Well winter is here at last and due to the lack of a garage there will be no more cosmetic, mechanical or lighting mods for a while. So I have had this idea for a number of years now but due to the lack of availability and high price of the right hardware/software never had the chance to try it. Due to a recent purchase I am now in a position to give it a go.

Excuse the wobble but it was held by a diy car cradle

If/when I build it it will be fitted into the centre of the dash in its own pod trying to make it look as OEM as possible

Comment, criticisms and ideas welcome

Karl

Getting there

Updated Picture Read On

Edited 1 August, 201312 yr by korban

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I've toyed with the idea of doing something like this powered off my R-Pi. Only 'issues' would be GPS and data, but otherwise it could be something to look into so you can keep the tablet for home use still?

Nice potential! How much room is in the middle of the dash though, as obviously that looks to be totally different to a double DIN size.

Have done the Same with my Samsung Galaxy 8.9 Tablet and a cheap eBay tablet window mount

Im sure it goes without saying but i've had to replace a few windows the past two weeks due to two reasons!

1 being them smashed to nick radios and ipods etc, always an increase coming up to christmas.

2 being people defrosting cars in the morning and locking them in.

Funnily enough i replaced two fabia rear windows as the guys car locked with the keys in. He smashed the drivers rear window to remember after child locks were on... So then smashed the other side window!

So yeah on topic, dont leave them on display or your window might get smashed.

Ru going take bits off OEM cars (ie bmw's flip up cubby hole) or complete custom build? Have you connected torque via bluetooth or USB->OBDII?

Lastly, try Co-Pilot

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I've toyed with the idea of doing something like this powered off my R-Pi. Only 'issues' would be GPS and data, but otherwise it could be something to look into so you can keep the tablet for home use still?

Its a google Nexus which has built in GPS, as for data connects to my mobile via wifi when I get in the car

Nice potential! How much room is in the middle of the dash though, as obviously that looks to be totally different to a double DIN size.

Not trying to put it where the head unit goes Jason, hopefully just above the centre air vents

Have done the Same with my Samsung Galaxy 8.9 Tablet and a cheap eBay tablet window mount

Looking good, but I take it that you do not leave it there all the time ?

Im sure it goes without saying but i've had to replace a few windows the past two weeks due to two reasons!

1 being them smashed to nick radios and ipods etc, always an increase coming up to christmas.

2 being people defrosting cars in the morning and locking them in.

Funnily enough i replaced two fabia rear windows as the guys car locked with the keys in. He smashed the drivers rear window to remember after child locks were on... So then smashed the other side window!

So yeah on topic, dont leave them on display or your window might get smashed.

The idea is when finished it will look/be part of the dash

Ru going take bits off OEM cars (ie bmw's flip up cubby hole) or complete custom build? Have you connected torque via bluetooth or USB->OBDII?

Lastly, try Co-Pilot

Yes John looking around for OEM parts at the moment, but looks like it will be a custom build.

Torque via Bluetooth

Got Co-Pilot on my phone but thought I go back to TomTom on this one

Cheer

Karl

Excellent plan Karl. look forward to how this turns out :-)

Well after waiting for the parts that I ordered to turn up, I finally managed to find some time to get started on this new project

A second hand centre heater vent was first stripped down and some holes filled with plastic padding and a small tray was added to place the tablet on which ended up looking like this

Trial fit into dash, I was hoping to possibly leave a few slats from the vent in place to have a functioning vent but it would have meant that the tablet would have been too high.

Plastic card was cut to create the base which the pod would sit on

Again with tablet in place to judge the angle of the display

Fibre glass was used to bond the plastic card at the right angle

A frame made out of plastic card was constructed and then coved in fibre glass

It was then coated in plastic padding to achieve the right contours and then test fitted in the dash

The pod was then covered in vinyl and 3M Carbon fibre film to match the rest of the dash

Views fitted inside the car

and

At night

From outside

TO DATE

Relatively happy so far, most of the hardware/software works but needs some tweaking to get it to work smoothly. I have been driving around with it for the last week and it powers up with ignition on and goes to sleep with ignition off and has worked faultlessly.

TO DO

Order some ODBII cables to finish off the bluetooth sensor as I can't close the door in front of the diagnostic socket, still fiddling with getting a memory stick and power to the table at the same time because it has only on usb connector.

BUT I don't like the look of the pod :no:

From outside it looks like a bloody radar pod LOL - although the colour and pattern of the vinyl does match the rest of the dash it looks to big and ungainly.

So back to the drawing board !!

As usual comment and criticism welcome

Cheers for looking guys

Karl

Agree, pod looks huge really....

other than that looks nice, well built etc..

Looks very good at night, good colour match and carbon fiber goes well.

I've just one question; do you drive your car, or use it as a chill out room If it's a chill out room, then it's PDG.

Would it not be easier to mount it lower down? ie, Fabricate something below the dash, above the ashtray?

Hi Carl,

Just seen this and it looks amazing.

But one thing I have noticed is your steering wheel stereo controls. Is it standard or specific to your aftermarket h/u? Because I don't have one and I want one lol.

Looks good but the pod is a little in the large side.

Have you any ideas otherwise the only things I can think of are a smaller tablet or try and mount it actually into the dash which would require quite a bit of work

Hi Carl,

Just seen this and it looks amazing.

But one thing I have noticed is your steering wheel stereo controls. Is it standard or specific to your aftermarket h/u? Because I don't have one and I want one lol.

It's an addition to his h/u mate, som Sony head units come with them and I imagine Karl has wired it in.

Good effort Karl. Agree it's a little on the big side. Could you use a second hand dash and use the instrument surround from that?

Top work Karl! I think you could make the pod look very OEM(ish) if you made it run closer to the tablet screen edge and just taper at the bottom to be as wide as the vent opening. The only round thing on a fabia dash is the dash pod so a square version wouldn't look out of place and would go with the rest of the dash. I am also intrigued to find out what the two blue buttons are on the blanks about the stereo. Look very much like NOS buttons

Good effort on the pod though!

I originally thought you were going to do a closeable system. suppose you can still implement that by fabricating a mechanism so that the tablet slides inside the vent. "folding downwards"

Alternatively if thats alot of hassle, the pod can shape around the size of the tablet. Similar width to the double din, also, rather than bulge outwards like a dome you could make it scoop inwards to create a more subtle feel to it.

Like: ">" rather than ")" ...............................

As a first go at it, a bloody good first attempt. The finish looks really good. Only niggly bits are those you've highlighted, the shape of the thing.

If you look at the shape of the centre dash and the back of the driver's instrument pod, kind of suggests the new pod should reach far further forwards over the dash towards the windscreen. The back of the driver's pod has two "lines" on it, where the curve changes or for styling?!?

I think ideally, the tablet would rest further back in the dash but appreciate that would require hacking into the dash top. Also think the tablet could sit lower. From a driver/passenger perspective, you're looking down on it and only the bottom edge of the screen needs to be visible. A complete guess but I reckon it could be 20mm lower?

Hope to see the mk2...

J.

looks good Karl

Looks very good at night, good colour match and carbon fiber goes well.

Cheers

Would it not be easier to mount it lower down? ie, Fabricate something below the dash, above the ashtray?

Did try that a long time ago with a TomTom Unit

But one thing I have noticed is your steering wheel stereo controls. Is it standard or specific to your aftermarket h/u? Because I don't have one and I want one lol.

As mattievrs pointed out its a Sony control stalk controlling my JVC Head Unit

Have you any ideas otherwise the only things I can think of are a smaller tablet or try and mount it actually into the dash which would require quite a bit of work

Did borrow a 5 inch tablet but was too small and no GPS etc

Good effort Karl. Agree it's a little on the big side. Could you use a second hand dash and use the instrument surround from that?

Did try looking at various pods from other cars Charlie, but could not find anything that I could really get to fit without cutting into the dash.

Top work Karl! I think you could make the pod look very OEM(ish) if you made it run closer to the tablet screen edge and just taper at the bottom to be as wide as the vent opening. The only round thing on a fabia dash is the dash pod so a square version wouldn't look out of place and would go with the rest of the dash. I am also intrigued to find out what the two blue buttons are on the blanks about the stereo. Look very much like NOS buttons

Unfortunately I did not take a photo of how wide the tablet actually is when fitted in the pod, it has very wide borders around the screen.

As for the Blue buttons, the left is to control the DRLs and the right is NOS LOL

(Not really but it does switch my digital tuning box on which gives about 30 BHP and 60 NM extra, so it does behave a bit like a NOS switch)

I originally thought you were going to do a closeable system. suppose you can still implement that by fabricating a mechanism so that the tablet slides inside the vent. "folding downwards"

Alternatively if thats alot of hassle, the pod can shape around the size of the tablet. Similar width to the double din, also, rather than bulge outwards like a dome you could make it scoop inwards to create a more subtle feel to it.

Sorry John not clever enough to do the folding mechanism, as for your other suggestion I think I see what you mean and might well look into it.

If you look at the shape of the centre dash and the back of the driver's instrument pod, kind of suggests the new pod should reach far further forwards over the dash towards the windscreen. The back of the driver's pod has two "lines" on it, where the curve changes or for styling?!?

I think ideally, the tablet would rest further back in the dash but appreciate that would require hacking into the dash top. Also think the tablet could sit lower. From a driver/passenger perspective, you're looking down on it and only the bottom edge of the screen needs to be visible. A complete guess but I reckon it could be 20mm lower?

Not a bad idea, might try to style it with the two lines in it, as for moving it further back by cutting the dash a definite no no, as all of my other mods that I have done it must be easy to revert it back to standard. As for lowering it thats a no go as there is a sizable boarder around the tablet so its as low as it can go already.

looks good Karl

Cheers Dave

Thanks for the feed back guys, you all have given me some more idea's to think about. There will be a MK2 and maybe even a 3

Hoping to do some more work on it this weekend.

Karl

Re: bluetooth adapter in OBDII in case noone else has said. Remove lower part of dash, unclip socket, tie it up somewhere safe behind the dash, then your cubby hole will close.

Thanks for the tip, will do whilst I'm waiting for a cable from China

Karl

Looks fantastic Karl. Still using Torque and works well. Still need to line up the readouts better. What other apps are you running?

What is the size of the current tablet your trying to mount Karl?

Looks fantastic Karl. Still using Torque and works well. Still need to line up the readouts better. What other apps are you running?

Yes Martyn Torque is working great but might try a faster ODBII Bluetooth adaptor, as for other apps using the gear shift torque app, and then a a mixture of Apps from android market that are car related. Also using TomTom for navigation app. I've got the same issue with lining up the gauges and also modifying the torque theme to get it to match the rest of the dash.

What is the size of the current tablet your trying to mount Karl?

Its a Nexus 7 so 7 inch screen but the borders around it are very wide !

Karl