Tibo

iTrader: (15)

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I have been interested in integrating a tablet into my Camaro for a few years now but it was just one of those ideas that had never come to fruition for me. What finally made me do it was the advent of Shadow Dash for MegaSquirt-which is what the tablet is seen running in the picture. It’s a program that provides for an ecm display and datalogging remotely via Bluetooth. More info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JO...ature=youtu.be
http://tunerstudio.com/index.php/shadowdashmsmenu

First off I will say that what I did is based largely off of the work from two other members. FueledSoul posted about how he recovered his center console in leather (https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ed-center.html) and Dezined posted about how he made a tablet mount for his console (https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/car-...t-mount-w.html). My idea merely combined the two albeit a few discretionary changes according to personal taste and use. So, Thanks to those members for posting their projects!


If you choose to attempt something like this you always need to research it and think about how and if it might work as you would like. Here is some of the better links I came across:

Ideas/How tos for the USB charging circuit:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Chea...t-charger-mod/
http://www.instructables.com/id/12v-...eat-/?ALLSTEPS
http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy...e-USB-Charger/

Ideas/How tos for mounting:

Thirdgen Wiring diagrams:
http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=19

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

The best place to mount a tablet is right in the space that the CD player and climate controls reside. Taking that space means evicting the current two tenants and removing them from the car, relocating them elsewhere or reconfiguring them. I myself rarely used my CD player/radio and even more seldom used my heater. So I made the decision to do away with the CD player and to reconfigure the climate controls (as they previously existed anyway).

After I decided my location I had to choose which tablet size to go with. I chose to use an 8” tablet over the more traditional 7” or 10” tablets. I made poster board mock ups of the 7,8 and 10” tablets and the 7” seemed just too small, not much bigger than my (current 2014) HTC One M8 phone. The 10” would fit but it would be a very tight fit and I worried about how strong that would allow the mount to be as well as how much brighter a 10” tablet would be while driving at night. An 8” seemed like the perfect size for my requirements. I went with the (again current 2014) Acer Iconia A1-830 ( ). For a project such as this I do not need a tablet with all of the bells and whistles, just an average tablet with good reviews and the Acer fits the bill quite well. A good processor, GPS, Bluetooth, good battery life and good reviews for it’s pricepoint. My only complaint(s) about this tablet for a vehicle mounted tablet would be that the screen isn’t as responsive to light touches as I would have liked and with GPS and bluetooth being used the tablet seems to warm up and use battery much faster than anticipated.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

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Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures of the mount before it was covered but I can assure you it is easy to make. I bought some plexy glass or Lexan and scored the outline of the original face plate onto it and then cut it out and drilled the mounting holes. Next I located the exact center of the plexiglass and knowing my dimensions of the tablet’s exterior I just measured outwards and cut my hole. However before cutting I moved the hole up about 3/8” so that when the tablet was pushed in and down into place it would be sitting perfectly centered. The tablet can be easily removed from the mount but will not slide around. I was apprehensive about leaving the tablet mounted in the car where the sun rays could shine on it for long periods or the interior heat could ruin the battery life.

Next I measured the thickness of the tablet and added 1/16” that the cloth would be taking up. Lastly I cut out a piece that was just larger than the entire tablet as this piece would be the back of the mount. I then used a two part epoxy for plastics that said it was for use on Acrylics/plexiglass. I was and still am very impressed with the strength of the Epoxy’s bond, I was unable to pry apart the scrap trial pieces with any normal amount of force that the tablet mount would see. I also ended up cutting a little of the mount to allow for the audio and USB cables to be plugged in. I then did a test fit and covered it in Suede. As a side note I tried using Acetone to melt pieces together and then I tried welding with a micro torch—both ways failed and rivets are out of the question unless you were making an aluminum mount.
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The tablet mount is fairly thin and I only had to do a slight amount of trimming of the center console to allow it to fit. Two mins with a trim router (or even a Dremel would work) cured this and it bolted right in.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

With the tablet in place I just had to redo the audio and heat. With the audio connection you have two choices, use the tablet’s head phone jack or Bluetooth. (For a Bluetooth amplifier demonstration see here: )
I went with the conventional head phone out. I used a 3.5mm headphone jack with a right angle that ended in two RCA cables. Those two RCA cables also connected to a ground loop isolator (http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...n-SC-NS60.html ) to prevent unwanted noise in the audio.

For an amplifier I would think the common choices would be two 2 channel amplifiers, a four or five channel amplifier. I went with a simple five channel amplifier. I am currently using it as a four channel only four because I have not decided where to mount the subwoofer. I mounted the amp in the spare tire well by making a simple MDF bracket that was (I believe) first posted by 87350IROC
Picture here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...150-post7.html
Entire thread here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/car-...-build-up.html

For the Climate controls I still wanted to retain the ability to use a heater but having removed the Air Conditioning equipment and the vacuum line that gives the ability to select vent or defrost (and keeps it on defrost) I only need a selector switch to toggle between off/low/med/high. I located the exact switch, it is the blower motor speed selector switch out of the old FoMoCo vehicles of the mid-late century. The switch is rated to handle 25 amps so I am golden and need no relay. I mounted the switch in the storage area of the center console. Refer to the wiring charts for which wires are you need to use but for the most part you are simply unplugging the old switch, cutting the connector off and splicing in new female spade terminals and then connecting the new switch.

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

You may have also noticed that I made a new piece for the top of the center console with different switches, I did. I am not going to cover it in this thread because it is covered well in this thread : https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...ml#post5574701
It is about how to wire in new switches mostly, and at the end I show and talk briefly about the top.

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Tibo

iTrader: (15)

I also chose to recover the center console sides in leather and have the sides have a slight padding to them. I followed what FueldSoul had done but just glued a layer of Quilt Batting (http://www.joann.com/4oz-x-48in-x-45....html#start=52 ) to the center console and glued the leather to that. Recovering the center console is surprisingly simple and inexpensive and it looks much better than the stock 22 year old carpet that was there. You just peel off the carpet from the sides as it was only glued into place. Use the original carpet as a template to trace onto your padding and leather. Cut out the material but be sure that the padding is smaller than the original carpet by 1/2" and that the leather is larger than the stock carpet by 1-2" so you can adequately wrap it. When you use a padding it is important that you stretch the leather tightly otherwise you could end up with sags or loose leather with enough time. A great learning video for this is right here:
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Dezined

Hey! Thanks for the shoutout! My tablet mount is nowhere near done, but it makes me really happy to see it inspiring others. Lord knows lots of projects on here have inspired me. I like the wrapped console. I wrapped mine in white faux leather vinyl. Makes the inside of the car a lot slicker.

Are you keeping the white of the tablet showing? It would be easy to hide it, or blend it in with the bezel with something like black contact paper. You can trim it to mask only the white, and should you want to remove it, it should come off without a mess. There are also sites like decalgirl.com that provide custom covers for a lot of electronics.

Have you decided how you'll control the music on the tablet? I suggest setting up gestures. I use Gmd gesture control, but it requires root. It let's me setup custom gestures to control my music player that work from anywhere in the tablet.

Also, don't forget the auto brightness setting if your tablet has a light sensor. I've never had an issue with the tablet being too bright at night or too dim during the day.

God, I could go on and on asking you questions about your setup, but I'll save it. If you want any help or suggestions, just ask. I will suggest getting an epicenter if you use the headphone jack. It will restore some of the bottom end that the jack cuts off since it's setup for headphones.

I like what you've done man. Great job. Looks high tech, but in an appropriate way.

Renier

Interestingly enough I am doing the exact same thing right now! ;] Cheers, mate!

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

I am forced to leave the sides of the tablet exposed since I want to be able to slide the tablet in and out without hacking up the center console top or side. I have thought about covering the white sides of the tablet with vinyl and I am probably going to go that route. I already have some leftover 3M Dinoc carbon fiber vinyl I can use I am just wary of not perfectly lining up the vinyl sticker frame with the white frame of the tablet and having a thread of white showing.

For the Audio I have the 3.5mm headphone jack going into the ground loop isolator and then into a Clarion Eq where it is split into front, rear and sub channels and it then goes into a 5 channel amp. It works. I use the app called "Power Amp" for my music. I spent a couple hundred between wiring, new speakers, EQ and amp and I barely use them. Only for highway or when the car is parked really. I am still on the fence about keeping a heater too but I have alot of money in my AN coolant setup and the heater hoses in my AN setup look really nice.

Ditto on the Auto Brightness setting.

Are you noticing your tablet getting warm-hot? I am seeing tablet temps up to 100*F in the daylight hours. One hot mid day drive when I was using blue tooth and GPS and screen as bright as it would go with the t tops off the tablet temp reached 118*F. Evening doesn't seem to be an issue as I think the warmest it has gotten was ~90*F. I ordered a computer cooling fan (80mm) that I will mount in the dead space behind the tablet for air flow and hope that would cool it down. If that doesn't work I will have to begin skeletonizing the tablet's rear bracket. Any thoughts?

Dezined

Hmm, I wonder if you're running the same EQ I am. If you are, that EQ almost negates needing an epicenter. I'm still on the fence about that one.

My tablet does get hot. Not usually when I'm driving around, but when it sits while I'm at work. In all honesty, a window shade works great for that. Anyway, my tablet (Galaxy Tab 2 7.0) has overheat protection. If it gets too hot, it shuts down charging of the battery until it reaches an acceptable temp. That I know of, it's only done that once, in the 2 years I've had this setup. It's not something I've really payed much attention too because 1) hasn't affected performance and 2) the tablet is always at 100% charge because of the charger I built for it. So if it needs to run off battery for a while, that's fine.

I have thought about the fan idea. There's also putting a hole or two in the ducts that run to the lower console. If you were to pull the back off the tablet, you could also install a heat sink on the battery, though that would hamper your ability to easily remove the tablet. One of the reasons I used perforated metal for the cage that holds my tablet was breathability. I'm not sure whether or not the cloth you used is acting as an insulator.

And Power Amp is a great player, I use it as well.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Looks great!