Nexus 7 Car Audio DIY
 

Ok, so I haven't started this yet because I'm still waiting on parts to ship, but I figured I would lay out my plan. The goal of this is to be cheap and usable. I'm going to keep the stock head unit and build a removable bracket to mount a Nexus 7 in front of it. This allows me to still use the bluetooth (for phone calls) and radio.

To mount the Nexus 7, I'm getting [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008NMCPXW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A29LLD0WGS56WE"]this[/ame] case and making a bracket to mount it to out of either aluminum or steel (depends on what my friends have lying around). the bracket will have a hinge so that the tablet can swing out to the right so that I can access the headunit controls without removing the tablet. The bracket will mount to the plastic panel around the headunit with magnets. The USB cable will fit between the headunit and the plastic cover without issues, but will look kind of sloppy when the tablet isn't installed. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a way around this, as I cannot find a micro USB extension cable with all five pins usable at each end.

A major downside of the Nexus 7 for projects like this is that the internal DAC is pretty bad, so audio output over the 3.5mm jack sucks. I got around this by using a custom kernel to allow me to use a USB DAC and charge the tablet at the same time using an OTG + USB power Y-cable. Another plus from this setup is that there is only one cable to connect to the tablet.

Here is a simple wiring diagram:

http://i.imgur.com/JUSWj.png

I'll try to keep updating this as I start building the bracket.

In for the bracket as I have a Nexus 7 that I want to use for Maps and Torque.

eentresting..sub'd!

You're going to love torque in the car. I love it on my head unit! :thumbup:

sub'd :respekt:

I would suggest Nexus 7 + Proclip + Tablet Mount. It's what I plan to run Torque Pro on. I've got the clip, but Nexus 7's are on backorder on the Egg so waiting for restock.

I would like to see what you will fabricate though, the proclip w/ car charger for Nexus 7 isn't exactly cheap.

Yeah, I checked out the proclip route, but it's far too expensive for my taste, and I would most likely have to rebuild the USB connector to do what I need.

I mainly want it for codes, boost, IAT's, other temps, oil, etc.

That's what I use it for. Well haven't gotten a code, and don't have boost yet, but I monitor the temps and such of other stuff. Love having gauge widgets on the head units home screen too.

I will be switching to a USB DAC but only when I swap out the OEM speakers.

The custom bezel work is $400 almost the entire cost of installing the tablet.
For me that was the most annoying part.

So far using the tablet full time now and no major issues to report.
I would love to see someone actually do a full Android head unit using modern hardware and display technologies and latest versions of Android.

As it is since installing the Nexus 7 there have been 3 major version updates.

I'm actually considering doing a kickstarter and making a market competitive head unit. I just need to find an electronics engineer and a CAD person to design the actual unit. Then I can price out manufacturing cost and open up pre-orders.

But if they can make a 200$ quad core tablet, then I can't imagine the cost of a decent DAC with amp, FM radio, and chassis would cost much.

If you could basically do Nexus 7 Level hardware into a head unit, with the control ability of the Android head units you tested and video switching and get it done for under $650 or even $700 you would have a serious product on your hands.

We both know the main reason the tablet is $250 is because its heavily subsidized by Google. But a very good single DIN head unit is only $250, you can pack a quality AMP, DAC I dont see how you could not put something together for $600 and tack on $100 profit for each.

Right. But I mean even those hdmi sticks with dual cores and 512 ram running ICS are only 80 bux. I don't see any reason why it can't all work nicely. I need an engineer to map it out and such.