CF736's 2017 Nissan 370z Journal

CF736

My next big project was to make better use of that little cubby hole in the center of my dash board. That thing seemed about useless to me the way it was. I realize it is where the GPS would be but dang.. it was so small and at a funky angle and stuff... Just didn't seem like good use of space. So.. I removed the door and installed the plastic protective cover from an otterbox defender series iPad mini case. It was very simple to install. I just used a 1/4" drill bit to drill through the case cover and through the cubby insert. I then used fender liner push pins to secure the case cover. Now I can just pop the iPad mini in and out of the mounted case cover. It is very secure and while it may not be a "custom" install, I prefer the convenience of being able to just pop my iPad in and out of it at will. I'm using a wifi OBD2 dongle to send the engine computer data to the iPad and run DashCommand with a customized Dash.

If only I could see the oil pressure... I can't believe a company would produce a sports car and not put an oil pressure gauge. Oil Temperature.. ya.. that's nice... but I'd prefer an oil pressure gauge over an oil temperature gauge any day of the week.

So, with the iPad Mini, not only do I get DashCommand, I of course get all the other benefits of having a iPad/iPod device; mp3 player, video player, etc. The iPad mini I had was an older one that had pretty much lost its usefulness. It doesn't have cellular so I can't use if for navigation or live streaming of audio from Pandora or the like. This was really just a proof of concept as far as the mounting and functionality. I'm very happy with the results though so I may upgrade to a new iPad with cellular to get more functionality out of it.

I'm thinking about milling some type of panel that can snap into the defender case cover when I don't want to run the iPad there. I have a cnc and am thinking about using some type of 1/4" acrylic or something and possibly CNC'ing a Z logo into or something... haven't decided yet. I almost always run the iPad up there unless I'm just going out to run a quick errand or something.

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