E39 Android Tablet Install

[faruqster]

Hey everyone. For a while, I had been tossing around the idea of using an Android tablet as a headunit of some sort, very similar to the what qcdstick was also considering. Anyway, I decided to give it a go, and I figured I would share my experience with you guys in case anyone was ever interested in trying something like this (or if you just enjoy reading about E39 electronics!)

Prior to starting anything, my E39's interior looked very similar to this one (which isn't mine, but a since I forgot to take before pictures, a google search had to suffice) with the exception that mine is automatic:



As you can see, this look is a very classy look and works for many people. Although I appreciate the simplicity and elegance of this, I figured I would try something out, and if it turned out poorly, I would just go another route. I took a Janus kit that I already owned, and I used a Dremel grinding bit to hollow out the back of it, thus allowing me to bring the screen closer to the front of the bezel. I then fashioned a mounting mechanism that lets me bring the tablet in and out of the car with relative ease for updating and portability. Finally, I plasti-dipped the bezel to give it a uniform finish that matches the interior plastic a little bit more than the bezel as it comes. The tablet itself is a 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab for Sprint. As far as how the audio setup works, I had a typical single din headunit lying around that had several functions that I wanted including 3 RCA pre-outs, bluetooth, and auxiliary inputs. I got the PAC steering wheel interface which allows me to control volume and other functions using the steering wheel, and I am exporting the audio from the tablet to the headunit via auxiliary. Granted, this isn't the greatest way to get audiophile sound, but at this point, I am satisfied with the sound as it is much superior to the DSP system. This is how it looks now:





I also decided to get a bluetooth OBDII adapter and use torque to obtain ECU data. This is demonstrated here:



Using Google navigation for Android has been an absolute treat. One of my favorite things is that since the tablet is also the source of audio output, the music pauses and resumes during navigation seamlessly.



Tethering from my phone allows me to access the internet from anywhere, and this is shown here:



I gutted the DSP system since the sound was not quite what I was hoping for. I did new front and rear speakers, powered by a 4 channel Kicker amp, and I mounted two 10" subwoofers into the rear deck in place of the stock Nokia baffle, powered by a separate 2 channel amp. I had all of this equipment lying around from before, so thankfully, I did not have to spend a large chunk of money during this project. Here is a picture of the rear deck subwoofers:



As an added bonus, I decided to do a brushed aluminum interior wrap to update the interior a bit. Here are a couple of pictures for kicks.





I still have some last step things to take care of, such as cleaning up some of the wires etc, but I thought I would share my progress with you. I can get better pictures in the daytime tomorrow.

[gmc90]

That is so ridiculously cool it's not even funny. I have so many questions but I'll start with: what's the Bluetooth OBD II unit you used?

[HoZy]

Ive been pricing up doing the same thing, But with a Android 4.0 ICS tablet.

Grabbing the hdmi out to a digital to analog converter to get a true L&R signal.

Cheers
Mat

[AkumaFes]

Dude.

[jamfool]

Nice one, but a shame you have not posted pictures of the steps.
Where did you relocate the OEM radio? Behind the tablet?

[Tacks 4 Snacks]

This is so awesome.

[monkeyking]

That is so ridiculously cool it's not even funny. I have so many questions but I'll start with: what's the Bluetooth OBD II unit you used?

pretty cool install. looks clean. curious as well about the bluetooth obd ii unit & software involved to get the ecu data.
cheers,
larry

[arbuckle]

Great job! I knew it would only be a matter of time before we would be able to adapt a tablet to replace all the proprietary, pixel dropping OEM crap with a much better, more reliable and versatile system. You are breaking some important ground.

I think there is a great market for a packaged kit with this functionality!

[champaign777]

need better pictures to see screen

[Capo72]

Are you using the 3G/4G network to connect, or are you tethering to a phone? I would love to see some better pictures of how it is mounted. Great Job!

[ZeroR2]

Very nice and I like the idea of tapping into the OBD II for data. Give us some more pictures. Thanks.

[jht3]

so you have a single DIN headunit hidden behind the tablet? it has its own bluetooth antenna that you are using to do handsfree calling by pairing w/ your phone?

your tablet has its own cellular plan w/ Sprint? data being provided by your phones data plan via tether? or are both being provided by your phone?

did you relocate your MID somewhere or ditch it completely?

[ehonda]

I'm interested in this too. I wanted Dynavin but I'm not buying Android with that terrible old processor. This is a MUCH better idea!

[rancor]

best use of a tablet i have ever seen!! i love how it ties all the cars functions together and it will always be up datable with new software. great choice!

[crevan]

How did you change the color of your galaxy tab keys?

[Camarok]

How did you change the color of your galaxy tab keys?

out of all of this.... the tab keys are the most interesting to you?

[faruqster]

That is so ridiculously cool it's not even funny. I have so many questions but I'll start with: what's the Bluetooth OBD II unit you used?

Thank you very much! I got the ELM327 from eBay for $21 shipped. Here is a picture for reference:

Ive been pricing up doing the same thing, But with a Android 4.0 ICS tablet.

Grabbing the hdmi out to a digital to analog converter to get a true L&R signal.

Cheers
Mat

I agree that using an ICS tablet would be more ideal. I used this one because I actually bought this tablet well before 4.0 came out, so since this was my first go at this, I figured – why not? The good part is that since I have already hollowed out the back of the Janus kit, almost any 7” tablet should have no problem fitting. Using HDMI out would also probably be a superior way of exporting the audio.

Dude.

Thanks man! Your wheels look awesome. If I weren’t a student, I’d ask you what kind they were exactly and pick up a set =)

Nice one, but a shame you have not posted pictures of the steps.
Where did you relocate the OEM radio? Behind the tablet?

Thank you very much. I agree, it is a shame that I didn’t take pictures of all of the steps. The reason for this is that when I started, I did not anticipate having a final product that even looked clean! I actually ditched the MID for now since I can see almost everything I want (fuel economy, range, etc) using the Torque app on the tablet. The good news is that I can remove the setup relatively easily and access the MID harness if I ever need to plug it in. Also, I am really looking forward to seeing your finished product, as that will be the true Android car audio experience.

This is so awesome.

Thanks man. I love the white E39 you have.

pretty cool install. looks clean. curious as well about the bluetooth obd ii unit & software involved to get the ecu data.
cheers,
larry

Thanks Larry. As stated above – ELM327 off ebay and the app Torque from the market.

Great job! I knew it would only be a matter of time before we would be able to adapt a tablet to replace all the proprietary, pixel dropping OEM crap with a much better, more reliable and versatile system. You are breaking some important ground.

I think there is a great market for a packaged kit with this functionality!

Thanks a lot! I really love having a screen that is so smooth and polished as opposed to the double din Pioneer unit I had before. It worked exactly how it was supposed to, but the touch screen wasn't even capacitive, so the screen felt cheap. The navigation is unbelievably smooth, as any of you with Android probably already know. I am considering purchasing a fully offline navigation app such as Sygic to remove the need to tether from my phone.

need better pictures to see screen

Daylight pictures will come soon my friend.

Are you using the 3G/4G network to connect, or are you tethering to a phone? I would love to see some better pictures of how it is mounted. Great Job!

Thank you sir! I am tethering to my HTC Thunderbolt for just a few seconds to acquire the map info and cache it, at which point I can turn off tethering. The Galaxy Tab can be activated with Sprint, but I have chosen not to since I think paying for the data will not be worth the money. As far as the mounting the tablet to the Janus kit, I tried several methods. I tried using drilling a few holes and mounting some swiveling tabs first, but due to the glossy, slippery, and somewhat curved nature of the back of the Galaxy tab, this method did not prove useful. I ended up employing the use of a few packs of these 3M all weather fasteners, which have made removing and installing the tablet extremely easy. Picture for reference:

so you have a single DIN headunit hidden behind the tablet? it has its own bluetooth antenna that you are using to do handsfree calling by pairing w/ your phone?

your tablet has its own cellular plan w/ Sprint? data being provided by your phones data plan via tether? or are both being provided by your phone?

did you relocate your MID somewhere or ditch it completely?

Yes, I do have a single DIN headunit, but it is not behind the tablet actually. As a lot of you who have done headunit installs on the E39 are probably aware of, there is not a whole lot of room back there, so the less crowded, the better. I have put the single DIN headunit in the glove compartment and extended the harness to reach the stock harness. When necessary, I have been tethering from my phone. I ditched the MID for now, and I think I am just fine without it, so if anyone needs an MID with fully working pixels…=)

I'm interested in this too. I wanted Dynavin but I'm not buying Android with that terrible old processor. This is a MUCH better idea!

Thank you very much. My friend has a Dynavin in his E46. It definitely looks more stock than my setup, which has its advantages for sure. For those who want a completely stock look with a little step up in quality from OEM, Dynavin is a great solution. Personally, I wanted to try something different, and I fell in love with Android a while back, so here I am!

best use of a tablet i have ever seen!! i love how it ties all the cars functions together and it will always be up datable with new software. great choice!

Thank you Ken. The fact that it accesses the OBDII functions definitely makes the stock element of the project a little more convincing. At this point, I haven’t rooted the tablet yet, but it’s always an option!

How did you change the color of your galaxy tab keys?

out of all of this.... the tab keys are the most interesting to you?

You don’t want to know =) It involved a screen protector and a Sharpie - LOL

[Eternal]

Do you have the tablet hooked up to power somehow? Or do you just remove to charge it?

This is pretty neat!!

[yomamma540]

This is my next project...Wicked. +++++++

[faruqster]

Do you have the tablet hooked up to power somehow? Or do you just remove to charge it?

This is pretty neat!!

This is a fantastic question. As of now, I am getting constant 12V power from the cigarette ligther source as shown here:



Once I get a backup car charger for the tablet, I am going to take it apart and solder a few wires to the positive and negative leads. I will tap into this 12V switched source, which is the stock phone harness. This will allow me to do exactly what I want to do, which is to have the tablet turn on automatically when the car turns on (I have an app that makes it so the screen remains on while it has power and turns off when it loses external power. The only problem is that I am getting some interference when I charge and play at the same time. I just purchased a ground loop isolator for 3.5 mm applications, so hopefully that will fix my problem. Here is a picture of the power source, which I have taped off now since I didn’t want to short out a fuse (ask me why I know that can be a problem):



Thanks to the folks at lumidock who gave me the idea (on their website) for the switched 12V source.

Here is a daylight photo of the home screen:



Here is a picture of the single DIN headunit in the glove box:



The wires look messy, right?



Not anymore! =) Now, as far as how I went about mounting the unit, I’ll try to describe what I did with some pictures here. Like I mentioned before, I took a Dremel grinding bit to hollow out the back of the Janus kit. Here are some pictures to demonstrate this:








If you’re wondering whether I used a cutout of a cupcake box to fashion the top of the bezel which covers the top of the bezel, the answer is yes…LOL. I also had to grind out some room for the auxiliary cable, shown in the picture below. Also, the bezel from the Janus kit has these metal rods sticking out, but with a tablet in place, it would not reach the mounting points, which I will show in a little bit here. So I bought some rubber stoppers and drilled holes in them. Then I bought a metal rod of similar diameter and used a Dremel cutting but to cut these metal pieces shown in the picture below. I put the rods into the opposite side of the rubber stoppers and I used an epoxy to bond everything together. FYI – epoxy smells TERRIBLE so do this outside if you are going to try this. This is shown below:



Now, for the actual mounting.



As you can see in the picture above, I put the 3M fasteners on the bezel and on the back of the tablet. I thought about getting a back case for the tablet and putting the fasteners on that, but really the only use I have for this tablet is in the car, so I didn’t mind putting them on the back. Then I used fasteners to hold the tablet in place, like this:



Remember the mounting points I referred to earlier? These are shown in the picture below. The metal mounting pieces that I made go into the rubber holes here, and this holds the whole system in place very nicely.



You can see the RCA cables and other wires behind here. Thank goodness the tablet covers this mess!

The navigation is so simple and nice using this. I just hold the search button and say, navigate to ____. I did Panera Bread here just as an example.



Then it brings up this screen, where I can pick my endpoint:



And here I am, ready to go to Panera Bread!



The navigation truly is seamless. Kudos to Google on this one. Here I am listening to some OneRepublic:



Some Linkin Park:



And here I am, watching some Dark Knight with blu-ray quality, for good measure. The pictures really don’t do the screen justice though.

[jamfool]

If I may, do not cut into the OEM harness, extend it, then make your own connections from this extension. Replacing an OEM harness is far more work that replacing an extension.
Good work nonetheless.

[faruqster]

If I may, do not cut into the OEM harness, extend it, then make your own connections from this extension. Replacing an OEM harness is far more work that replacing an extension.
Good work nonetheless.

Absolutely, and are you referring to the radio harness or the phone harness?

[jamfool]

Absolutely, and are you referring to the radio harness or the phone harness?

I am referring to this picture, looks like there is 2 cut MID wires from the OEM plug and also I see some other wires from the top left corner...

[faruqster]

I am referring to this picture, looks like there is 2 cut MID wires from the OEM plug and also I see some other wires from the top left corner...

Oh I see. Actually this is the phone harness. Typically I would do it the way you mentioned, but I didn't foresee using this harness ever again so I cut right into it. The MID harness I left untouched.

[jht3]

so your tablet has no issue connecting w/ GPS being inside your dash? same goes for the built-in mic i assume you are using to do voice search?

and those cig lighter USB adapters only put out 5V i think, not 12V. at least the two that i have work that way. my Thunderbolt only needs 5v. in my car i have the BMW flashlight to cig adapter in which I have one of these usb adapters. this give my acc switched power for my stuff.