How big a radio will fit?

[LotusJoe]

Does anyone happen to have their radio removed from the dash. I'm looking for the distance from the leading edge of the dash to the front of the heater core. The radio I would like to use needs a depth of 6.22 inches (158 mm).

[LeftAngle]

No one answered you yet?  I'll be going to the shop on Monday.  I'll measure it and report back to you.

[LotusJoe]

Thank You

[LeftAngle]

Hi Joe.

The heater core has 2 levels in direct line with the opening creating about a half in difference.  I measured the shortest distance, from the outer surface of my dash to the right hand side of the heater, the measurement is 7.375".  Hope this helps and hope your radio fits.

[LotusJoe]

Excellent! and thank you for measuring. That will give me almost three quarters of an inch between back of the unit and the heater.

It is the only single DIN radio with navigation made. Unfortunately it has been discontinued. I was lucky enough to find an NOS unit.

[espurin]

Hi Joe,
I installed this unit to my '90 Esprit SE few years ago.  Speed sensor is required for GPS.  You should think about the speed sensor that Europa doesn't have before purchase.

[LotusJoe]

The one I bought came with the speed sensor unit. I installed one on a 914 recently the speed sensor adapter seems to work fine. So, I would think being fiberglass it should work fine. I also have the blue tooth adapter.

[LeftAngle]

You're quite welcome Joe:

Being poor, I had to create my own unit.  I don't listen to radio, but I do like to listen to my itunes.  I took an old jailbroken ipod, added a bluetooth gps, set it so everything on screen is horizontal, connected the volume and on-off button to the upper left switch, fitted three additional buttons for (bling) interior lighting. and mounted it in a 3D printed, 70s looking frame.  The gps maping has a British gent for navigation (Very funny...  He says things like "Nearly there now" and "jolly good turn") plus all the real time G force, tire force, lap time, speed and temperature information I'll ever need (the windshield reflects the ipod's screen if its set to high brightness, so If I shield the screen from direct view and reverse the image, I get head's up display on the windshield.  With an external amp, I get to listen to all of my 3,500 songs, plus, the video camera can be quickly turned on to record any traffic stops.  If I can come up with a periscope for the camera on the back side, I'll have a forward looking dash-cam as well.

The entire unit, including the GPS goes back less than 2".  I'm terrible at documenting my stuff, but here's a fuzzy photo of it:

None-the-less, I wish I could afford the gear you have, since even though mine is cool and doesn't look home made if you don't look too closely, it's still a hacked piece of gear that probably shouldn't be inside a Lotus.

Bruce

[LotusJoe]

That is an ingenious setup. Can you take a frontal picture? How did you make the surround and where did you get the additional buttons / switches?

[LeftAngle]

Hey, Joe: Will do, as soon as I meet up with the car again.  In the mean time, here are a couple of pictures I took of it while it was still in development. 

I'm waiting for the blue coolant hoses to come from Banks and as soon as they're installed, I'll be bringing the car back here for the body work.  The surround is made from chrome door trim that installs over a corresponding ridge running around the exterior and the additional buttons are micro-sized spst push buttons which I designed the printed faceplate around.  The push buttons themselves were printed, but my sense of humor is probably going to make me re-design them (I used the word "Bling" to describe which light each button connects to).

The most complicated part was connecting the single button to control the ipod's volume and on and off functions (the one that's installed in the pictures).  Turning it raises or lowers the volume, and pushing it turns the ipod on and off.  The button has to connect mechanically to the corresponding buttons on the ipod, which are in several different places around the edge of the device.  It turned out to be quite a Rube Goldberg affair.  It works, but when I do it again, I'll clean it up considerably. 

I intensionally made the faceplate look 1970ish, but I'm having second thoughts about it being the best path to take.  I'm thinking it should be cleaner, with a glossy black surface that matches the shift gate and rear view camera monitor.  I'll separate the on-off and volume controls and eliminate the additional buttons that really have nothing to do with music, performance or navigation.  Those things can be controlled by toggles mounted in the overhead console where the interior lights will be located.

Finally, I'll re-do the lettering, with simple and straight forward identification... More professional.  At the very least, it should look a lot less cluttered.  If I change over to a GPS speedometer and stepper motor instruments, as I'd like to, a more modern look would fit better.

[EuropaTC]

That really is very impressive Bruce, 10 out of 10 plus gold star award for imagination and execution. The idea of having something like that permanently fixed in-dash rather than floating around the car on a cable pushed into the radio really is superb.

Brian

[LeftAngle]

Thanks Brian.  You humble me.  The great thing about jailbroken iphones and ipod touches is they're ultimately versatile.

If you can imagine what you want the device to do, chances are, someone, somewhere, has written an app to do it.  I was able to configure virtually everything the way I wanted.  No sliding of fingers across the screen to get out of the lockscreen, just push "Navigation".  As soon as I get to the car, I'll post more pics of the maps.  And if there's enough interest, I'll post an Instructable on how to make one and a list of the apps I'm using, so it can be set up any way you want.