Swapped the USB cord and the tablet charges up fine now, even with gps/wifi/screen constantly turned on. What a relief.
Below you can see the charging rate for the cheap cable (lower mA) and the good quality Sony cable (higher mA) when used to charge my phone. With such low charging current from the cheap cord when paired with my phone - with gps off/wifi off/low brightness - it's no wonder the more power hungry tab was discharging.






I am still on the look out for a more compact/flush usb and aux jack so I can center the tab properly but I'm happy enough now that I can use the tab to its fullest without worrying about battery problems.

 

i took mine on the nexus 7 and bent the port 90 degrees and soldered it. you should be able to do the same

 

I like this idea.

 

I thought about doing this although was concerned if my new soldered connections would carry the same current as the original ones. Then I figured it should work just fine anyway, so it's a matter of finding some time to take the tab back out, open it up and redo the port.

On yours, is the solder for the 4/5 port connections or is the solder just supporting the port at that angle? Did you desolder the port and resolder it at an angle or just desolder the mounts and bend it with the power/signal connections still attached.

Also, did you run into any issues with the aux jack or you using bluetooth or something?

 

i did not desolder the actual contacts. i was originally going to but after looking at how small they were i was not confident i could get them back. i just desoldered the mounts and bent it. then i cut some header pins and used them as angled supports and soldered them on

im using a grob unit via usb so im not using the aux jack. u could also look into a usb dac

 

Awesome to see folks still active on the forum and posting DIY's. I was gonna tackle my car audio but had two massive valve cover leaks along with a bad TB actuator and a cracked pcv hose. So my car was giving me all sorts of issues. So I decided to tackle the engine bay first.

I have a empty Nav slot right just waiting for my hands. Was going to install my old 6 inch phone in the nav location but it got smashed under my hood when I was doing the wire tuck, fml. I am not experienced at all working with fiberglass/interior. I do have experience with exterior but not with tight small curved spaces.

Anyway I want everyone to post there build/DIYs and keep the forum going.

FYI Any details on sound processing or are you just using USB-Audio as Aux from the Head Unit that's in the glove box with a IR remote?

 

You should keep a look out for cheap tablets or even phones. I picked up this one for $40.
For the audio I just have a 3.5mm aux jack on the tablet headphone port connected to the stereo 3.5mm input. This way I do all the music selection and whatever from the tab and send it out to the stereo which sends it to the stock amp and through to the speakers. The stereo is set to about 75% volume and then I adjust the volume from the tab with some onscreen controls.
I've been messing with a few different widgets/apps for volume and the one I'm using now places an icon on the home screen - with brightness and volume - and you simply click on it and slide a slider. It's not the best but it works for now till I have a moment to dig around the app store. The best solution would be a slider on the navigation bar - along side the home/return/apps button on the bottom of the screen. Another option is an inline volume **** between the aux out on the tab and the aux in on the stereo but I feel it's unnecessary.

Also for some thing like this you don't really need to mess with fiber glass or anything to difficult. The bondo worked fine for me and I didn't even have a dremel to cut the holes with.

Next thing to do though is to find a double din a/c control that is made for 03-04. I am currently using a 05-06 one and all the controls work apart from the temp up/down. It's getting cold here in FL at night so I'd like to have more than just the hot seats...

 

Since your using the tablet for fine tuning the sound. I highly suggest Viper4Android. Its a great user interface but has advanced sound parameters. It made everything I used sound 10X better. Headphones, speakers, anything. You need to be rooted however.

I have a 03.5 and not sure which a/c controls are being used but mine looks exactly like yours and temp up and down works. I have 2 extra plugs unplugged so not sure what they are unless its steering wheel. Seems to be the only thing not working on my car right now.

I'm on the lookout for a tablet but my tablet will go up top. I've just always heard bondo without fiberglass will crack but if I make a minimal mount I guess small amounts of bondo won't be an issue

 

Until I get time to mess with it, it will be staying not rooted but I'll keep that in mind.
The Metra a/c controls looks the same between 03-04 and 05-06 but the signals for the temp up/down work differently between the models so that's the problem I have.

The bondo I used seems to be holding up great and I did knock it about quite harshly whilst hacking up the holes and modifying it all to make everything fit. Way more abuse than it'll see just sitting in the car.

 

Just to clarify you used normal bondo or did you use the finishing bondo one would use on top of a finished/sanded bondo layer. I know bondo needs to be thing and not to thick so over the years I've heard so many people yell use fiberglass and a touch of bondo or it will crack all over the place. I personally don't have a location to fiberglass anything without pissing neighbors/roommates off so bondo is my only solution without paying someone and I will work on my car in the snow naked before I pay someone to do anything.

 

I used the thick bondo paste - from a can - with red hardener first (seen as white filled spots in pictures) for the major filling. I then went over that/various sand marks/various little digs with the fine paste red bondo which comes out of a tube. I can get pictures of the products I used if you need. I can't even tell and have totally forgotten where the holes were.