# Nexus 7 Subaru Liberty Car Install - Completed!



## yorky321

Hey Guys thought I'd share my Nexus 7 install with you.

UPDATE: Was getting serious amounts of static/white noise over the RCA cable. Wasn't the cable (as i tested with my phone and had to issues) so I've ordered the BEHRINGER UCA202 USB DAC purely to eliminate any interference. I realise this DAC isnt the "highest quality" as I do own a Asus Xonar STX but hopefully it will fix my issues

Background info: 
I recently purchased my Subaru Liberty 2006 (MY07) 3.0R Spec B Manual after slaving away underground for about a year and was extremely excited and seriously happy with my decision. Thankfully it had already had a lot of work done to it in regards to the audio setup with the stock head-unit replaced with an after market Alpine CD-5030 along with the required $600 fascia , Amp in the boot powering the stock subwoofer and speakers in the door replaced.









So basically after contemplating purchasing an extremely expensive Pioneer double din head unit or buying an "App Radio" I decided both these options were either way too expensive for what they were or didn't fit my needs and or desires. Hence the start of this project.
I was going to do a piece by piece forum post with updates and pictures but I was too excited and end up getting it all done first whilst taking pictures along the way.

Planning:
Firstly i looked a lot of other nexus 7 installs and found out 2 things. Firstly I'd need a 2012 Nexus 7 Rooted with Timur's USB ROM and a Joycon EXR Steering wheel controller.
I wanted to have the steering wheel controls actually work since the previous owner had done the audio upgrade but had left the controls not working. I considered also creating a reversing camera using a USB webcam I had lying around but the Field of view was horrible so i decided against it.









Parts:
Nexus 7 with Timur's USB-ROM http://mehrvarz.github.io/nexus-7-usbrom/
Subaru 7" AV Panel Kit http://bit.ly/HENwJ7
Subaru Info Panel Relocation Kit http://bit.ly/1ew24ZO
JoyCon EXR Steering wheel controller http://bit.ly/17U0iOb
USB OTG Y-Cable http://bit.ly/1cK9ngn
4-port USB Hub (Random Belkin 4 port hub)

Cost:
Nexus 7 - $170 (I was lucky enough to find one on ebay "Used" that when arrived literally looked like it had never been touched)
Subaru 7" AV Panel Kit - $250
Subaru Info Panel Relocation Kit - $128 ( Extremely expensive for what it actually is but thats JDM for you)
Joycon EXR - ~$56 inc Postage to Aus
USB OTG Y Cable - $14.90
Misc equipment like a new soldering iron , wire , solder etc etc was around $100

Total = Approx $700

For all the parts to arrive from Japan , Korea , Australia and so on it took about 4-5 weeks in total and it was a LONNNGGG 5 weeks of waiting patiently for the gear to finally arrive and for me to make a start. But finally they arrived.

























The idea was relatively simple. Put tablet into new fascia , give it power ,plug accessories in and off I go. But nothing is ever that simple and the project ended up taking quite a bit longer than I expected. The thing that took the most time was RESEARCH. 
Finding information as to which wires out of the million that were there were for Steering wheel controls was mission impossible. Thankfully with help from some guys on Club.Liberty and SVXdc from Legacy GT forum I was able to pin point the two wires under the steering column that were the signal wires for the steering wheel controls.

















With the wires soldered and extended through to where the tablet was going to sit I was able to plug in the Joycon EXR and test/program the unit using a laptop. This process was relatively painless , the program just took some getting used to. Basically all that had to be done was to detect the 6 buttons and drag and drop what action I wanted them to do.









I then had the idea that if my tablet was to lose all power (become flat) , I would not be able to turn it back on again as it would just sit in that "charging" state with the picture of the battery. Therefore I decided to have a go at extending the power button and externalizing it.
The issue was that it was really really small and the soldered didnt seem to want to stick it it. I eventually managed to get a decent contact ( well what i thought was decent) and it work flawlessly. Until of course I moved it with even the slightest amount of force causing the solder to just come right off.
After about the 5th attempt at this I had in fact managed to melt the minuscule traces on the ribbon cable and broke the whole thing haha. I then ordered a new one off Ebay for $5 but being that it was from America , it cost me $23 for postage :? 
Any how here is a picture of what it looked like when it worked.









When the new ribbon cable arrived I decided to give up on that idea for now and possibly revisit it later on if I had either A. Learnt how to solder properly or B. Had another spare as a back up :lol:

Mounting it wasn't very hard, maybe a little fiddly but I used some hot glue for test fitting purposes and soon enough had a good enough position to start drilling some holes









It was shortly there after that i realised the Micro USB port and 3.5mm Jack were in horrible positions (Ran directly into one of the vents). I had 2 options either A. Find some right angle connectors that fit B. Drill holes into the air vent and run the cables through them. 
Thankfully I had a brain wave and decided to take apart the tablet again and have a look at the connectors themselves. It appeared that they too were just flexible ribbon cables underneath the stereo speaker bar. So I removed the screws holding down the speaker bar and Ribbon cable , lifted the connectors up in a right angle position and put the speaker bar back in place. 









I then marked up some slots on the back panel (case) and cut them out forming small gaps for the connectors to poke out of.

















The connectors felt a bit loose and wobbly so I cut up some mesh from an old 5.25" drive bay cover and used it to screw the original screws into. I then hot glued and super glued them down to make sure they wont move.









After that all I had to do was Re test the Joycon , Test the USB Hub , Memory sticks and made sure the USB ROM functionality was working correctly. For Internet connectivity I will be using my HTC ONE via Bluetooth tethering , Wifi Hotspot or most likely via a direct USB cable as I dont want to drain my phone battery as I drive.

















Moving the Information panel wasn't hard at all , I just followed the picture instructions that came with the kit (although the writing was in Japanese).









Now all that was left to do was connect the RCA cables to the AUX Input in the head unit, plug everything in and hope for the best. 
Here is some final pictures.


















Shout out to everyone who gave me advice , tips and tricks and especially Timur for creating such an epic Kernel. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me or contact email me at [email protected] and ill try help you as best I can. Cheers


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## markj338

Hi mate nice stuff. I am interested, how is sound quality compared with the old unit? Because the old one is a dedicated car headunit and this one is well... a tegra tablet. Any problems so far? Thanks for the inspiration


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## mad212

What power supply are you using? I'm in the planning stage of a fixed car install and am unsure what to do about power.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk


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## yorky321

markj338 said:


> Hi mate nice stuff. I am interested, how is sound quality compared with the old unit? Because the old one is a dedicated car headunit and this one is well... a tegra tablet. Any problems so far? Thanks for the inspiration


Thanks Bud, Audio quality is exactly the same. Its just connected to the Headunit Via Aux In, therefore its just an audio signal that the headunit would process exactly the same be that a CD , USB or connection via bluetooth. The only issue is for some reason I know have interference through the 3.5mm headphone jack of the tablet which produces a lot of "white noise" , hence the purchase of the USB DAC which will hopefully eliminate that issue.



mad212 said:


> What power supply are you using? I'm in the planning stage of a fixed car install and am unsure what to do about power.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk


Good question. I was planning on purchasing one of the 12-5v 3Amp DC-DC inverter but they are quite expensive for what they are. Since I'm not using GPS, Bluetooth or Wifi at the moment i figure a 2.1amp Cigarette adapter should be fine. The kernel is amazing at extending the battery life, I had my tablet on for more than 10 days without the battery going flat ( sitting on a work bench not plugged in or being used). If i run into any issues with power though im sure ill end up going down the DC-DC inverter route.


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