Repurpose a smartphone

M35A2

Tinkerer
I've re-purposed an old smartphone primarily as an mp3 player and dashcam.

I formed a bracket out of sheet metal that is riveted to the smartphone's hard case and that attaches to the windshield frame with magnets.

The smartphone bluetooths to the vehicle's stereo.

It's an Android device; I am using Rocket Player and Daily Roads. It also has a large SD card.

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jeep670

Adventurer
Add a OBDII bt dongle with the Torque app and you have gauges and codes when needed on longer trips.
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
Doing something similar with my iPhone 4s in a suction cup windshield mount, in much the same place. A little more left and lower. I notched the back plate of the phone mount so it clears the camera lens. I put the phone there when driving for easier operation, glancing at notifications. And I use the sigalert webpage and app for avoiding L.A. freeway traffic. That location puts the info right in front of my face. A couple of screen touches and I'm rolling video forward or inside. I need to get a bluetooth input for my vehicle stereo so I can dump music and other audio from the phone to the car speakers. And the whole Scan gauge thing.
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
I have an older android phone that I use to stream Pandora in my shop. Old phones have lots of uses!
 

M35A2

Tinkerer
Add a OBDII bt dongle with the Torque app and you have gauges and codes when needed on longer trips.

What is this OBDII of which you speak? This vehicle has a carburetor and points ignition. Quite simple to repair anywhere. ;)
 

M35A2

Tinkerer
Smart thinking, now to turn it into a gps and you are all set

This phone has no SIM or cell service. There is a GPS app on the phone but I've never used it. I'm one of those recidivists that relies on paper maps, anyway.

Cool idea. Could you show some pictures of the bracket?

Gladly!

The bracket is a piece of scrap sheet metal that is bent to accommodate the outer hard shell of the Otter case. Since this is an old Android, the Otter case was only a few dollars at Amazon. The top of the sheet metal bracket is formed with a small lip that goes over the top of the windshield header. The metal bracket is riveted to the hard case with the smooth side of the rivets inside. Five neodymium magnets hold it onto the windshield frame (one jumped onto another in the photo). It has never come loose even with severe bouncing, jouncing and mayhem.

The metal bracket is shaped such that the forward-facing camera can see the road. Fine tune the position by bending the bracket to get the best field of vision. Since everything mounts above and in front of the rear view mirror, vision is not obstructed.

Pardon the scratches but it has seen some use and I sometimes move it from one vehicle to another.

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BTW, Daily Roads is pretty good in some respects but it is buggy and does not have the capability to overwrite old files, so you have to remember to maintain the SD card. I have stopped using Daily Roads now and have a dedicated dashcam instead that is mounted to the upper left of the driver's side sunvisor. That puts it in between the sun visor and windshield so, again, no obstruction of vision. The Android device is now solely a music player.

Rocket Player is free, works well, and works in landscape mode with the controls you need (play, back, forward, pause, shuffle) right there as large icons so it is easy to control while driving.
 

Korben

Adventurer
What is this OBDII of which you speak? This vehicle has a carburetor and points ignition. Quite simple to repair anywhere. ;)


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M35A2

Tinkerer
Have you found a good app for using an android phone as a dash cam?

The best I've found is Daily Roads. But it is buggy, and it does not have a setting to overwrite old files when the SD card is full, so you need to take the time to maintain the SD card yourself.

The video quality of the DR app is outstanding, I guess because it is using the phone's hi-def camera. But the bugginess and need to manually manage file space on the SD card had me give up on the DR app. I now use a plain old dash cam. Not as good a camera but dead nuts reliable and handles file management on its own.

EDIT: I include the stock Android video and voice recorder apps as icons on the device's main menu, so i can easily initiate the native video or audio recording capabilities. I mean, if I have to manually manage file space anyway, what's the purpose of a dashcam app? So, for a one-off, for example if you feel your driving situation warrants it, I can still avail myself of the excellent video and audio recording ability of the smartphone.
 

NevadaLover

Forking Icehole
What is this OBDII of which you speak? This vehicle has a carburetor and points ignition. Quite simple to repair anywhere. ;)

???... What is this carbonator or whatever you speak of?
And why on earth is your ignition pointy??😎
 

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