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Discussion starter · #102 ·
i also had issues with the plug, so as you can see i soldered molex connector instead of the usb.
That's pretty cool, but my soldering skills are nowhere near that level, and I would most likely ruin the Nexus entirely. If you are in VA and feel like soldering a molex connector onto mine, feel free as I can then plug it easily into the DCDC!!
 
Discussion starter · #103 ·
Going to leave things alone for now, at least on the power side of things. Had not used the car since Saturday morning, this morning on the way to work it was 96%, got to work and it had charged to 99%. No complaints there, if I can maintain it charging 3% on the way to work/home from work, all while only losing approximately 1% a day then I am happy.

For now I am just going to concentrate on making the bezel look better than it does.
 
Discussion starter · #104 ·
I have think that there is something not right with my Nexus itself. With it in the car, using Battery Monitor Widget, at least 75% of the time it will show as "Discharging" even though it also says "A/C Connected". Every now and again it will charge a little, but more often than not it just slowly drains. While I would be OK with this if I was streaming music/using navigation etc. It will lose charge with just simply music playing from a USB stick. For example, apart from the 3% that it charged on the 11th, since then it not charged at all, despite being connected to the same power source, and the same usage. Temperatures here have not been that hot this week either.

I decided to take a look at what the Battery Monitor Widget shows when plugged into a wall outlet, same thing, sometime it shows charging, but more often than not it simply says "Discharging" and "A/C Connected" with nothing open/running. That at least tells me that my wiring in the car is fine, but it does then makes me wonder if there is something wrong with the Nexus.. I have tried inside with the Asus charger (albeit with a Sony USB cable), a Sony charger (1.5A) and a Kindle Fire charger (1.8A). Same thing persists with all of them.

I have noticed when plugging in the charger that it does not always recognize it has been plugged into a power source. Typically I have to unplug it and then plug it in again for it to recognize it as being on a power source. I am not entirely sure what to do, I know I have the original box, but am not sure I have the receipt. The Nexus is only about 4 months old, so is still under warranty. But, I need to figure out if I can flash it back to stock, and if I have the receipt if I decide to try and return it for an exchange.

Frustrating really, I don't expect it to constantly maintain 100% while in the car. But, with the type of use that it goes through, I feel like it should charge more than it loses. Any one have any suggestions on what I can check?
 
Hello i was inspired by your post and have done a similar set up. I do not have an aftermarket sub so i just integrated a JVC single deck stereo. I have an 12V DC Power accessory adapter and a (2.1A) Usb charger that i got off Ebay that i have been using for about a week and haven't had any charging issues... yet... I live in Texas and the temperature should hover around 100 this week so i will let ya know how it goes..

 
Discussion starter · #106 ·
^^ Awesome!! What did you use for the surround on the Nexus? Do you have any daytime pictures of it? and how are you holding it into the dash? I am still tweaking mine as I want it to be easily removeable, yet completely secure at the same time. I currently have it pretty securely mounted, but need to adjust how it looks some.
 
I dont have any right now but il post some when i get a chance. I am using a something similar to the hook system you used on your first mount. I plan on changing it this weekend though. I have a cheap back cover on the Nexus right now and want to try and use some magnets to hold it in place so im able to easily remove it when it gets too hot. I will post some pics of the set up once ive got all the parts i need.
 
Discussion starter · #108 ·
Ordered a couple of these today http://www.showmecables.com/product/USB-A-Female-Connector.aspx?gclid=CODHhJzf8LcCFUGk4Aod3RYAVw

When they arrive, I plan to remove the existing USB ports that are attached to the DCDC-USB, and solder these direct to it. Currently the USB ports I am using have about 2" of the cable left on them from where I cut them off a cable I had. I am concerned that my poor soldering, coupled with the thicker DCDC-USB gauge wire going to the thin USB gauge wire is causing a drop in voltage.
 
Created this pigtail for the DCDC-USB yesterday:



Annoyingly I had ordered covers for the male end of a USB cable, and not the female. So, I made a cut and pushed them on as far as I could. They don't look so pretty that way, but since it's behind my glovebox I am not that worried. Once done I swapped it out with my existing harness, plugged in the Nexus.... Charging! Battery monitor widget was showing something like +59% in an hour. Started wifi/bluetooth/Sirius XM/Slacker and it dropped to +34%, then +9% and then the status changed back over to Discharging again?? So, I am not entirely sure what is happening. I was just in the garage with the ignition on, hopefully when I drive to work tomorrow with wifi/bluetooth off, that it will show a good rate of charge.

If not, then I am kind of at a loss. From reading other people's build threads they get good consistent charging, mine seems to charge when it feels like it regardless of temperature or what is running.

Edit: Took a 20 minute drive earlier, battery was at 55% when I left, and 61% at the end. That was just with Apollo running and nothing else (what I would be using 75% of the time). If I can maintain that performance then I will be happy, should have a better idea tomorrow after 3 hours of driving. A bit of a heat test coming up this week as well, temperatures are forecast to be mid 90's all week, I would not be surprised at all to get in the car and see it reading 120F+ ..... I may just take the Nexus out of the car while at work, as I don't really want to risk things at those high temperatures.
 
Naiku, I too had been going through charging issues. My problem is that it would show charging but would discharge (similar in some regards to yours). I tried changing batteries with my mom's nexus 7 and her nexus 7 charged my battery, but my nexus 7 wouldn't charge hers. At any rate, I contacted Google and am getting an RMA. I had read of other charging issues with nexus 7's.. seems like it's a relatively common issue. I hope you get your issue straightened out.. I was looking at the DCDC-USB as a power option too, so I'm definitely interested in what ends up happening with yours :)
 
Discussion starter · #111 ·
Replicant, thanks for the info. I will keep that in mind if I continue to have charging issues.

After my short test yesterday, today I drove for about an hour and a half to get to work. Annoyingly my battery lost 20% over the past 20 hours, I am going to assume at this point due to heat, but not certain yet. The car was in my garage, but it is not cooled in there, and likely got pretty hot. However, 20% does seem kind of excessive. I had planned to take the Nexus out of the car today, but have left it in there until lunchtime (outside temp was 82F when I parked at work) to see how much battery loss I experience in 4 hours time.

So, I parked yesterday at 61%, this morning I start the car and it's at 41%. Disappointing, but as I put above, likely heat related. Start the car this morning, Battery Monitor Widget shows the Nexus discharging for a few seconds, then flips over to charging. It remains showing charging the whole way to work, and when I switched off just now battery was back up to 66%


Depending on how much I lose between now and lunchtime (20% in 20 hours, I am expecting to lose at least 4-5%) I plan to bring the Nexus inside this afternoon, hopefully I can get similar charging on the way home and will then be looking at about a 50% charge rate in 3 hours. Fingers crossed.
 
Discussion starter · #112 ·
Lost 1% between 9am and 12:30pm, which makes me wonder what happened overnight. I did quickly charge up 3% though in about 15 minutes, then Battery Monitor started showing discharging. Most likely as a result of temperature, 96F ambient temps, and the Nexus showing 45C. I brought it inside with me for the remainder of the day, no point leaving it out in the heat.

Looking at USB ROM suspend view, I half wonder if something prevented it from entering deep sleep yesterday, but I can't see anything showing what. Still hoping for it to charge a decent amount on the way home from work.
 
Discussion starter · #113 ·
I think I finally nailed charging! And, as I somewhat suspected it may well have simply come down to my (lack of) wiring skills. After downloading a couple things yesterday afternoon, my battery was at 65%, by the time I got back home from work it was back up in the 80% range. I am not sure if I have to drive to the office today, so it will be interesting to see how much it loses over approximately 36 hours of deep sleep. Hopefully not too much, but at least I am pretty sure if it keeps charging the way it does I can charge ~40% on the way to work and back each day, which should almost certainly keep me around the 100% mark once it's fully charged.
 
Hey,just posted an answer to your tasker issue on XDA.Let me know if you need more help but the photos should set you in the right direction.
Here are a couple more pics of my install though,2010 Hyundai Genesis:






Uploaded with ImageShack.us
im super intrested in knowing if that is just a screen saver or is it a theme for torque pro i looks awsom
 
Discussion starter · #115 ·
Decided to push things a little on the way home from work with regards to battery charge levels, I got in the car after work to a 99% battery, switched on GPS, Bluetooth, Waze (keeps screen at full brightness) and music.... battery dropped 1-2% but then was right back up to full again within minutes and stayed there for the 90 minute drive home.

So, now that is finally settled I am going to go back to trying to improve how it looks in the dash. Also going to try tweaking my Joycon settings, see if I can figure out a way to get voice commands working, and maybe re-look into a reverse camera.
 
Discussion starter · #117 ·
Not much of an update, the Nexus cut out on me briefly this morning on the way to work. It does this now and again, acting as if the power has been removed, but comes back on before the countdown has finished on the shutdown screen (so less than 3 seconds). I am not sure what the cause is yet, and don't imagine there will be much in the log apart from it showing that it lost power. Which I know due to the way it starts to shut down.

The other odd piece is if I have it sitting for longer than 24 hours, my battery starts to drain much faster. Since driving on Sunday I lost somewhere between 30-40% of my charge level before this morning. It seems to only do this when sitting for longer periods of time, and seems to lose in short bursts. If I look at the graph on battery monitor it looks like a set of stairs. Like 50 or so steps flat, then down, flat then down... no idea what it is yet, but am wondering if it has something to do with a DCDC-USB setting.
 
Discussion starter · #118 ·
The other odd piece is if I have it sitting for longer than 24 hours, my battery starts to drain much faster. Since driving on Sunday I lost somewhere between 30-40% of my charge level before this morning. It seems to only do this when sitting for longer periods of time, and seems to lose in short bursts.
This appears to be temperature related somehow, if I check the graphs, as the temperature drops, so does the battery. It's weird though that it drops so quickly, at some point I will investigate the logs further, nothing shows up in PowerEventMgr log, but I have not checked the full log.
 
Discussion starter · #119 ·
Ordered a Jabra Journey last night, while I would have preferred to use the Nexus alone for making calls, the Jabra and Tablet Talk appear to at least be the next best thing currently available. It will be nice if I can also use the BT mic for voice commands.

The other thing I am still working on is tweaking the bezel, I have improved it slightly, but it's still not perfect. I think all I need to do is reshape the metal brackets that the fascia sticks onto, but it's tough bending the metal enough that the Nexus sits flush with the trim, and then having the trim mount securely. I am looking into a kit that Alpine sell (it's made for one of their head units). It's an KIT-8A4D that is specifically designed to fit in the A4 dash, and hold an 8" head unit. Depending on the dimensions of this piece, it may be perfectly sized to hold the N7. Difficult tracking one down in the US though.
 
Hey naiku, I need some help dude! :)

I finally ordered the DCDC-USB. I couldn't get that crappy Chinese PSU to work properly and I'm pretty sure it's not cable related.

I'm a little lost now regarding the DCDC-USB config. I was having a look at the manuals, but as I didn't get the package yet so I couldn't fiddle with it to figure it out. Should I be looking to set it in Automotive or plain UPS mode? If I understood it correctly Automotive mode requires the aux input to be connected to keep the PSU powered and will work as a UPS, right?
 
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