Anyone?

 

I thought someone would have some sort of idea.

 

You run into problems sometimes with factory stuff like that. Keep in mind of a few things you often run into with these types of factory radios.

Also you never told us what kind/year/options this car was/has.

Lets start by having that.

 

What car is it you are working on? The 957HD has the idata port. Will the Idatalink maestro not retain you factory display?

 

Is that little flip-up cubby hole at the bottom big enough for a ddin? Maybe leave the factory unit in place and stick ur Alpine unit down there if it would fit. Would make for nice stealth install.

 

The second image looks very nice. That would be my pick.

 

The Top Image is one of my Dash, the 3rd image is my car with Nav, the 2nd image is not my car (it is an Acura ILX, my car is a 2012 Acura TSX).

I looked into the iDatalink just for steering wheel controls, which it looks like it can do, but I couldn't get the online system to tell me if it would interface any more. I need to call them.

Even if it can, the top screen shows the HVAC, radio info and clock. Without the factory radio, it will only show the HVAC info on that screen, meaning most of the screen is left blank.

The area below is not large enough for a double din.

I guess I may just have to leave it 3/4 dead. I thought maybe someone would have a really good idea. I wasn't able to come up with anything.

 

The idatalink will not keep the factory display or enhance its function. They have been pretty good about listing fully what the unit will and wont do. If it does for some reason and they tell you otherwise I would be surprised.

My suggestion if you really want a cool idea would be to move the display to the cubby in the bottom. This way you can still tell where your A/C is. You could even mold over the dead portion of the screen and just show the bottom half.

If you are savy enough without moving it, (I know people with Mazda 3's have done it) you could figure out the data coming out of the head unit for song info into that screen and continue to feed song data and such to it. This would require some electrical engineering knowledge and possible a micro controller I would guess.

Or you could move that HVAC screen to the cubby and put something up there that you feel missing.

If you want an IPAD/Ipod/IPhone holder that you can mold in a make look nice, try one of the ones from Soundman iPad and Nexus 7 Car Install mount kits, guides and Forums.

The idata piece will do gauges so you need not worry about that.

According to the manual, there is some "Rear Seat entertainment" modes. I know typically RSE output is limited to a selected source and not the backup camera for example. You could in theory build a video switcher which sends rear camera video to a screen mounted up top, then switches back to a video input from the Alpine. That would be slick.

I think for example you might be able to RSE output the nav display. So technically you could have something close to factory IF you put a new display up there. Keep in mind places like Mp3car.com: Providing the latest news on in-car entertainment, and a community to connect people. have auto switchable display. Youll have to play/call Alpine to see what the unit can rear output.

 

Since this is the only thread I'm seeing on this particular unit, question if I may:

I see it has an HDMI output (you see where I'm going with this)... Can the HDMI output be used as the main audio output?

 

That is an HDM INPUT not output.

I few newer units have HDMI in because of the digital outputs of the IPhone and some Android phones.

It does have optical output for audio though........

 

Well it is not the end of the world if the HDMI output works on all sources and not just the A/V ones. You can always go HDMI>Optical worst case. Mechless I can take or leave.

I still see a distinct lack of CarPlay/Android Auto though for that price....

 

Glad I gave up this idea or I would be pretty pissed that my thread got completely hijacked. Carry on!