Yes I know it's not a Ford, but I thought I'd share anyway as I so rarely do anything with cars these days (in terms of modifying I mean)
Decided to follow up on this sat nav build, since I never got round to it. I bought the 7" housing a couple years ago, and bought a cheap Chinese GPS off eBay, then when it got here, realised it didn't have an AV input (for reverse cam that I also want to install), and when I tried to send it back under their "no quibble 14 day UK distance selling regulation" return policy, they would only accept returns to China, even though they were advertising as a UK seller! Complained to eBay and got full refund, inc postage, and was able to keep the GPS! So they've both sat here for a couple years doing nothing, until I decided I should really give it a go, hopefully with help on the wiring (my achilles heel) from a work mate, after I put in the physical build work.
So, the other night I ripped it apart;
Did a quick. slot in, test fit with the tablet;
And then set about ripping the tablet apart - the connectivity is all on the side of the unit, and there isn't room inside the housing to plug anything in. I'd have to rip it apart to get to the PCB anyway, and I wanted to relocate it if possible, thus avoiding having to solder directly onto it for power etc
With the PCB loose, I can easily plug a USB cable in for power without having to solder directly onto the PCB, thus making the USB port still operational if I need to plug it into a computer for updates etc.
Then, I broke a wire off the PCB! Turns out to be the wire that lets the battery charge, so I can still boot up at the mo, but not charge. Not the end of the world because it will have constant power once in the car and wired in
Anyway, with a couple holes drilled in the back casing to cable tie the PCB down, I glued a couple of crude wooden blocks to the sides of the housing. Reason for this is it holds the tablet perfectly snug and tight, but allows me to pull the tablet out if need be - more on that later;
The reason for being able to slide it out is 1) in case I need to plug it into my computer for anything, and also 2) this is just the test bed. Because this GPS owes me nothing, I'm happy to experiment with it (I've also compromised the screen ribbon cable, so it's a bit iffy displaying an image), but if we can get this all working how I'd like (which is to try to replace the GPS on/off switch with a trigger, so that it powers on with ignition and off again with power cut) then I'll buy a newer one, this time with the AV input for reverse camera, and possibly also with bluetooth so I can (hopefully) connect my phone to it for handsfree (the idea is I can plug the 3.5mm jack from my Grom into the tablet, and possibly solder a separate mic onto it, rather than use the internal mic, which of course will be inside the housing.
Also, I spotted this
microSD to SD card extender on ebay which would be good to connect to the microSD card slot on the PCB, run it behind the head unit and under the console and maybe have it come out in the ashtray? That way I can load stuff onto a regular size SD card and hot swap it on the move, rather than having no access to the mSD slot without removing the entire tablet.
Wiring is my problem - I can't solder and I'm useless with electronics! But hopefully a work colleague is gonna help me try and get it all working. Plan is to wire the power for the housing to a computer molex connector, and then tap into the cars wiring for that power, to another molex - making it completely removable, rather than hardwired (should I want to sell it or move it to another car later on). As for power for the tablet, the plan is to simply use the USB to cigarette power adapter, but wire a female cig socket (probably into the wiring for the existing cig lighter) and just mount it behind the dash and plug directly into it - again making it simple to unplug if need be.
And hopefully, with the newer tablet, I might be able to get this logo to be the default splash screen during boot (can't get it to work on the current one)
