Another Nexus 7 In Dash Install Mazda 3 Gen 1

This is going to be long because i want to be thorough in the event someone else wants to do it. I spent a long time finding as many different threads as i can showing different builds to find what did and didn't work.

i have a phone mount on my windshield that i use all the time for nav, torque, hangouts (video calls), rear view mirror to see my son in his car seat (front camera). I now work at GM in michigan and deal with the infotainment systems daily. It’s handy having all that stuff on a large screen, but I don’t care for the ‘reliability’, so why not go with one of the most customizable interfaces around.

I picked up a nexus 7 on ebay for $110 and another one on craigslist for $85. Both were mint. I was going to keep one for use and one permanent install, but my wife loved it so much she kept one and now I had to make it removable.

Here’s my current set up. Nothing fancy, just a sony head unit I’ve had for about 6 or 7 years. It has a USB port and that’s all I needed.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2017.52.12.jpg

The simplest solution was to push the headset backwards or relocate to the glovebox, and then run an AUX cable from tablet to head unit or DAC to RCA to the back of the head unit. This would have been the cheapest and most straight forward, but then if I needed to do any changes with the stereo, I’d have to open the glovebox.

The inspirations for my specific build are these two build threads. The Subaru build gave the great idea of mounting a case to an Acrylic Double DIN dummy. This with magnets attached to where the Metra kit screws in, will allow me to make this very removable.

SUBARU BUILD

The BMW build had a user share a great way to create an amazing looking interface. I was looking at Ultra Car and whatnot, but they were ugly and very limited in customizing.

BMW E46 BUILD

Here’s a parts list of everything I picked up. I’m not including the tablet cost because that price will vary based on what tablet you get and where/how you get it. Obviously cost varies based on the quality of items you want. I don’t need fancy audio equipment, as long as it works and its not garbage, I’ll be fine, hence the cheap amp. Links to actual buys i made

Nexus 7 (running Timur USB Rom)
Metra Harness 70-7903 $4.98
Metra Double DIN 95-7504 $16.50
Hardcase $4.99
USB to 3.5mm 5V DC Cable $1.85
DC Buck Converter with USB Out $6.99
OTG Y Cable $4.00
Logitech USB Hub (I think I paid $5 about 7 years ago on a deal site)
Joycon EXR $42.00
Behringer UCA222 USB DAC $29.99
OBDII ELM327 Bluetooth Diagnostic Tool 16.99
^These you have to be careful for. I bought three for my dad and I and they all worked perfectly, my roommate bought one from another seller and it was a dud. The circuit board looked different and the sticker was upside down
Lexan 12x12x1/4 $9.99
Neodymium Magnet $1.30
Sound Storm Laboratories F4 400 amp $36.44
BOSS Wire Install Kit $16.27
RCA Cables (free, laying around the house)

TOTAL $192.29

All in all, not a bad deal for $300 given that most all in one in dashs (like cartoy.ca) are 600+

Optional
Bluetooth Keyboard for my wife to use the browser or netflix and whatnot while on long drives

Apps
Tablet Talk $2.99 lets me control texting and calling on my phone through my tablet
Tasker $2.99 and secure settings plugin (free)
Torque $4.72
Desktop Visualizer (for invisible widgets over my wallpaper "buttons")
ADW Launcher
UCCW Widget
Twisted Home Manager (switch between my two launchers which i use one for in-car, one for personal)
Multipicture Live wallpaper (have different pictures on different screens. This gives me the main car wallpaper with the buttons, and a clean version for other apps and when not in car)

Here's my out of car test run. instead of 2 power sources for the hub and for the charge section of the Y OTG cable, i'm putting a charging cable from the powered hub to the OTG and powering the hub off the buck converter.

Not shown are the RCA Cables between the DAC and Amp and the cable from the Buck to the USB Hub

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20-%20Copy.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2-16-23-04.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...zda-outcar.png

Bluetooth tethering from my phone so i have data for Nav, google music browser and whatnot. I can also use local music via USB. Running the DAC to some speakers worked so as long as i hook up the amp properly that should work.

Right now i'm tinkering with the Joycon to get it working with my extra steering wheel (added cruise, so got another wheel) once that's working i'll be making it fit into the lexan housing then dropping in the cover with magnets. I've started working on Tasker profiles to make everything as automated and smooth as possible.

The idea is once i throw the phone in the car, an NFC tag on the phone holder will make the phone turn on bluetooth tethering and start tablet talk . once ignition goes on, GPS, bluetooth and tablet talk start up, then they'll autopair and get connected. Also, google play will start up where it left off and play automatically just like a regular car stereo. Turning off will airplane mode it, shut down Torque and tablet talk, pause google music and put it to deep sleep.
With the joycon giving me wheel controls, i want to set up all the buttons as short presses and long presses. IE short press source switches between Tune in and google music but a long press would open voice command so i can dial/nav/change music etc

speaking of which, is this for the nav controller for the OEM Nav system? this is between the shifter and cigarette lighter.
if so, i may by the controller (found online for $70) and reprogram those buttons too which will essentially become an iDrive controller

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2017.26.35.jpg

This weekend i'm going to kingston for homecoming but i'm hoping to have much of it done before then. More pictures will come as the build progresses.

If i can modulize this easily, my wife may let me do it to her Gen 2, but i'd probably make it simpler/cheaper and just move the stereo and run off AUX

Excelent project. Thanks for sharing!

This is great... Can't wait to see the finish... I also have nexus 7, which I barely use these days... Your project might make me to do it....lol

Wow ... I can't wait to see the final result :D:D

dropbox is blocked at work so my pictures in the first post don't show up to me, and i realize that may be an issue for some people. I'll be using imageshack now.

So i've been pretty slacking the last week. Since most of our house is still in boxes i've had to divide time between this and unpacking. I basically pulled out the centre console and glovebox and the seat to make lots of room to work with.

http://imageshack.us/a/img818/2784/xuec.jpg

the amp will be under the seat. I need all my space in my trunk and regularly flip seats up and down. On the plus side, no one will be kicking it from behind for a long time since my son's car seat is behind the passenger
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/6210/gtvl.jpg

I did a test fit of placing the tablet in the dash. I was worried about having to make a custom bracket to attach the Plexiglas to the car then balancing the tablet off that. I didn't realize until after the Metra kit came in that unlike the Subaru that i linked in the first post, the double din brackets don't mount to the car but to the head-unit and then it just hangs and balances on the Metra face plate.

But because it fits snugly between the lower clips of the Metra i'll just have to make the Plexiglas box but flush from the back to where the tablet is so it won't wobble back and forth and now i won't have to worry about fastening to the face plate

When i placed the face plate over top it was easy to remove and re add. So once the magnets arrive i should be good to have an easy accessible tablet for servicing and whatnot
http://imageshack.us/a/img266/4788/nnk4.jpg


I soldered up my harness adapter to the Buck converter and the speaker wires. I plugged the harness into the factory plug so i can test out my tasker profile and make sure everything was powered. As soon as I keyed on, the tablet booted up (well woke up from deep sleep), google music started and played and looking at my hub, the flash drive was powered and mounted and the UCA222 was powering on.

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/2731/bvnz.jpg

Next thing on the list was to power and ground the amp.
http://imageshack.us/a/img841/1507/xl33.jpg

I went along the back of the engine bay and tucked it behind the firewall padding. I poked a hole in the wire loom grommet that's behind the glovebox. Here it is in it's casing above the larger centered bundle of wires
http://imageshack.us/a/img689/4143/rsk7.jpg

And out the other side.
http://imageshack.us/a/img401/5610/hxpo.jpg

From here it was just tucking it along the back then down to the side to the right kicker panel. I pulled up the sill plate to have some play with the carpet and i fed it out the seat mount point and made a small cut behind so it'll fall below the seat and not be at risk for pinching.
http://imageshack.us/a/img593/2964/ji6o.jpg

For grounding, I removed the paint around the front seat rail mount and am grounding it at that bolt. I also went through the carpet at the hump to let me come in to the seat point from the side. Also helps keep the distance from the power.

As far as amp mounting goes, i didn't want to block up the vents and also wanted to make sure that it's protected from water, so I put a couple pieces of wood under the carpet then a couple more above to boost it, and then the board the amp is mounted to and screwed the whole thing together. I believe it was 3/4" maple i had laying around. so 2 1/4" thick total, which allowed me to clear the vents and keep it dry if somehow someone dropped a bucket of water in the back and it filled up. Although i'm probably going to buy the weathertech set front and back (it's only $180 down in america, free shipping too)

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/6927/y515.jpg

unfortunately once i hooked up the amp it was late and my wife made me come inside. Today I will be connecting the speaker wires to the amp and make sure it works. Once i'm sure it's working, I can run the wires down the centre console and will pop out near the hand brake. Ideally I'll be able to put everything back together (save behind the tablet) tonight... at least i want my glove box, shift boot, cupholder and seat back. with the tablet staying on it's own i can do the plexiglas box tomorrow or something.

One change i may do is instead of tucking everything in the dash behind the tablet is that given the Hub USB cord is so long, i may just run the cord for between the hub and OTG cable to the arm console. This will give lots more breathing room to everything in the dash. 75% of teh space taken up is all the bundled cables and wires. I don't' need 20' of RCA or 6' of USB. Also, this way i can have the hub accessible so anyone can drop in a flash drive when they want, and also with the USB dac there, i have that extra volume control. I never use that space anyways, just the top lid. i installed a couple more ports for charging phones but other wise it's always empty). This will also allow me to use much shorter RCA cables because the DAC will be like 10" from the amp.

So aside from testing the amp and tucking everything away, there's only a few things left

-The Joycon for SWC. I haven't had time to start learning that. i think once i get the hardware stuff done, i can sit on the couch with a laptop and poke away at it. My wife moved my computer and desk into the basement from the living room over the weekend. It's unfinished, so who wants to sit there at night alone. :blush

-Make and install the box for the tablet to sit on. I may have to do this on the weekend when i go back to canada. When i moved to Michigan, i left my table saw at home. But it may melt it so I might use my dad's band saw.

-I need to crop and tweak the wallpaper since i turned tablet UI off. It's handing in landscape, but i like having the pull down tiles on the normal mode. Also, i hate that in portrait mode, the play and next track button the nav bar are under the clock/settings section, so if you press that you've got a 50/50 shot of playing music or opening your settings and notifications. And i can't tasker that because it requires a reboot to change back and forth, so that's a pain.

-set up my NFC tag for my phone. although given the limited storage on a tag, i may have to use the tag to just trigger a tasker profile on my phone


If there's something I should be aware of or missed as far as the amp/audio things are concerned, please point them out as I've never actually done audio work before, i've just read lots of threads and am winging it. Also if there's any questions/comments about any of the other stuff, let me know, maybe i can clear it up or help if you're doing something similar or thinking of it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DDUKI

This is great... Can't wait to see the finish... I also have nexus 7, which I barely use these days... Your project might make me to do it....lol

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When i pulled my headunit out, i noticed i had RCAs in. If i wanted to keep it simple and cheap, i would have just run a DAC to my head unit and then i'd be done, because i'm ok with the stock speakers and sound. Then you could always push a head unit back and put the tablet infront of it or put the head unit in the glove box. If you do it that way, and you already have an aftermarket head unit, you could do the whole thing for $50

So I hooked everything up and did a full test and it didn't work at first. The amp wouldn't turn on. Checked with a multimeter and amp was getting power, but the remote wire wasn't getting any power and triggering the amp. Checked my harness for the remote wire and it turns out that on the harness connector coming from the car, that wire doesn't exist. Nothing goes to that pin. Also, on the Metra Harness, you don't get the 2 leads required for SWC (data1 and data2), but i'll get to that in a bit.

I popped the remote pin out of the harness and stuck it (temporarily) to the power wire off the plug the cigarette lighter connects to and turned it on.

SUCCESS!!! Tablet came on, google music opened, music started playing, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS came on and it sounded good out the speakers. Well, just the front two, i'm going to have to get some RCA Y's to get all four going, but that's semantics, it worked.

I proceeded to tinker with the amp settings so i don't have to touch it when the seat goes back in and began tucking in the wires and putting the center back together. I bundled the speaker wires and remote wire and fed them through the center down to the amp and taped them off.
http://imageshack.us/a/img801/7122/hvs7.jpg
Question: Should I separate the remote wire and run it through the glove box and along the amp power? or is it ok to run with the speaker wire? I think i heard some whine, but only when nothing was playing.
http://imageshack.us/a/img826/8896/leys.jpg

Now onto the Joycon. As i mentioned, there were two missing wires on the harness for SWC, but luckily, there are a couple extra wires that i didn't' need; orange (illumination) and blue/white (can't remember) so i decided to use those for the steering wheel wires. I popped out the pins and moved them to make data 1 and 2.
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/6282/osfl.jpg

I was going to use the extra unused orange, but i broke it taking it out so I took the blue from my remote wire since there's no harness remote and i'll have to trigger elsewhere.
NOTE: I messed up and switched the black and white wires for the Joycon... so rather than resolder, i just popped the pins and swapped spots. This pic shows them backwards, i swapped it when i got to the car where i noticed it
http://imageshack.us/a/img4/7574/qe6j.jpg


Then i decided to tie in the remote wire to the IGN power that is turning on the buck converter when the car turns on.

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/5097/qof4.jpg

After i did that i hooked up the Joycon up to my laptop and started to set it up. It's actually really easy if you just want basic function. You basically autodetect and press all the buttons so it can record them then you just drag and drop each button box to whatever you want to set it to; volume up/down, seek, mute etc... Once It's all nice and finished, i'll experiment with long presses for secondary commands; seek to fast forward/rewind.

I went to hook it up to the USB hub in the car and now nothing works. When i plug in the tablet and turn the car on, the tablet isn't charging and it's not able to provide enough power to the hub. I found that after cutting the remote wire off the power source splice, everything worked again, tablet was charging, DAC powered up, steering wheel controls worked. I put headphones into the DAC to verify it was working since the amp wasn't powered. I didn't realize the amp's remote wire would take everything, i thought the remote line was more of toggle just needing a quick bit of power to turn on and not continuously needing power to it. So I'll need to run the remote wires to elsewhere. Probably just come off the cigarette power since it's only powered when the car's on.

Once i do that tonight, all that's left is the rat's nest behind the tablet and actually making the dummy din box...
http://imageshack.us/a/img12/2489/hdmk.jpg

My magnets haven't come in yet so it wont' be completely done, though i guess i can use velcro in the meantime. Also, i'm still trying to decide if i want to house everything there or put the hub and dac in the arm rest console. if i did, it'd be easier to swap in flash drives or have an extra master volume from the dac.
Question the second: Is it better to have a long USB cable and really short RCA's or would it be better to have a nice short USB cable and longer RCAs?

I may get one of those RCA in line dials to mount
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A24SNXJMOW06KM

Looks amazing.. I'm going to be doing the same thing.. going with the double Din kit for the nexus and moving my Single din bluetooth JVC unit to my glove box as my amp. as I can control the master volume from my steering wheel controls. so I don't neet access to my JVC unit.
Just waiting for my double din to come in.. been doing some testing images below. this is just my test temporary test setup. also i'm having a issue with the tablet not charging fast enough I have it plugged into a usb port that says its 2amp but I don't think it is.

http://imageshack.us/a/img543/1388/aeuu.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img692/159/om90.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img818/4638/t5yv.jpg

Or I was thinking of putting my head unit lower like this person has done.. and just relocate my airbag light and power port to the ash tray area.
http://imageshack.us/a/img811/635/31cm.jpg

I like that lower bit, but i don't want to give up the lighter there and the little storage tray.

My buck converter is supposed to put out 3A, but even with fast mode charging on for Timur's USB rom, i'm still loosing 6% in 30 minutes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ryan2.3

I like that lower bit, but i don't want to give up the lighter there and the little storage tray.

My buck converter is supposed to put out 3A, but even with fast mode charging on for Timur's USB rom, i'm still loosing 6% in 30 minutes.

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So what are you doing to keep your charge up so the tablet does not die? i'm looking for a solution to this as mine is acting the same way.. wondering if its my USB charger...Because I know it can be done as the stock AC charger will charge it fast with the screen on at full brightness

Also I have my Tablet turn off after 15min if no USB Power is detected.. I modified the boot-loader so that the tablet will turn on once its see a charging source (boot on power source)

To shut down after 15min of no power detected I use the app tasker and have it setup like so.

On Condition no USB power then (my trigger for the task)
Wait 15min
Condition no USB power Then Shutdown.
Condition USB power then end task.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tric

So what are you doing to keep your charge up so the tablet does not die? i'm looking for a solution to this as mine is acting the same way.. wondering if its my USB charger...Because I know it can be done as the stock AC charger will charge it fast with the screen on at full brightness

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I still haven't had time to make the double din analog, so the tablet sit's wedged between the lower two clip holes.
http://imageshack.us/a/img266/4788/nnk4.jpg
Because of this, i can easily remove the tablet, just pull out the OTG cable and take it with me. I can charge it inside at work if i need to.

I just did a test today. I didn't use TBT Nav going to work and didn't bother tethering the tablet to my phone. I was just playing music off the flash drive and the tablet stayed at 100% the entire time. I think there's other background stuff going on with other apps when i have data going, so i'm going to try disabling all background data usage as well as disabling autosync for all the accounts (google, fb, dropbox etc) and see if the power will be enough

Quote:

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Also I have my Tablet turn off after 15min if no USB Power is detected.. I modified the boot-loader so that the tablet will turn on once its see a charging source (boot on power source)

To shut down after 15min of no power detected I use the app tasker and have it setup like so.

On Condition no USB power then (my trigger for the task)
Wait 15min
Condition no USB power Then Shutdown.
Condition USB power then end task.

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I haven't set up tasker yet because aside from automatically playing music when i turn the car on, just enabling Fixed Install mode in the USB Host does everything i need; pause music, put into airplane mode, then put into deep sleep standby.

when i turn on, because i have the USB disk lock on i can hit play as soon as the screen comes on and the music picks up where it left off. Once i get my power issue solved i'll probably set tasker to play when it finds power.

I've been pretty negligent here, but since i've received quite a few questions about this, i may as well update it.

The link i posted in the first post, post 18 gives a dropbox link at the bottom with all the necessary files to make your own display, like mine; PSDs, icons, mockups, etc

http://www.mp3car.com/show-off-your-...ml#post1485215

On top of those, here are my additional ones that came up while i was making my specific to the mazda. These included some potential mock ups and variations along with the PSD to the for the mazda. Any altering you want to do, you'll still have to download the other link, because i didn't' include icons and duplicate files.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6cht6teht8...da%20Addon.zip

The way this was done was installing ADW launcher, UCCW and desktop visualizer. ADW let me change the rows and columns as well as give me some gestures, though you could also use GMD gesture control to get more gestures.
Once you have those installed, and created and set your wallpaper, you are going to add a new desktop visualizer icon, 1x1 (you can resize later)
when you configure it, you'll set the transparent.png, so you get an invisible icon and you'll set it to an app. After you're finished it, you'll resize and drag it to where you want. repeat for the rest of your apps. The weather and time was done with UCCW, the config file is in the download link. You can then tweak as you wish. I removed the messages and whatnot at the bottom leaving only weather and time.

That's about it as far as my desktop goes.

As for the build itself, i encountered some issues down the way and had to tweak the original design

I bought a ground loop isolator for the alternator whine and feedback and it worked perfectly, didn't even need to ground the brown wires, there's no more noise.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The buck converter wasn't cutting it and was under powered. I didn't want to spend the $60 some people were for their power supply's, so after testing my phone charger and finding it working fine, i just tapped in an additional cigarette port and tucked the phone charger behind the tablet. This phone charger draws 2.1A, so it's great for a tablet and with Fast Charge on Timur's USB rom enabled it keeps things powered.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190685457733...84.m1423.l2649

I've added gestures so i dont' have to take my eyes off the road. If i swipe down anywhere it launched the microphone and i can say a voice command, like "navigate home" or whatever. I still have to map the voice command app to my steering wheel, probably the "mode" button since there's no longer other sources.

I'll probably take a couple pictures and a video, and in the video include a demo as well as adding the widgets or something.

This is my current home screen. I got rid of the black and red checkered for alternating leather, and also rearranged the icons. The whole left column is stuff i can touch and use, the right side is for things i don't use often if at all, they're for my passenger. IE my wife and son can watch a movie on netflix or she can browse the internet, etc. I've got tasker set up, so when power comes on and a drive connects, to wait a few seconds then hit play. This makes sure the music starts up AFTER the drive is read. Without the delay, I was getting a file not found error because it didn't find the music quick enough.


Yes that's the current temperature here in michigan in C... i wont' adopt F while i'm down here
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/689/3zvo.png


That's about it for now. If anyone else has any questions let me know, as some of the pms i get ask the same thing, not that i'm complaining.

If you're having issues with this software, the ROM thread http://rootzwiki.com/topic/37755-tim...d-21-aug-2013/ is really helpful. Even though development stopped, lots of users are still supported each others problems

Hopefully this helps anyone who is doing their build and is either lurking or stumbles across this googling nexus 7 dash installs for their own build.

This is the best way i've found to get a good voice command system going, rounding this off to a pretty nice infotainment system


My 04 wheel has Volume Up/Down, Seek Up/Down, Mode, Mute. Since there's no other sources (CD,AM/FM) i wanted to use Mode to open up Google voice search so i can press the button then just "navigate home" or "play album ___".
However, Joycon explorer doesn't have a way to launch apps to mappings for android. I emailed the creator and he said he's working on an android app/interface. Therefore, the only way to do something like this would be to set the button as a keyboard combination (like Alt + 1 or something), then use the External keyboard helper app to map that combo to launch an app.
The problem though is it takes away your onscreen keyboard and you can't actually set to voice search. (voice search is basically the embedded voice prompt that comes up when you tap the microphone within google now/search.
So the best you can do taking this route is set the keyboard shortcut to launch Google Now then you'd have to say "ok google" to open up voice search then you'd have to say your command. Manageable, but could be better.

I use ADW launcher and in the settings is gestures and home binding. I changed the Home button binding to open app > voice search. If you push home and you're not on the home screen it'll go to the home screen like normal as you'd expect. If you push it while you're already on the home screen it'll launch voice search. So if i push it twice while in navigation for example, i get a voice search prompt. much better since if i'm not using Turn By Turn, i'm on the home screen.
Once you bind voice search to the home button go into joycon explorer and map to the picture of a globe. It's internet browser for Windows, but Home button for android.

From there i got a bit fancy. With the bezel on the tablet the volume buttons and power are inaccessible. So i mapped the long press of the mode button to be power with a half second threshold. if i push it for a half second and release the screen turns off, pressing the mode button again turns it on.. if i push and hold for longer, it's the same as pushing and holding the power button and you get the restart, shutdown expanded desktop etc menu. The reason i wanted this was if my tablet ever locked up and froze, i can push and hold Vol down and power to do a reset. Also if i'm not using nav and just want the screen off i can black it out.

Vol up - volume up
Vol down - volume down
Seek Up - seek up
Seek Down - seek down
Mode - short press: voice search (home then voice search if not on homescreen)
- long press: power button
Mute - short press: <it's a float.. i haven't decided what else i want to be able to launch>
- long press: mute

TL;DR.. If you want voice commands, remapping your home button binding through launcher settings is easier than installing an app that doesn't even do it perfectly.

Still need to find time to do a nice thorough demo video

This I just awesome ryan2.3. You have do some pretty great work on making this work very very smooth and OEM like.

If you are looking for something to save you power you can use an app called "Macrodroid".
It allows you to create a custom set up for when the tablet receives power, no power or anything really.
In my car I have my Nexus 7, and when I turn on the car Macrodroid automatically turns on location services, puts the brightness on auto, puts the volume on full. When I turn the car off it shuts down every app, turns of all services and turns the screen off.I find that the battery is usually full and only really drops down when it is really cold out.

@ryan2.3 @Tric

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tric

So what are you doing to keep your charge up so the tablet does not die? i'm looking for a solution to this as mine is acting the same way.. wondering if its my USB charger...Because I know it can be done as the stock AC charger will charge it fast with the screen on at full brightness

Also I have my Tablet turn off after 15min if no USB Power is detected.. I modified the boot-loader so that the tablet will turn on once its see a charging source (boot on power source)

To shut down after 15min of no power detected I use the app tasker and have it setup like so.

On Condition no USB power then (my trigger for the task)
Wait 15min
Condition no USB power Then Shutdown.
Condition USB power then end task.

---

An easy way to save battery life is to use an app called Macrodroid. I use it for my Nexus 7 in my Mazda 3 and it works great. You can set it to do whatever you want, an example would be: When the tablet sees power it will automatically turn on you music app, GPS, Bluetooth whatever you want, and when you turn off the car it will turn whatever you want on the tablet off. I have been using it without any issues and I never find my tablet to be low on battery unless it its freezing out.
http://s4.postimg.org/q9asetz0t/Scre...6_11_13_35.pnghttp://s4.postimg.org/4o5pr82a5/Scre...6_11_13_40.pnghttp://s4.postimg.org/wqtoyc9e5/Scre...6_11_13_44.pnghttp://s4.postimg.org/r1dge137x/Scre...6_11_13_49.png

amazing write-up

I had a CarPC in my old saturn. It was a cool experience but so buggy, the whole tablet idea in a car seems so much simpler. My Eonon is great, but is leaving me with a lot to be desired. May try this at one point, we shall see.

Look forward to seeing the compete project!

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Originally Posted by zakman

This I just awesome ryan2.3. You have do some pretty great work on making this work very very smooth and OEM like.

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Thanks. There's a few fine details left to take care but hoping to get on them soon

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Originally Posted by Bitscape

An easy way to save battery life is to use an app called Macrodroid. I use it for my Nexus 7 in my Mazda 3 and it works great. You can set it to do whatever you want, an example would be: When the tablet sees power it will automatically turn on you music app, GPS, Bluetooth whatever you want, and when you turn off the car it will turn whatever you want on the tablet off. I have been using it without any issues and I never find my tablet to be low on battery unless it its freezing out.
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I'll have to check this out. it was pretty cold last night, and i lost 40% overnight. I think if it's really bad like that, i'll just keep bringing it into the house. Do you have any build pictures of your setup?

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Originally Posted by vip3r87

amazing write-up

I had a CarPC in my old saturn. It was a cool experience but so buggy, the whole tablet idea in a car seems so much simpler. My Eonon is great, but is leaving me with a lot to be desired. May try this at one point, we shall see.

Look forward to seeing the compete project!

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Thanks. it's been pretty busy at work so i haven't had time to do a video of everything, also trying to iron out the final wrinkles


I went to pittsburgh this weekend, so had a 10 hour round trip and this performed flawlessly. Because of my wheel mappings, i was able to turn the screen off from the wheel which not only made it not as bright at night, but it helped charge a little faster. I didn't need nav open since i knew where we were going. Voice controls were working awesome.

Have you rooted the tablet and installed a different kernel yet ryan2.3? I haven't installed mine in the speed 6 yet because of the cold weather but I have done everything else so I'm ready in the spring. One thing I've done was experiment with airplane mode for battery life and I found that after I rooted the tablet and installed the Franco kernel my standby battery life almost doubled. I'm still trying to find a kernel that supports fast charge but can't seem to find one.

My build isn't anything special at all, I tore apart my dash and added the AUX in cable, then I made a custom mount out of steel. The picture doesn't really do it any justice cause it looks crooked lol, but in person its straight. It was easy for me to make, looks fairly clean and it didn't require me to mount or drill anything, I added rubber to the thumbscrews in the sides and it just stays in place without any issues.

There is a lot of functionality with it, i use Navfree which is a free gps app and it works great without any issues, whenever I bring it into the house it updates the maps. I also have Torque pro which is pretty cool and for music I use Power Amp, by far the best app, all f the music is laid out nicely and easy to use, it even looks extremely clean.

http://s29.postimg.org/r5ulnd0sn/20140217_114523.jpg

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Originally Posted by zakman

Have you rooted the tablet and installed a different kernel yet ryan2.3? I haven't installed mine in the speed 6 yet because of the cold weather but I have done everything else so I'm ready in the spring. One thing I've done was experiment with airplane mode for battery life and I found that after I rooted the tablet and installed the Franco kernel my standby battery life almost doubled. I'm still trying to find a kernel that supports fast charge but can't seem to find one.

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it's rooted. I'm running Timur's USB rom. It has lots of features built in that makes it ideal for fixed installs in vehicles. When the car turns off and theres no power to the tablet, it turns off wifi, bluetooth etc then puts it into airplane mode then a deep sleep. When it isn't crazy cold, i may lose 1% overnight.

It supports fast charge, OTG while charging and more. I like what it has to offer in terms of customization. Definitely worth checking out

Timur's USB Rom
http://mehrvarz.github.io/nexus-7-usbrom/

He's no longer developing for it, but he is doing a kernel for the Gen2 Nexus 7's. However the thread for it on rootzwiki is very active in terms of getting support and help from other users
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/37755-timurs-kernel-usb-rom/

+1 for Poweramp!

quick question regarding the Timur's Kernel ryan2.3
are you running it with android 4.4.x or with 4.2.x ?
everything i find says it is compatible with 4.2.x. and my nexus has 4.4.2 right now.

I'm not using just the kernel; I'm using the OS. It's 4.2.2