On the charging rate - adjusting the screen brightness to some 80% during daylight makes a huge difference in my case battery-wise, whilst barely noticeable usability-wise. At night things are simpler, as my tasker workflow is reducing the brightness anyway. MY2011, TD4 Auto, Xenon headlights, fog lamps DRLs, sunroof, tinted windows, almond electric seats w/ lumbar support, leather steering wheel w/ audio controls, dog/luggage guard, ambient lights, flush Whispbars, Mantec sump&tank guards, Xtrons Head Unit

Hi,

I just become a very proud Freelander 2 owner and I want to do the tablet retrofit to it. Has anyone tried fitting Samsung Galaxy Tab A T285, 7" ? From dimensions point of view (108.8 x 8.7 x 186.9) looks like it has the right ones. What worries me it's that the battery is not exchangeable and I don't know if the wires can be welded for the power and audio, as I don;t want to drill the air vent. Any advice should is appreciated. I'm looking to put a newer tablet that can stay there for the next years.

Thank you

You will need to use (at some point) the home, back and tasks buttons and they will be outside the view area when that tablet will be installed behind the front mask...
So I believe that in this case, that tablet is a no go.... In fact any Samsung tablet...
You will need a tablet that will have those controls "on screen".

Hi,

Rather than a tablet why not go for a full windows computer, by complete coincidence I am selling one...

http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic23484.html

Thanks,

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

HI

For the Samsung buttons I was thinking to have a widget to have the controls on screen. Plenty of widgets on the Play Store. I took one of my colleague's Samsung S6 phone and installed one of these widgets. After playing a little with it could'n find any inconvenience.

Except the buttons issues do you think it can be fit. The Samsung tablet is much more performance then the other 7' tablets and from dimensions point of view seems ok. I'm not much fan Samsung but I'm looking to have the tablet there for at least 3-4 years so I'm looking for a reliable solution. When looking at Chinese tablets, I don't get much confidence with them , especially from software updates point of view.

@jon_a5 : Thanks for offer, but a full windows computer is way over my allocated budget.

Ok, so I've had both carputer and tablet (actually phablet) in my car and both have some issues that can give you some headache.
Regarding the tablet, first of all it is going to be very hard to connect it to power without cutting the air vent (my phablet was a little smaller than that Samsung tablet and I could hardly fit it there). I've tried to do that, using a connector from an aftermarket wireless charging system (I know it sound odd) and, in the end, it turn out badly for my phablet, let's say.
Second, you'll have hard time using the tablet during extreme temperatures. For example, this summer, when the car was parked in the sunlight (and Bucharest is not Dubai ), the tablet was getting so hot that the system was preventing it from turning on or charging (I guess you can get a similar reactions during winter also, when starting the car, at least).
So....there's no perfect solution.
Now, I'm thinking whether I could source or not an oem multimedia system from another brand (dismantling) and try to fit it to my car.
Of course, there's always the Chinese solution you could go for, but an android version seems to be at least 500$. So......it's up to you to decide.

I've had Chinese system in dash and I was satisfied about its performance... I even ended up in developing some apps for it.
But....
I've took it down after several years, because I've not used it not even 1% of the time... And I've gain an extra storage space. Much useful...
Now, when I really need a GPS application, my S5 phone fits perfectly in the space in the landscape position and Google Maps wins hands down to any other GPS applications. But that didn't stopped me for buying lifetime full world coverage for Sygic for only 20 euros.
So long story short - after the initial enthusiastic phase, I went the pragmatic route.

Hi,

Actually I'm looking for a reliable solution to have an Android platform in the dash. I'm commuting every day thought Bucharest and the traffic is a mess. I'm now using Waze almost every day to find alternate routs based on traffic.
Right now I'm using my phone to put it in the dash but Is not a perfect match ( I can't see the entire screen as the phone is smaller then the dash box ). So I'm looking for something that already have at least 3G connectivity , I'll have a permanent mobile Data subscription put into it .

Has anyone tried to put a 2 DIN Chinese Android device in the dash? If yes how heavy modification did you had to do ? I'm hoping that if using a dedicated Auto multimedia device I can go round the temperature scale problem.

Thanks for advice