| |
Author: djwhyte
Categories: Reviews, TechNotes
Published: Saturday, 10 February 2007 8:20 PM
Created: Saturday, 10 February 2007 8:42 PM
Updated: Sunday, 11 February 2007 by djwhyte
Views: 6372
Whytey provides a walkthrough of his JasJam Car Cradle installation.
|
Since first getting my JasJam, I have been on the lookout for a car cradle for it. My JasJam replaced my Xda II, which I hand made a car cradle for, as seen in this historic thread. It was a couple of pieces of aluminium pop-rivetted together with a cigarette lighter charger tacked on and it all screwed to my dash.
After searching online, I soon found the cradles that Kiosk Communications sold and was intrigued by the 'No Holes Installation' they claim on their website. That said, I already had a hole in the dash from the Xda II cradle and I prefer not to cover the airconditioning outlet that seems the case with most of the connectors that Kiosk can provide. After having the JasJam for 6 months, I took the plunge last week and puchased the verticle cradle from Kiosk's online store. It arrived a day later and this weekend I got around to the installation.
I wanted this cradle to look a little more professional so I needed to hide the charger cable. I did some searching online for some tutorials on how to remove some of the facia off of my dashboard so I could do this. Driving a Ford Farimont, I found a brilliant collection of technical articles at FordForums.com.au including one that described exactly what I needed to do.
I didn't take any photos of what is provided with the cradle, but the photo above right pretty mush shows what you get. A pair of cables (one +ve, one -ve) for connecting to your car somehow, which runs into a transformer unit. This has two plug on the other end, one for connecting to the cradle for power and one that can connect to another adaptor for powering an external unit such as a BT GPS unit. You also get the cradle itself and the mounting point. (if you want to go the no holes option, you would need to purchase the connector for your vehicle too).
First, I needed to remove the stereo, which was quite difficult as I didn't have to official tool to do that. After ringing AutoBarn to find out if I could get a tool, he advised me to make my own out of a coathanger. I did make my own tool, but out of welding rod instead (hangers are for girls!).
In this first picture, you could see the stereo removed from the dash. You can also see where the old cradle was, from the screw pocking out, and the glue residue that remained.
This second picture shows the mess I was making. I was glad I had managed to get the stereo out as it hasn't been playing CD's for a long time. Whilst I love to listen to Nova 106.9, I was getting annoyed and had thought of plopping down $1000 on one of the Pioneer bluetooth units. More on that later.
By the time I was taking this third picture, I really was wandering whether what I was doing was a good idea. I love my car, but not when it looked like this. Anyway, you can see how I am starting to feed to wires in. I decided that I will tee into the power cords for the cigeratte lighter, since that is only ever one when the key is turned onto 'accessory' and beyond. I wanted to hide the 'transformer/regulator' part of the cradle behind the glove box though, so I could use it's extra auxillary cable with a mini-USB adaptor to charge a GPS unit, if I do get one.
In this fourth picture, you can see the regulator has been positioned behind where the glove box is. I then plug the actual cradle into this and run the wire back to near my steering wheel. Luckily, you get plenty of wire so this is all possible. I checked it was all working at this point, which is evident from the green LED that is glowing when the unit has power.
I then proceeded to build my dashboard back together, leaviing the cradle just enough cable to position it where I want to. I still needed to clean the dash up to remove the old glue. I used some methylated spirits to do this job, which worked a treat. Don't panic if your dash goes a funny grey colour, this is just all of the grease/polish being taken out of it and we can sort that out laterr. (Whytey disclaimer: At least I managed to sort mine out later. You vehicle may be different, perhaps you can test in a hidden part of the dsahboard such as the side of a glovebox).
In this picture, you can see the cradle mount stuck to the dash. I put the old screw back in the top and stuck some double sided sticky foam down the right side, as the curvature of my dashboard meant this side was lifted away slightly. I then decided to put another screw in the bottom just for added solidness. You can see the overly grey plastic where I cleaned up with the meths.
I then used some 'Armor-All' dash cleaner to bring the colour back to my dash, which can be seen in this picture. I generally use this solution to make my car look better, so I would have needed to use meths prior to mounting the cradle anyhow, otherwise it probably would not have stuck.
I then rebolted the actual cradle to the mount and put the JasJam inside to check it all looks good. The cradle can be swivelled all around, including into the horizontal position although you can't slide it open to reveal the keyboard. It would be good if the JasJam could sense when it is placed horizontally so it change the screen to landscape mode, but it doesn't!
I was very happy with the finish of the job. It sure does look professional and it charges the JasJam even when the screen is on, which I found most chargers do not.
And to make a good day great, I stripped down my stereo to see if I could fix it. A quick clean of the CD reading lense with my camera cleaning kit and it is as good as new. Therefore, I saved $1000 by spending $160 on a cradle. Brilliant!
REMEMBER - This cradle does not expect you to drill holes or stick things to your dash. I just decided to be different.
|
 |
|
|
|