DROID: Now Hardwired into my Vehicle

[rlfitz]

proclipusa.com makes vehicle specific mounts. and has a mount for the droid with a charger built into it. its a few bucks but it looks really nice and neat.

 

[OPTIMUS124]

Post updated pics when you get L adapters for your stuff!

Looks good, I have to deal with the audio cable and power cable because my car does not have BT. This is pretty good for our situation!

Come Monday evening I will have those. That's an easy aesthetic fix. Next time I do something, I gotta come with my A game before I post

proclipusa.com makes vehicle specific mounts. and has a mount for the droid with a charger built into it. its a few bucks but it looks really nice and neat.

Hey,

That's not a bad setup, but the one for fixed install is $80, quite a few more dollars than I'd like to spend. It does "appear" to include a component to step the voltage down to 5V. At least that's what I am assuming that small block is with the cable coming out of it is for. The highest viewing level also blocks the one of the driver side vents. The way I did mine you will have to purchase a vehicle mount, but the connector can be switched for another fairly easily, such as replacing your DROID as a GPS (which I seriously doubt) for a Garmin.

 

[krazykarl]

I did something similar, though a bit more involved. I made a circuit board for the regulator (circuit diagram is attached) and hid it in my dash. I wired the output of the regulator to a cut-off USB extension cable (black wire to ground, red wire to +5v output, and connect the two data lines together, this tells your phone that it is attached to a dedicated charger, so the phone can take up to 1.8 A of current and charge faster)

Then I fed the wire through the windshield defroster vent and just connected a standard micro USB cable to the USB extension's female connector. The wire runs along the seam between the windshield and the dash so its not very noticeable, then up to the car dock, where it's zip-tied to the dock such that there's just the right amount of length available to plug it in, so it's easy to plug in at arms length.

I've got a bluetooth to aux adapter hidden in the center console that I use for audio.

Since the regulator circuit is capable of sourcing nearly 2A, (USB2.0 calls for up to 1.8A for a dedicated charger port, so it's just right) it charges the phone very quickly. It will charge 10% in about 15 minutes while using GPS, bluetooth and with the display at full brightness.

 

[OPTIMUS124]

I did something similar, though a bit more involved. I made a circuit board for the regulator (circuit diagram is attached) and hid it in my dash. I wired the output of the regulator to a cut-off USB extension cable (black wire to ground, red wire to +5v output, and connect the two data lines together, this tells your phone that it is attached to a dedicated charger, so the phone can take up to 1.8 A of current and charge faster)

Then I fed the wire through the windshield defroster vent and just connected a standard micro USB cable to the USB extension's female connector. The wire runs along the seam between the windshield and the dash so its not very noticeable, then up to the car dock, where it's zip-tied to the dock such that there's just the right amount of length available to plug it in, so it's easy to plug in at arms length.

I've got a bluetooth to aux adapter hidden in the center console that I use for audio.

Since the regulator circuit is capable of sourcing nearly 2A, (USB2.0 calls for up to 1.8A for a dedicated charger port, so it's just right) it charges the phone very quickly. It will charge 10% in about 15 minutes while using GPS, bluetooth and with the display at full brightness.

Nice!


Did you encase your board in anything, or did you just leave it nude behind your console. I also see that the right angle adapter makes a large difference in its presentation. I have seen a few free CAD programs, but wondered what you used, and did you get your boards from Radioshack or another source.

I didn't think about getting a BT to AUX adapter. Where'd you get one from, and what did it run you.

Will you be able to switch to a BT headset while its paired with the adapter? If I am by myself, it's not bad to have the call played over all speakers, but if someone is in the ride, I rather not and be able to switch to my HS.

 

[krazykarl]

I did something similar, though a bit more involved. I made a circuit board for the regulator (circuit diagram is attached) and hid it in my dash. I wired the output of the regulator to a cut-off USB extension cable (black wire to ground, red wire to +5v output, and connect the two data lines together, this tells your phone that it is attached to a dedicated charger, so the phone can take up to 1.8 A of current and charge faster)

Then I fed the wire through the windshield defroster vent and just connected a standard micro USB cable to the USB extension's female connector. The wire runs along the seam between the windshield and the dash so its not very noticeable, then up to the car dock, where it's zip-tied to the dock such that there's just the right amount of length available to plug it in, so it's easy to plug in at arms length.

I've got a bluetooth to aux adapter hidden in the center console that I use for audio.

Since the regulator circuit is capable of sourcing nearly 2A, (USB2.0 calls for up to 1.8A for a dedicated charger port, so it's just right) it charges the phone very quickly. It will charge 10% in about 15 minutes while using GPS, bluetooth and with the display at full brightness.

Nice!


Did you encase your board in anything, or did you just leave it nude behind your console. I also see that the right angle adapter makes a large difference in its presentation. I have seen a few free CAD programs, but wondered what you used, and did you get your boards from Radioshack or another source.

I didn't think about getting a BT to AUX adapter. Where'd you get one from, and what did it run you.

Will you be able to switch to a BT headset while its paired with the adapter? If I am by myself, it's not bad to have the call played over all speakers, but if someone is in the ride, I rather not and be able to switch to my HS.

I bought pretty much everything from radioshack, except for the .25 ohm resistors, which I got from mouser.com. I just bought one o' thems boards with a grid of holes in it and soldered the circuit to it. They also had some little plastic boxes to encase stuff in that I used. I had to drill holes in the box for the input/output lines, but otherwise it was pretty much left alone. Then I used some velcro to stick it to a flat surface in the dash so it wouldn't rattle around.

I didn't use any circuit design software, I just found that circuit online while trying to find a way to use multiple regulators in parallel to get more than 1A output current (which is the limit of a single regulator)

The bluetooth to AUX adapter I got can be found here.
You can use this one for calls, but I don't since it sits in the center console and the mic wouldn't be able to hear me. In your bluetooth settings, if you long press the device info once you're paired and go to options, you can select phone audio or media audio or both (and the setting is persistent) so you should be able to use a BT headset fine (though I haven't actually done it...)

 

[gdoane]

I did something similar, though a bit more involved. I made a circuit board for the regulator (circuit diagram is attached) and hid it in my dash. I wired the output of the regulator to a cut-off USB extension cable (black wire to ground, red wire to +5v output, and connect the two data lines together, this tells your phone that it is attached to a dedicated charger, so the phone can take up to 1.8 A of current and charge faster)

Then I fed the wire through the windshield defroster vent and just connected a standard micro USB cable to the USB extension's female connector. The wire runs along the seam between the windshield and the dash so its not very noticeable, then up to the car dock, where it's zip-tied to the dock such that there's just the right amount of length available to plug it in, so it's easy to plug in at arms length.

I've got a bluetooth to aux adapter hidden in the center console that I use for audio.

Since the regulator circuit is capable of sourcing nearly 2A, (USB2.0 calls for up to 1.8A for a dedicated charger port, so it's just right) it charges the phone very quickly. It will charge 10% in about 15 minutes while using GPS, bluetooth and with the display at full brightness.

Nice!


Did you encase your board in anything, or did you just leave it nude behind your console. I also see that the right angle adapter makes a large difference in its presentation. I have seen a few free CAD programs, but wondered what you used, and did you get your boards from Radioshack or another source.

I didn't think about getting a BT to AUX adapter. Where'd you get one from, and what did it run you.

Will you be able to switch to a BT headset while its paired with the adapter? If I am by myself, it's not bad to have the call played over all speakers, but if someone is in the ride, I rather not and be able to switch to my HS.

I got a BT to AUX adapter from Amazon, Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth car kit.

Amazon.com: Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit with Remote for Music Phones: Cell Phones & Service

The remote as supplied is stupid, it's velcroed onto the steering wheel and every time you press it the thing just spins around to the back of the wheel. The button comes out of the plastic gimmick mount though and I stuck it right on my wheel with a velcro tape. That works much better.

The cigarette lighter adapter has a USB output, so that solves the power issue, and the aux out cord is a standard 3.5mm jack which is pretty much universal as a standard these days.

Not a bad deal for $30 clams, and so far the only issue I've run into is this.

YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER TO SHUT IT OFF. What happens, if you don't shut it off and you don't get far enough away from the vehicle to break the bluetooth link (which is actually pretty far, a couple hundred feet) the phone will route the call through the bluetooth link and you won't even be in the car. No receive audio from the speaker, nothing going through the mic, and you're making calls deaf and mute.

It's not automatic, which is the one gotcha.