My FC came with a crap Jensen headunit. Happened upon seeing people replace their headunits with Android tablets while researching aftermarket ECUs. So I found a nice little amp with a remote volume control ****. Got it working today with my Galaxy S3 smartphone. Works so well I'm debating if I need to go with a 7" tablet.

This first photo taken after I cut out the rats nets of wires and soldered on the factory plugs. If you look at the wires that were cut out you can see two to three crimps were deleted before the factory plug. Took a long time, but eliminated several possible points of failure and increased current/signal quality.
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This is the 800watt amp (400watt RMS) had on Amazon for the low price of $45 . The amp has four RCA inputs and comes with a cable that converts a 3.5mm stereo jack to four RCA outputs. This lets you plug your tablet or phone right into the amp. The black 3.5mm jack is for the volume control **** that was missing from my box. This is important feature if a 7" tablet is mounted in the double din opening as there's no way to manipulate the volume without it. I've got the input level button set to RCA and the gain at 60%. If I switch to speaker level input then the volume is cut and gain has to be set at 100%.
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Here's the unit tucked into the dash with plenty of room to spare. It does get really hot. My meter showed 160F after 40 minute drive. When I rolled the window down it quickly dropped to 140F. This is something to consider when mounting the amp behind a tablet.
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Here's a photo with my Galaxy S3 connected for size reference. It was pretty sweet driving for an hour with this new setup. Before I thought the audio system in this car was crap, but it was piercing my ears powering six speakers at 400watt RMS. Plus the Google maps auto turns down the volume as it talks out the navigation directions. On my drive home I made a phone call, which if you keep speakerphone OFF then it outputs through the car speakers and the guy on the other end had no problem hearing me talk while I was driving.
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For $45 I've got GPS with speach navigation and hands free phone calls using my existing Smartphone. I'm probably going to skip buying a tablet and instead will fab up a vented blanking plate with a mount for my smartphone, the volume control ****, 3.5mm audio input and a USB charger with 2.1A and 1A ports. This way I won't have to worry about someone breaking my windows to steal a tablet.

 

Wattage for that amp is very misleading. You will be lucky to get 30W rms out of it. Other than that, I like your idea!

 

seems like a good plan i may have to follow you after i see some finished pics

 

Why do you think that? The specs are 800watt max and 400watt RMS. It delivers more power than all the speakers can handle at 60% gain with my smartphone at full volume. I play it with my phone set with volume two clicks down from 100% and the sound is super clear, no distortion and ear piercing loudness. Wouldn't want it any louder. Seems like a perfect fit to me.

 

Right on. I'll be finishing it with the phone option in about a month. Here's some links to the parts I'm considering.

Smartphone mount that fits in a crevice. Would stick this between a blanking plate and the console trim.

Similar to one above. Looks cleaner, but doesn't mention working anywhere other than the CD player slot. Not sure if it would fit in a crevice.

This one I would bolt onto a blanking plate instead of a tripod.

This one is cheapest not sure how well the sticky rubber works. I would attach this to the blanking plate and then flip it up to a good viewing angle.

Two of these USB bulkheads if I can fine them. Will attach to a dual port USB charger behind the blanking plate (2.1A + 1A) soldered to the cigarette lighter wires or using vampire taps.

The 3.5mm stereo plug from the amp is surface mountable with a rubber cap.

Should look pretty clean with a short USB and stereo cable.

 

Another thing I'm considering is using this Clarion EQ. There would be enough room in the dash since it's only half DIN.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7inch tablet in 2006 G35 double din

 

If the fuse rating is only 10A like the specs on Amazon say, then a little bit of physics would say it would do far less than 400w. Regardless, if it works then all's well I suppose.

 

You've got a good point there. 10A x 12v = 120watt 4x40watt.

 

This^

And to that, you need to add an oscilloscope, to measure if the amp is clipping, which I am sure that the one posted will at 4*40W

Now there is nothing wrong with that amp, its just that the seller's title/data is false

 

going to add this to my todo list

 

I replaced the Hydra with a Soundstream ST4.1000D amp and Sounstream MPQ-7XO parametric eq. The new amp runs cold compared to the heat from the Hydra. There's a 30amp fuse in the amp. It's rated 90watt RMS x 4 (90Wx4/12V = 30A).

The Soundstream is so much lounder and cleaner than just the Hydra, but I'm going to have to run a big power and ground wire, because I smell burning plastic when I turn up the sound to maximum levels.

 

Fits perfectly and leaves room for a single DIN unit above it. Or two half-DIN devices.





About the same size, but really no other comparison between these two amps.

 

Nice setup. I did something similar, but mounted the amp beneath the seats.
For volume control, I used a RCA-RCA gain **** that was $10 on ebay, installed in on of the OEM switch banks by the AAS Sport button.

I also commandeered the factory foglight switch to toggle signal power to the amp.
It makes it convenient to have the on/off and volume control 1" apart and by the shifter.

I also wired the RCA input from the gain **** to a $23 Bluetooth receiver from Amazon.
It stays in the ashtray and holds about 8 hours of battery. Once I hop out of the car and go out of BT range, it shuts down to preserve battery.
Ill try to get pictures next time I'm at my shop.

I have gauges in switches in a homemade blank plate where the factory radio was. And all my fuses for the interior and ECU are stashed behind the blank plate. It takes 4 screws and the cover is off. I like it a lot.

 

Would love to see your setup. Planning on doing a MegaSquirt in the distant future. That would fit nicely where I just put my amp.

My ring tone being set much higher than media volume on my Galaxy phone blew the car fuse on the stock circuit. Just some really loud birds chipping and then nothing. Not sure what all is on that circuit, but my dome lights went out too.

I'll be running a fat power wire from the battery so maybe time to relocate the amp to under the seat or in the center console.

Found this BlueTooth device on Amazon and got one sitting on my table ready to get installed.

The Soundstream EQ has 2 sets of RCA inputs. So I'll put BlueTooth on one and a 3.5mm outlet on the other. I'll use CD Changer input, because it has a switch to set signal level. The AUX input doesn't have switchable signal level. So I set the amp level to where I have a nice range of volume using the ****. With the Hydra I had to crank my phone up to maximum, which requires acknowledging Samsung alert that high listening volume levels can be unsafe.

I bought a Stereo Install Dash Kit on Amazon. It reminded me of Lego pieces. The manual is very detailed how to put it together for a large assortment of vehicles.

The dash kit will make it easy for me to make a screw on faceplate for easy removal. I mounted the half-DIN equalizer in the very top, but the kit only had enough pieces to blank out the bottom DIN. I'll have to do custom plate to blank out the while bottom 1.5-DIN section. For now though I can run my audio cable out of the open half DIN section. I'll take a photo sometime.

 

I don't use the radio often, so I removed my head unit and mounted an Clarion amp XC1410 into the glove box and that feeds to a 1/8" aux cable that plugs into my phone. Not the best sounding solution... but it works.