The draw/tray at the top of the centre console is din sized, If I removed it what idea's do people have to put there instead.

and please please please dont say DVD player or flip out tv etc.

I wanted to make a custom PSP cradle that slid in and out of the tray and then flipped to be able to watch it, but I wouldnt know where to start.

good idea mate, speak to customice, c if he got any ideas how to go.... lol, whats wrong with flip out dvd players...pmsl...

nothings wrong with them, I would love 1, but its all about the benjimans.

You could get some DIN clocks I suppose showing voltages etc... hmm then again maybe not, its just stupid lol.

I say some sort of cd holder type thingy, cant really explain it, never seen one either lol, but the idea's in me head lmao!

was laffin dude.... again if u want one, ask customice, he got mine for me..

you mean 1 of these:


these where an optional extra for my car.

Yeah summit like that, but the one in my mind is a bit more jazzy and holds 6 lol. And swings out to the side. But then, thats my mind for ye haha.

Was also thinking about getting a new headunit with USB mp3 support and building an ide to usb cradle for a removable 3.5" hardrive full of mp3's, would this work?

It would in theory yes, but you would need some sort of operating system to run it and it would probably just be cheaper to get an HDD ICE system instead lol.

should work mate,

Memory sticks are flash memory arent they?

Jonah, Do you have a in car power invertor, that lets yo run house plugs in your car, I could bring an external hdd round to yours and try it, obviously once the baby is home and settled, it'll give me an excuse to see Grace without being all soppy.

Well with a HDD it depends on if the external caddy has a DOS or not. If it doesnt have some sort of DOS, then it deffo wouldnt work as it wouldnt be able to see the drive.

Its all very complicated tbh, dont forget that with head units reading memory cards, thats what they are built for, not HDD's.

16GB flash memory cards are out now and the price is constantly dropping (hence 4GB cards are less then £20.00 nowadays), so the advantages of an external HDD are low. Also, dont forget an external HDD runs at very high temperatures in comparison, so needs extra cooling and space to breath, but it also needs a LOT of padding if you are to put it in a car, as it HDD's dont mix well with the amount of bumps on UK roads, over time it would get a lot of bad sectors.

Id say look towards a 2.5" drive for less power consumption and a smaller form factor and therefore more room for cooling and shock absorbtion.

computer parts are 12v. so no need for an inverter if you do work out some way of using a hdd

wouldnt recomend it though. stick with solid state memory

new head unit with usb port, usb 14 in 1 memory card reader, mounted and flushed. as well as other I/O ports and extra usb ports to plug things like usb fans and lights into.

I like that idea mate, Mutant do a HU that takes USB and SD cards at the same time, and they are only fairly cheap (compared to the bigger brands).

Alternatively you could put a power capacitor for your head unit (had one in my last celica not got round to uttin it in the new one) Cleans the power up going to the HU and leaves it with like a reserve tank of power to use when the bass is thumping out.

Does anyone make a headunit with a usb port and Aux in on the rear?

why a usb in the rear? you still thinkin portable hdd?

No HDD, new unit to replace current H/U, Din blanking plate in the other Din. then rear USB from H/U to usb extension in the blanking plate and the same for Aux in. turning the blanking plate into a multimedia in panel.

did that make sense.

I think Kenwood do some HUs withe USB in on the rear and a cable to bring it round.

Can you use the usb port on head units as a power source for the USB gadgets such as a light or mini vacuum, what about to charge things like a mobile phone with a usb charger.

I'd hesitate to say yes for definate as the circuitry may not be able to handle higher current draw from lights/phone chargers compared to a flash drive's requirements. If you wanted to make a power socket in your media pannel then wiring it up to the back of the ciggy lighter is quite easy tho, just mark it off as power not audio!