I miss having a Android head unit in my truck. Since we all know taking the head unit out of the LR3 creates bad Rover karma I elected to see what I could do about adding a Android 7" tablet.

I have a Fire Tablet 7 handy so I am using it for initial planning and rough size needs. I will likely go with a Samsung Galaxy tab or HP 7" tab for the installation.

The Fire tab would be a fantastic choice except it's head phone jack for audio out has terrible sound quality and no GPS sensor. Since one of the benefits is Google Navigation that is a huge down side.

So the other day I was playing with the Fire tab while I was sitting in my truck waiting on a tow for the other LR3. The fit just setting it in place was about 3/8 of a inch to wide. It definitely has promise at this point and warrants more investigation.

With that in mind, I decided to pull the center stack trim and have a better look at what room there is to work with. As you can see there is a lot of space. I should be able to set up a usb power point behind the dash and route the audio cable to tie in with the AUX input housed in the center console.

Setting the tab in place and looking it over you can see that it is a touch to wide and will require some plastic removal on the center stack trim. It looks completely workable though. I will need to look at both of the tablets I'm considering for location of the audio output and charging port to make sure they won't interfere with the AC duct. Right angle cables may be needed here.

The biggest issue I see at this point will be the power button. The volume can be adjusted on screen so that really is a non-issue. I have a couple ideas on how to work the power button issue. I will have to look into that more once I have the tablet I'm going to use.

I did take a moment to put the trim on with the tablet just to see how it looked. This will be sorted out and I think is going to be a great cheap little modification.

The area marked in red is what I think will need to be trimmed up to make it fit nice and neat on both sides.

 

ArmyRover

PERFECT!

I like the android tablet idea and would much rather have that than my Garmin GPS. Only thing kept me from going that way was lack of video input for cameras.

Any ideas how I could make video input happen with a tablet?

My install was different as I already had the Satnav and the trim piece to deal with.

Your installation is clean and others should be able to copy what you have pioneered. Great job!

Jeff

 

Spent a few hours this morning going place to place to compare tablets. I really want to stay with a 7" display so finding the smallest package I could with a GPS sensor built in was the mission.

The one I have settled on is the Samsung Galaxy tab A it has a smaller foot print at 7.25" by 4.25 which is about 3/8 of a inch smaller than than the Fire Tab on length and 1/4 smaller on width. The best part is a physical home screen button on the front that will power up the screen.

Tab A has a great screen and is a quality budget tablet that I think will give years of good service. It is also running android 5.1 most seem to still be running kit kat. It seems to be running price wise around $115.

For the more budget minded Best Buy has a Digiland that has GPS and is the same size as the Fire tab for $49 7 5/8 by 4 5/8 You will have to find a work around for the power/wake button.

I'm going to pick up the Tab A this evening and get to work on it.

To answer the video input idea https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...rial.usbcamera

That looks like it makes it possible. I would be more interested in a dash cam around here than the back up cam. Charging the tablet might be an issue at that point but I think they make a spliter that would fix that.

Need to dig into the center console to see where I can tie into the AUX input wiring

 

Got the new Tablet picked up on the way home from other errands. Might need to head out there and poke around a bit....

 

Did some more looking tonight with the tablet that will be mounted up. The size is damn near perfect. The home button makes waking it up a breeze, and I should be able to leave a bit of a gap so hitting the power button will be doable if needed as well.

Need to order a right angle charging cable and headphone cable. I was able to find out the incoming wires in the radio harness that are for the AUX Input so I will tie in up at the head unit by soldering directly to the harness a few inches away from the tablet mount location. This will leave the AUX input at the back of the console functional and available for use if needed. Added benefit is I don't have to take the console apart to get the job done.

 

I'm totally digging the idea! I just want to add google Earth with basemaps, surround cameras with recording and instant security notifications, 3d terrain mapping for underbody terrain view, suspension bypass control with a better view than the factory EAS LCD, audio and video library on board, link to other devices in the vehicle including 3rd brake / rear facing LCD message screen, independent and automatic camera select, and light sceme interface. You know, something simple like that!

 

One word of caution: I believe the AUX wiring will not work unless something is plugged in to the physical AUX plug. Typical Land Rover unnecessary precautions. You can cut off an old AUX plug and use that, but it would defeat having the rear AUX open still.

 

Think you will want a carputer lol



Worse case i do the cut off to activate it. Just remove and plug in the second device if needed

 

Had a few minutes to do a bit of grinding and fitting tonight. Been on duty for 12 days straight but decided I needed some land rover time tonight lol.

Initial cutting and fitting has all been to the bezel so easily reversible. I'm almost there on getting a nice fit but was running out of daylight so more tomorrow. The trim goes fully back in place now but I need to remove a bit more for a nice level fit.

 

Tried out the Nav on the way to work today, it worked great.