Eismann

A little background on why I decided to go this route. First I have wanted to put in an Android tablet of some kind since I first switched over to an Android phone since there are so many different ways to customize the software. The problem that I was having is that I personally need to give myself an excuse to do a project like this and since my Shaker500 was working, I had no excuse.

Last fall (2012) my Shaker500 took a dump and wouldn't work unless I stripped it and had it rebuilt or bought a new one. Finally I have an excuse to put in a stand alone tablet.

I took several months to decide on a tablet since I wanted something that had a full size, powered USB and was larger than what the factory opening of the Shaker500. I decided on the Acer Iconia A500 since it has a 10.1 inch screen and the full size, powered USB.



First thing is to take the center console apart and take out the old radio. If you don't know how then this youtube video should help:


Once everything is out there should be a nice hole to work with.

I decided to use the 12V power from the cigarette lighter for the power to the battery of the Acer. (as I was testing everything the 12V power stopped working all together, no fuses blown that I found, but everything else still works fine)

On the trim for the radio I cut everything off from the bottom of the hole where the shaker was on up. (sorry forgot to take pictures so I am using one off of google)


before


after

After getting it cut off I had some test fitting to do (also didn't take pictures off that). But the end result was a cut up tablet like pictured below.






(sorry for the crappy image)


(again sorry about the image)



Then time for a test fit again.



Everything fits like a glove. No movement back and for or up and down.

After getting all the test fitting done, I installed a 1000watt amp to run the 4 JL speakers I bought for it (2 two way 6.5inch for the front and 2 three way 6x9 inch for the back) Sorry not going through the wiring process. Though I will say that for some of the best sound always run your power wires on one side and your audio wires on the other side. I did add a switch to the remote cable of the amp since I didn't want to spend the time finding the an auxiliary power line to tap into.



Now back to the 12V power solution. Since there aren't many car adapters for the A500, I bought an inverter and wired it directly into a 12V constant source (used the 12V constant from the old radio harness). I also lengthened the wiring for the switch and made it a quick release cable system just in case something goes wrong it makes it easier to switch out.




Long cord is positive. Short one is negative/ground.


New switch for inverter.


New location for switch

Lastly just had to plug everything in. Power from the inverter to the tablet. USB up to the middle of the center console. Audio out through the headphone jack to a splitter for standard RCA connections.


USB cable next to USB connection from tablet.


USB in the center console. There are other things I will be doing there.


Audio from headphone jack.

Lastly I made a cover to hide the top of the tablet and make it more natural looking.


The blue is the cover. I will keep it that way and where the climate control is paint it the same color.

As for the volume control it is all done through the tablet with the app PowerAmp. It also has a full EQ on it to help with sound.



It is pretty much finished with just some more clean-up work to do. I will get a video up at some point to show full functionality of it.

Any comments or suggestions would be great.

AJ06GT

Very cool. I actually have a very similar plan myself soon that I've been working out the details on. A couple of those pictures showing the area disassembled will actually be really helpful, so thanks!

Lem-06

it looks pretty nice, i wouldnt wanna chop up my tablet, would probably grab a smaller one where the screen is about the size of the opening already in the plastic, then shave the plastic around to get the screen fitted perfectly.
but the rest of the technical work is very helpful

AJ06GT

A Nexus 7 is almost identical to double din size, that's what I'll be going with. If you're doing a proper permanent install though you'll still be doing a little bit of taking it apart. Shouldn't have to cut too much of it thouogh.

Eismann

Originally I only planned to take the back off so that I could get to the components that I wanted to use. I didn't account for overall physical size of the tablet, just the screen size. I had to change my plans a couple of times to make sure it would fit and stay correctly.

steev

This is what I'm leaning towards. Getting a 2nd hand/refurb/cheap 1st gen Nexus 7. You don't need the better screen or rear camera in the new one. The performance drop isn't too bad either.

-Great Navigation in Google Maps
-Standard power adapter
-Proper Android experience and updates for probably the next 2 years.
-Should fit nicely

The disadvantages of a tablet as a head unit are there, in terms of if you had an aftermarket head unit with Bluetooth, you'll miss out on the Bluetooth functionality, but if you use Google Voice and have internet sharing enabled on your phone, that shouldn't be as much of an issue. You can even use a Parrot Bluetooth system if you miss actually using your phone.

Your solutions to issues in this build are great though, and even a 10" tablet looks good.

Nice one, and thanks for the write up!

Eismann

The A500 has blue tooth capability. So the blue tooth fucntionality is no problem. I bought a used one that was just WiFi but they also could come with 3G capability as well.

steev

I don't think you can use the tablet as handsfree for your phone. That was the type of functionality I was referring to.

Eismann

Yeah there are apps out there for that other than just google voice. You can even sync your text messageswith it as well through blue tooth. Also don't forget blue tooth OBD2 readings.

AJ06GT

Yeah, one of the steps in my process will be to remount the OBDII port so I can plug in my bluetooth adapter without kicking it every time I shift.

I had thought about the bluetooth to the tablet for handsfree calls, but it wasn't really a big concern of mine. There are a few apps, but I don't know if anything will actually make the tablet your handsfree and play out it's audio out. Would be cool if you find one like that Eismann. Google Voice is definitely an option, but I don't think I'd use that.

Might I also suggest a few other things. A lot of tablets have pretty dismal audio quality on the headphone jack. I'll be using a USB DAC for audio output on the N7 (not sure if the A500 supports that). Also, a lot of times tablets don't output a powerful enough signal to plug directly into an amp, so I was also planning to mount something like this: That would provide an EQ and preamp on the output as well as giving you a nice volume control **** rather than using a software volume slider, though there are apps that do that well also. If you have any issue with audio quality, those are both ideas to take into consideration.

I was thinking N7 to USB DAC to preamp/eq to a full amp powering the speakers. My current planning was just how I wanted to set that all up and where to set it up. Using a USB hub I could also add USB storage in the way of any old flash drive. There are even USB FM tuners that work so that you could keep radio if you were interested in that.

And I agree, the old N7 should be plenty of power for what I want. That's why I was waiting for the new one to come out so I could pick up the older for cheaper. Overall the price would probably come out similar to just buying a fancy touch screen head unit, but I was hoping for the pure Android experience of an N7.