So anyhow, i drive my celica for a living and use the gps on my phone constantly. I found out something cool about the nokia windows phones, the gps app that nokia makes doesnt need to be constantly connected to a data signal to work. which means the phone doesnt have to be activated to use the gps. So i decided to get a smaller and cheaper version of my phone to do this install. This one is a nokia lumina 521 running version 8 of windows. First thing i did was connect it to my wifi at home so i could download the illinois map for offline use. Now that was the full extent of what was needed to be downloaded for this to work. tested it and sure enough it accurately led me to places without any issue or any kind of cellular or wifi connection. only paid 50 for the phone btw. Now that i had the phone i was thinking, hmm where could i mount it in my car and not have it be in my way but also be somewhere i could glance at it while driving and be safer than holding it. my choices were either build it into my visor or my steering wheel, the visor didnt seem like a good idea since i would have to fold down the visor to use the gps and block some of my vision while using it. seemed too risky for me there. so into the steering wheel it went, its a stock one so i plan on replacing the steering wheel anyway when i get around to it so i didnt mind damaging the horn button. horn never worked anyway lol. I also wanted it to be self charging so i didnt have to worry about its battery going dead. dead batteries are a constant worry of mine at work because the gps drains them pretty good. so i decided to wire in the phone and an old usb charger and wire it to my fuse box. that way as long as my engine is running its charging it up. down below are a few pics of what i did, its not the finished result but its a start. i plan on it looking alot cleaner when its completely done. i need to make a frame for the phone to sit in and hide the rough edges of the cut at the same time, perhaps buy a phone case for it and cut what i need for it.maybe someday down the road i will connect it to my stereo system and use it for a mp3/mp4 player as well. And as im sure some of you will ask this question,,, why not just buy a tom tom or a garmin or something like that? ive used those, not only are they expensive but they also need alot of info typed int o them in order to send you to the correct address. As for this gps app, well all i need is a street number and street name and it assumes im looking in the same town im already in and finds it, which is exactly what i need. Therefore its alot more efficent than the expensive ones. this was supposed to be the last pic but as you can see i had a malfunction with my copy/paste lol.
