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407 Android Tablet Multimedia Install

91K views 78 replies 23 participants last post by  Ognjeni407 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Folks, I've just bought a 407 zenith and love the car to bits (first peugeot) so much so that I've decided to install a 7" Android tablet multimedia system, thought about going down the car pc road but the tablet seems perfect for the job, I've gone with the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 tablet due to size, front facing buttons, built in bluetooth, wifi, gps and as a bonus 3g internet connection/ telephone via simcard from giffgaff £10 month unlimited internet + unlimited texts and 250mins calls, which should suffice.

The car is fitted with the standard RD4 stereo (no sat nav) which I'm keeping and running the tablet through AUX 1 which I activated at the weekend.

Jobs I've done so far are:

removed stereo display and re-cited in place of ashtray in new basic surround.
Took fiberglass mold of stereo display surround and made new fiberglass 8" surround for tablet, got local paint shop to colour match surround paint.
moved OBDII socket through 90` and refitted in bottom of armrest with bluetooth ELM 327 interface.

Current Multimedia Apps I've installed are:
Sygic satnav, uses tom tom maps really impressed with it
google maps with navigation as a back up
Player Pro, music and video library looks really good with album/artist art display
Car home ultra, which is a custom frontend for the tablet with large customized icons, easy to see and press while driving
RAC traffic, lets me know where all the accidents and delays are
Torque Pro, realtime OBDII ECU reader with custom dials
Screen off, for turning screen on and off
Also internet/email etc

So far everything has gone pretty well only 1 minor issue, audio isn't loud enough you have to have everything turned up full to hear it on the motorway, hopefully going to combat this by adding an inline headphone amplifier.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried installing a tablet any advice and what additional apps they're running.
Anyone else fancies offering up any ideas and apps to go with it please do :)
 
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#8 ·
As promised a few more pics, not decided yet what I'm doing with original mfd can't make my mind up where it's final resting place should be, so I've just got it in place of ashtray temporary for now, I'm going to do a quick vid over the next few days of the fully operational system :) so I'll post a link as soon as.
 

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#9 ·
Additions today: I modified the display surround and fitted an on off button (little black button top left of second pic) just so I can shut it down at night, the only real downside to using a tablet is the location of the buttons (power, menu, return) this tablet has all the important buttons on the front right of the display but the power button is mounted on the side of the tablet.
My original idea was to leave the tablet on all the time (it's permanently powered via a usb power supply I hashed up) and use a software "screen off" app to turn the screen on and off, however after going through a couple of dozen screen off apps the only one that could actually turn the screen on/off did it by turning the brightness to zero and back to full when you touched the screen fine during the day but at night the screen seems to glow with the backlight still powered, so half an hour today with a stanley knife some bits of plastic and glue and the power button can now be operated from the front.
Still use the screen off app during the day when parking up and press the power shut off at night so no glowing screen to attract attention.
 
#12 ·
Here's a quick guide on installing a 7" tablet:

First find one that's going to fit with minimum fuss I went for the viewpad 7 because it's cheap (this was only an experiment to see if it could be done, so i didn't want to lay too much out) and it covers all the bases, easy access to front facing buttons, android 2.2 software, bluetooth, wifi, broadband via sim, and phone, also has external micro sd slot upto 32gb, and above all else it fits straight in.

1.Remove stereo, 2 t10 torx screws located in little holes on left and right of head unit (see pic 1), you don't have too remove it completely just slide it out to get to mfd panel screws (see pic 2)

2.Remove 2 bottom torx screws holding mfd facia (pic 2)

3.Mfd facia lifts out from bottom and pulls down slightly to release top clips (pic 3)

4. Unclip Mfd connector from back of Mfd (pic 4)

5. With facia completely removed see how your tablet sits (pic 5) as you can see the viewpad is pretty much a perfect fit.

Stage 2
 

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#13 ·
Stage 2

Options I looked at for making the new display were fiberglass mold of the original MFD fascia and cut out a new display or cut the original display out leaving the very edges intact to keep the profile and then cutting side fillets and bottom fillet out of the bits I'd got left and bonding it all with plastic weld. This turned out to be the easiest option for me (fiberglass started getting too messy)
Involves a bit of filling and sanding (pic 1) make sure you create an opening big enough to operate the buttons, before doing any cutting make a cardboard template of the fascia with the tablet sat in place to get your opening size and placement correct.

when you got the front shape right flip it over place the tablet in position on the back of the fascia then mark the rear of the fascia either side of the tablet on the left and right for 2 securing screws.
Remove the tablet and glue a couple inch and a quarter m4 bolts on your marks, I then cut a strap long enough to go across the back of the tablet with two holes to fit over bolts and nutted it on so your fascia and tablet are one unit, you can keep sitting it in position to get everything looking right.
The paint I had matched was an Alfa Romeo bumper colour gregio medio it's pretty close to the original dash colour.

Stage 3
 

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#14 ·
Stage 3

If you want to power the pad then your going to need a mini usb a 1.1 plug and solder power connections to pins 1 = 5v+ and pin 4 = 0v on the other end I cabbaged an old 5v car phone charger and hard wired it in behind the tablet in the dash using a switched live for charging.

Audio.
If your Aux connection aren't already activated this needs to be done with Peugeot planet, the phono connectors can be picked up off ebay or from Peugeot and plug into the rear of the head unit part B (see pic) thanks to bigjohnD for the pic :) part C in the pic is for the cd multichanger which if not fitted can also be used with a USB kit ?? other wise use a phono to 3.5mm headphone lead (as of writing this I'm using the phono method which gives very low audio both tablet and headunit have to be turned up full to hear, I'm waiting for a headphone amplifier to put inline I'll post if it works or not)

Pitfalls:
the only real pitfalls I've found so far with this install are you need to make the usb power connection and headphone out lead as low profile as possible as there's not much room between the bottom of the tablet and the stereo otherwise there's a bit of dremmeling on the top of the stereo needed to give clearance, it's also a good idea to fabricate some kind of power button/lever to operate the side mounted power switch on the tablet to shut it down at night.
 

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#15 ·
Benefits:

All the power of an in car computer without the fuss, full media audio and video player, Sat nav, car phone, internet, email, obdII ECU interface for car diagnostics and fault code reading/removal :) the list goes on. I can transfer music/video via wifi from my computer in the house to the car parked in street, skyped my dad from mcD's this morning :lol: still coming up with new uses and benefits all the time.
Hope this guide made some sort of sense it's my first attempt, any questions, advice or anything I've missed out let me know and I'll answer if I can.
:thumb:
 
G
#19 ·
Now mate,

How did you go about making the fibre glass surround?

I'm looking at making a pillar pod for mine, was thinking of getting some styrofoam and shaping it, then fibre-glassing over it. Any pointers?

How much did the kit cost you, and the painting?
 
#20 ·
I've never used foam to model before but i've heard it's good for larger builds custom speaker enclosures and dashboards, only downside to smaller stuff is it's quite fragile and you've got to be quite vigorous with the fiberglass matting and resin to get it into the corners and get the bubbles out. For fiberglass you need a sculptured model of what you want to make (in your case made out of foam) you then take a first impression mold by laying fiberglass mat (fine) over the sculpture on the outside and painting resin over the mat and build it up (leaving it to dry in between layers) till it's about 5mm thick.
When it's finally gone off you'll be left with a negative mold (like a jelly mold) you can then spray in a few coats of gel coat wait to dry then start laying in the fiberglass and resin again and start building up your positive mold which will be your finished gel coated pillar pod. It's time consuming!
Another method is building an enclosure out of light gauge MDF and using body filler to flesh it out into a nicer shape (building up and sanding back)
Or finally if no one makes one you can buy, find one that nearly fits and modify it, use a plastic build adhesive like innotek topfix that you can sand and shape.
Youtube is one of the best resources for how too's and pointers hope this helps :thumb:
 
G
#21 ·
Ahh right cheers mate, thanks for the heads up! Shame there isn't an easier way! I think I'm going to stray from the pillar pod idea, and maybe stick the gauges in the centre, above the MFD. Either way I will have to craft something...

Where are you located? I might just hire you to do it :lol::lol:
 
#25 · (Edited)
Interesting. :)

An idea for the power button, use on of the empty buttons near the esp and locking/alarm buttons. :) You just need to rewire the switch down to the area.

Do you use automute with it? Then you can listen to radio while driving, and the have it mute for navigation.

As for the power off issue, can you not use locale with a power plugin? If power is lost, power off the screen, once power is back - turn on the screen.

edit: This locale plugin might do the trick:

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/locale-power-source-plugin_flhs.html

edit2: I just tried locale on my Incredible S.

trigger: Battery -> power disconnected.
Action: Bluetooth off, wifi tethering off, sound off, screen timeout 10 seconds

and the other trigger

trigger: Batetry -> Power conencted
Action: Bluetooth on, Wifi tethering on, Sound on, volume 100%, screen timeout never

..And works like a charm, the downside is that the display is on for 10 seconds when you disconnect the power.
 
#26 ·
Interesting. :)

An idea for the power button, use on of the empty buttons near the esp and locking/alarm buttons. :) You just need to rewire the switch down to the area.

Do you use automute with it? Then you can listen to radio while driving, and the have it mute for navigation.

As for the power off issue, can you not use locale with a power plugin? If power is lost, power off the screen, once power is back - turn on the screen.

edit: This locale plugin might do the trick:

Locale Power Source Plugin - Android

edit2: I just tried locale on my Incredible S.

trigger: Battery -> power disconnected.
Action: Bluetooth off, wifi tethering off, sound off, screen timeout 10 seconds

and the other trigger

trigger: Batetry -> Power conencted
Action: Bluetooth on, Wifi tethering on, Sound on, volume 100%, screen timeout never

..And works like a charm, the downside is that the display is on for 10 seconds when you disconnect the power.
Thought about hardwiring the power button but I wanted an install that could be put back to standard easily if needed, also the tablet is untouched and can be removed and used as a tablet again, opted for a simple plastic push lever that operates the power button from the front.
 
#27 ·
Quick update: been using the tablet for a week or so and everything has been working well no bugs or issues so far, the screen timeout is set at never so I have to switch the screen off when parking with the screen off app.
I only turn the tablet on and off (boot up and shut down) first thing in the morning and last thing at night, during the day I just press the screen off app when parking and all goes dark, as soon as I start the ignition the tablet comes back on, sorted :thumb:
Satnav works great, the inbuilt gps is quick better than my old tomtom, the music and media library is a fantastic thing to have, no messing with cd's anymore got 6000 songs to choose from and when I'm sat in the car waiting for the missus there's a few films and tv series to watch to pass the time, but surprisingly one of the features I'm using most is the internet, It's really usable unlike my smartphone which was ok in an emergency, it's just like having my home computer with me at all times, it's been getting some hammer at work with everyone downloading drawings and searching for information, just thinking now about installing a small bluetooth printer in the boot :lol:
 
#29 · (Edited)
....

i LOVE YOU MAN :D ...i have been searching for montsh how to instal fabric multimedia system..then when i found out that is not possible..i have been searching for months for universal double din multimedia solutions ( i saw online some people successeded in that )....

i have one important question ...is it possible in anyway to connect rear camera with tablet ? One of the features i wanted with multimedia system was rear camera...so is it possible ? ( with some other tablet maybe ? )

also one question...if you have peugeot information on tablet like petrol consumation and other things..why did you kept using that small display insteed of the lighter swithc on bottom ?

or maybe android can't read such information, like climate control, average consumation ?


one more question is your controls on steering wheel still working ?
 
#30 ·
i LOVE YOU MAN :D ...i have been searching for montsh how to instal fabric multimedia system..then when i found out that is not possible..i have been searching for months for universal double din multimedia solutions ( i saw online some people successeded in that )....

i have one important question ...is it possible in anyway to connect rear camera with tablet ? One of the features i wanted with multimedia system was rear camera...so is it possible ? ( with some other tablet maybe ? )

also one question...if you have peugeot information on tablet like petrol consumation and other things..why did you kept using that small display insteed of the lighter swithc on bottom ?

or maybe android can't read such information, like climate control, average consumation ?




one more question is your controls on steering wheel still working ?
The tablet I used has no input for an external camera in fact the usb is purely for power only, saying that it may be possible to get a bluetooth camera to work with it if such a thing exists ?? my 407 has parking sensors so it's not something I looked into.

The Torque app uses a bluetooth device plugged into the OBD port and reads engine data direct from the ECU and displays it in realtime on the tablet, so fuel consumption, revs,MAF,etc it can read pretty much every sensor on the engine and display it, but that's all it does (engine only) so I still needed the multifunction display for the climate control, radio display, source selection and CD display.

Steering wheel controls are unchanged and work as they should, the tablet is touch screen and the volume is controlled with the steering controls
Hope this helped :thumb:
 
#31 ·
hello everybody...

i wanted to sent this msg as pm so i dont disturb this topic..but i can't as i need 20 posts for pm. But who knows, maybe my questions will help somebody :)

Hello Chance :)

sorry if i bather you but i don't know anything about car electronics and in my country nobody wants to help me about this issue ( everybody says multimedia can't be instaled to 407 )....

so i need to double check everything and i will go step by step with your instructions to make it all happen :)..


1. so can you tell me please do i need to buy any aditional cables or anything beside tablet ?

2.also do you know maybe where i can find this..or maybe how to make this

http://www.japantradecar.com/CarPhotos/6471-4.jpg

http://i856.photobucket.com/albums/ab121/incar-pc/end-side-view.gif

( plastic on top of the controls for lcd screen ) ?


3.also if you can write me exactly what model of tablet you boughted ? ( is it possible to make somehow steering wheels controls work when you are playing songs from tablet ? )

4.is it possible to mount bigger tablet if i can't find 7" model ?

5. i didn't understood very welll part for making this

http://www.peugeotforums.com/forums...et-multimedia-install-2012-02-06-13.05.24.jpg

can i just cut this plastic that holds lcd on board computer ? as im planing to fit that other plastic with lcd inside of it like on pictures above

6. have you fixed low volume and how can i fix /avoid this ?


sorry for long post but again i dont have anybody else i can ask so i really appreciate all your help and great job btw....


p.s. ...what do you think, is something like this possible ? it would be (maybe ) more elegant solution...so we can still use tablet outside of car :)




Kind Regards
Ognjen
 
#32 ·
Hi, I believe the Peugeot part no for the Jap vent mask LCD housing is: Part no. 8265.T0

extra wiring and parts you'll need are power and audio from/too the tablet which depends on the tablet you use?
for mine I used:
3.5mm stereo audio jack (low profile)
stereo phono cable
micro usb b to standard usb
usb car charger
RD4 Aux out phono adapter

I made my own power supply out of an old 12v usb charger and made all my own cables to suit, but again it just depends what tablet you use as to what you'll need.

The slot in tablet dock isn't a bad idea and shouldn't be too hard to put together (just use an existing tablet dock and make it fit basically) but bear in mind you can't really get anything bigger than a 8" screen in the centre console. I wanted something that would look like the standard sat nav but would be soooo much more :nod:
 
#34 ·
Nice tablet, audio connections will be the same but power will be different (uses samsungs own power connection I think) so I'd have a look at one first if I were you and check what your going to need before buying, pretty sure they'll have a dock for that tablet that you could turn into a car mount. :thumb:
 
#35 · (Edited)
thanks..funny thing its one of the cheapests here..and only one with 3g+ gps..and such specs.

Is there anyway you can somehow check that online ? as i need to buy it ( i found it on the market- adds ) before i go to the service shops.

p.s. what did you had in mind with car mount + dock ? ( also i noticed tablet can only by in standing mode when conected to dock)...so i dont have idea how to fit it with dock as tablet would need to be in landscape ( offcourse :)
 
#36 ·
Just done a quick bit of research and I think you might have problems actually fitting the 7" samsung into the car dash without some major modifications, suppose it depends on how involved you want to get, main problem is the charging/power port for that particular model will be on the side when you have the tablet in landscape mode and it's a big/bulky connection and will protrude about 2" out of the side of the tablet making the tablet and connector about 9" wide, it's not going to be an easy job :(
 
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