How to: Routing a USB cable to your dashboard
What?
You may have seen the previous article I wrote on mounting a dock holder on your dashboard
http://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699398 Well, i promised to write a follow up guide at some point explaining how to route a USB cable from the arm rest to the dashboard.
Why?
Because that dock isnt being particually useful up there on your dash if its not plugged into your car
What do I need?
How?- File the iPhone dock
The first problem i encountered was the USB extender cable end was too big to fit in the iPhone dock. I had to file it down to make it fit- Make sure the dock fits flush with the mount. PM me for details on this step
- Locate and prep the arm rest
You must first pull out the rubber tray inside the arm rest. This is crucial to routing the USB cable
Slip your finger nail in the grove, and push your finger in
Grip with your finger and pull it out
- Feed the USB cable into the arm rest
You must feed the female end of the USB cable up through and into the arm rest. Do this by forcing the connector between the upolstory and dashboard- it will fit through. Then push the cable through, and you will see it through the rectangle in the centre of the arm rest. Put your fingers in there and pull it through.
You will end up with this
Install the Y adapter and connect to the female end of the USB extender
Push the slack cable down and re-insert the rubber tray
You will now end up with the some slack USB cable, and a male end
- Lay the USB down the centre console
Locate the working area
Slide your fingers between the upolstory and the dashboard, lifting it gently away
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You will notice when you release, the dashboard fits back without any problems
Insert the slack cable into the gab pade by your fingers and push it up
The cable will then be swallowed up behind the console
Push the remaining cable under and the cable will be hidden
Here is what the result is- make sure that the cable is taught as possible at this moment, ensuring that you have as much cable as possible
- Route the cable up the dashboard
In this step, which is not as easy as a certain youtube video would suggest, we remove the center console vents. I did this by gripping the top right of the vent and getting my fingers under and unsnapping it, then i ran my fingers along to unsnap the left hand side. As seen below:
I then ran my fingers down from the leftside to finally unclip the vents:
At this point you can safely rest the vents on the centre console, it wont damage or scratch anything
Take you're picture frame wire and feed it into the the hole in the dash, and down towards the passenger footwell
Then push your fingers up into the dashboard in the passener footwell. it's fiddley, but you will get it eventually
Wrap the wire around the end of your extension cable, then tuck it inside of the dashboard and pull the cable up from the other end, slowly, until the cable appears (sorry for the lack of pictures here- i will update with propper pics tonight- i only just did this on the car park at work)
Re-attach the vents- make sure you keep the cable in the corner of the vents, and you will end up with this:
Note that the small gap is not noticeable, even with this thick USB cable, the vents snap back in and are sealed- as on a max air con, there is no leaked air detected, and the small gap cannot be seen due to the docks position
- Attach the dock to the dashboard
The final peice. Reattach the dock and tidy up
Again, i apologise for the lack of quality in some of the pics, and some of the ordering- i will sort it out this evening.
My thanks to Mc05Rat for providing the idea of routing the USB cable through the centre console the way he did