Has anybody tried/thought about/investigated, installing a tablet in place of the stereo on their Rav? Running a search I see that somebody has tried it with their 4.4, but I've never seen anybody try it with the 4.3. I've been thinking seriously about it and picked up a Nexus 7 off of Ebay the other day. I've started playing with different custom ROMs and app configurations to make it do what I want to.
As I progress I'll update this thread. Any thoughts or insights are greatly appreceated.
Oh, I haven't limited my search. I have collected about 15 examples of people doing this to different degrees and in different fashions on all types of vehicles. I was just trying to dig up any RAV specific knowledge that might be lurking out there.
As far as radio goes: That was an early concern of mine. My original plan was to install a Sony headunit that is controllable through an Android interface. My plan was (still may be) to install the headunit behind the tablet so that it wasn't visible. This would give me full AM/FM radio through the headunit. Then I discovered that they make tuners that plug into a USB port and are controllable through an app interface, so I'm starting to think about going that route.
I also picked up a used sony MEX-N5000BT stereo. This is sort of cheating, but I didn't want to lose FM radio, and the Sony App Remote that controls it gives a lot of functionality.
The Autodroid system has a power manager that will automatically put the tablet in deep sleep when it loses power and wake it when power comes on.
Since I had already made the fwd power outlet hot at all times I had a spare, ACC controlled wire capped and still powered under the center cubby. I ran power from there up to a power converter that is changing the 12v power to a constant 5.1v.
I also picked up a Scosche double DIN adapter and, with a little Dremel work and some scrap aluminium created a mount for the tablet.
I also picked up an AXXESS AWSC-1 Steering wheel control adapter to keep my steering wheel controls.
I put together the Sony wiring harness with the Axxess wiring and a Metra Rav4 harness adapter to run everything and then proceeded to the install.
After removing the stock Nav. headunit I removed the mounting brackets from it and reused them to mount the Sony back inside the dash opening.
After hooking up all the radio wiring, I spliced in the wiring for my power converter and mounted it with some Velcro in an out of the way area of the dash opening.
I got the tablet all configured to control the Sony and installed a USB hub and spare USB cables routed over to the glove box for interfacing with the tablet and miniature physical keyboard that my passenger can use to enter info into the NAV program (NAV Free USA). I also downloaded a crapload of music onto a USB flash drive and plugged it into the hub. I then installed and closed up the tablet.
The Autodroid will play a custom animation when it puts the tablet to sleep, so I chose this nice little Toyota one to use for now.
Now I'm just tweaking all the software to work how I'd like it. So far I'm very pleased with it all.
I took some pictures tonight of the software interfaces I'm running.
I've got a bluetooth OBDII adapter installed with Torque.
The Music player I'm running is called JetAudio Plus. I had some problems finding one that I liked and would lock in landscape mode. Both the Apollo that came with the custom ROM I'm running and DoubleTwist would automatically switch to portrait mode at times, which was not at all nice looking.
The Nav program I chose was Nav Free USA. This thing is SOOOOO much better than the factory nav. I can't even begin to list the cool features, but one of the most important was the price-$0.00.
Finally, the Sony App has some great audio controls, including a pretty nice equalizer. It also controls the balance/fader through a really cool interface that just lets you touch the screen wherever you want the sound to be focused at.
looks good, ive seen ppl doing this type of mod before on different cars. i was wondering what factors made you install that OS as opposed to the other ones available.
Biggest factor in using Autodroid (for me) was built in power manager that puts the tablet to sleep and wakes it based on whether there is power applied. Made it real simple to set it up. Timurs Rom will also do this, but right now it's not available, and it isn't free, another factor. I may play around with some others at a later date, this was just the easiest way to get things up and running fairly quickly.
You can do some pretty cool on/off stuff with Tasker. I'm only doing basic stuff like bluetooth off when work wifi is present and wifi off when connected to car bluetooth. Might be able to help with your car needs.
How are you handling audio output from the tablet? Is it the headphone plug, or something else? I see the Sony app allowing fading front to rear, hows that working? Is there a way to have separate sub output controls?
How about HD Radio, is there a way to do that? How do you handle things like internet streaming radio, do you just hotspot your phone?
Do you have something like a OTG adapter to allow you to play music from a USB drive?
Is there any provision to incorporate a backup camera?
how about bluetooth audio such as a2dp frome a phone or for phone calls?
Right now I'm only using Bluetooth from the tablet to the headunit, as I wanted my aux jack free to plug in the existing aux jack on the rav.
Yes the Sony has controls for the SW as well as the regular speakers.
I don't know about HD radio, haven't truly looked into it. As far as internet streaming, I have a few options. I can hotspot the phone and use the tablet to stream, I can hotspot the phone and use the built in Pandora App in the head unit, or I can just stream to the phone and run through the aux jack.
Yes, I have an OTG "Y" cable with a four-port USB hub.
The ROM I'm running has software support for a backup camera, I just haven't incorporated it as I already have the stock one running to the mirror.
I recently got a Sony head unit and a Nexus 7 Tablet and I'm working on a similar install. I was dismayed to see that I can't seem to connect my phone (for hands free calling) and my Nexus 7 (for App Remote) at the same time. Did you figure out a solution for this, or was it even a concern for you?
I ran into a similar issue with my install, but mine had to do with audio. So when the phone is paired with the HU all (not just calls) audio gets routed to the HU and played over the system. Then when I paired my Nexus with the unit for AppRemote I once again lost all audio out of the tablet; which normally wouldn't be a problem, but I'm also running all audio from the tablet out via a USB-DAC, which has so much better sound quality.
So be aware of this, getting this configuration to work is a little tricky, but it's worth it.
Now I run all my tablet audio out of my USB-DAC and into the Sony via it's AUX input. I set the Sony to only use AUX and unpaired both the phone and the tablet. This works great for now because the only thing I'm loosing is FM radio, which I never listen to anyways.
Let me know if you want more details on my setup, or get stuck somewhere.
Yeah, that kinda threw me as well. The info on the head unit mentions that it can connect to two bluetooth devices at the same time, but it doesn't appear to support seperate phone and app control devices. It hasn't been a big issue for me, as I already had an aftermarket bluetooth installed that tied into the new head unit and still works as advertised.
Looks great! Very nice job with your custom setup. Any problems with glare?
Have you had any issues with keeping it charged? Most USB ports don't provide the higher amperage that a tablet and even some of the newer smartphones need to juice up on the go without draining the device's battery.
No problems with glare, I put a matte finish screen protector on before I did the final install.
Also, no problems with charging. I'm using a 12V adjustable power converter to step the voltage down to 5.1V. It has an output of 3.1A. The custom ROM that is installed also allows the tablet to draw up to 1.4 amps if it needs it, so the tablet has never run low on power.