Double Din Friendly Tablet

As for the double din dimension issue, it seems the best idea is to have the tablet simply mounted externally, possibly on a bracket fastened to a blank double din faceplate. Sort of like those universal car mounts for mobile phones/devices. It could even be created yourself as I'm sure there's double din blanks made for every car and brackets, paint and glue/screws can be had at an hardware or electronic store. This also allows you to remove the tablet easily (for security reasons) when you leave your vehicle.

But if you really want it to be flushed with the car's dash then you're probably looking at taking apart that pretty little tablet, cutting the glass' thick bezel off, trimming the tablet's backplate a bit, lining up the glass to the tablet's screen and stuffing it all into the dash. Please record it all if you do decide to do this!

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Originally Posted by DiGiTY

As for the double din dimension issue, it seems the best idea is to have the tablet simply mounted externally, possibly on a bracket fastened to a blank double din faceplate. Sort of like those universal car mounts for mobile phones/devices. It could even be created yourself as I'm sure there's double din blanks made for every car and brackets, paint and glue/screws can be had at an hardware or electronic store. This also allows you to remove the tablet easily (for security reasons) when you leave your vehicle.

But if you really want it to be flushed with the car's dash then you're probably looking at taking apart that pretty little tablet, cutting the glass' thick bezel off, trimming the tablet's backplate a bit, lining up the glass to the tablet's screen and stuffing it all into the dash. Please record it all if you do decide to do this!

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Yeah that's a slippery slope to climb, and one that most people wouldn't choose to go. They'd much rather modify their own bezel, as that replacement cost is ~$150 should they completely destroy the thing.

RH brought up a good point though -- many vehicles now are being produced with custom looks right out of the factory. They're foregoing the ease of a bolt-in double din solution with the appearance of a custom OEM product. While I can certainly appreciate both the aesthetics as well as the functionality, it increase the work that needs to be done on our end to make integrations look seamless.

Carputing is evolving just as any other technology evolves. If you've been part of a small tech startup you know all too well the difficulties of few trying to keep up with many. We're taking that to the extreme :lol:

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Originally Posted by DiGiTY

As for the double din dimension issue, it seems the best idea is to have the tablet simply mounted externally, possibly on a bracket fastened to a blank double din faceplate. Sort of like those universal car mounts for mobile phones/devices. It could even be created yourself as I'm sure there's double din blanks made for every car and brackets, paint and glue/screws can be had at an hardware or electronic store. This also allows you to remove the tablet easily (for security reasons) when you leave your vehicle.

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Hmmm....that just deafeats the whole purpose of an OEM install/look. IMO that's commiting a crime against any car's interior. I just hate to see these tye of mounts/solutions. It has to look like it at least quasi belongs. I'm really not one of those interested in removing the tablet everytime I get out the car. If you make it easy for remove and it really looks like it doesn't belong that's more of a theft risk (to me) than just doing a proper install. Let's be realistic, there's going to be times when even with the cop-looking install you described, the tablet would have to be left in the car. I'm mean if you are making a quick stop... are you going to disconnect everything pack it up and reconnect when you jump back in?

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Originally Posted by DiGiTY

But if you really want it to be flushed with the car's dash then you're probably looking at taking apart that pretty little tablet, cutting the glass' thick bezel off, trimming the tablet's backplate a bit, lining up the glass to the tablet's screen and stuffing it all into the dash. Please record it all if you do decide to do this!

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Hmmm... no comment. :lol:

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Originally Posted by jr4284

RH brought up a good point though -- many vehicles now are being produced with custom looks right out of the factory. They're foregoing the ease of a bolt-in double din solution with the appearance of a custom OEM product.

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I know many of these new cars are being produced that way but there's still a large amount of cars circulating that still have double din cavities, so the standard is not yet irrelevant. A good chunk of the members in this forum are basically doing double din installs. Not everyone has a new car... ya know. :tape:

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Originally Posted by DiGiTY

But if you really want it to be flushed with the car's dash then you're probably looking at taking apart that pretty little tablet, cutting the glass' thick bezel off, trimming the tablet's backplate a bit, lining up the glass to the tablet's screen and stuffing it all into the dash. Please record it all if you do decide to do this!

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What? I don't think you need to do all that at all! Why trimming the black plate? Cut glass? You can just hide it behind a custom made faceplate, many here did it that way. I mounted a Xenarc in my M35 without even opening the case, and it looked factory.

http://cdn-3-service.phanfare.com/im...92d3d4c6e888_1

http://cdn-3-service.phanfare.com/im...5e76364d30bb_1


Are you going to see this is not flush enough? Now I'm starting to think you have a particular car in mind - which is it? :)

What car is that flush? Most cars' screen are already recessed by 20mm or more (as above), if you add to that 2mm of a plastic faceplate on top of tablet how much of that is visible?


Another example: Here's the spot I'd like to fit a 7" tablet now, if I had one that could at least keep it from sleeping while being charged, and turned itself off (sleep) when the ign is off...It's not that difficult, and there's a lot of wiring behind this screen: power, vga, av, etc. I'd just need the charging cable and a slim maybe custom made audio cable with no plug, just wires and tape...or hide it all beside another faceplate.

I measure the opening, the Galaxy tab would fit it perfectly with room to spare. This unused carputer would go to the Sequoia and the poor Xenarc to a passenger headrest for the passengers to control 2nd zone.

http://cdn-2-service.phanfare.com/im...374f2e893a70_1

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Originally Posted by prodigalsun

I know many of these new cars are being produced that way but there's still a large amount of cars circulating that still have double din cavities, so the standard is not yet irrelevant. A good chunk of the members in this forum are basically doing double din installs. Not everyone has a new car... ya know. :tape:

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Very true, I was more pointing towards the whole idea of, "someone should come out w/ a double din adapter unit to mount product XYZ." There's still a market, but it's the legacy market. Aiming forward it will be a lot more difficult and very vehicle specific (at least if this trend continues).

That looks great! Unfortunately, like many, I don't have that luxury and real estate to do that kind of mod - I can't do that in any of my 3 cars. I'm stuck to the double din like most folks and like jr4284 said I'm hoping "someone come out w/ a double din adapter unit to mount product XYZ."

This thread is titled "Double Din Friendly Tablet", let's stay on topic folks

@RipplingHurst: was there originally a OEM display or placeholder for a display there (M35) and you simply swapped it out for the Xenarc 7 inch display? Or was some other dashboard thing there and you completely cut it out to make room for Xenarc 7 inch display?

There was another display there, a bit larger than the xenarc, no nav, just radio, a/c and other info. I relocated that to the center console.

ya, you're lucky

Ha! I might be lucky too - so I finally STFU and put my money where my mouth is, sized up my double din with a life size print out of the Galaxy Tab and the mofo barely, I really mean barely, fits.

I also noticed the bezel has the standard Android buttons (back, home, menu, search) so unfortunately the whole tablet has to be accessible (I don't believe in soft menu buttons in notification bar, especially with fullscreen apps). The front camera is also on the bezel but I imagine no one's going to use it anyway (unless Lookout adds support for taking photos with it in addition to scream alerts when lost/stolen).

And it looks like doubleTwist is the best option for car friendly music player. Big buttons, big text and simple yet nice looking user interface. Plus it has wireless syncing now - pull into the garage/driveway and just sync up.