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I thought some might be interested in some photos of an installation on a 2001 LX470 with Nav, so here goes:
Putting the plate into the cassette deck (I include this because although the outside looks very different from RT's original installation, the interior looks identical and it does work):
How it looks from below with the trim panel on:
Detail of the Smallrig joint--amazingly it looks like the plate and the smallrig joint were made for each other!
Alas, it did require drilling another hole to fit the location of the 1/4" coarse thread screw mount of the Smallrig:
But you can't really even see the original hole. Nice, right?!
Here's how it looks with the phone and tablet mounts on. Note that there really is little interference with the existing controls.
Now that it is basically set up, it is time to do some wiring. I cut some vent slots to make a hole big enough for four cables (3 USB and one audio). The edges were pretty sharp and I did not happen to have a rubber grommet so I wrapped some camel leather (because I happened to have it) around it and secured on both sides. My only concern is possible overheating, but the front plate will be open and the motors are removed, so I'm just going to hope for the best.
So this is what it looks like with a phone and tablet installed (before securing the cables, which I will do later):
As previously mentioned, I will shorten the vertical bar holding the phone most likely, but I will wait until I have it in the truck and can decide on final location. Now I've got to install the BT45-TOY and CAS-LEX cable, plus a couple of extra USB motorcycle USB power units so I can power the phone, possibly a dashcam to be mounted behind the phone, and have two more USB power points mounted in the face of the ashtray.
BTW, I got some 90 degree bend USB cables for the inexpensive Amazon Fire HD table (it was only 65 bucks or something) so that the cables were a little neater. Pretty much same price as regular cables, but you have to hunt a bit on Amazon to find the right orientation on the USB power cable.
One other thing; RT had mentioned that he was not sure if it was going to fit (and in fact I had to drill another hole, which was fine), but in case anyone wants to know, the back side of the Smallrig joint ended up about .45 inches away from the plastic trim, which seems to be enough.
Oh, I ought to mention that I left one of the USB cables inside the cassette deck so that I can pull it out later for the dashcam power. When I looked at the situation I realized that it was not going to be easy to fish around in there later to get that cable, and also that I did not want the bare metal end of the cable to be floating around in there. So I took a large bit of red heatshrink and coverd up the end of the USB cable, then I took a smaller black bit of heatshrink and covered the end of the red. Then I pulled that out of the front of the cassette deck and into the original hole of the Owl Expedition plate so that I could just reach it there and grab it. Because it is matte black and everything around it is black, you wouldn't notice it unless you knew it was there. So the original hole ended up having a function anyways.
The red paint that you see on the screws is actually red nail polish. I used that instead of locktite because I didn't seem to have any of that on hand. Hopefully it will do about the same job. I used it on the 1/4" coarse mounting screw and between the Smallrig joint and the plate as well, to hopefully reduce the possibility it will loosen up with vibration. At least that screw is easily accessible with the radio in-place.[/QUOTE
Your setup looks awesome! I'm thinking of copying, my o vm ly questions t.f ion is how it handles offroad with vibration? Is it solid?
LOL! Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but I liked your compliement too. Glad it worked well for you! My setup continues to please every day!
I’m want to purchase one as well, do you have any left?
