Thread: 7" Android tablet install

Originally Posted by rangerdanger

My aim would be to hard wire this in on a power circuit so the tablet fires up whenever the key is in position 1, or maybe when the head unit is turned on.

I've given this a bit more thought and come up with a more elegant way to make the unit turn on and off I think. I've bought an adjustable 12v timer switch/relay ($23+p) that will close the 'power button' circuit for 3 seconds when I turn the igntion to 'acc' or start - this should make it turn on. I'll leave the dash mounted switch however as it's still going to be useful for turning the screen to sleep/wake mode.

Power off will still require user intervention as android doesn't appear to support turning itself off when not on charge etc. So there's a few free apps in the android market that let the unit turn off with a single click - as apposed to the power button being held, confirming that you really want to shut down, then an ok screen to be really really sure. All the shutdown apps require 'root' (master/administrator) access to the device which requires a few small steps to achieve on most devices.

Junosi, would you post some daylight pix so we can see how it looks in the dash, please?

Sure, although the other ones were done in daylight also, might look a bit dark as the camera is compensating for how bright the Wits is (it's bright on its high setting and on it's dim setting its perfect for night). Here's some more, taken from the back seat with the doors and sunroof shut at about 4:30pm today.

The last photo shows a new app I've been playing with called 'Torque', it's a very configurable OBD app that can show whatever OBD info you like - in either dial form, graphs, history, logs etc etc - looks very in depth. It communicates with a bluetooth ODB dongle that is switched on/off with ignition. Currently using the free version of Torque which has an apple iPad advert on it - kind of ironic when I'm viewing it on an Android tablet ...

ps the small hole to the right of the tablet is part of the original dash, little annoying that's it there but that's life

Thanks. Maybe turn the screen off and just come out a little from that of the third pic.

It's hard to see the surround of the screen and how it looks.

Wait. I've edited one of the pics:

Here's another one, screen off.

High res version available here Wits a81 in P38 dash | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

hmmmm very tempting project to try.

Ron, maybe you could find a tablet which about fits that trim piece?

I suspect the later model dash with the factory sat nav cavity would be an easier fit. My install is slightly resessed with the Wits bezel making a seal from behind which made securing it much easier. If I'd made it flush securing would be a problem and more of the dash would of been butchered. The Wits is about as small as it gets in the 7" field, it has a very small bezel, if it were much larger then fitting would be more difficult. As I said in my original post - I'm not sure I'd really recommend a Wits, there's already better tablets around - Nook colour, Samsung galaxy, dell streak etc. and there will be a plethora of new ones on the market this year.