[Blackeye_Elmo]

Ive had an in-car computer in all my cars so the I30 wasn't going to be left out. Im broke now Ive bought the car so I had to do this one on a budget. Also as Ive tinted the windows I wanted a reversing camera to make sure I dont clip the back of the car at at any point. Ive ordered the reversing camera, the one that fits in the licence plate light socket but sadly it hasnt arrived yet so I will have to fit that part later on. It was only £10 of ebay from Hong Kong, so worth waiting a week or two for it to arrive.

Please excuse the crappy pics taken on my phone and also please dont expect a professional look of the job I did as this is the 1st one Ive attempted my self.

I cut the blanking plate just the right size to fit the sat nav and then bound in in leather to improve the look a bit. The leave also acts as a nice seal around the screen so its not rubbing against the plastic trim. I made 3 small angled brackets out of fibreglass and stuck them underneath the hole so the screen sat at the right hight an angle.

I didnt want to play with the wiring of the car just yet so I ran a the power cable and the 3.5mm audio cable from the back of the screen into the closable cubby box just above the power sockets. This way they can be hidden in the box when not needed or just open the cubby box and plugged in when needed. I will at some stage hard wire them in, but not just yet. The AV in for the reversing camera is currently run to the boot with just a standard phono plug socket on it so I can sort that later.

I have then stuck the satnav to the fibreglass brackets with epoxy-resin-type-stuff so you cant pull it out.

Obviously Ive got wires going into the screen so the only thing I could think of doing with them was to stick a leather cone to the side of the screen and run the wires through that, keeps then neater I think.









7" Satnav with AV in - £57 (trade)
I30 Reversing Camera - £9.99 (ebay)
1mtr Leather - £4.99 (ebay)
3.5mm Stero Cable - 99p (ebay)
3mtr phono to 2.5mm Cable - £2.99 (ebay)
TOTAL - £75

Quite cheap I thought... When I come to sell the car I can just replace the blanking plate for £15


Satnav is Windows CE 5 with Tom Tom 7 and IGO on it.

[asathorny]

very ingenious, well done.   

[Dazzler]

Nice Job  Do you worry about someone breaking in to steal it seeing it is on permanent display?  Maybe you could throw a baseball cap over it when you leave the car unattended 

[Blackeye_Elmo]

Do you worry about someone breaking in to steal it seeing it is on permanent display? 

Not when Im parked at home as its all covered by obvious CCTV but when Im out and about it might be a bit tempting for some.. I was thinking about getting an anti-theft warning sticker for the back off it. Something like "Not removable device" so it will hopefully put off the casual car thief.

[Dazzler]

That might help but my idea with the cap is not a bad one (he says modestly  ) I do it when I have a Video camera mounted on my dash and slip in to somewhere for a bite to eat...

I also throw up a sunshade on my windscreen when I park up the road from my work to hide my GPS (a bit)