One step closer to finalizing my in-car tablet/network install research!

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mbarb15

Member
Location
Lyndhurst, NJ
I've been posting back and forth and talking to a few of you regarding personal experience, fitment and suggestions and i believe i concluded on what seems right for the price... I've had a few questions regarding removable storage on the tablet and that was my main concern. What to do after doing a hard install and then get the urge to adding/removing new media on the tablet?

as far as installation, i've been PMing turbo (John) regarding functionality and even tho there's a few quirks that i need to still figure out, it doesnt seem like anything beyond my grasp.

just so guys know.. the fx stock screen is 7inx4.5in, the gap in the dash is measured at 6inx3.5in and clearance room btw the A/C vents 7.75in in length.. still have to measure the width but i think u have room to work with..

looking for the right tablet- there's a fair amount of 7" tablets that'll fit, you have to take measurements and make sure there's clearance behind the bezel.. YOU ARE GOING TO NEED A TABLET WITH ANDROID HONEYCOMB 3.2!! Android 3.2 OS has the "home/back/etc" buttons imbedded onto OS rather than on the body of the tab like any priors.. ur going to need these features in order for the tab to be operable, once fitted behind the bezel.

and finally to answer my question from above regarding removable storage and media...
there's a cpl of ways to achieve this, and lately technology has found a simple solution.

the most logical way is to create an in-car network..

you do so by installing a router with NAS(network attatched storage) support and a HDD with your media into ur car, from there you're going to "tether" ur android/iphone to create a mobile hotspot in which the router will pick up and power a wi-fi signal in which ur tablet can pick up.. one of the issues with this is that your carrier (AT&T, etc..) may require you to upgrade ur data plan to a tethering/mobile hotspotting plan which limits you to certain amount of movement per month and costs an arm and a leg.. or you can jailbreak ur iphone and do it anyways with some free apps that are out there and hope that the carriers dont find out and get on ur case.


OR you can get Seagates's GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/pr...ard-drive/goflex-satellite#tTabContentReviews http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=41740

what it does is create's its own mobile hotspot in which you can access all that's stored in it wirelessly.. Apparently your tablet/ipad or wifi device DOES NOT need to be connected to a Wifi signal already as this creates its own hotspot..

here's a video on how it works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOIjugNCciw

ultimately, it is a little pricey, and you can't use the internet while its streaming media from the HDD but its really not that bad of a drawback if your really using the tablet as a media/GPS unit.. there's GPS software u can download that u don't have to stream map info from a 3g signal since its already loaded on your tablet.. anyways, hope this helps some of you.. I've yet to pull the trigger on all this, i'm waiting for the funds to become avail, once they do this is the route i will take..
 
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Awesome work. Thanks for sharing your find. Didn't know about Android 3.2 where the Home/Back buttons are on the OS.
 
thanx, they added a little status bar on the bottom that shows ur wifi connectivity, 3g/4g service, time and all that good stuff.. i'll tag a pic

galaxy-tab-77.jpg
 
they are really nice, truth be told i'm an apple fan but apple doesnt make a 7' tablet thatll fit perfectly in the dash behind the bezel, so in the mean time its android... the two that caught my eye were the samsung galaxy 7.0 plus and turbo got me looking into the htc evo view 4g which is a fraction of the price and just as good... i still gotta do more research in this end to see where plug location and fitment behind the bezel is gonna look like..
 
no worries john, i know ur a busy dude.. plus i don't really have the money to plunge on it yet.. However i am doing the research and listing down what i wanna do for when the funds become avail... btw did u check out that harddrive i mentioned on here? it is pretty nifty and does save me the headache of the whole removable drive thing and make the network storage much easier..
 
it looks like it would do the job, although end result of what I described to you that I did winds up being about the same as this, just that it's 1.5tb instead of only 500gb for around the same $$$ and can access the internet at the same time if you chose to do so. if the smaller form factor is a help though then that would certainly work. I'm almost certain that my setup would still access and read the media without an actual internet connection too, I'll confirm this for you when I test it again and show you exactly what I did but I think it should work the same as this setup
 
sounds good, i wasn't sure on the whole internet connectivity thing, att makes u upgrade ur data plan in order to tether. In order to avoid that u have to jailbreak ur iphone in order to be able to do so and you gotta be carefull cuz theyre cracking down on illegal tethering... so if i could avoid tethering then that'd be great..
 
yeah, verizon is the same but I've been rooting(android equivilent of jailbreaking) and tethering forever... there is no way they can find out other than if you really wind up using way more data than a phone can consume... phones can do pandora and netflix and navigation and all that, so you wouldn't be using any more data than you would if you actually did it on the phone and the streems would appear identical wether it went to the phone or tethered to the tablet , really no way for them to find out
 
yea i hear ya, but if your tethering music from your external then your going to be pushing alot of data back and forth (that is if it has to be done with your phone as a wifi hotspot)
 
no man, the data between the storage and the tablet is not measured and does not go through the phone at all, that's all local network based and does not add to 3g/4g usage at all. the phone would only see data it sends and receives through the net.
 
ok, that makes sense.. well let me know when you get to test this out.. i won't really make a decision yet and i have alot of time still but im still all ears for options.. keep me posted
 
cool man. I have been thinking about this upgrade. If they make tablet with video input so stock info and back up camera can be display on tablet would be perfect set up.
 
yea, that would be ideal.. one of the other members on here relocated the stock screen and installed this in its place, and you can purchase the rearview camera for it..

http://www.magellangps.com/Products/RoadMate/Magellan-RoadMate-170
http://www.magellangps.com/Magellan-RoadMate-Wireless-Back-up-Camera

cool thing is that it plays video, u can use the gps and itll flip back n forth when it detects the car in reverse.. pretty neat but i need the the whole entertainment aspect of it. so for me its not enough
 
ok, I got a chance last night to check into what setup I'm using. what I am using is really not a router, it's called a network bridge. it works similar to a standard router in that you connect your periferals to it through it's ethernet ports, and it then connects to your tablet through wifi. the difference is that this "router" does not get it's actual internet connectivity through an incoming ethernet port like a standard wireless router would, this one instead get's it's actual internet connection through wifi. the cool thing is that even if this router does not have an internet connection(tethered in our case) it will STILL allow the tablet to connect to the periferals through it's own created local network. what this means is the tablet will connect to a media server in the car wirelessly, and then when there does happen to be internet available to this "router" it would then pass this connection through so the tablet would then have internet too, but it works even without any internet connectivity.

this is the unit: http://www.ampedwireless.com/datasheets/Amped_AV3000_Datasheet_LR.pdf
I picked one up for ~$89 at microcenter.

I then used this as media server: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/network_storage/home-network-storage
one cool thing about this unit is that it sits in a detatchable base, and this base has usb ports for expansion, so even if you removed the main drive you would still be able to access another drive through usb, the base connects to the network bridge and in turn connects wirelessly to the tablet... simple :)

I'm not necissarily saying that the components I used are the best and def what you should use, of course there are other products that will also provide these functionality, but these are what I use and it works good so far in my testing of this...

haven't had a chance to dig out my spare bezel yet but will this weekend and get you some pictures of how the tablet fits to the FX bezel

---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 PM ----------

oh and just to add, these 2 devices both run on 12v so there car friendly, BUT this 12v does not mean just connect to vehicle power which can be anything from 10v-15v at any given time. these devices will need a clean regulated 12v so a 12v regulated power supply is necissary, something like this would fit the job well: http://store.mp3car.com/Intelligent_DC_DC_Converter_with_USB_Interface_p/pwr-034.htm there are cheaper options too but the idea is that regulated 12v supply is required
 
you're the man!!.. thanks...

what im liking about this setup versus the idea i had is that with ur setup there's an app that u use to run the media on ur tablet/ipad versus the drive that i was gonna use (oddly a seagate drive also) uses the web browser to connect and jams up the browser for streaming media only... no browsing :iS: and listening to music at the same time.. either one or the other...

i will do some research on these items and take them into consideration regardless..

what im liking is that i can still do the install of the tablet first and then worry about purchasing this in the future so well see what happens..
 
yeah, that's what I did, the tablet I'm using is 32gig and I have a 64gig memory card in there so I store a whole lot of media on the tablet itself. I haven't installed the network extender and the seagate in the car yet because I still need to order a 12v regulated supply but I've tested it for hours in the house and it works well
 
and i was looking for different options for regulated power sources, good looks on that!

---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------

btw i think for the price the htc will be better off for me.. the samsung is way out there (price wise) and the viewpoint is too antiquated
 
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