Twin Android 7 inch Tablets for Rear Seat Entertainment Systems

[DennisCooper!]

Hi,

I've been thinking about how to increase value for money and to coin an IT industry phrase, use 'Convergence' for rear seat passengers and any entertainment hardware for quite some time and I've decided to go this route in my car.

Concept is really very simple, to me, DVD players and headrest monitor type solutions are old hat, tried and tested for sure and successful over the years no doubt. I thought it'd be nice to bring some bang up to date technology to replace it and this is what I came up with!

Two quick release headrest holders with adjustable 'arms' to hold any tablet style PC. This means there's no cutting of the leather of the headrests or changing and swapping them out and worrying about colour and headrest shape matching to interiors. By then having those adjustable arms, it means any device can be held, instead of being tied to one product only. Great from a security aspect and viewpoint too and of course, value for money is vastly enhanced as it means less outlay than say having to buy and install a twin headrest monitor solution and potentially have extra expense if driving the content from other car audio.






I'll post up some pictures of the actual headrest holders shortly, available off ebay sellers for around £12-15 each delivered.

The two units I've shown there are Dell Streak 7 Android devices and I find them a nice size when in use like this. The holders themselves 'jutt out' just an inch too far for my ideal, but for the moment I'm not too worried! Anyone using a 10 inch Android like this will almost feel as though they're at home watching a big screen! As these tablet devices have excellent high resolution screens, clarity is great. Another possible downside is direct sunlight on the screen means it can be a little tougher to see what's onscreen, but as car's are generally moving although bit of an annoyance when it happens, chances are the car will change direction quite quickly. No other disadvantages really.

For the internet connection, I'm using a 3 Mi-Fi device which creates a small wi-fi hotspot around it and allows up to five devices to connect simultaneously. So another Tablet in use by the passenger becomes an easy possibility. The Mi-Fi device has a microSD card slot into which I have a 32GB card with music and movies on it, I'm just trying to figure out how to have the tablets be able to access that card which will give independant streaming capabilities for the rear passengers! no more fights over what to watch! once at your destination and the devices go with you and you just take the holders off and all back to OEM looks!

total cost of the above

2 x Dell Streak 7 Tablet PC's - £275/each
2 x Headrest holders - £14 delivered each.

If you get some of the cheaper tablets say for younger kids who don't need all the latest all singing all dancing device, there's tablets from the likes of Elonex for like £85 each! those with cash to splash will perhaps opt for two iPads!

The only other aspect I'm thinking to do is to get some longer USB cables and wire them up inside the seat so there's a permanent power source for longer journeys and keeping the devices battery levels topped up.

For the USA, I know that Verizon are doing a 4G Mi-Fi device in the shape of the Samsung SCH-LC11, so where available, you'd get superfast internet access. Transpose say the headrest holders at maybe $20-25 each delivered and whatever cost per tablet is what you guys would pay! No 4G networks in the UK yet for us!

Thoughts and opinions?!

Cheers, Dennis!

[Laidback]

Dope! i like

[DennisCooper!]

Just a couple more pics!

Took these in the garage as I was playing with the tablets !





Will be opening up the seat backs soon to stealthily hide/install the USB power cables for them.

Cheers, Dennis!

[LoneRaver]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, I thought this is pretty brilliant. Everything looks really nice, Dennis!

Did you ever figured out to install the USB power cables for charger? Would you mind sharing us the final result and the steps you took to install it?

[DennisCooper!]

Hi Loneraver,

Thanks for the feedback and kind words!

I haven't put in any permanent power cables partly due to time and getting the rest of my audio setup done and that I didn't want specific power cables installed in case I changed the tablets and that the batteries in these type of tablets do last quite a while.

However, I'm thinking to perhaps get a 12V source wired into the internals of the seats and terminate in a cigarette type socket. If I do change tablets (as I'm doing right now, those two Dell's pictured above are for sale!) I can just take off the seat back covers and remove and replace with a new lead for the newer machines.

Cheers, Dennis!

[Laidback]

those are very nice Dennis!