lcluvinlife

Hi there,
So I wanted to put an Ipad Mini in the cubby of my 05 Roadster but didn't know of the best way to go about it. There's a company here in SoCal that will sell you a fiberglass bracket which you then have to modify to fit your car.. That wasn't for me.. Then you can buy the endless windshield mounts, and ac vent mounts.. that wasn't for me either... I think that what I ended up with is excellent and I'm posting here in hopes if others want to do the same this will allow them to do it for under $50 while retaining close to a factory look and not much time at all. So what can you do with an ipad in the cubby?

If you have an aftermarket radio with bluetooth this will be great as your ipad can easily play music through bluetooth, and speak driving directions as well (assuming you have the Cellular version of the ipad). The ipad can also be used to communicate with a bluetooth obd2 dongle, then by using the accompanying app, you can display a bunch of statistics, graphs, and guages as you are driving. If you are parked somewhere you can also watch movies, or stream pandora (assuming you have the cellular version), and much more.
First here's a video of it working


So to do this all you need is:
-an iPad mini smart cover (I chose the gray polyurethane)
-1 tube of 3m 18032 Outdoor Plastic Adhesive
-Good pair of Fiskar Scissors to cut smart cover
-About 1 hour of your time

My 350z has the motorized cubby and this worked perfectly. The only thing I don't like is that the cubby opens and closes automatically whenever I turn off and on the car. Maybe someone on the forum can direct me on how I can make the cubby just open and close when I press the button. Those of you with a standard manual cubby may find this install the same, or slightly different as I don't know how stable the door is. But for the purposes of this post, this install is for motorized cubbies.

Take the ipad mini smart cover and cut off the first 2 sections (you only need the first section which has the magnetic portion next to it.

Now line up the smart cover with the Cubby door and you will see that you need to cut each side of the smart cover about a 1/4 inch on each side.

Once you do this then line up the cover again except this time attach the ipad to it and position it in its final position. Pull the smart cover (tigher fit) then take a pencil and draw on the smart cover using the cubby lid as a template. This will tell you where to apply the glue as you will be gluing the smart cover pieces to the bottom edge of the lid.

Now apply a 1/5 of an inch thick line of glue along the entire line you drew. You now have 5 minutes to position it in the cubby. After 5 minutes the glue sets.

Now wait 30 minutes or so for the glue to harden and attach the ipad mini. if you attached the smart cover with a tight clearance, the ipad will actually wedge itself in pretty good.

That's it!

A few issues:
-The cubby opens and closes automatically each time the car is turned on or off if the cubby was open to begin with. Ideally I'd like the cubby to only open and close when I press the power switch. Maybe someone can help me solve this issue.
-Doing this install will very slightly alter the appearance of your car as you can see from my video. Of course I'm referring to magnetic portion of the smart cover being visible when the cubby is closed. If you are planning on selling the car at a certain point you will probably need a new cubby door to return the car to stock look, or will need to pry off the smart cover section and hope the plastic underneath is all good.
-As far as cases for the ipad, what I do is I use another smart cover so when I am done using it in the car, I simply remove it from the cubby and place it in another smart cover. I also have the Zagg shield full body protection on it so the back and sides don't get scratched. I find that this helps even more as the zagg shield is somewhat rubbery so it tends to stay put in the cubby.

NOTE: I am not responsible for any damage you do to your car during this install if you attempt it. I will however, be happy to answer any questions and try and help!

Thanks

Collin Lacy

hahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha. I expected it to be just a "I bought an 03 cubby and put it in." Nice change of pace.

Marrocco350z

iTrader: (1)

That is ghetto as hell

JERZ350

iTrader: (2)

You can also hang a nice button down with a coat hanger from it.

cmcurran5

iTrader: (4)

dcains

iTrader: (15)

x100. Why not just stick a big blob of double-sided tape on the cubby door?

FamilyTradition

Think it works great for what you want. Neat versatile/functional mod. Good job.

350z-Helsinki

iTrader: (1)

I'm planning on doing the same thing. Idea is to use Harry's laptimer and ODB data with it. Of course i can use spotify etc also.

I can't see any pics or video. Could you update the post.

05CaliZ

iTrader: (3)

this sounds like a really sweet idea.

i can't see any pics or vids either, though. update? thanks

dcains

iTrader: (15)

Looks like the OP pulled the pics. If you'd seen them, you'd know why.

350z-Helsinki

iTrader: (1)

I bought a PLX kiwi, PLX wideband, PLX oil temp sensor and another temp sensor. I don't have the sensors installed yet, but I was able to test the basic built in sensors.

I bought the Palmer Performance DashCommand ODB software. I was kind of disappointed with the amount of lag. The data updates too slow. I would have expected better from a 50$ program. However I'm able to get my AFR and temps in the display. PLX allows me to connect 32 sensors. The dashcommand dashboards are customizable and I can get the info that I wan't on the screen. What I really need is the temps and AFR which should be real time.

I also tried out Harry's laptimer. I was able to get the temp in the screen where I can see my lap and split times. So I can keep an eye on the temps while lapping. The ODB data had a lot less lag in the laptimer.

I wan't to be able to make track videos videos with data overlays. My HDHero 2 works really bad after the latest software update so lets see if I'm able to record video. I'll go to racetrack on sunday and I'll update my impressions after that. The video below is done with Harry's laptimer. My wifi bacpac hasn't arrived yet so unfortunately I can't test the GoPro with the laptimer software.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wbiM_MExB90?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I wont probably install the ipad mini indash. The cubby lid will keep it in place if I slip in the lower section first and then push in the upper part. There is a deeper section in the cover that the ipad mini kind of clips into. I have pulled more than 1g and run over bumps and it stays in place. I like that it's also easily removable.

I really love the Spotify app. It's just so easy to use from the screen. Here's a bad cell phone pic of the "install". I'll try to take better pics during the weekend.

<iframe src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=5D6093013F7721EF&resid=5D6093013F7721EF%21127&auth key=AEJi7BXQ_ng6hOc" width="319" height="239" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

DarkCreep

iTrader: (1)

lol anyone save OPs pic? I want to see em.

350z-Helsinki

iTrader: (1)

Here is a nice clean install of an android tablet in the cubby. This makes my setup look bad, but I thought I would share this with you.



I tested my setup at the track and the and ipad stayed in place during drifting. The g-meter showed 1.2 Gs. Data was lagging in the dashcommand but the temp readings were fine.

Next I will get the VBOX sport GPS and test out the Harry's laptimer, but it will take a while.

Here's a link to one ipad mini installation
http://zclub.com.au/forums/index.php...03-350z-coupe/

And another one for those who don't know how to search...
https://my350z.com/forum/audio-build...s-of-pics.html