Adding Android tablet to gen III

1morebike

Adventurer
I decided to start a kind of build thread on this. I will update it as I figure this all out. The plan so far.

I have a Bluetooth amp that I'm going to install in the place of the factory amp. My hope is this will connect to the tablet and I'll be able to delete the head unit completely. It is only a four channel amp but I'm ok with only the door speakers. The amp does have a line in so if the Bluetooth sounds like crap I can run a line in to it.

The tablet I'm attempting to use is a lg 8.3 I'm using this because it a tablet I happen to have. I already know a Nexus 7 would be easier in both installing and software.

As far as software I have already played with few things but automate dashboard is looking pretty promising. I have not got it running yet but will report when I do.

I'm still in the beginning stages and will keep this update as a go.
 

EyeInTheSky

Adventurer
Cool! If you have the infinity system remember that there is a factory woofer in the rear you will lose too. I'd suggest looking into OBDII readers and an app like Torque so you can get real time data on your vehicle
 

1morebike

Adventurer
Yeah losing the sub will be ok. My plan is to replace the door speakers and see how it goes. Totally going to ad a obdII reader I used to run a scan gauge in my land cruiser and it was awesome.
 

coffeegoat

Adventurer
Personally I'm going with a Joying (or similar) when I get the cash all put together. With more or less stock android you should be set to do most of the things you want to do, and while it's not quite a cool as a custom job, it'll certainly be easier to set up. I really want one for a backup camera and the ability to have life map data. For how inexpensive the pre-built units are I would have a hard time justifying yet another custom job on my rig...
 

1morebike

Adventurer
Building it is half the fun. Plus it will have ton more functions. I will say if anyone is going to attempt it a gen II Nexus 7 will make it a whole lot easier
 

1morebike

Adventurer
Man you guys really took the wind out of my sail on this. Also the tablet seems to eat data like no other even when I have mobile data off...turns out it won't really let me turn off mobile data.
 

plh

Explorer
LoL - just trying to keep you sane. Most likely I'll go with a Joying unit in the spring for the '05 and add a USB sim contraption with a Project fi data only plan (pay for what you use).
 

1morebike

Adventurer
I'm on project Fi and last night I tested out my Tasker profile that built that discounts everything when the tablet Is disconnected from power. Anyway it didn't disconnect movie data and in the background the CBS app was running so this morning when I woke up I had used over a gig a data. That sucked
 

plh

Explorer
fi -Same here. 1 day left in the month and I'm at 1.8 gig, amazing thing is that my 20 year old daughter is at 0.8 gig for the same period. This months charge for the 2 phones will be around $65. Coming from AT&T and $300 plus a month phone bills, this is great. I've used my fi phone (its actually a Moto X Pure) all over USA, boarder cities of Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Japan, So. Korea, China, Thailand. Couldn't be happier. In the past on my AT&T plan when foreign travel was heavy I've seen $900 phone bills on just my phone. A heavy international travel month for me is usually $80 for my fi phone and hotspot (Nexus 5P with fi data only sim) combined. App management is key.
 

EyeInTheSky

Adventurer
Man you guys really took the wind out of my sail on this. Also the tablet seems to eat data like no other even when I have mobile data off...turns out it won't really let me turn off mobile data.
Have you gone into the data section of your settings to see what apps are doing that? Also the "restrict background data" choice may help you out quite a bit.
 

1morebike

Adventurer
So test member two last night. When I went to bed I set the tablet as if the ignition was off. When I went to bed then battery was %66 and when woke it was %51 and that was 8 hours. So in theory I should've good with it in the car with the car off for few days before the battery dies. No it's testing to see how fast it recharges. It's plug into a 4.8 USB plug so we will see.
 

1morebike

Adventurer
All right. I spent some time over the last few and am happy to say I'm in the beta stage. Every thing is hooked and the software is pretty much set. I'm using a mount that slides into the CD player the holds the tablet. I don't want to cut my dash apart till I'm positive it's going to work. At this point the tablet is hooked up. It comes on as soon as I start the car shuts of when the key is turned off. The tablet is wired into the factory amp ( the Bluetooth amp would have made things alot harder and I would have lost the sub.) The amp powers on when the car comes on.
As for functions I have Google maps or Waze or pretty much what ever I want. I'm currently using Google maps because you can use the maps off line so I can save data. I'm using Google music because once again you can download radio stations and use them offline, plus I got three months free with project Fi. The phone part I'm still figuring out right now I can get calls on the tablet but it's through Google Hangouts and I will be using data for voice calls and that's not awesome but I'm sure I can figure out a better set up.

How I made it happen. For software I'm using automate, it's a great program and is pretty much identical to Android auto. It has its bugs but over all it pretty good. I'm also using tasker. I have it set to pretty much kill anything that will be drain on the battery when the car is shut off. Right now I lose about %10 percent of my battery every 8 hours when the car is off. Because I won't be able to access the volume buttons once it's in my dash I'm using a widget that lets me do the volume on the screen.

To make it all work I first installed a 4.8 v USB plug I used this one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01B...usb+outlet&dpPl=1&dpID=41k7JVZUlSL&ref=plSrch

The install was pretty easy but I did need to sand the opening in the dash a little to get it into the cigarette lighter hole. This video helped me figure out how to get the counsel apart. To make life easier keep the car off and move the shifter to drive and pull up the ebrake

https://youtu.be/-g75eQjmjXw


Next I pulled apart the dash removed the stereo following http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136852 thanks jahill15
Once the stereo was out I used the Mitah adapter to plug into the amp. This was pretty easy . Using the other part of the adapter I plugged into the stereo harness and connect the power from the amp to the ignition power for the stereo. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000...ah+adapter&dpPl=1&dpID=41SjdQ2Ss5L&ref=plSrch

Now getting from the amp plug to mini out was funny. I had to use two RCA y cords two male to male to male adapters and the RCA to mini cord. I included a pic of the cord for you.

After all this it was just plugging it in

59d7b5c5b629983c8bb09cdc31379dac.jpg


3eafaf9f4631fb42d02ad8ab41a063d7.jpg


Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
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