How does it look? (Be gentle, it's my first time using fiberglass and second time using body filler.)
Using Wi-Fi tethering on my phone I have Spotify Premium for commercial free radio and on-demand access to almost any song/album on the planet ($10/mo), TuneIn in order to listen to any live radio station in the country (world, too?) for free, GPS and navigation using Google Maps - including voice command, and of course general internet and other apps. I even have one that uses a Bluetooth OBDII dongle to get live ECU data/codes.
Parts list:
-Spare dash to modify ($65)
-Nexus 7 ($200)
-Alpine 4 channel amp ($135)
-Potentiometers and knobs ($25)
-Relay and assorted electronics ($25?)
-Misc fiberglass, body filler, hardware ($100?)
Total: $550-ish?
I started taking build pictures but there were a lot more than I was expecting. If there's interest though I can put some together. I kept everything able to be reverted to stock should the need arise. It took several weeks of trial and error to get finished but it works great. The Alpine amp even sounds better than the old head unit.
I got all excited and started rambling about all the cool stuff that thing could possibly do without realizing you already have listed that you set it all up for it already! Music, Internet Radio, Navigation, ODB2 Sensor, everything's there! It's beautiful! Do want!
I've gotta forward this to all my techy buddies, they're gonna love it! Thanks a lot for sharing!
Keep us, and definitely me, posted on how that works out for you!
The tablet is in a cheapo plastic case, the case has aluminum bar stock fiberglassed to the back and those bars are bolted to the plastic housing that normally holds the HVAC controls.
Oh wow I'm dense, I just barely noticed that you flipped the positions of the stereo and economy controls. So you removed the front vents and have it mounted to that. Was the stereo bezel just completely the wrong size to mount it behind, and how'd you wire the volume and bass controls to the amp?
Oh wow I'm dense, I just barely noticed that you flipped the positions of the stereo and economy controls. So you removed the front vents and have it mounted to that. Was the stereo bezel just completely the wrong size to mount it behind, and how'd you wire the volume and bass controls to the amp?
Haha no worries man.
The vents were in the way so i filled up the vent tube with expandable foam and cardboard (in plastic so it can be removed easily) and the tablet is bolted to the plastic portion of the dash that the HVAC controls were previously bolted to. The vent louvers were removed from the donor dash, the hole for the HVAC controls was expanded with fiberglass and then re-installed so the tablet would peek through.
Fortunately the HVAC controls were the exact right width to fit were the stereo used to go, it just needed some bolts trough its mounting holes and a couple holes drilled in the bracket that normally holds the stereo.
I didn't try to put the tablet where the stereo went because I wanted it to be up higher and easier to use. I think the width was just right though so that would have been an option.
The volume/bass controls are 10k stereo potentiometers. The headphone out from the tablet is broken into 4 RCA jacks which go through ground loop isolators that came with the amp, then to the potentiometer input for volume. The volume out splits and goes to the 4 channel Alpine amp and the bass potentiometer whose out goes to RCAs for the sub amplifier. That way the overall volume is dictated by the volume knob but the bass is still adjustable.
EDIT: Realized I had a pic on my phone. Tablet isn't in yet but I marked the locations where it's mounted. The top right circle is where the one bar just rests, in that notch. No need for a bolt there.
That is a very cool project! I'd love to see the build pictures u took.. how did you come up with this idea? How is the sound quality from the touch pad? A normal hu is like 50wx4 what does the pad put out? Awesome job man!
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2007 Nissan Xterra X
Upgraded Sound System
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