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An android tablet ia a logical choice for a car PC. The device offers additional features beyond regular car stereos. While many car stereos have GPS, the android device offers a more intelligent GPS. It has all of your google contacts addresses already in the GPS, it has your calendar with events and their locations, Chrome to phone can automatically send directions from your computer to your car. The device can store music, use internet radio, or play music using a cloud player such as Amazon cloud. These are features not available on even the most high end luxury cars.
I recommend choosing a tablet that already has a car dock. This dock can be easily modified to be permanently installed where a double din CD player would normally go. Also, with a car dock, the device will be easily removable so you can prevent theft and use the tablet elsewhere.
Tools:
Wire Strippers/Crimpers
Soldering Iron (Recommended)
Screw Drivers
Drill
Dremel with Cutting Blades
Equipment:
Tablet with Car Dock ( I chose Samsung Galaxy Tab 7+)
1/4" Sheet Lexan (Approx 10"x6")
Paint
1-1/4" Hole Saw
3/8" Drill Bit
Amplifier
Car Audio Adapter
Spade Plugs
Wire - Heavy Gauge to Power Amp
Wire - Medium Gauge for Speaker Signals
Grommets
Electrical Tape
Scotch Tape
I recommend choosing a tablet that already has a car dock. This dock can be easily modified to be permanently installed where a double din CD player would normally go. Also, with a car dock, the device will be easily removable so you can prevent theft and use the tablet elsewhere.
Tools:
Wire Strippers/Crimpers
Soldering Iron (Recommended)
Screw Drivers
Drill
Dremel with Cutting Blades
Equipment:
Tablet with Car Dock ( I chose Samsung Galaxy Tab 7+)
1/4" Sheet Lexan (Approx 10"x6")
Paint
1-1/4" Hole Saw
3/8" Drill Bit
Amplifier
Car Audio Adapter
Spade Plugs
Wire - Heavy Gauge to Power Amp
Wire - Medium Gauge for Speaker Signals
Grommets
Electrical Tape
Scotch Tape
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Signing UpStep 1The Audio
Replacing the stock stereo unit with a android tablet requires an external amplifier for the sound to play through the speakers. I choose a 4 channel amplifier. Four channel because my car has four speakers. I have the amplifier mounted under my passengers side seat, but the amp could be mounted just about anywhere. I chose just about the cheapest amp I could find. I don't listen to much music, mostly audio books and podcasts, so I was not too concerned with sound quality. I do listen to music using this amp and it sounds good enough for my ears.
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You see, all cars from 1996 and later have a standard port underneath the driver's dash that allows for auto shops to run diagnostics on cars and to even set some variables. One of these variables is the state of the "engine light", which is how shops tun it off when their work is complete. Other information available ranges from fuel consumption to o2 sensor readings, practically all of the data that the car's computer has on hand, including those that you mentioned. Sadly, one of thee ones commonly missing is oil pressure.
Anyways, this port can be connected to by an aftermarket reader that uses a decoding chip (one of the most popular is called "ELM 327"). This reader may be connected to your android, ios, or other device, granted that it has the software to read the incoming data. There are many bits of software out there for reading OBD data, my favorite is "Torque" on the android market.
As for connectivity, you could use tethered or wireless. Wireless would be in the form of a wifi hotspot connection or a bluetooth connection. I curently use a wifi OBD-II adapter in my own car with the Torque application. This adapter only cost $25 on Amazon and seems to work perfectly for me (though there seem to be many cheap brand versions that do not work well). I believe that Android supports all communication formats, while iOS devices do not support the data transfer channels in a bluetooth connection.
There's a lot of info that I have not put in here, but I hope this answers your questions. On a side note, my car did not come with an mpg calculator, but Torque works wonderfully at calculating instantaneous, average, and trip mpg.
Just one thingie... when replacing the car stereo, you use a harness to connect to the speakers... why not use a harness to get the (fused) stereo's 12v to power the amp and tablet ?
Kevin
You can get round it by wiring it in so that it cannot function whilst the engine is running.
Saw this regarding legaility in the UK...
http://www.in-carpc.co.uk/legislation.htm
"
Ensuring that the driver is not distracted
Section 109 of the Road Traffic Construction and Use Regulations clearly states what information can legally be displayed on a screen that is within the driver’s field of vision in a moving vehicle. All our fully installed systems apart from the Basic and Lite packages include the Centrafuse software interface, which provides a touchscreen friendly user interface. Centrafuse comprises many modules that perform different functions, examples of which are the navigation module, the hands-free phone module and the DVD player. When the vehicle starts moving, any modules that could cause distracting or illegal information to be displayed on the driver’s screen are automatically disabled. Using the examples above, the DVD module would be disabled but the navigation and hands-free modules would not, as these are both legitimate uses of a driver-visible display.
In addition, Centrafuse is automatically activated whenever the vehicle starts moving, so that it completely blocks the Windows desktop and any other running programs, and can only be minimised again when the vehicle is stationary.
For fully installed systems that do not include Centrafuse we can use other means to ensure that the system remains completely legal.
"
So it looks like centrafuse could be your friend here ... see http://www.centrafuse.com ... and they have a bunch of apps already available to look at car diagnostics etc
This is the law
"
109.—(1) No person shall drive, or cause or permit to be driven, a motor vehicle on a road, if the driver is in such a position as to be able to see, whether directly or by reflection, a television receiving apparatus or other cinematographic apparatus used to display anything other than information—
(a)
about the state of the vehicle or its equipment;
(b)
about the location of the vehicle and the road on which it is located;
(c)
to assist the driver to see the road adjacent to the vehicle; or
(d)
to assist the driver to reach his destination.
(2) In this regulation “television receiving apparatus” means any cathode ray tube carried on a vehicle and on which there can be displayed an image derived from a television broadcast, a recording or a camera or computer.
"
Which means that you could not use it to change your music selection while driving ... but you can use it for a sat nav and to show images from a rear view camera
also you could do the same to the amp but use a higher value capacitor, like 5000uF? Again, it's not critical
also, use shielded wire for any audio signals
I can see how the ground loop isolator could help, and my search for "car stereo noise filter" yielded some of those, too.
The noise could be - at least in part - due to noise being picked up because of poor shielding on the signal (not power) wiring. It might actually be worth getting a higher-quality interconnect, such as one from Monster. One at least hopes these would be better shielded, and less noise prone.
Don't put any caps on your signal cable - it will serve only to distort the sound.
I used to connect my PocketPC's power adapter to a small filter-like device, which was between the car battery and the power adapter. This device came along with my old Car CD Player.
Worked great. Whine without it, and noise free with it :)
The thing that is mentally twisting me up right now is the upcoming availability of the "New IPAD" (IPAD 3). Short of finding a comparable car dock for the thing, the New IPAD appears to have incredible advantages over the upcoming Samsung, (at least when using it outside of the vehicle), but the fact that it is an IOS system and not Android is concerning - especially when considering linking to my 2000 F350 SD, (7.3L Diesel) OBDII vehicle's computer diagnostic system.
1. Will I have trouble finding a system comparable to the kiwi (http://www.plxkiwi.com/kiwibluetooth/buynow_torque.html) introduced below, which appeals greatly to me as I see it here? Other alternatives?
2. Are there other drawbacks to Apple's IOS rather than Android for this application?
What are all of your thoughts as the New IPAD really appeals to me and purchasing both tablets is just ridiculous?
2. Android has Google Navigation integrated into the os. When an address is in an email, contact , or calendar event it can be clicked and brought up in Google Navigation. This is very nice and quick. The other ability of Android is background apps. I can listen to a podcast, audiobook, or music with Google Navigation in the foreground. When the app wants to tell me to turn it mutes the background audio. I can also do this with the audio app in the foreground and the GPS will still mute the music. I don't know how well this works on iOs.
There is virtually no support for Android tablets. Samsung releases new tablets faster than they can support them. The tablet I have shuts off randomly, I can't write to the SD card without rooting it, and the wifi won't work with my router. The tablet I have is riddled with problems and Samsung's solution is to release more tablets. Honeycomb is a mess. Google knows it and that is why they won't release the source code. Android developers have given up and are waiting on ICS. Android tablets are not yet ready for prime time. Because a tablet's input and options are so simplified, it is imperative tablets work right all the time. That is what an iPad is good at. However, the Samsung is the right size, has Google Navigation, and Samsung makes a car dock; the software for it is just buggy and not yet ready. It is really up to what you value more.
http://www.plxkiwi.com/kiwibluetooth/buynow_torque.html to the over all project so you could also monitor the vehicle's performance itself rather than it just being for navigation and Mulit-media playback
http://www.amazon.com/Stinger-SGN20-Ground-Loop-Isolator/dp/B002ZRQ3PW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330990473&sr=8-2
If that is ground then it doesn't look like a good choice for location, try to move it to a location with bare metal on the body of the car. A great place to ground would be the bolts holding the seats in place. Be sure to sand down any paint for the connection. Also, try to keep grounding wires as short as possible on a low resistance (thicker, copper) wire. If you do this you can likely revert back to using a wired connection for audio instead of bluetooth and you can also eliminate the ground loop isolator.
The wired connection I have laid out in the wiring diagram works fine without any noise. The only time I got noise was trying to use the cheap cable in the last step.
The tablet isnt powered by the car so there's no need for grounding. It can charge one of two ways: through the cord that connects the rca's he has or through a usb cigarette adapter that can plug in. Because the cigarette lighter is grounded, theres no need to ground the tablet.
I have this same set up in my 03 Infiniti G35 and I've tested bluetooth sound and others. You're right, the best possible quality comes from a direct wired connection.
One thing that's helped me with the volume of it is a remote level control. I got one for like $8 and I'm able to turn the volume up higher than what the tablet allows.