Aftermarket radio install in cassette player pod.

[Guest astro355]

Figured I'd do a write-up on this. Someone might find something useful. As of right now, I have the mockup operational. The cassette player pod is barely wide enough for the Pioneer deck. I did some cutting to the driver side and back of the pod to accommodate the deck and also make fabrication easier. Seeing how the pod is a separate piece from the rest of the floor console and dash, a new pod can be constructed instead of hacking up the old pod.

I'll be driving with it this way for a little time. I want to see if its functional this way. I'm not sold on the buttons above the stereo. I can move the deck up higher, there is plenty of clearance behind the pod.

[handmedownreatta]

that might look good if you can make a quality trim piece.

[Guest astro355]

Yes, once I get the functionality down, I'll be finishing up the framing and then fiberglassing the pod. I see no reason in doing the fiberglass until I'm sure the layout works. I'm not sure if I like the buttons on top like they are so I'll try it out for a little bit and go from there.

[Guest astro355]

And of course any other comments or opinions are welcome.

[KDirk]

Astro-

A nice start there. Pretty much what I am working on fro my 88, only I will leave the switch bank in it's original position and put a double DIN navi/media player in. I am still trying to decide how I will trim it out, but that is a ways off yet. Please keep up posted on this, I'd like to see the finished product.

KDirk

[handmedownreatta]

Astro-

A nice start there. Pretty much what I am working on fro my 88, only I will leave the switch bank in it's original position and put a double DIN navi/media player in. I am still trying to decide how I will trim it out, but that is a ways off yet. Please keep up posted on this, I'd like to see the finished product.

KDirk

im fed up with the limitations of the stock radio.i think im going to go with a double din radio too.i'll start with a junkyard pod in case these cars are ever collectible.the double din radios are four inches tall,same as the height of the opening in the cover plate.it may be as simple as cutting the sides out of the cover plate,snapping the top and bottom parts back in and then installing the new radio in between.the dd radios are supposidly seven inches wide which should fit in the pod if the cassette player mounts are trimmed away.

[padgett]

My thought is that a 7" tablet is almost exactly the same size as the casette. Why bother with a radio, all you need is an amplifier.

[handmedownreatta]

im not happy with my xm radio.its too hard to operate.the xm module that works with the pioneer radios works excellent.i have one in my camaro.plus i want more presets and radio disciptive service. i love just looking at the screen to see who the artist is.

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

What about disk eject in park? when I look at doing a deck it would het the shifter. Could work around but I like my solution better than fighting with the disks and shifter.

[handmedownreatta]

What about disk eject in park? when I look at doing a deck it would het the shifter. Could work around but I like my solution better than fighting with the disks and shifter.

i never thought about that.

[KDirk]

Daniel raises a good point, but most current 2-DIN units support the use of thumb drives and/or SD cards for storage media. I have one in my Caddy, one for the 91 and the one going in the 88 are all set up to do this. So, I will not generally be using discs (CD or DVD). Can put a LOT of MP3s on a 4 or 8GB SD card (or thumb drive) and will almost never need to worry about changing it out.

Now, if you plan on watching DVD movies (illegal in most locales, at least with the car moving) then the disc tp shifter clearance may be an issue. But, considering the risks of doing so - like crashing the car due to being distracted - you likely have bigger problems to worry about than the ability to eject the disc.

As a detail on the trim piece, I have a spare trim that I have cleanly cutoff the entire portion above the switch bank opening. So, now I have just the piece that surrounds the 5 switches (this is on an 88, 89 has only two switches) which retains the two snap mounts. I will be fabricating a completely new trim bezel to go around the 2-DIN radio from textured black ABS plastic sheet. If I can find a material that has the anodized aluminum look in a shade that matches the rest of the trim, I may add that later.

KDirk

[padgett]

In my nutty view of the world, cars should just have a slot to receive the tablet of choice and just provide power, amp, and speakers. Maybe a touch screen but integration might be an issue. Everything else is portable.My smart phone on my belt does everything now including being a hot spot for other devices like the tablet on a flex mount.

[NCReatta]

In my nutty view of the world, cars should just have a slot to receive the tablet of choice and just provide power, amp, and speakers. Maybe a touch screen but integration might be an issue. Everything else is portable.My smart phone on my belt does everything now including being a hot spot for other devices like the tablet on a flex mount.

Not sure how having something like that is better than texting while driving though.

Sent from my mobile device using Forum Runner

[padgett]

Uconnect (handsfree in my Heep) includes voice recognition for text. I do not use it (do not text) but is there.Am not sure why things keep coming into my life but there is a lot of serendipty. When I needed a new tow/long trip car, occasional GF pointed me at the Heep & am glad she did, it has been quite a learning experience, got me started with OBD-II and tablets along with many other capabilities. Does require a technologically ept navigator since voice commands do not work well and integration is lacking. Today. (why have not been very active here lately).

Edited October 31, 2012 by padgett (see edit history)

[Machiner 55]

Padgett,

How did my right foot get into your Reatta?

John F.

[NCReatta]

Uconnect (handsfree in my Heep) includes voice recognition for text. I do not use it (do not text) but is there.Am not sure why things keep coming into my life but there is a lot of serendipty. When I needed a new tow/long trip car, occasional GF pointed me at the Heep & am glad she did, it has been quite a learning experience, got me started with OBD-II and tablets along with many other capabilities. Does require a technologically ept navigator since voice commands do not work well and integration is lacking. Today. (why have not been very active here lately).

I wasn't so much talking about actually texting as I was just using any touch device in general.

I would never install a touch screen of any sorts in my car. I'm sorta OK with the one in the '88/'89s, but only because I know where all the buttons, and it's not too far below my line of sight. Anything else (tablet, iPhone, otherwise) is not a good idea in a car.

Even with the factory Reatta screens, I had a former GM sales person tell me that he had several customers (as well as himself) almost get into a wreck because they had to take their eyes off the road to look at the screen.

[padgett]

Depends on whether you know where things are or have to think about it. Switching between torque, nav, and music is easy. Selecting what each is to do requires either pulling over or a navigator.

[KDirk]

Padgett,

Your idea sounds good enough on paper. Problem is, it'll never happen in practice as there are too many "standards" (that really aren't) to ever achieve true integration of all (or even just the major/popular) tablet and smart phone devices. The outfits that design this stuff do this garbage intentionally just because they can.

Look at the iPod. There is a de-facto standard if ever there was one, yet the quality of the integration, whether on a factory (like Ford Sync, or Cadillac's CUE) or aftermarket stereo HU, is all over the map. Outfits like Alpine, Pioneer and Kenwood that are supposed to be top-shelf and yet several years into ubiquity now can't seem to get firmware on these HU's that can talk reliably to all iPods all the time. The fact that the company begat of Steve's garage keeps changing the device firmware (and the docking connector) doesn't make it any better. As well, the major after market makers orphan these very expensive head units by completely changing the OS and applications that are used every generation (or two at most) of the product line. No further updates are then offered for the older units, making them destined for service as boat anchors.

Now imagine trying to accommodate dozens (probably hundreds) of different devices - iPods, smart phones, tablets, with disparate OS's (iOS, Android, Windows CE or whatever it is called this week, multiple variants of Linux) with perfect integration. No dice. Fact is most outfits won't even try that hard as they know it is a lost cause. This is where we are today. Really, this is the same effect that drove proprietary architectures of mainframes in the 60's and 70's, early PC's (Kaypro and Wang anyone?) home computers in the 80's (TI, Commodore, Apple II, Atari, Timex Sinclair, and a whole host of other goofball stuff long since forgotten) and even PC's well into the 90's (can you say Next or Amiga?). There are now fewer players and things like USB have helped but we still have far to many stupid incompatibilities to deal with. Regrettably, the cycle has started anew with tablets and cellphones, so we are actually regressing to a period more like the early/mid 1980's menu of disparate tech in that segment of the market.

I could solve this in one fell swoop if I could make an industry dictate that must be obeyed under pain of death: all such devices must present a data stream at a USB port that is dead on compatible with the same interfacing standards used by a USB thumb drive or SD card (so treated like an external drive in essence, not some proprietary interface) that was formatted FAT32 or NTFS or MAC file format as these are long established standards that work because they are completely documented and because have to. As far as track control and other remote control functions of the device, there should be a 100% agreed upon industry standard for a simple interface protocol that will support functions like play, stop, pause, FF/RW, random play, sequential play, artist/album search etc. And no, bluetooth isn't that standard (yet, and probably never will be) as there are plenty of hiccups there as well.

As to the shortcomings of a touchscreen while driving, I have adapted well to this but still much prefer dedicated physical controls for at least the major functions (volume, presets, source, track up/down, temp up/down, fan up/down). It is interesting the complaints generated by the Rivi/Reatta CRT that ultimately killed it after 1989 in those cars, lead to the needed changes in the VIC system in the 1989-92 Toronado. These had a vastly improved setup with a multitude of dedicated function switches for radio and climate, as well as redundant steering wheel controls as an option in those cars. These should've been on the Rivi and Reatta touch screen setup from the start. Live and learn I suppose.

KDirk

[padgett]

In 1922 there were over 2,000 automobile manufacturers in the US, from there the designs refined to ones that worked. In 1985 there were a similar nuber of PC manufacturers. Today it is tablets and smart phones (and in many ways is like PCs in the late '80s). Personally have been thinking about smart devices on belt since early '90s & is here.Have put together more of my thoughts on Padgett's Tablet page if anyone is interested. Am beginning to look into voice commands but have some limitations there. Google unveils free Siri rival for iPhone, iPad - Computerworld