Adding modern music to an old car - here's my <$100 solution

Not sure if I posted it here before, but initially I had tried to rig up an old Kindle Fire to get some additional audio to the car. Obviously, the old Fire has almost no storage so is really just good for streaming stuff. But, as a former music store manager and non-millenial, I have something like 20,000 songs on my computer hard drive (combination of iTunes stuff and hundreds of ripped CDs). While I stream music as well, I like to have "my" music on-hand in digital files for when I'm out in the middle of nowhere with no signal, or don't want to use my phone as a wifi hotspot.

So, my solution was to replace my '88 Porsche 924's center speaker with a magnetic mount for a tablet. The car has a fairly modern Kenwood stereo with aux and USB inputs already, but don't want to get a fold-up screen deck since that would block half the dash controls. Since the opening is only about 8" wide, I had to find a tablet that is pretty small compared to most these days. And since I'm cheap, not dropping hundreds on an iPad or something.

So enter the Huawei T3. We use an older version of this in the rally car to run our trip computers/rally computers and GPS. The T3 has GPS, bluetooth, and while not quite as fast or smooth in its operation as high-end tablets - I woudln't want to use it as my "everyday" tablet for doing stuff on constantly - it's plenty good for my application here. The T3 is under $100 online (I got mine for about $60 on Amazon). It has 8GB of internal memory, but more importantly (unlike the Kindle Fire) has a microSD port. And it's just over 7" wide, so perfect for my application, with buttons on the "long" edge so they'll be accessible the way I want to mount it. So ordered that up along with a 64GB microSD memory card. In addition, it obviously can run Google Maps and whatever else I want to run on it using my phone as a hotspot.

Since Apple sucks and won't put out an iTunes for Android, I downloaded the Pi Music app, which I have to say, is awesome. A billion times better than iTunes and it seamlessly imported the 20,000 songs (correctly filed and with full artwork) that I copied from my laptop onto the card. Added the metal mounting plate to the back, and ran hidden power and AUX out wires, and voila.....I

I know there are other more tech-y ways to do this, especially using all-inclusive setups with dedicated A/V in-dash decks, or using a larger phone - but I don't want to use my phone for this, I want something cheap I can just leave in the car and not worry about (much). So, here's the final product, aside from a bit of cosmetic trim work I plan to do to clean up the install..,.with under $100 invested total.

Nice.

Think this would work in freezing temps?

In reply to Run_Away :

hoenstly, no clue. But it's just a magnetic mount, so easy to carry inside for the night or when the car is parked long-term. I assume it won't be freezing temps inside your car when driving :)

Question:  Do you use this for maps/nav also?  (phone hotspot likely required in that case).  Because thats kinda what I want to do.  I hate using my phone as the audio source.

Also, I noticed you have it connected via AUX.  Does that mean your tablet does not pause when you get a phone call?

ProDarwin said:

Question:  Do you use this for maps/nav also?  (phone hotspot likely required in that case).  Because thats kinda what I want to do.  I hate using my phone as the audio source.

Also, I noticed you have it connected via AUX.  Does that mean your tablet does not pause when you get a phone call?

Yeah, I'll use it for maps/nav. I currently use my phone (Google Pixel 2) for that - you can see my phone holder just down to the right of the screen) -  but much prefer it on a screen if/when I'm using maps. I also hate using my phone as audio/maps source.

I can configure it to do bluetooth phone calls via my phone, but i'm not going to. I rarely talk on my phone while on the road so not going to bother. On the rare occasion I get a call, I'm capable of picking the phone up to my ear to tell the person "i'll call you back" or put the phone itself on speaker. Or just not answering it, like I currently do since my music is usually too loud to hear the ringer. 

My work is such that no business is done over the phone, and all my friends are old and married like me, so they never call anyhow lol. Only person who calls is the SWMBO, and I'm ok missing calls from her most of the time :)

--

Obviously I can also directly stream music from my phone via bluetooth as well, if I don't want to listen to my on-hand digital library.

Note: I will not even pretend to be a car audio geek, a computer geek, or anything of the sort. Just doing something this relatively basic is about as far as I go. Which is funny since I work in a world full of ultra high-tech stuff. But I have tech people to deal with that stuff for me haha.....

Damn, I'm impressed by how well the tablet fits into the space in the dash! It looks better than the current OEM solutions of "just slap it on the dash".

I have a Fire 8" tablet that I bought for like $30 on sale from Amazon like 6 months ago that needs a purpose. I might have to steal your idea haha

stanger_missle said:

Damn, I'm impressed by how well the tablet fits into the space in the dash! It looks better than the current OEM solutions of "just slap it on the dash".

I have a Fire 8" tablet that I bought for like $30 on sale from Amazon like 6 months ago that needs a purpose. I might have to steal your idea haha

yeah, I did a lot of measuring and looking at specs and sizes online beforehand, for sure. Luckily the smaller tablets 7-8" are cheap these days since everyone apparently needs huge tablets and nobody buys the small ones :)

In reply to irish44j :

All I have to say is your taste in music is exquisite. Party on.

Not shocked to see Mastodon and read "usually too loud to hear the ringer."

Excellent music choice! I've seen them live 3 times since they released Emperor of Sand last year. 

This thread delivers. Awesome to see such a simple solution work out so well. 

stanger_missle said:

I have a Fire 8" tablet that I bought for like $30 on sale from Amazon like 6 months ago that needs a purpose. I might have to steal your idea haha

If you try this and are happy with the solution, let us know!  

z31maniac said:

Excellent music choice! I've seen them live 3 times since they released Emperor of Sand last year. 

barefootskater said:

In reply to irish44j :

All I have to say is your taste in music is exquisite. Party on.

Do not crinkle your food wrappers loudly

In reply to nderwater :

Soooo, I fired up my Fire 7 yesterday. I forgot how friggin slow they are. I feel that if I go through all the effort to fit it to the dash, I should use a better tablet.

I'll still try to research what it takes to install a tablet in the dash though.

stanger_missle said:

In reply to nderwater :

Soooo, I fired up my Fire 7 yesterday. I forgot how friggin slow they are. I feel that if I go through all the effort to fit it to the dash, I should use a better tablet.

I'll still try to research what it takes to install a tablet in the dash though.

Yeah, plus the Fire 7 really has almost no features that are useful....no GPS (and it can't be added), no miniSD port (so hardly any memory). And I don't think it has bluetooth either. So all you could really do with it would be to use the wi-fi off your phone hotspot to stream music and stuff. I gave my Fire 7 to my 6 year old, who can actually use it :)

The Huawei tablets are a screaming deal online and while not quite as fast or smooth as the big-name tablets, its' plenty good for this kind of use. Plus there are like 6 sizes available.

For mount, the magnetic mounts seem to work well.