DIY: Portable GPS / Navigation Hardwired Install

[ImStricken06]

i love the stock head-unit's bluetooth quality so swapping the head-unit isnt something i wanted to do.
wifey got me a garmin gps for Christmas so i sized it up in all the possible locations, and this is the best spot.

here are my photo's:
(sorry for the crappy blackberry pics- but thats all i had at the moment)

took the dash apart to run all the wires in the back. (i hate wires cluttering up the interior.)



i went to radio shack and got a 1cig lighter male connection that splits into 2 usable female connections. i just cut one female connection off, stripped the wires (wire with white line is the POSITIVE) and stripped the wires from behind the OEM cigarette lighter port and piggy-backed the wires, applied plenty electrical tape, and secure it. this gives me a power-port behind the dash to use the GPS plug. i didnt want to cut it, for warranty reasons, plus it had that traffic updater, and you know never know.




then i ran into the house, updated the maps, and designed this image. i then installed the image into the GPS unit and made it the loading screen as the unit boots up when the car is turned on. i like as much OEM look as possible so this ended up being a really cool idea.



i ended up drilling 2 small holes in the GPS mount, and screwed the mount right on the air-vent cowl. This way the mount is permanent along with the wiring that is running behind the dashboard. all i have to do is pop in the gps, or remove it = and the mount & wire stay put.




as soon as you turn the car off; the GPS gets the signal from the cigarette light plug i installed that power is cut, and it automatically begins to power down. (you can cancel that it gives you 15seconds to cancel the power-down)

[Qashqai]

How did you connect the wires from female plug to the car's electric wires? I know you use the existing wires for the 12V outlet of the Rogue, put which color? how? where? Can you please give more details. Do I have to remove the AC - Heater etc part as well? . I am planning to hard wire my TomTom GPS as well, but I never screw the mount to the plastic bezel around the vent . I found some plastic discs; one side is glossy for suction mount of the unit and the other side has foam tape. I attached the disk over the center speaker grill (my Rogue has no center speaker).

[ImStricken06]

the center of the cigarette lighter plus is the positive.
the outside cylinder is the negative.

pop this panel off and you will see red(+) / neg(-)

[hgclim]

@ImStrickenL Excellent job on the hardwire. Do you plan to put on sort of cover on your GPS unit to give it a more discreet appearance (so that you won't have to remove the unit)?

I just completed my gps hardwire this weekend.



I also routed a few wires (12V power for GPS, 3.5mm for Pioneer AUX input, composite AV cables GPS, USB extension for Pioneer) to the armrest storage.

[hgclim]

the center of the cigarette lighter plus is the positive.
the outside cylinder is the negative.

pop this panel off and you will see red(+) / neg(-)

Here's an image of wires you need to splice:

[ImStricken06]

@ImStrickenL Excellent job on the hardwire. Do you plan to put on sort of cover on your GPS unit to give it a more discreet appearance (so that you won't have to remove the unit)?

to be honest, i seldom use my GPS. only when im in NYC cruising around entertaining "HER". lol
so it sits in the arm rest all the time until i need it. no need to cover the clip.
im tinted all around so its tough to see it anyway

[hgclim]

@ImStrickenL Excellent job on the hardwire. Do you plan to put on sort of cover on your GPS unit to give it a more discreet appearance (so that you won't have to remove the unit)?

to be honest, i seldom use my GPS. only when im in NYC cruising around entertaining "HER". lol
so it sits in the arm rest all the time until i need it. no need to cover the clip.
im tinted all around so its tough to see it anyway]

I plan to use leave my GPS on the dash on a more permanent basis as I plan to install a backup camera and use the GPS screen as a monitor.

Something like this will be nice:


I started this thread earlier to discuss ideas on how I can expand my dash with a factory look.

[ImStricken06]

I plan to install a backup camera and use the GPS screen as a monitor.

and how do you plan on doing that?

[hgclim]

and how do you plan on doing that?

My Magellan GPS unit supports video input which is activated when it detects a video signal.

For the camera, I plan to install either:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7KIkgiOfgI[/youtube]

or this.


There are many versions for the Qashqai which should fit our Rogue.

I already have the composite input routed to the center armrest storage. I'll have to find a way to route the signal wire from camera to the same location.

[Hugo L.]

Like many or most of us, I wanted a GPS in the Rogue. However, I hate having something obstruct my view in the middle of the dash/windshield, so I prefer having the GPS mounted to the left.

But I also dislike having a cord going from there to the 12v outlet.

Therefore, I did like I did on my other car : install a new 12v outlet under the dash and route the cord through the dash.

First, I used a piggyback-type fuse or «add-a-circuit», which I plugged into the 12volt fuse slot:



I then screwed a 12v outlet (which I bought for like 5$) on the trim just below the dash.



Here is the 12v cord actually plugged into the socket :



You the have to remove the A-pillar trim, which is a bit of a b****, since the A-pillar is held by weird clips that you really have to yank out of the body.

I then used an electrician's fish-tape (a hanger would do) to route the cord through the opening.



Another shot :



So it's clean, unobtrusive, and my 12v outlet in the cernter console is free to use with a cell phone charger or whatnot, all for under 20$ and a few minutes of my time.

[ImStricken06]

great write-up! thank you for this. i changed the title a tad so its easier for people to find in the future. very nice, clean work. i like that. i too hate tons of wires clogging up the center, and having a the center 12v port available.


here was my write-up
diy-garmin-gps-navigation-hardwired-t554066.html

[Hugo L.]

Thanks for the title edit man, good idea!

I remember reading your installation thread, and figured that if no one had thought of hardwiring it to the left of the steering wheel, I might as well share some DIY stuff with fellow members.

[ImStricken06]

Thanks for the title edit man, good idea!

I remember reading your installation thread, and figured that if no one had thought of hardwiring it to the left of the steering wheel, I might as well share some DIY stuff with fellow members.

awesome write-up. im sure plenty will use it in the years to come.

[idelgado782]

Hey guys I am trying to hard wire an additional cigarette lighter adapter to mount behind the dash to hide my charger because I have a dock for my phone mounted on my dash. I bought the add a fuse kit from Auto zone. I crimped the red wire from the cig lighter adapter from radioshack to the red wire from the add a fuse kit. I then ran into issues. Please keep in mind guys I'm still new to all of this. I don't know where to connect the ground (black) wire to???? Also my next question is I wanted to hard wire it to the fuse box by the drivers side and u don't know which fuse I should I use!!! I have a 2011 model. The cig lighter adapter says it's 10a. I don't want to blow anything out. Can you guys please give me some guidance!! It is much appreciated.

[idelgado782]

Also do I need to add an additional fuse if I'm going to use the place of another one? So should there be two fuses in the add a fuse kit??

[Hugo L.]

First of all, the black wire needs to be grounded.

So you just need to find a suitable screw under the dash. I think I grounded to one of the screws that's securely screwed into a piece of metal. You just have to avoid a screw that holds a plastic part.

Generally, add-a-fuse kits include various fuses (5A, 7.5A, 10A, 15A, etc...). The kit has two slots on it. Since you plug the add-a-fuse into an existing fuse slot, from which slot you obviously removed the original fuse, you then have two fuses to use : the original one, and the one provided with the kit. Make sure you don't use one rated higher that whatever slot you are using.

So if it says 10A, use that, no more, no less.

[ImStricken06]

this is what you bought, correct?


lets just clear somethings up.
fuse box: always positive/red/+/power/hot
anything metal on the car: negative/-/black
make sure your car is off. its even better to unplug the battery if you can.

your going to plug that fuse into an empty slot in the fuse block.
that red wire coming out of the fuse piece is going to go to the HOT/POSITIVE/+/RED wire of your new extra cigarette lighter port that your trying to add.

the black wire of the new extra cigarette lighter port that your trying to add is going to go to ANYTHING metal on the car. everything on the car is negative. so find something that is a screw, bolt, etc - and slightly loosen it. strip off about 1-2inches of the black insulation of the negative/-/black/ wire from the extra cigarette lighter port, and wrap it around that now loosened bolt that you unscrewed. make it nice and tight by twisting the wire & pigtailing it around the bolt. now screw in that bolt, while holding the wire nice and tight. (try not to leave to much exposed wire. tape it with electrical tape if needed-or simply wrap more of the exposed wire around the loosened bolt.)

your new extra cigarette light is now ready to be used.
(PS: Hugo L., i merged your & my thread so there is more info all in one place for future visitors.)

[idelgado782]

Thank you so much guys. I woke up and went straight to it! Yes imstricken that's the kit I have. I purchased the 10 amp one and the first problem and main problem I was having was that I needed to purchase additional fuses. I only put the original one from the car and wasn't adding an extra fuse to power the car charger! Doh!!! I went to radioshack picked up a pack plugged it in put the ground to metal and voila the charger turned on!! Success!! Thank you so much for your help on this guys!!!

[ImStricken06]

Thank you so much guys. I woke up and went straight to it! Yes imstricken that's the kit I have. I purchased the 10 amp one and the first problem and main problem I was having was that I needed to purchase additional fuses. I only put the original one from the car and wasn't adding an extra fuse to power the car charger! Doh!!! I went to radioshack picked up a pack plugged it in put the ground to metal and voila the charger turned on!! Success!! Thank you so much for your help on this guys!!!

thats great. take some pics, and post them up for others to see your set up

[idelgado782]

Thank you so much guys. I woke up and went straight to it! Yes imstricken that's the kit I have. I purchased the 10 amp one and the first problem and main problem I was having was that I needed to purchase additional fuses. I only put the original one from the car and wasn't adding an extra fuse to power the car charger! Doh!!! I went to radioshack picked up a pack plugged it in put the ground to metal and voila the charger turned on!! Success!! Thank you so much for your help on this guys!!!

thats great. take some pics, and post them up for others to see your set up

Yes i will definitely do that either today or tomorrow. Also I'm going to post up a thread for my install of Appradio2 in the car. Keep an eye out guys! Loving my rogue more and more everyday!

[ImStricken06]

Yes i will definitely do that either today or tomorrow. Also I'm going to post up a thread for my install of Appradio2 in the car. Keep an eye out guys! Loving my rogue more and more everyday!

is that the pioneer appradio!?? had my eye on that!

sounds good mate! but dont keep us in suspense to long now lolol/jk

[Hugo L.]

Sounds good, happy to be of some assistance. It kinda sucks that the add-a-fuse kit you bought came without a fuse.

Here they come with various fuses.

Anyway, it works now, you learned something new and saved a bunch of cash doing so.

That's what internet forums are all about.

[idelgado782]

Yes i will definitely do that either today or tomorrow. Also I'm going to post up a thread for my install of Appradio2 in the car. Keep an eye out guys! Loving my rogue more and more everyday!

is that the pioneer appradio!?? had my eye on that!

sounds good mate! but dont keep us in suspense to long now lolol/jk

Alright guys!!! I created my thread for the appradio 2 install. Go check it out and let me know what you think!! Thank you so much for the help!

[doctorq714]

I plan to use leave my GPS on the dash on a more permanent basis as I plan to install a backup camera and use the GPS screen as a monitor.

Something like this will be nice:


I started this thread earlier to discuss ideas on how I can expand my dash with a factory look.

Anyone ever find anything like this made for the Rogue?

[Leo2005]

Hard wire V1 to the fuse box (same idea as GPS):



But using a fuse tap: