Stereo delete

[blind]

I had a Pioneer Avic F700BT double din for the past 3 years or so...



I just sold it because I want to change things up, the UI was a bit clunky and slow for my tastes (even with custom 3.1 firmware with several hacks), the bluetooth wasn't reliable with my iphone 3gs, often I would have to manually turn the bluetooth off/on the deck to get it to connect.

I don't need nav, as I have the tomtom app on my iphone which is killer.

so I started thinking...what do I really need in the car?

Volume control with 2 + 1 channel line outs to my amps for the speakers
Bluetooth receiver that streams bluetooth a2dp stereo + handsfree calling with a mic
Charger/dock for my phone


Back in ~2000 I built a "carputer" in my old truck, and it was great other than (again) I hated the interface, I had a small keyboard mounted on the back of the sunvisor, and had no screen to really see what was going on.

My phone can replace the carputer



I've begun finding parts...

http://www.amazon.com/Arkon-15-Inch-...7474471&sr=8-9
Mount for the phone /device that will play music (doesn't have to be an iphone, can be ipod touch, android phone, windows mobile phone, etc)
I will likely be bolting this inside the dash where the factory mach460 front amp bolted, and the phone will sit in the double din opening.

http://www.amazon.com/Clarion-EQS746...d=711A0SHS87NS
1/2 din EQ for volume control, mounting in the bottom of the double din opening.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F4U037t...d=711A0SHS87NS
Bluetooth audio streaming device with external mic that I'll mount above the steering wheel probably. No visible wires, I'll hardwire the unit inside the dash.

if I get really crazy, I can throw one of these in the double din perfectly -
http://store.mp3car.com/Preassembled..._p/mon-072.htm
and display what's on the iphone screen. Unfortunately technology isn't to the point that I want yet, Ideally I'd love to control the iphone using a multi-touch touch screen, and while technology demo's of this have been done they are beyond my ability's.



My wife thinks I'm crazy for wanting to do this, btw.

[Brakelate]

so I started thinking...what do I really need in the car?

A new pair of Jeans?

[Julie GT07CS]

A new pair of Jeans?

*Snort* Everyone can't wear leather pants like you do, Jay.

[Julie GT07CS]

Kevin, one of the things I admire about you is your ability to tear your car to pieces and put it back together again totally changed up! Cool ideas...go for it!

And Carli is right, you are nuts! hahhhahahaha!

[Brakelate]

Yeah, this sounds like an INSANE undertaking to me. But, I can barely plug a socket in the wall. I would just be crapping that it would all fit and sync together, etc.

But, if you could pull it off, it would be amazing.




BTW, technically they are not pants. They are assless chaps.

[Julie GT07CS]

Yeah, this sounds like an INSANE undertaking to me. But, I can barely plug a socket in the wall. I would just be crapping that it would all fit and sync together, etc.

But, if you could pull it off, it would be amazing.




BTW, technically they are not pants. They are assless chaps.

I demand pics.

Sorry Kevin LOL.


And Kevin CAN do this and make it work, he's a friggin genius.

[blind]

Lol, luckily I already have a kenwood 75watt x 2 amp powering my front JL audio 6.5" component speakers (tweaters in the factory mach460 pods), and an MTX 300watt amp powering the 10" sub in the trunk, so setting this up to be functional is pretty trivial.

The clarion will be a huge upgrade in SQ as it has 7volt preamp outputs to go to my amps, my pioneer avic only had 4volt outputs (which is high for a headunit, most are 2.5volt).

[blind]

parts for v1.0 of this project have been ordered, hopefully everything should arrive before next weekend

Went with-
Kensington LiquidAux mount + steering wheel remote controls
http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Liq...7656608&sr=8-2

Belkin Bluetooth handsfree + streaming device
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product


Clarion EQ for volume control


sorry, no new pants, but jeans with holes in them are a style right?

If I don't end up liking the kensington dock, I plan to get a proclip kit, but unfortunately instead of being on blow-out clearance for $20 shipped, a proclip setup runs $110...though the quality appears to be very high on those kits.

[blind]

in case you can't really think how this is going to look, here's something similar that another person did with using an XM radio tuner as the sole audio input device in their mustang -




And here's a couple videos from 2009 that I bookmarked, that gave me the idea way back then
http://vimeo.com/3138900
http://vimeo.com/3139145

[SVTRonDogg]

Seems like an interesting setup.

I probably would have just replaced with a newer model Double DIN sans the NAV + Blutooth adappy. But I am of simple mind.

[blind]

Seems like an interesting setup.

I probably would have just replaced with a newer model Double DIN sans the NAV + Blutooth adappy. But I am of simple mind.

I played with a bunch, and nothing on the market is lag free and the interfaces were designed by engineers, not users. It's literally 7 menu's deep to change most settings!

I looked a lot at the JVC XR-810 double din, but it has 2.5v pre-out RCA's...makes the amped speakers sound horrible

it's 2011, my phone has a better interface than a dedicated stereo, it's a faster computer in my pocket than I had going through high school. Drop it into a dock when I get in the car, and it's ready to do anything I want.

[SVTRonDogg]

I played with a bunch, and nothing on the market is lag free and the interfaces were designed by engineers, not users. It's literally 7 menu's deep to change most settings!

I looked a lot at the JVC XR-810 double din, but it has 2.5v pre-out RCA's...makes the amped speakers sound horrible

it's 2011, my phone has a better interface than a dedicated stereo, it's a faster computer in my pocket than I had going through high school. Drop it into a dock when I get in the car, and it's ready to do anything I want.

Where's a good spot to mount an Amp in these cars btw? I have a pile of new stereo gear I've been meaning to swap over to the 03.

On my 98 I mounted the Amp and other junk on an MDF board with angle brackets to the trunk floor somewhere, but this time I only have an amp. Keeping it simple.

[blind]

I bolted my amp for the front speakers to the drivers side rearseat back, the folding portion. My sub amp is bolted to the sub box and fits in the spare tire well, so I remove that as a unit before I go to the track / autox days.

I thought about bolting the amp for the front speakers where the mach460 rear box used to mount, but I've gotten used to how easy it is to fit large items in the trunk with that box taken out, haha

[Glenn_03Cobra]

Hope you're taking pics as you go along

[blind]

so here's before -


And here's the process of setting up to v1.0 of my project.
Dash gutted-

Steering wheel controls for the iphone/ipod when it's in the dock

Prepping the EQ, sub out and front out in my case, it also has 2 sets of RCA inputs and a button on the front to switch between main and aux.

Power/ground/Key on power for the EQ, key on power is quick spliced to my amp turn on lead, the splices are just temporary I will be going back and solder/heatshrinking everything.

Moment of truth, the dock charges the phone, and can rotate from landscape to portrait. Sound is nice and clear.

Navigon turn by turn nav app, can't tell but pandora is still playing in the background.

Here's the completion of v1.0

-bluetooth mic/controls on the dash bezel, T'd into the line-in on the EQ with the iphone/ipod dock line-out so sound comes through both. Luckily the iphone is smart enough that phone calls come through the bluetooth line, and music/nav comes through the dock line-out for better SQ.

Next up is hiding the wires, and building a fill plate for the hole in the dash.

So far I like it much better than any headunit I've ever used.

[blind]

In case you're worried about losing your am/fm tuner....with the "tunein" app on the iphone I've got all my local am/fm stations as well as any around the world to choose from, and the app displays album art with artist/song title on screen as well. It's pretty awesome I gotta say.

[Julie GT07CS]

Kevin, I am surprised you didn't fabricate up your own solid front panel to go over the new stereo set-up!! I am going to call you McGyver from now on lol.

[blind]

I have the material to and will likely be doing that today, these pictures show a functional system but it is by no means done.

[Powershift03]

I liked the clean, factory, look of your old double din setup. But, cool you were able to build the new system using your cell. Nice work.

[blind]

I agree with that, but honestly the new setup sounds 100x better, it's faster and easier to change what I'm listening to from a huge array of options, mp3's, pandora, intune for any am/fm station (with artist/song name + album art displayed), podcasts, sirius, etc etc. Plus the nav software on the phone has live traffic not only displayed, but the GPS routes around bad traffic in realtime.

Once they come out with a 7" touchscreen that can control the smartphone, I think you'll start seeing more and more people following my setup, there's no reason to have a crappy stereo other than for volume control IMO. The same thing can be done with a factory stereo if you have a PAC aux-in adapter. The whole key is mounting your device in an easy to access location, mine I can control with my hand resting on the shifter in any gear, and the phone just needs to be taken out of my pocket, screen unlocked, and dropped into the mount, then for the duration of the drive the screen is on and doesn't go to sleep as it's charging.

I drove to fontana and back and did the autox with this setup Sunday and it was great.

and whenever you park and get out, you take the stereo with you so it can't be stolen

[blind]

Here's the start of my filler plate



it's 1/4" birch plywood sprayed with 3 coats of high build sandable black primer, then sanded smooth to remove the wood grain, and 1 light coat of duplicolor interior semi gloss black interior dye/paint, the same that I used on the double din bezel so it matched the black on my dash (double din bezel's are only in 01+ new edge's and those are charcoal - not black).

now just need to measure and trim out the opening for the EQ at the top, and then decide if I'm keeping the single din pocket or not...hmm

I like having the pocket as it's a convenient place to throw my wallet. But I think it's fairly ugly.

[Julie GT07CS]

Yeah, I had added one of those pocket things in the Exploder to take up a hole and it's worthless. Not deep enough and stuff falls out.

It's looking good, Kevin!

[blind]

this pic shows how it will look in my car 99% of the time. I'm only going to use the dock on longer drives. With the belkin bluetooth (button/mic on the dash) when I get in all I have to do is start the car, hit that button and my pandora resumes playback. I'm really happy with it.

[Julie GT07CS]

Wow, that looks good! I knew you could pull it off!