JB4 tablet holder project

[N54NC]

I bought a FBO E92 and decided as my first project I would put in a JB4 and MHD BEF. New to the platform, I like the safety features of the JB4 and the interface.

Anyway, I wanted a nice way to mount a tablet in the car. I have seen lots of mount threads, but I dont like exposed cords...etc. My son had an old Galaxy tab7 that I "borrowed"

I ordered a kuda mount and made the enclosure for the tablet out of MDF It was a bunch of routing work, but nothing too difficult. I then made a jig to cut out a black acrylic panel which would hold it all in place. I wanted a flush look, but wanted to be able to easily remove tablet if I needed to flash DME or just wanted access. I used rare earth magnets epoxied on the rear of the acrylic and embedded in the frame. I made little button extenders you can see on the top of the mount out of small sanded dowels painted black.

The wires all run in channels inside the mount and then through the face of the kuda. From there (no holes drilled in dash) they run down behind the brushed alum panel and down beside the air vents and then through the trim by the tunnel up to the glove box and the audio and USB charger are hidden in there.

I set my phone up to act as a hot spot for my tablet any time it is in range. So it can stream music, navigation info, heck even youtube..etc. The galaxy tab is split screen so I can run navi on one and pandora on another..etc. I loaded a car launcher app on there which has a nice interface.

Just thought I would share another way of doing it.

 

[doublespaces]

Nice, does the front panel ever fall off?

 

[N54NC]

Nice, does the front panel ever fall off?

Thanks. No there is no way (besides maybe a crash) that the front cover is coming off. I used rare earth magnets (magnet to magnet at each location). It actually holds a little too well. Next time I would just use 4 magnets and embed 4 steel washers. The magnet to magnet holds pretty aggressively.

I wont be taking out the tablet often. (If I have to access usb for MHD flash...etc).

 

[JonEQuest]

Wow! That is impressive. I know how difficult it can be to make something look like it is NOT homemade. I made a wireless charging phone holder for my truck and it took a while. This is pretty much exactly what I plan for my JB4 since I just bought one. Can you post some photos of the mounting bracket you made? Where did you get that black vinyl piece on the dash from or how did you make that. All my stuff is just black plastic that never has that true OEM look of patterned vinyl.

 

[N54NC]

The piece on the dash was a Kuda mount. You can google it. I was going to make my own, but for the $70, I figured it was worth it and nice and easy to install.

The back body of the tablet holder is just 3/4 mdf. I used plasti-dip spray on it. I ordered some Vvivid vinyl that looks like leather and was going to wrap it, but I was happy with the plasti-dip for the back. The front is just 1/8 black acrylic.

 

[JonEQuest]

I am impressed because it does look like it belongs in the car. That is the hard part sometimes. Just making something look like it actually belongs in the car.

 

[N54NC]

We have a '17 C300 and it is what got me thinking of what I wanted it to look like. It has a very similar feel to the how Mercedes set up their screen. The Kuda mount is nicely made and if you get creative, all the wires can be routed without too much disassembly. The magnetic face makes it nice as I can take the tablet out if I need to use it for flashing with the MHD BEF. It has worked well.