Let’s open this junkyard wp site with my new DIY car stereo: a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Initially I planned to setup up a classic old-school carputer, with the xenarc mdt-7000, kilomteres of wirings, a powerful yet low profile case with all powerful but narrow (= expensive) periphericals, like 12v surge, solid state hdd.. Then I realized the huge amount of money needed, and all the time wasted for opening up my Mito like a thanksgiving day turkey for connecting all the stuff, and decided to check the size of a Galaxy Tab (all-in-one carputer to me) going to a Mediaworld store with a centimeter in my pocket. And guys, what a surprise when I found the tablet is almost 2DIN standard size! In landscape orientation, good for car usage, the width is EXACTLY 2DIN, well, it does exactly fit the Phonocar plastic 2din frame replacement for the stock stereo. The height is half centimeter taller of the aperture, but nothing that my brave dremel can’t face with a couple of spins.
I carved the frame in a way that lets me insert and remove with ease the Galaxy Tab from the frame, I just carved 2 extra holes for the earphone jack to one side, and for the usb power cradle to the other. None of the cables are in sight while mounted, and let me say that was my topmost concern with my carputer. Alfa Romeo are too gorgeous cars to messing up panels, covers, pulling plastics until they may break.. Even the amplifier which I need because the tablet can’t (of course) provide enough soundpower to the 6 bundled speakers, can be simply inserted and left at its own destiny inside the wide space I spared in the dashboard when I removed the stock radio and its sharp metal supports. I bought a small 45watt x 4 rms amplifier to do this, the model is an Alpine ktp-445 or something.
With a little modification of a 12v car-plug usb charger I can let the tablet stay at maximum screen brightness all time long without worrying about discharge. But the car-charger plug thing must provide at least 2 ampere or won’t be enough to keep full-brighness together with battery indicator going UP.
Next time I’ll show you some OBD app from the android market, as soon as I get back my bluetooth OBD adapter I did lend away to a friend of a friend (bad idea, usually :P). The project can be empowered if I figure out how to extract the wheel-buttons (of the car) signals for volume +/-, prev/next, phone up/dwn etc and passing it to my Tab. If someone knows about a CAN-BLUETOOTH interface for this purpose (not a common OBD key, besides I already have one and I know it won’t work for this one) it will only take me the effort of coding a small android application, a service to handle the incoming signals.
Well, there is no need to say how cool is to have such a PHONE, google-earth navigator, voice recognizer… video player and whatever you may imagine at your finger(s)tips in your car!
Thanks to Samsung for producing such an unbeatable harware piece in 2DIN format :D
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Congratulations!! It’s a great work!!!
I”d like try it in my car…Can you post more photos about the mounting?? tank you!
Ciao, ottimo progetto!! Ci stavo pensando pure io ^_^
il prob è avere sufficiente tempo libero…
In rete ho trovato questi riferimenti riguardo ad interfacce CAN-Bluethoot:
http://www.esd-electronics.com/german/products/CAN/can-bluetooth.htm
http://www.honeysw.com/canproject.php
http://www.ixxat.com/canblue_generic_en.html
magari possono esserti utili.
Bye e Buon Natale
Earl
please post comments in english or italian or i will trash them
Can u show me ur charger how to connection?? And how about ur audio output? Is it by bluetooth also??
Ваш сайт dev.mittelmedia.it просто супер ! thanks !
:)
audio out is from headphones connector :)
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Hi
Some great info here
I am going to be doing the same in a fiat ducato campervan
I have the tab and the ktp-445 amp. Can you give me some more info on how you wired up the audio to the amp?
Cheers
The wirings hints for the amp are basically these:
- grab on google some color-chart for amplifier cable colors to have a clear reference of what are you cutting (wire colors on ktp445 are standard).
- as amp audio INPUT you have 4 channels for amp input (Front-right/left and Rear-right/left) but the tablet has of course just 2 (L/R) so you have to couple together front with rear channels.
- as audio OUTPUT for the amp must just match speakers colors on iso connector
- power INPUT (not output, you can ignore that) of amp must be connected to the iso connector (yellow fixed +12, black ground, red FIXED +12… in theory. Newest cars, as your Ducato will have NOTHING on RED, but FIXED 12v on yellow)
-connect remote amp input to a switching +12v (if you have one, or just derive it from the yellow cable of the iso by adding a physical button, otherwise your amp will always be online.
As hint, derive the switching +12v from a 12v source you can figure out from the car. Try to individuate an optional of your that is powered only when the car key is turned on.I used the cigarette lighter :D since I have also a self-powered subwoofer
Hi
Thanks for your help struggled to get anything until I re-read your instructions and realised the remote amp input is blue/white :-)
So now I have it working I need to work on some kind of mount
Cheers for your help
http://www.phonocar.it/it/adattatori-autoradio/altoparlanti/adattatori-vano-autoradio/mascherina-con-foro-isodoppio-isodoppio-din-colore-nero-jumper-06-ducato-06-boxer-06/3-371.html I really hope your ducato is of a compatible year build… would be a great deal :)
this will also need sandpaper/dremel just like mine, not that difficult to be honest, I did it in about an hour in front of the tv in the living room
Thank for this Good Idea, now All the automotive InDash System are OLD and with Android the possibility to have ALL ;)
you’re welcome, but really if you got a 2-din space in your dashboard, go for a DIY modification of a spare 2-din plastic frame for your car. The galaxy tab fits 2-din width out of the box, just need some sandpaper strokes to make it fit as you prefer on the height. And 2 holes for the earphone & usb plugs. The result will be really unmatchable by no other mounts!
Can you add some pictures of the din slot with the tab unmounted? I’d like to have more info on how do you attach and detach the device, so that I can reproduce it in my car ;-)
sure! Here’s a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09tk7qBhyo , the tab is not detached from the 2-din frame, but you’ll get the point. To remove it, I just need to unplug the usb and earphone cords. Therefore, the tab is held firmly by the plugs. I’ve got it mounted since several months and it’s still very solid.
Ottima cosa questa… Ho trovato per caso le tue foto in rete e sono arrivato a questo indirizzo…
Posso sapere se hai già scoperto come inviare il segnale alla porta usb invece che al jack da 3,5???
Ciao e complimenti
Daniele
Si anzi ni. Se hai voglia puoi prendere al mediaworld il dock da scrivania,che e’piccolino ma cmq non ti sta nel 2 din (andrebbe aperto e usato solo il contenuto opportunamente piegato per dentro in qualche modo). Il dock ha l’uscita HDMI da cui puoi estrarre l’audio digitale, e c’e’ la presa per le cuffie. Pero’ io non ce l’ho il dock ancora per cui non so dirti se e’un pacco o se funziona benissimo. Se lo prendi fammi sapere scrivendo sopreattutto se tramite il jack da 3,5 del dock il volume e’piu’forte del segnalino flebile che esce dal jack cuffie del tab.
Per ora ho trovato questo e magari faccio le prove proprio con questo cavo e vediamo cosa ne esce fuori… In teoria con per l’ipad, quell’uscità è dotata di un buon convertitore e magari collegato direttamente ad un amplificatore o processore di segnale può servire allo scopo…
http://www.emporiodellacover.it/Apps/WebObjects/EmporioDellaCover.woa/wa/viewProduct?id=5649&lang=ita
E’ un’ottima idea, pero’ cosi’ non puoi tenerlo in carica.
Intanto complimenti per il lavoro e per la spiegazione. Una sola domanda. Pert l’audio che jack hai usato in uscita dal Tab? Un comune cavo jack to jack stereo da 3,5 va bene o lato Tab bisogna usare un jack da 3,5 a 4 vie lasciando sconnessa quella del microfono?
Grazie
nono molto piu’ semplice, cannibalizzi uno spinotto delle cuffie del Dixan, te ne serve uno a L e piu’ piatto possibile se come nella MiTo lo spazio e’ a filo.. e colleghi Left con Left (rear e front) e Right con Right (rear e front) dell’ampli. fine :) ah si, beh la massa con la massa tutto assieme a cazzo :D
How did you handle charging the tablet in the car?
the connection cable is the standard one, usb, hidden in the 2din frame. Then you need a cigarette-lighter 12v-to-usb adapter. You can also tear apart the adapter and hide it somewhere behind the plastics of the dashboard.
Davvero un ottimo lavoro!
Ma secondo te il nuovo tab 7.7 (196.7 x 133 x 7.89 mm) potrebbe entrarci limando un po’ di qua e di là?
Quello sì che sarebbe fantastico da avere in auto!
(O, dato lo spessore minimo, addirittura adattare la placchetta Phonocar in modo che il tutto si sovrapponga allo stereo originale! Magari!)
Do you have a wiring diagram to share that shows how you incorporated the ktp-445 into your system?
Paolo, I assume you just connect the car wiring harness to everything, speakers, power, ground, signal to the side with the fuse on the ktp-445. and then on the other side of the ktp-445 you just add the left and right from the tablet?
Also, My car wiring harness has yellow (constant 12v) and red (ignition/acc 12v) but no remote on wire. Do I just put the red and blue/white of the ktp-445 together onto the car’s red wire?
Bella idea!! Per quanto riguarda i comandi al volante, potresti prendere un autoradio con bluetooth e collegarla ai comandi al volante, poi collegarla al tablet tramite bluetooth.
That’s a great project – curious if you followed through to get Bluetooth and steering wheel controls enabled?
Also you might have seen this Kickstarter project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-phone-car-stereo
Good concept (separate amp and mount from swappable phone holder) but how sad does the little iPhone look compared to this?
Hi, that setup looks really cool. I’m thinking of doing the same thing, but were you able to get FM radio directly from the tablet? (Without using 3G).