep steering wheel volume control. If I add a Joycon EXR, I can enable a whole range of remote control through the steering wheel buttons, so this will be a future project.

- Tablet Talk lets me see incoming calls, and make calls through my phone, and the audio is handled by the Parrot Bluetooth kit that has been in the car since I got it. I still need to figure out a way to enable Google Now to dial from the tablet, right now it tells me this device is not capable of making calls. I can make calls from the Tablet Talk interface

 

Here are some pics of the progress:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/havanahjoe/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140503_100708_zpslazkjfv2.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/havanahjoe/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140503_144058_zpsdh2ns7kk.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/havanahjoe/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20140503_035619_zpshniwztxk.jpg

 

And a video of some of the features mentioned above

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM3GCuJ1ZqI]Nexus 7 in Spec.B[/ame]

Edited by havanahjoe
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Finally got all set up in my Subaru.

 

- I'm using an OBDII Bluetooth adapter to get the car's data into the Torque app.

- When the tablet resumes, Tasker resumes the music automatically and launches Waze. This can be changed to do whatever I want.

- For the gestures, I have GMD which allows me to do next/previous using swipes. A pinch takes me home.I need to play with this more and add more gestures.

- I have other gestures through Nova Launcher: two finger swipe up brings up the app drawer, two taps brings up Google Now, two finger swipe down launches the quick settings panel.

- To get data, I am tethering from my Nexus 5. When the tablet turns on, it connects to the Nexus 5 over Bluetooth, and this triggers the WiFi Hotspot as well as Tablet Talk. When the Nexus 7 disconnects, Tasker turns the WiFi hotspot off and disables Tablet Talk.

- The audio is being sent to the original headunit from a USB DAC at the 3.5mm Aux jack in the armrest through a very short audio cable. This pretty much eliminates ground loop noise. Using the original HU, I keep steering wheel volume control. If I add a Joycon EXR, I can enable a whole range of remote control through the steering wheel buttons, so this will be a future project.

- Tablet Talk lets me see incoming calls, and make calls through my phone, and the audio is handled by the Parrot Bluetooth kit that has been in the car since I got it.----> I still need to figure out a way to enable Google Now to dial from the tablet, right now it tells me this device is not capable of making calls. <------I can make calls from the Tablet Talk interface

 

Could you set up a Tasker command using gnow? Or use utter in conjunction with Tasker to achieve this? Just a thought

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

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Could you set up a Tasker command using gnow? Or use utter in conjunction with Tasker to achieve this? Just a thought

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

Hmm. I hadn't thought about that. I definitely need to explore using Google Now to trigger Tasker tasks. I don't know if Tablet Talk allows external commands, I'll have to look into that too.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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Spent some time with Tasker and added a music widget on top of Waze that automatically hides when I interact with it. Just like the stock nav would hide the clock and temp display to get them out of the way when you touched the screen.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETlhFQsfCyg]Widget Auto-Hide[/ame]

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Spent some time with Tasker and added a music widget on top of Waze that automatically hides when I interact with it. Just like the stock nav would hide the clock and temp display to get them out of the way when you touched the screen.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETlhFQsfCyg]Widget Auto-Hide[/ame]

 

Did you get your tablet talk to work?

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

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Did you get your tablet talk to work?

 

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

I sent an email to the developer asking about intents so that I can integrate through Google Now. Haven't heard back yet.

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A quick update - the Nexus 7 has been amazing in my car for the last year or so, totally flawless performance and I've only had to charge it up in the garage once or twice in the entire year.

 

However, my interest has been piqued by having a more homegrown solution once my nexus begins to show signs of aging (whether from heat, or general lack of performance)

 

It's exciting to see Nvidia offering their new Kepler-based Tegra K1 on a dedicated motherboard. I'm starting to brainstorm and budget how much I'd have to drop for a decent LCD panel and some enclosures to run this puppy as a carputer:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813190005

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so here is what I am doing,

 

I bought a Samsung galaxy tab 2 with 4G off of ebay for $120 (needed one anyway) My plan is to dash mount it with this (because I don't want to lose my little compartment for my sunglasses or do any heavy cutting) I plan to run a dc power cable up to it from the car battery like this one and just break it down and hide it under the dash with the cable running out.

 

I found this program for auto on and off sleep mode for the tab with the car.

 

Now I dont know how to hook it up to my stock Subaru aux line for music. I want to split it into the line at the radio. How do i do that? I know I need to take a splitter and mod it so I can intercept the line and split it. that way I can run music either from the tablet or from the stock aux jack in the little cubby.

 

Anyone know how to split the aux line?

 

Also I am getting a 64 gb sd card for the tab 2. so that and with its internal storage of 16 gbs that plenty of room for the music and apps for me.

 

I also plan on getting the OBDlink MX to work with bluetooth on my tab so I can run torque off of it, and later when someone builds the app for the it to add autostart and that sort of thing (there is a program that does this but that is only for GM's and chevys right now) its this. That will allow me to remote start using my cell talking to my tab through the 4g, or do other interesting things. like look at my car through the camera lol and allow me to have a dashcam and maybe later on a bluetooth backup camera or something or the ability to gps track and kill the car if someone steals it or see who is stealing my car lol. I would like to later on find a way to mount it so it cant be stolen easily. Some sort of lock on a steel mount frame connected to a steel bar/bolt or something running from the top of the little dash compartment and welded to the frame of the car or something that makes it more difficult than smash and grab at least but still removable by me when I want to. Need to find a way to drill a small key lock into a more robust dash mount, but that is a job for another day.

 

 

Any thoughts on what I am doing?. Always good to get some feedback.

Edited by 2-Ton
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  • 4 weeks later...

I've had my 2013 Nexus 7 installed for about a month now, and things are going great. The only issue I keep having is that the sun hits the tablet VERY hard during the day, and I find that the tablet has shut down due to overheat protection very often.

 

Anyone else experience this? How do you get around it? My options as far as I can tell are to use one of those windshield shades or always park in the shade.

 

I wonder if a screen protector will reflect some of that heat away.

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I've had my 2013 Nexus 7 installed for about a month now, and things are going great. The only issue I keep having is that the sun hits the tablet VERY hard during the day, and I find that the tablet has shut down due to overheat protection very often.

 

Anyone else experience this? How do you get around it? My options as far as I can tell are to use one of those windshield shades or always park in the shade.

 

I wonder if a screen protector will reflect some of that heat away.

Can't remember having any heat issues on my tablet in my car..but i dont have the same car as you guys have, so the position is probably a lil different.

 

Have you tried FM radio on your Nexus 7? (Not internet radio).

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Can't remember having any heat issues on my tablet in my car..but i dont have the same car as you guys have, so the position is probably a lil different.

 

Have you tried FM radio on your Nexus 7? (Not internet radio).

I kept the stock stereo and can use that for FM radio, but with unlimited data and Google Music streaming, I have not listened to regular radio in a long time.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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I've had my 2013 Nexus 7 installed for about a month now, and things are going great. The only issue I keep having is that the sun hits the tablet VERY hard during the day, and I find that the tablet has shut down due to overheat protection very often.

 

Anyone else experience this? How do you get around it? My options as far as I can tell are to use one of those windshield shades or always park in the shade.

 

I wonder if a screen protector will reflect some of that heat away.

 

Screen protector will not actually reflect the heat a whole lot. I have had my Nexus 7 in 105 degree heat before and never had a problem with it, but I suppose if yours is having a problem you could buy a heat sink fan like you would use on a computer (example...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065). I would mount this behind the tablet and fairly close to it so it's blowing directly on the back.

 

I am not sure if you did this, but I rearranged the insides of my Nexus 7 so I no longer have a back on it. If you were to get a fan, pulling off the back case would help air flow get to the tablet. My tablet below for reference...

dodYhFN.thumb.jpg.72544897f93dc1db14a15f85bed40367.jpg

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Screen protector will not actually reflect the heat a whole lot. I have had my Nexus 7 in 105 degree heat before and never had a problem with it, but I suppose if yours is having a problem you could buy a heat sink fan like you would use on a computer (example...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065). I would mount this behind the tablet and fairly close to it so it's blowing directly on the back.

 

I am not sure if you did this, but I rearranged the insides of my Nexus 7 so I no longer have a back on it. If you were to get a fan, pulling off the back case would help air flow get to the tablet. My tablet below for reference...

 

Thanks for the tips! I think it doesn't help that mine is a 2013 and the screen is I believe darker than the original model. I can take the cover off, but I'm not sure that will help. The screen is VERY hot to the touch when it is rebooting (shutting down because of overheating and booting back up because it has power), so it seems to me like it is just absorbing the heat from the sun.

 

For now I'm parking at work in the shade, but the easiest solution will probably be to use a sun visor.

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Good luck with it! I haven't seen the new Nexus 7 (I am super cheap so I opted for the old one), but I hope the sun visor works for you

Thanks!! I had the new one as my personal tablet and got a cheap original modem off Craigslist for the install. When I started setting the old one up, I found it to be very slow compared to the new one. The screen resolution of the new one was also much better, so I decided to use the new one instead since I really didn't use it much.

 

There are two downsides to the new one:

 

- The USB port cannot be relocated as easily as the older model, so I have the cable sticking out on the side (which makes the passenger vent non-functional)

 

- The screen is polarized and is pretty much impossible to see with my polarized sunglasses. I don't think the older model was that bad.

 

Other than that, Timur has a kernel for it so I have the same deep sleep and USB DAC functionality. I love it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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Thanks!! I had the new one as my personal tablet and got a cheap original modem off Craigslist for the install. When I started setting the old one up, I found it to be very slow compared to the new one. The screen resolution of the new one was also much better, so I decided to use the new one instead since I really didn't use it much.

 

There are two downsides to the new one:

 

- The USB port cannot be relocated as easily as the older model, so I have the cable sticking out on the side (which makes the passenger vent non-functional)

 

- The screen is polarized and is pretty much impossible to see with my polarized sunglasses. I don't think the older model was that bad.

 

Other than that, Timur has a kernel for it so I have the same deep sleep and USB DAC functionality. I love it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Try different sunglasses.. it kind of deppends on your sunglasses to and on which way they are polarized (vertically or horizontal).

 

How much is it sticking out? You can modify the micro cable and make it a lil shorter.

This is what i came up with:

http://merko.name/i//uvlhfq.jpg

http://merko.name/i//urldbf.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...
Try different sunglasses.. it kind of deppends on your sunglasses to and on which way they are polarized (vertically or horizontal).

 

How much is it sticking out? You can modify the micro cable and make it a lil shorter.

This is what i came up with:

http://merko.name/i//uvlhfq.jpg

http://merko.name/i//urldbf.jpg

 

I tried doing that with my first OTG cable and ended up breaking the whole thing haha. I should try it with an extension. The main problem is that the cable is not that big of a deal, it's the connector, and even shaving it down would take up a big part of the vent mechanism and hinder its movement

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/havanahjoe/IMG_20140715_170229_1_zpsls0vpirv.jpg

 

Right now it works pretty well horizontally, but not vertically.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just wanted to post a thanks to everyone here, as I'm putting together a setup and the knowledge shared saves a lot of time and effort.

 

For havanahjoe, looking at the iFixit teardown of the 2013 Nexus 7 (which is what I have coming), the leads from the USB port are fairly well exposed when you remove the back cover.

 

I'm actually just going to remove the cover and attach a second port to those leads. Then I can just drill a small hole in the cover (or remove it for cooling reasons) and put a secondary port off the back.

 

Nice picture of the port and the leads: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/CAyTOSXbdnSAN4P4.huge

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Just wanted to post a thanks to everyone here, as I'm putting together a setup and the knowledge shared saves a lot of time and effort.

 

For havanahjoe, looking at the iFixit teardown of the 2013 Nexus 7 (which is what I have coming), the leads from the USB port are fairly well exposed when you remove the back cover.

 

I'm actually just going to remove the cover and attach a second port to those leads. Then I can just drill a small hole in the cover (or remove it for cooling reasons) and put a secondary port off the back.

 

Nice picture of the port and the leads: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/CAyTOSXbdnSAN4P4.huge

I did notice that, but my soldering skills would be rated at a 2 at the most haha. Those tiny connectors looked like too big of a task to tackle. I'm definitely interested in seeing how yours turns out.

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Will share for sure. I was just consulting with some more surface-mount experts, and ended up ordering a small handful of vertical mount receptacles from digikey. Going to experiment a bit with various fitments and see which one works best, and then probably just solder what we would think of as a right angle receptacle straight on and out the back, but in terms of surface mount is a vertical receptacle.

 

It's helped by the fact there's nothing at all on the back panel there in the first place, so it shouldn't be a huge feat.

 

If you can borrow someone with experience in surface mount soldering, they could probably knock it out for you in <5 minutes.

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Will share for sure. I was just consulting with some more surface-mount experts, and ended up ordering a small handful of vertical mount receptacles from digikey. Going to experiment a bit with various fitments and see which one works best, and then probably just solder what we would think of as a right angle receptacle straight on and out the back, but in terms of surface mount is a vertical receptacle.

 

It's helped by the fact there's nothing at all on the back panel there in the first place, so it shouldn't be a huge feat.

 

If you can borrow someone with experience in surface mount soldering, they could probably knock it out for you in <5 minutes.

 

That's true. There's a gal at work that could do it, but she's been out for a few months. Would be awesome to move the cable on mine, this is the only annoyance I have in my current setup.

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