One suggestion to mount a LeafDD

I received my LeafDD last Friday – thanks Greg. I like the extra data and will continue to play with it to learn more about the car and it’s health. One of my expectations is to be a little more confident on the range since my usual commute is within a couple of miles of the range when I drive very conservatively; speed control at 56 at highest but often slower with high density traffic. Who’d of ever thought I’d welcome traffic?
So, I wanted to mount the display somewhat out of the way but still be visible. I saw pics of the display on top of the middle dash with Velcro, stuck into the vacant ignition (ice) switch but was looking for something I would appreciate better. Also, important to state, this 2011 Leaf is mine to use for 7 months and after the 7 months, I either buy it from my brother-in-law or help him sell it. He lives in a HOT climate and I'm lucky enough to live in the SF Bay area so the battery life will not degrade as quickly as it was for him in Fresno. It’s an ’11 with 20K miles and down a bar for about 4K miles. I mention the ownership aspect because I didn’t want to do modifications that could not be reversed 100%. If it was mine, I would not mind drilling a hole or 2 – nicely of course. Please understand, I took the pics with an iPhone and a flashlight so there are some limitations.
I went for the top left small window area to mount the display. The visibility is great and I found a path for the wire. The top plastic panel pops off very easily:
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There is a hole that feeds down towards the levers to pop the charge ports and feed the cable down.

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The cable assembly should feed down and be caught near the lever you pull to open the charge port. You may need to use a flash light and one of those mechanical fingers – picker up things you can get at Home Depot to snag the cable and pull in through the opening below:

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Another picture:

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I had extra cable that I coiled up and “stored” under the top plastic dash part. As you can see from the pictures, there’s plenty of room in there. Then I left enough cable to run the display to the location I wanted it. It quite naturally stayed close to where I wanted it so it didn’t take a lot to get it to stay in place. If at first it’s not naturally in place, the cable can be formed or bent to get it into a new position to be where you want it.

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Then, to mount it well enough but not causing any scarring to the car, I went with a wire tie stick on clip. I was able to pop Greg’s circuit board out enough to work a wire tie and get it to stay in place. It’s sturdy and can be pulled out of there in 5 minutes. One last part I’m still thinking through is how to get the top dash part to stay down better without cutting a hole for the cable to come through. I’ll come up with something but like I said, if it was my car, I’d clip a little bit of the cover back so the cable could protrude without interfering with the cover seating correctly.

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And the final picture for now:

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Digitalxrayguy said:

One last part I’m still thinking through is how to get the top dash part to stay down better without cutting a hole for the cable to come through. I’ll come up with something but like I said, if it was my car, I’d clip a little bit of the cover back so the cable could protrude without interfering with the cover seating correctly.

Click to expand...

Have you considered buying another cover to replace the one you'd hole? I've just spent a hour trying to find the actual part in the online catalogs available and can't. But seeing what similar parts in other areas of the car sell for, I would imagine it being a $25-50 part.

mwalsh said:

Digitalxrayguy said:

One last part I’m still thinking through is how to get the top dash part to stay down better without cutting a hole for the cable to come through. I’ll come up with something but like I said, if it was my car, I’d clip a little bit of the cover back so the cable could protrude without interfering with the cover seating correctly.

Click to expand...

Have you considered buying another cover to replace the one you'd hole? I've just spent a hour trying to find the actual part in the online catalogs available and can't. But seeing what similar parts in other areas of the car sell for, I would imagine it being a $25-50 part.

Click to expand...

That idea flashed through the brain but I thought the cost would be a lot higher. You have prompted me to ask the local dealer because that would be a great solution. Thanks!! -rb

ps: Anyone: What am I doing wrong on posting pics? I have the membership level, set up a photobucket with the url's embedded...

^ When I quote your original post, I see an image tag, followed by an embedded URL, followed by a second image tag, then the link to your image, and then two closing image tags. Get rid of the embedded URL, the upper case image tag, and one of the two closing image tags, and you should be fine. This will leave the image link encapsulated by opening and closing image tags.

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Good idea, nice work, and very usable pictures, thanks.

Wow! That's pretty slick!

We designed the little tabs on the sides of LeafDD with the idea that some future mounting back or perhaps shade hood could be designed and 3D printed in the future...Then the LeafDD could just snap into it.

P.S. Check with http://www.autobeyours.com
I think that's where Jeremy was able to pick up a Nissan battery module.. they collect crashed Prii and Leafs etc and sell the scrap parts. You could probably get that corner dash piece pretty cheap from a crashed car.

I didn't realize that panel popped out so easy, as that's the exact location I want, but had trouble with the cable management. I'm going to try this as well (will probably notch the edge for the cable), as mine is currently on top of the center console, and keeps moving around whenever I take a turn.

Does anyone think this might interfere with airbag operations since it's stuck to the A pillar?

Thanks for sharing!

So I went ahead and drilled the hole. Without the cable, the hole is barely noticeable, but if it really becomes an issue, I'll just order a new cover.

I haven't mounted the case itself yet, as mine needs to be replaced, and I'm also somewhat concerned about the stress on this cable, so for now, it's just sitting there (a lot better than my previous setup). Here are some pics (please ignore the dust, didn't know how bad it was until I used the flash on my camera, guess I have some cleaning to do):

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