06 M35, extra space inside the upper dash?

[joekitch]

im looking to do some rather drastic mods with the m35 (dont own one yet, this is future planning)
one of them being an OEM-looking tablet install into the dash, in front of the standard screen (with a motor to raise it so i can still access the screen)

question is, how much spare room is back there?
how hard is it to remove the dash, or just pieces of the dash?
how compliant will the electricals be to modification? like if i graft a USB line off of some 12v accessory-on line inside the dash, to power the tablet

[svard75]

I've seen something similar done but using a mac mini instead of a tablet. Issue with a tablet is you can't feed video back into it for your OEM screen. Having a motorized contraption that lifts the tablet out of the way to see the OEM screen is not nice IMO. The parts required to build this would definitely require you to hack up that nice dash of yours. Why not buy this http://tvandnav2go.com/home/73-nissan-i ... rface.html then play around with either a miniPC or mac mini and a bluetooth keyboard/mouse. Or you could have a virtual keyboard appear on the screen and just use the mouse. If you have the NAV touchscreen perhaps tvandnav2go could interface the touch technology with a USB cable then just plug it into the mac mini. This is what I would do to make a nice clean install and still have it look OEM. Good luck with your shopping.

[TDot]

Agreed. That's what I did. Easier and cleaner...unless you are simply in love with the tablet apps. Interfacing the USB cable for touchscreen to the computer is complicated, but it can be done. One thing you have to be wary about with this as well is ground hum displaying on the screen, so you'll want to get a good vid hum isolator...not the generic audio ones. They are more expensive.

[joekitch]

im specifically shooting for an android tablet, specifically because of the android ecosystem and also so i can utilize the "android app inventor" to design a simple car control app and splash screen. i gots big plans yo.

this is using a nexus 7 by the way, smaller screen

i wont be using the standard screen much at all, except for checking on climate control status and the occasional messing with settings, and i can easily do a hinge-type rather than raise-type actuator to make things easier.

now, i know that you can do HDMI-out on most android tablets using certain cables, and it MIGHT be possible to make a bluetooth-capable touchscreen layer to put over the standard nav screen, but honestly that's more trouble than its worth.

[joekitch]

actually, it looks like someone did something similar on mp3car
http://www.mp3car.com/show-off-your-pro ... puter.html
and it seems like the upper dash does have a good bit of cavities inside it, but not many large areas. if i want to mount the tablet in front of the factory screen, i will not be able to push the factory screen back at all