Tablet PC as Carputer?

[abarnesDLGT]

HELP! i installed the timurs kernel on my nexus 7 and it seems to do most of the features that were included ….. except it seems to burn a lot more battery power than "1-2% every few days" ill come back to my car with only a few days in between and it is completely dead and or i have to manually turn it back on…. what a PIA … doe anyone have experience with this or that can help me out. i have the power going into the center console via a usb -> cig lighter

[wesleyCrowbar]

Make sure your charger and cable are up to the task of keeping it charged. If I used anything less than a 2.1amp charger I would drain the battery pretty quickly usin spotify and GPS

[xt2005bonbon]

You must have some kind of app that keeps waking up the tablet. Check out the 'rtc alarms' list in the power management settings and make sure everything is disabled or unchecked. Try that and see what happens.

[xt2005bonbon]

btw, did any of you using the timur rom (on lollipop) have had any issues with 'cheap' usb hubs ? Everything has been working OK and all of the sudden, the hub kept mounting and unmounting, and was getting the tablet 'crazy'. I swear my cables are OK. I am getting a brand name hub (d-link) and will see what happens..

(items connected to hub: easycap device, usb behringer dac, lexar 128GB usb stick, vagcom cable)

[xt2005bonbon]

btw, did any of you using the timur rom (on lollipop) have had any issues with 'cheap' usb hubs ? Everything has been working OK and all of the sudden, the hub kept mounting and unmounting, and was getting the tablet 'crazy'. I swear my cables are OK. I am getting a brand name hub (d-link) and will see what happens..

(items connected to hub: easycap device, usb behringer dac, lexar 128GB usb stick, vagcom cable)

 

Just for the record, issue was most likely the hub. I replaced it with a nice DLink hub and now everything works as it should. So freakin nice!!! Battery always stays at 100%, hub is powered too, I have a nice 5 Amp 12-5v DC converter, and the timer to take care of the cranking issue.

I know I kept saying it, but I'll upload a video soon

[rebourne]

fwiw, I am almost done with my USDM bezel install with the nexus 7 2013. I'll provide pictures soon but so far, I am keeping my vents fully functional . But yeah, it does require patience with your dremel and a VERY steady hand.

I am also done with my remote power button too. I'll provide a few pictures and maybe a video when it's all done.

 

Have you posted pics yet, perhaps in another thread? Video's are good too, but you can't zoom in on a video, like you can full sized pictures.

[rebourne]

I'm sitting here with what I think is a JDM cubby bezel, a tape measure and a cup of coffee. I'm thinking of losing the entire right side vent. Basically cut it out, turning it into a one vent bezel and graft in a piece of plastic to mount the N7 to. This would retain a fully functional left side vent, and plenty of room for plugging in the cables on the right side without hacking up the N7.

 

Anyone consider doing it that way, or see any obvious flaws in that approach? Or see anything similar, perhaps on one of the other sites?

 

[solidxsnake]

I'm sitting here with what I think is a JDM cubby bezel, a tape measure and a cup of coffee. I'm thinking of losing the entire right side vent. Basically cut it out, turning it into a one vent bezel and graft in a piece of plastic to mount the N7 to. This would retain a fully functional left side vent, and plenty of room for plugging in the cables on the right side without hacking up the N7.

 

Anyone consider doing it that way, or see any obvious flaws in that approach? Or see anything similar, perhaps on one of the other sites?

 

<snip>

 

Besides losing a vent... no, I don't see any other flaws. Make sure you plug the duct to the unused vent so you don't lose air through your HVAC system, but otherwise, I don't see any problem with that.

[wesleyCrowbar]

That's how I have mine set up. It's a little unsightly, since there's a vent that leads nowhere. I never see it though since I'm looking at the road, and passengers normally don't notice either. When I popped the bezel back on, I just made sure the vents were facing all the way down.

[xt2005bonbon]

Have you posted pics yet, perhaps in another thread? Video's are good too, but you can't zoom in on a video, like you can full sized pictures.

 

No I have not . Lots of stuff going at home, that's why...

But when I post the video, I'll also post pictures then.

[mclarenf3]

I'm sitting here with what I think is a JDM cubby bezel, a tape measure and a cup of coffee. I'm thinking of losing the entire right side vent. Basically cut it out, turning it into a one vent bezel and graft in a piece of plastic to mount the N7 to. This would retain a fully functional left side vent, and plenty of room for plugging in the cables on the right side without hacking up the N7.

 

Anyone consider doing it that way, or see any obvious flaws in that approach? Or see anything similar, perhaps on one of the other sites?

 

 

I wouldn't do that. I was able to get both the N7 2012 and N7 2013 models into that cubby opening (once you remove the info panel below) without too many permanent modifications to the cubby. And I did not make ANY modifications to the tablets. With the 2013 model, it's a tight fit, but it will fit in the space provided.

 

I drilled two holes into the vents so that the cables plug in via the vents, but other than that it was pretty easy. I have photos in the previous posts within this thread.

[rebourne]

I wouldn't do that. I was able to get both the N7 2012 and N7 2013 models into that cubby opening (once you remove the info panel below) without too many permanent modifications to the cubby. And I did not make ANY modifications to the tablets. With the 2013 model, it's a tight fit, but it will fit in the space provided.

 

I drilled two holes into the vents so that the cables plug in via the vents, but other than that it was pretty easy. I have photos in the previous posts within this thread.

 

Hrmm... I guess I missed those pics. I'll look for them.

 

Did the vents still articulate? ie: go up and down and left and right?

[solidxsnake]

Hrmm... I guess I missed those pics. I'll look for them.

 

Did the vents still articulate? ie: go up and down and left and right?

 

I would imagine so. All of the deflectors in the vent are at the very front, so cutting a hole in the side of the vents where the tablet's USB port is won't affect them.

[Shogun506]

Here you go folkeroos!

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/winnipeg-mb-rare-jdm-nav-bezel-nexus-size-253113.html?p=5410929#post5410929

[solidxsnake]

I was reading back a little earlier in this thread... bonbon: are you still having issues with a music track skipping ahead after you remove and restore power to the tablet? Pretty much any music player will do what you're describing if you don't properly close it before cutting power.

 

The solution that I use on my N7 install is handled by a simple Tasker script. When the tablet loses power, Tasker pauses, then force quits my music app (I use GMMP), then dismounts my music device (USB card reader with a 64GB microSD card). Upon power restore, it remounts my music device, then opens the music player and sends a play command. It will pick up near where it paused, but not necessarily exactly where it did (it will pick up at the nearest position that wasn't buffered before the app was closed, in other words).

 

The key is that you need to ensure your music app has stopped playing and has closed before you lose the connection between your removable storage and your tablet. If you lose that connection before the music app is closed, then the app will probably continue to play until the audio buffer is exhausted, and then when it tries to read from the removable media, it will fail because the handle to the media has become invalid (once it lost power). Simply pausing the app won't do anything, since it will keep the handle to your removable media open.

 

Some notes... the built-in tasker "Kill App" doesn't seem to actually kill apps, it just "closes" them. I use a shell script through Tasker to search through the processes, find the process I want, and then kill that task. It's a combined ps, grep, and awk command. I also mount and unmount my USB device manually. In addition, I have a couple extra scripts in Tasker to discover and populate local variables with the USB device parameters (the special file in /dev/bus/usb/001 that corresponds to each device) so I can reset them individually if need be, as well as a script to discover the corresponding block device that corresponds to my SD card to mount (i.e. /dev/block/sda1).

[xt2005bonbon]

I was reading back a little earlier in this thread... bonbon: are you still having issues with a music track skipping ahead after you remove and restore power to the tablet? Pretty much any music player will do what you're describing if you don't properly close it before cutting power.

 

The solution that I use on my N7 install is handled by a simple Tasker script. When the tablet loses power, Tasker pauses, then force quits my music app (I use GMMP), then dismounts my music device (USB card reader with a 64GB microSD card). Upon power restore, it remounts my music device, then opens the music player and sends a play command. It will pick up near where it paused, but not necessarily exactly where it did (it will pick up at the nearest position that wasn't buffered before the app was closed, in other words).

 

The key is that you need to ensure your music app has stopped playing and has closed before you lose the connection between your removable storage and your tablet. If you lose that connection before the music app is closed, then the app will probably continue to play until the audio buffer is exhausted, and then when it tries to read from the removable media, it will fail because the handle to the media has become invalid (once it lost power). Simply pausing the app won't do anything, since it will keep the handle to your removable media open.

 

Some notes... the built-in tasker "Kill App" doesn't seem to actually kill apps, it just "closes" them. I use a shell script through Tasker to search through the processes, find the process I want, and then kill that task. It's a combined ps, grep, and awk command. I also mount and unmount my USB device manually. In addition, I have a couple extra scripts in Tasker to discover and populate local variables with the USB device parameters (the special file in /dev/bus/usb/001 that corresponds to each device) so I can reset them individually if need be, as well as a script to discover the corresponding block device that corresponds to my SD card to mount (i.e. /dev/block/sda1).

 

Yeah, I still do. I am using VLC. This software is super fast at scanning a 128 GB drive. Amazing. It does pick up where I left off after it lost power, but it'll only play for an additional 30sec and then go to the next track.

 

I did try before to pause the song manually like a minute before I turn off the car. But once the power got back on, it repeated the same thing.

So what you're saying is essentially to pause your track, close the app before the whole thing shuts down. Problem is I don't think VLC would necessarilly pick up where it left off if I do a 'force close'. I'll have to try. I need to get tasker too.

[solidxsnake]

Yeah, I still do. I am using VLC. This software is super fast at scanning a 128 GB drive. Amazing. It does pick up where I left off after it lost power, but it'll only play for an additional 30sec and then go to the next track.

 

I did try before to pause the song manually like a minute before I turn off the car. But once the power got back on, it repeated the same thing.

So what you're saying is essentially to pause your track, close the app before the whole thing shuts down. Problem is I don't think VLC would necessarilly pick up where it left off if I do a 'force close'. I'll have to try. I need to get tasker too.

 

Yeah, if VLC stays on after you cut power, it'll lose the handle to the USB drive and have to re-scan. You also should make sure your drive is mounted to a consistent folder. That's why I manually handle everything with tasker/shell scripts instead of letting my ROM automount the drive, etc.

[xt2005bonbon]

I wonder how I could tell VLC to avoid scanning and save the index somewhere since the drive content does not change... And yeah, the drive is mounted in a 'preferred' folder as per Timur terminology.

[solidxsnake]

I wonder how I could tell VLC to avoid scanning and save the index somewhere since the drive content does not change... And yeah, the drive is mounted in a 'preferred' folder as per Timur terminology.

 

You should be able to only scan the music database once and store it. I can't imagine any music player needing to rebuild the database every time it opens. You just have to ensure the entire directory structure is consistent, otherwise when it tries to load a new file, it will fail because it can't find it.

[rebourne]

Grew, Awk, /dev/sda... Now you're talking my language!

 

Jeeze... I was about to write this whole thing off... Get a 6P, a magnet mount, a hub and call it close enough.

[xt2005bonbon]

Jeeze... I was about to write this whole thing off... Get a 6P, a magnet mount, a hub and call it close enough.

 

Yeah but you'd have to deal with plugging/unplugging, take the thing off the magnet mount and so on.

 

With the tablet in the dash and with the Timur rom, I get in and out of the car and barely need to interact with the device anymore! It's all so seamless, it is awesome.

[rebourne]

Yeah but you'd have to deal with plugging/unplugging, take the thing off the magnet mount and so on.

 

With the tablet in the dash and with the Timur rom, I get in and out of the car and barely need to interact with the device anymore! It's all so seamless, it is awesome.

 

I can't argue with that. My solution would be less awesome, not seemless. Just a fancy phone setup. Not necessarily worthy of the thread, lol.

 

The 6P would be my phone, I'm due for an upgrade. Tuck a usb type C hub behind the cubby, usb dac, backup camera, btssm input. Fab a dual magnet mount that would attach to the bottom of the cubby, and hold it clear of the door. So stick to magnet, jack in the plug. It's not as slick as no-touch, but it might be enough to quench this thirst. Big downside is you can't simultaneous charge from the type C hub until (if) someone cracks the kernel. Blame Google for that, since the hubs work to charge Pixel books and other brand tablets.

 

Having said that, the old Nexus 6 looks like a good candidate for mounting in the OEM cubby pod... And with it's Qi charging you can do simultaneous USB hosting and charging. NO, you can not. USB hosting/OTG disables wireless charging. Let me make some measurements...

Edited May 26, 2016 by rebourne
got my charging facts straightened out.

[xt2005bonbon]

And don't forget the GMD gesture app. One of the best 'mod' to get. It allows to draw a gesture on the screen to run an app, play, pause, next, previous, etc.... No need to stare at the tablet to open something, just draw on it. This way, your eyes stays on the road.

[rebourne]

Motorola Nexus 6 and the standard cubby bezel is a really nice fit on the top and bottom. Doesn't touch the screen. Looks like you could hot glue the top and bottom easily and then would only have to come up with a clean way to cover up the gaps on the side.

 

 

This is with a case, which might actually help give more thickness to glue to.

 

Without case:

 

Top edge is not touching screen:

 

And not touch on the bottom:

 

hrmm...

[solidxsnake]

Grew, Awk, /dev/sda... Now you're talking my language!

 

Jeeze... I was about to write this whole thing off... Get a 6P, a magnet mount, a hub and call it close enough.

 

 

Rest assured, I only speak *nix when I need to

 

The only problem to keep in mind with wireless/inductive charging is that generally the charging rates are too slow to keep up with the current draw you'd consume with the screen on/peripherals added. So you might extend the battery life a bit, but you won't be able to actually charge the battery with purely wireless charging alone, especially if you're powering USB-OTG devices as well.