Hi all!


First of all, English is not my native tounge so ignore all misspellings.




It is time to make that upgrade I have thought about since I bought her.
The radiois hoplessly outdated, no possibillity to play anything else than tapes!


I know you can butcher it to get a line in but that is way too easy.
This Project is about to replace the whole console.


I will post as I come along and if anyone have any questions or want to help me that is greate. Just dont tell me not to do it.


The goal is to mount a tablet instead of all the buttons and radio. I found out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 is a greate fit.





A Little butchering of the hole is needed so I bought Another center console on eBay because I would like to be able to restore the car if i feel like it later. I thought of doing a frame for the tablet and move out the leather to match the new frame malking it look as it was intended.
This will be done once I recieve the new console.


The radio will be replaced by an amp connected to the Tablet to be able to play whatever I feel like. I have purchased a dvb-T/FM reciever usb dongle to enable listening to the radio. An adaptor cable between the amps DIN outlet and the JAGs speakerconnector is orderd, but it is actually for a Mazda but as the connector is the same it is just a matter of moving the wires to the correct places.


I have also purchased a nice Little USB card from JoyCon to translate the steeringwheel signals to "letters" to be able to controll the Tablets media functions.


I will mould a new piece instead of the coinholder where I will fit the Hazard and traction buttons as I do want to have them as real buttons. I will try find nice ones in the junkyard from any make that i like.
If anyone have a 3D model of this piece that i could put into my cad and then just 3dprint it would be Lovely.

To Control all the buttons and stuff with the Tablet I will use an Arduino and I guess I have to make a program for Android to Control it. But there is a ton of examles everywhere so that is not realy an issue.

I have also bought one of those small Bluetooth dongels for ODBII to be able to show cool stuff on the tablet. I hope it works as I read some of them do not.

The biggest hill as I see it is the ACC controler. It is cryptically connected with just 7 wires and uses some serial Communication. If anyone knows what this is I will gladly recieve the info.

Also if anyone would like to donate the plastic frame holding all the buttons and the radio, I will pay the shipping cost.

Whish me luck!

 

Very interesting, I just converted to the 3 gauge this winter and removed the nav since it's useless and I just wasn't into some alternatives. This would be very nice, please take / document your process. If one could get function on the tablet for some buttons that would be truly cool, whiteXKR may have some valuable info as well since he seems to understand the electrical on these systems. Good Luck

 

here's and idea for your switches....

 

As this is my greatest concern I start with this.

I pulled the controller out and opened it to see inside. It is made in japan.

Some reverse engeneering of the connectors and then I hooked up to my arduino and downloaded an allready made logical analyzer.




A bonus image of my mancave.


This is what I Think the sender/reciever circuitry looks like.



I solderd wires to the PCB to connect to the arduino do log the signals.


I have difficulty interpete the signals as they are not anything I recognize imideatly. The Clock signal ticks on at about 50hz, the B+ signal is some type of information and the data signals are compleatly empty. But as I said, it seems I have some work left there.
If anyone have any ideas, please advice.

 

Thanks!
That looks cool, but I do not have the obsolete navi but the 3 gauges and I like the looks of them so I do not want to take them away.

 

It's all Greek or in your case Swedish to me, wish you luck with the project will be interesting to follow.

 

Good luck. You are ambitious. I did a car pc install in my xk8, with a trunk mounted windows 7 and later windows 8 pc running Centrufuse front end. I used the joycon unit too, nice product. But after about 2 years of reasonably good performance with the carpc, I got tired of some of the buggy things and ripped it all out and installed a JVC double din unit, which in the end works out much better for my needs, and is solid/stable. Some members on the Centrafuse forum were toying with tablet integration, and there were frequent requests for Centrafuse to develop a front end for android, but I think they never did. Anyhow, good luck. Unfortunately, I can't offer any technical help, as you are leaps and bounds beyond my capability.

 

Kind of sorry I didn't move all of the switches now. Changed the cup holders and arm rest while I was at it.

 

That is one neat cupholder assy.
Where did you find that?


/D

 

Some very ingenious work demonstrated in this thread. Incorporating new technology is impressive enough but making it look as if it belongs in the vehicle is the really clever bit.

Graham

 

These are from Santana (makes them for hot rods): Billet Cup Holder for almost any project! | Santanainteriors.com

 

Very cool!
Always wanted to try an ipad mini here too.
But if I do, I think I'll keep buttons in place, or maybe just a bit recessed to be able to place the tablet in front in a specific case/holder to keep access.

Some idea here maybe?
Fifield Fab Custom Car Audio - iPad AND iPad AIR KITS
iPad Car Mounts and Installation

 

It came just Before easer Closes the whole country down. Now I do not need to mount the old taperecorder to listen to Music.


A nice Little amp, rated at 4x80w and only 1500sek. I did not want to go all teenager on the car and redo Everything but to use the original system as far as possible. Here it is with the Mazda adaptor.



Then it was only to move the pins in the adaptor to match the audio harness and the standard colour code scheme. Feel free to use this photo as a guide as it is correct. The Red and Orange are powersupply and should be twisted together. The ground in the harness is not used as I run the amps ground directly to a chassie ground bolt.



Then it is Childs play to mount it in the car. I connected it to my phone and tested it. It plays quite well and at maximum output there is no distortion. I will do this nicer when that time comes..



The volume is lower than the original device and that may be an issue when driving top down. I did not bother to test that as I got caught in a hale storm. It is cool to bling your cab with Diamonds..

 

Hi all!


As the May 1 in Sweden is a 4 day holliday I have some time to tinker with this poject.


So far I have identified most of the communication protocol used by the ACC and managed to blow 3 differnt fuses in the process, causing the alarm to go heywire, refusing to start the car, killing all the interior lighting and turning off the heat. But thanks to the electrical drawibngs and the search function in the forum it was quit an easy fix.


the ACC is a 28 bit SPI BUS (never mind) and I have tried to identify them as follows but that might be totally wrong.



Anyways.
I made a small Circuit board to adapt the ACC bus to the arduinos TTL levels and I also attached a standard IO shield to simulate the buttons below the ACC. The arduino platform is an easy tool to use as a less advanced Communication adapter or just for plain fun.


I recycled 2 old 12->5 volt adapters for some obsolete phones to use to Power the lot. An USB hub and a small relay board was purchased and a lot of other small stuff.


I made this harness and all of the boards will be shrinkwrapped once I know it works.



The tablet will not charge at the same time as it is running the USB hub. It has something to do with the standard of USB OTG, so what I do is that I connect it to both "allways" power, and ignition Power as on the amplifier. then the small relay board Close to the tablet will charge the tablet when the ignition is off and connect the USB devices when ignition is on.


This allows me to run the tablet on battery while the car is running (about 4-5 hours max) and recharge while in the garage. The good thing about this is that the tablet is allways on, allthoug the screen is turned off while charging, so I can connect to the car via 3G and find it with GPS or what ever fun stuff I Think off in the future. The tablet has a 3G simcard slot.
Charging is draining about 0.8A of the car untill the pad is fully charged and then it is allmost zero.


The small card with the black and White Cables attached is the joycon card that interfaces with the steering Wheel controlls and acts like a keyboard, sending apropriate commands to the tablet.


I also made this program to controll the arduino and cheat the ACC to Think I actually still have the real panel attached. Does it not look classy?



So apart from verifying that Everything works this weekend, I am hoping to do some interiour fitting to make it all fit nicely in the console and get that factory look.

I also will remove the ashtray and cigaret lighter and try to fit some kind of cupholder there instead, so if anyone has any idea about that please let me know.

 

Very cool!

 

Will you still have access to the physical buttons on the tablet? You will need these when it crashes.

Brilliant stuff working out the ac protocols BTW.

I looked at using a tablet to replace my outdated OEM satnav, but went with a Garmin 5" satnav in the end for simplicity. It will be very interesting to see how you get on with this much more complex install.

Oh and if you have CATS suspension, you absolutely have to get the Arduino to control that as well.

 

Great work!

 

I am speechless in admiration.
This sentence ..................
So far I have identified most of the communication protocol used by the ACC and managed to blow 3 different fuses in the process, causing the alarm to go haywire, refusing to start the car, killing all the interior lighting and turning off the heat. But thanks to the electrical drawings and the search function in the forum it was quite an easy fix.

......................... is to me, a bit like a brain surgeon saying that he had a bit of a problem moving the cerebellum out of the way without damaging the hypothalamus or paralysing the patient, but thanks to a picture on diybrainsurgery.com and a bit of help from the lobotomy forum, all seems to be going well ! Oh - and it was child's play putting the optic nerve back after the little mishap !!
I never cease to be amazed by the expertise and knowledge of fellow XK8/R owners.
Well done that man !!

 

Hi all.


I didn't come as long as I hoped this weekend, bu one selldom does. but now my lawnmoer is running again.


I managed to verify that the button row is working but not the ACC. I had to order a connector for this one as my home made one just was not up to the job.
These guys have the most things you can imagine.
RS Components International


Anyways. I took the car apart and soldered my harness Power cables to my home made stereo connector and that turned out realy nice.



Then after the test I stripped the fake leather from the new center console and with a woodem mockup of my tablet (it is oak, NOT apple) and a heatgun I reshaped the hole to fit my tablet. It worked ok. I am not 100% satisfied with the result but I leave it for now.



Now I'm off to work a week abroad, so no more tinkering but hopefully the connectors has arrived until next weekend.


Oh, I tested the joycon card with the steeringwheel Controls and it works realy cool, allthough the joycon Explorer program you use to set it up is so cryptical to use that even MIT would get gray hairs..


Happy driving to you all!

 

I concur.