Tablet PC as Carputer?

[xt2005bonbon]

My JDM extensions fit fine inside the dash no problem, but they're not nearly long enough to match the extensions that came out of my stock bezel. I think they're a fine match for the bezel that comes in the non-nav cars, though.

 

See picture here. In my hand is the USDM vent extension from the cubby bezel, on the bed is my stock nav bezel + extensions.

 

http://i.imgur.com/1cTdpDY.jpg

 

In other news, my initial method of mounting the tablet (double-stick super-strength 3M molding tape--the grey stuff with red backing--and copious amounts of hot glue) did not work. As soon as I turned the heating on yesterday, the top-half of the tablet detached from the bezel. I'm not sure what I thought would happen when I knew that the hot air from the ducts wouldn't be entirely directed past the tablet into the vents

 

Hey solidxsnake, i gather you have an intact usdm nav bezel? Want to sell it to me?

[battelready]

My JDM extensions fit fine inside the dash no problem, but they're not nearly long enough to match the extensions that came out of my stock bezel. I think they're a fine match for the bezel that comes in the non-nav cars, though.

 

See picture here. In my hand is the USDM vent extension from the cubby bezel, on the bed is my stock nav bezel + extensions.

 

http://i.imgur.com/1cTdpDY.jpg

 

In other news, my initial method of mounting the tablet (double-stick super-strength 3M molding tape--the grey stuff with red backing--and copious amounts of hot glue) did not work. As soon as I turned the heating on yesterday, the top-half of the tablet detached from the bezel. I'm not sure what I thought would happen when I knew that the hot air from the ducts wouldn't be entirely directed past the tablet into the vents

 

I gorilla glued L brackets to the back of the tablet and screwed them in with self tapping screws into the plastic vents. If you want to use hot glue, you have to get the high temp hot glue. I tried all the 3m tape and none work .

[solidxsnake]

I gorilla glued L brackets to the back of the tablet and screwed them in with self tapping screws into the plastic vents. If you want to use hot glue, you have to get the high temp hot glue. I tried all the 3m tape and none work .

 

Yeah, I figured as much ahead of time. There's not enough surface area for double-stick tape to work, and hot-glue doesn't stick very well to the polypropylene of the bezel anyway, regardless of heat (vibrations would have knocked it off eventually). I have a bunch of JB-weld plastic epoxy (that DOES stick to PP), so I'll probably epoxy some brackets or similar to the bezel. Honestly, I'd like to fabricate something to mount the tablet to the stock nav mounting points, so it can sit in the dash without the bezel. But I'm lazy

 

 

xt2005: Unfortunately (for you), I plan on keeping my stock nav + bezel to allow me to revert back if/when I need to. The stock piece should still be available at dealers, though. I can pull a part number for you when I get home if you'd like.

[xt2005bonbon]

xt2005: Unfortunately (for you), I plan on keeping my stock nav + bezel to allow me to revert back if/when I need to. The stock piece should still be available at dealers, though. I can pull a part number for you when I get home if you'd like.

 

^ It is indeed available at dealers. But I am just trying to see if I can get a used one, but they are hard to get..

[battelready]

^ It is indeed available at dealers. But I am just trying to see if I can get a used one, but they are hard to get..

 

 

ORLY

http://www.ebay.com/itm/05-09-Legacy-Cubby-Clock-Center-Dash-Vent-/262169260810?hash=item3d0a81730a:g:AWQAAOSwp5JWXM7f&vxp=mtr

 

 

Also found this interesting piece

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Subaru-legacy-outback-liberty-B4-2005-2009-upper-cubby-console-/231798564949?hash=item35f8456855:g:7O0AAOSwjVVVxEzq&vxp=mtr

Edited January 7, 2016 by battelready

[xt2005bonbon]

not this cubby, this cubby unfortunately... 66060AG07A

 

I am looking for the OEM nav bezel like this one:

 

http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q614/jiggidigi/20120331_205126.jpg

 

 

thanks.

[Shogun506]

Hey guys I have some solutions for you folks that are having some troubles with this. I made a couple of videos of how I'm doing mine that you might want to check out. They should solve your Timur ROM problems as well as save you a lot of $$$ having to buy the JDM bezel. I originally had started with the Timur's ROM route and was going to buy a JDM bezel but I rethought the whole process and found my own combination of software and made my own bezel. Here's the finished product.

 

The first video covers the software side of things using a combination of Cyanogenmod 13.0 and ElementalX kernel, both of which are free and far more customizable than Timur's ROM.

 

The second video shows how to start with an OEM bezel and turn it into a Nexus 7 holder.

 

I'm still waiting to install it into my car and will report back when it's warm enough to do so.

 

 

The picture below is the final product of my modified OEM bezel.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Shogun506

[wesleyCrowbar]

I like this quite a bit more than using the jdm bezel that I have......

[battelready]

Hey guys I have some solutions for you folks that are having some troubles with this. I made a couple of videos of how I'm doing mine that you might want to check out. They should solve your Timur ROM problems as well as save you a lot of $$$ having to buy the JDM bezel. I originally had started with the Timur's ROM route and was going to buy a JDM bezel but I rethought the whole process and found my own combination of software and made my own bezel. Here's the finished product.

 

The first video covers the software side of things using a combination of Cyanogenmod 13.0 and ElementalX kernel, both of which are free and far more customizable than Timur's ROM.

 

The second video shows how to start with an OEM bezel and turn it into a Nexus 7 holder.

 

I'm still waiting to install it into my car and will report back when it's warm enough to do so.

 

 

The picture below is the final product of my modified OEM bezel.

 

I would mark up the final places and use either body filler or fiber glass to conform it. After just throw the paint on it make it look perfect. What you did is really good compared to my dim-wit attempt at hacking up the OEM one.

[Shogun506]

I would mark up the final places and use either body filler or fiber glass to conform it. After just throw the paint on it make it look perfect. What you did is really good compared to my dim-wit attempt at hacking up the OEM one.

 

If you are a professional fiberglasser maybe, but I thought about doing it that way and for me at least it wasn't really worth the effort of fiberglass or body filler. The amount of times you have to mark, remove and sand it to get the right fit will takes hours of extra work that will give marginal benefit. After all that work you still have to paint it and you probably won't be able to find a paint match with the other vent bezels which will mean your cubby bezel is going to be a different colour than the rest of your dash, or if you just paint the interior part then the interior part will be a different colour anyway and you might as well have just done what I did. You're better off taking the extra few minutes to dremel the bezel properly and then use some type of precisely cut ABS plastic or other material to fill in the gaps and it will look perfect.

 

Check out the software in that video if you don't like the Timur approach, You get split screen functionality, a lot more customizability and I've been able to get the battery down to 0.2%/hour on deep sleep. That's almost 21 days of staying on without power. It also works with Cyanogen 13.0..

Edited January 18, 2016 by Shogun506

[mclarenf3]

If you are a professional fiberglasser maybe, but I thought about doing it that way and for me at least it wasn't really worth the effort of fiberglass or body filler. The amount of times you have to mark, remove and sand it to get the right fit will takes hours of extra work that will give marginal benefit. After all that work you still have to paint it and you probably won't be able to find a paint match with the other vent bezels which will mean your cubby bezel is going to be a different colour than the rest of your dash, or if you just paint the interior part then the interior part will be a different colour anyway and you might as well have just done what I did. You're better off taking the extra few minutes to dremel the bezel properly and then use some type of precisely cut ABS plastic or other material to fill in the gaps and it will look perfect.

 

Check out the software in that video if you don't like the Timur approach, You get split screen functionality, a lot more customizability and I've been able to get the battery down to 0.2%/hour on deep sleep. That's almost 21 days of staying on without power. It also works with Cyanogen 13.0..

 

I went the putty, then fibre glass route. In the end, both were a ton of work to get right, and then both ended up cracking or breaking from my repeated installation and removal of the tablet (was still figuring stuff out). I didn't feel like doing that again, so I went to Walmart, and from their tupperware section was able to find a tupperware container that was roughly the same size of the tablet screen. I cut out the bottom, reduced the sides so that they positioned the tablet at the angle I wanted (vertical instead of slanted), painted it black, and I have been happy with that since.

 

I use Timur's ROM and the main reason for it was because it gives me USB ROM support for a backup camera. While I haven't installed the camera yet, the deep sleep is quite nice. I get 0.25% / hour with it. I was out of town over the winter break and didn't drive my car for 15 days and it was down to 16%. I had Cyanogen Mod before, and it was definitely good to, but didn't support the backup camera so I ponied up the cash for Timur's ROM.

[Shogun506]

I went the putty, then fibre glass route. In the end, both were a ton of work to get right, and then both ended up cracking or breaking from my repeated installation and removal of the tablet (was still figuring stuff out). I didn't feel like doing that again, so I went to Walmart, and from their tupperware section was able to find a tupperware container that was roughly the same size of the tablet screen. I cut out the bottom, reduced the sides so that they positioned the tablet at the angle I wanted (vertical instead of slanted), painted it black, and I have been happy with that since.

 

I use Timur's ROM and the main reason for it was because it gives me USB ROM support for a backup camera. While I haven't installed the camera yet, the deep sleep is quite nice. I get 0.25% / hour with it. I was out of town over the winter break and didn't drive my car for 15 days and it was down to 16%. I had Cyanogen Mod before, and it was definitely good to, but didn't support the backup camera so I ponied up the cash for Timur's ROM.

 

I like your tupperware route! I actually intended to do that myself based on yours at first but the way I had cut mine didn't quite support it the way yours did. I also have a Bluetooth dongle attached to my aux-in cable that I use with my phone right now but I ran it through the shifter area to the cupholder slot and that way I can pause/play/skip music without having to reach up to the cubby. Must be nice in Vancouver, I can't wait to get mine into my car.

[xt2005bonbon]

For anyone that is using Timur ROM on a nexus 7 2013, I currently have my tablet+USB accessories plugged to the cigarette lighter. As you know, when your key is in the ACC notch, the tablet+accessories turn on, but when you crank, you loose power to the whole system. And then, when the engine starts running, power comes back.

 

The problem is, I notice that the Timur ROM does not like too much this on/off/on business: from time to time, it no longer recognizes the USB devices attached to it. Plus I am sure it is no good for all these USB devices to get power, and then none for 5 sec, and then back on.

 

Question: how can you avoid this without having to hot wire the cigarette lighter? Essentially, I'd like the system to turn on once the key reaches ACC, and when I crank, it stays on. I understand the voltage supplied by the battery may drop due to cranking the engine, but any idea of a simple set up to get this working?

[battelready]

For anyone that is using Timur ROM on a nexus 7 2013, I currently have my tablet+USB accessories plugged to the cigarette lighter. As you know, when your key is in the ACC notch, the tablet+accessories turn on, but when you crank, you loose power to the whole system. And then, when the engine starts running, power comes back.

 

The problem is, I notice that the Timur ROM does not like too much this on/off/on business: from time to time, it no longer recognizes the USB devices attached to it. Plus I am sure it is no good for all these USB devices to get power, and then none for 5 sec, and then back on.

 

Question: how can you avoid this without having to hot wire the cigarette lighter? Essentially, I'd like the system to turn on once the key reaches ACC, and when I crank, it stays on. I understand the voltage supplied by the battery may drop due to cranking the engine, but any idea of a simple set up to get this working?

 

This is really annoying because it messes up my Bluetooth. Maybe a voltage regulator? idk . Ill think of something.

[Stryx]

For anyone that is using Timur ROM on a nexus 7 2013, I currently have my tablet+USB accessories plugged to the cigarette lighter. As you know, when your key is in the ACC notch, the tablet+accessories turn on, but when you crank, you loose power to the whole system. And then, when the engine starts running, power comes back.

 

The problem is, I notice that the Timur ROM does not like too much this on/off/on business: from time to time, it no longer recognizes the USB devices attached to it. Plus I am sure it is no good for all these USB devices to get power, and then none for 5 sec, and then back on.

 

Question: how can you avoid this without having to hot wire the cigarette lighter? Essentially, I'd like the system to turn on once the key reaches ACC, and when I crank, it stays on. I understand the voltage supplied by the battery may drop due to cranking the engine, but any idea of a simple set up to get this working?

 

I'm using ElementalXs lollipop build on cyganomod, not timurs for the sweep2wake&sleep features if behavior is not AC current based. Experienced a similar pain with power fluctuations so I set out to find the best way to 'clean' up the power. I wasn't flattered with the idea of putting that much constant draw on the battery via a fused splice, so have been exploring mobile chargers that support pass-through charging. The first small el cheapo I tried would not switch fast enough at times, such as when the battery pack or tablet would reach full charge. Information regarding pass through support and ratings is cagey outside of some high dollar items.

 

Currently I'm testing a lime fuel LP150X that has worked flawlessly for about a week so far. Btssm has not had any communication issues since 'conditioning' the Usb power. Even though it will only charge at 1a when using pass through it has kept itself and the Nexus charged comfortably with 'deep sleep' profiles thus far (incl. sub 10F overnight temps!). I'm hoping to take a road trip this weekend and be able to see if it will be a strong enough battery pack or not when the tablet is really working hard. The Zendure A4 was the other promising candidate I had in mind.

[mclarenf3]

Another route to look at is to see if there is a power-out delay that you can allow on the tablet?

 

But yes, that is an issue I deal with as well. I've just got in the habbit of turning the car of completely for a few seconds before cranking it up if I was in acc mode.

[xt2005bonbon]

Yeah, this is very annoying. What I am doing so far is simply to unplug the usb charging cable when the car is off; then if I get in my car, crank the engine, the cable is left unplugged. I only plug it once the engine is running.

But I don't want to do that every single time

[xt2005bonbon]

Btw, I did this a week ago:

 

Apart from a rear view camera, and assuming your tablet/phone can make use of an OTG cable, you only need two things:

-->a USB Audio Video capture card with the STK1160 Chipset (very important to get that specific chipset)

-->this app which has been shown to work with capture cards with this specific chipset.

 

When the camera turns on, the app detects a signal coming from the capture card and automatically shows the camera feed. To get the camera to turn on when you put your gear into reverse, you simply hook the camera positive wire to one of the reverse light positive wire. Pretty straightforward.

 

That's the camera I got btw.

 

 

Here is a video of it:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eikil5ZRs7o]Rear view camera installed on our 05 obxt. - YouTube[/ame]

[mclarenf3]

If the car is completely off, everything is fine for me. The car goes past acc mode fast enough that the tablet doesn't turn on and once the engine is cranked all is good.

 

Backup camera looks great, and functions well!

 

I use the Carhome Ultra app for my car "dock" and I like its clean interface. Check it out!

Edited January 28, 2016 by mclarenf3

[xt2005bonbon]

The thing is that I usually stay in acc mode for about 5 sec before cranking to make sure there is good fuel pressure in the fuel lines.

[solidxsnake]

I can help you guys out in a bit. I've had the same problem with my old 2012 setup (just got a 2013 after shattering my 2012.... working out the kinks on that now).

 

What I plan on doing eventually is building a quick latch circuit with a relay. In essence, as soon as the circuit gets ACC power, it'll trigger a relay that will power the hub with a constant +12 source. When it loses power, it'll have a short delay (say 5-10sec) before it cuts power to the relay. Should be really easy with some simple off-the-shelf electronics components... there might even be a full OTS solution out there, but it's small/cheap enough to design and build myself, so I might as well just do that. Easily done with a 555 timer, a relay, some small resistors/capacitors, and a FET.

[solidxsnake]

As for my progress... shattered my 2012 last week while trying to finalize the mounting. Said screw it and bought a 2013 from the forums. Then I tried to take Shogun's advice about ElementalX and CM13, but really haven't been having much luck. It doesn't play nice with my USB hub, and the CM13 interface really doesn't match SlimKat (i.e. autodroid). Just flashed my 2013 with the SlimLP beta and ElementalX 4.05. Hopefully this works better than CM12/13.

[Shogun506]

As for my progress... shattered my 2012 last week while trying to finalize the mounting. Said screw it and bought a 2013 from the forums. Then I tried to take Shogun's advice about ElementalX and CM13, but really haven't been having much luck. It doesn't play nice with my USB hub, and the CM13 interface really doesn't match SlimKat (i.e. autodroid). Just flashed my 2013 with the SlimLP beta and ElementalX 4.05. Hopefully this works better than CM12/13.

 

I don't use mine with an OTG cable, I thought about it but I found the cable I had reduced the charge speed of the tablet (cheap ebay cable maybe low quality). What problems are you having with it? I'm not familiar with Slimkat but I installed my tablet and have been using my CM13 nightly setup with ElementalX for about a week now and loving it. I don't know what kind of cranking problems you guys are having but when I initially installed it I ran the USB wire through the center shifter area into the middle armrest area and plugged it into the accessory power port there. It seemed to work fine for me. Today I used a fuse tap that I hooked up to the "AUDIO/NAVI" fuse spot to power a USB hub that I placed in the armrest area and it doesn't seem to surge on crank or anything.

[Shogun506]

Another solution you guys could is to turn off the Timur's Fixed Installation feature and avoid his deep sleep solution altogether and then just use Tasker to turn the tablet completely off when power is disconnected and change the bios setting to make the tablet turn on anytime power is connected. That way you shutdown the car and the tablet shuts down, you turn on the car and it turns on (will take about 1 minute) and because it's booting up during your power interruption it will just continue what it's doing.

[solidxsnake]

I don't use mine with an OTG cable, I thought about it but I found the cable I had reduced the charge speed of the tablet (cheap ebay cable maybe low quality). What problems are you having with it? I'm not familiar with Slimkat but I installed my tablet and have been using my CM13 nightly setup with ElementalX for about a week now and loving it. I don't know what kind of cranking problems you guys are having but when I initially installed it I ran the USB wire through the center shifter area into the middle armrest area and plugged it into the accessory power port there. It seemed to work fine for me. Today I used a fuse tap that I hooked up to the "AUDIO/NAVI" fuse spot to power a USB hub that I placed in the armrest area and it doesn't seem to surge on crank or anything.

 

The ElementalX kernel is awful with hot-plug and USB hub support. I have a hub with my Tactrix OP2.0, an SD card reader, and a USB DAC plugged in, and I built my own isolated 5V charger to power everything. All of it worked pretty much fine on the 2012 N7 with AutoDroid (minus power glitches).

 

I gave up on the ElementalX kernel, and switched to Glitch. USB support seems much better than ElementalX so far. I still need to run a USB reset script (details here, though I use Tasker instead of SManager), but after that it seems to consistently detect the USB DAC and my SD card reader. I still have problems with my Tactrix OP and BtSsm through the hub, though.

 

Gonna try fiddling more with the hot-plug drivers in the Glitch kernel next to see if any of them handle better (there are 4 drivers included with the kernel, though you need to reinstall to change between them). If nothing else, I might just start working on my own damned kernel

 

Edit: one more nice thing about Glitch is that it has F2FS support. I'm also going to try converting everything to F2FS, since I also believe SlimLP supports it too (I'd assume it does, since SlimKat did as well).