My iPad doesn't fit!

[MikeFairbanks]

The best laid plans... can still fail horribly.

While my iPad strictly speaking does fit on the panel... you can't see any of the switches when it's on there!

Covers the switches, and would rub the glare shield top right

So I had to go looking for another solution... try as I might there was no way to make a standard 10.9" iPad fit, so I will have to go with an iPad Mini instead.

Here is the mounting solution I found... it's really slick.

Flush mount, looks like part of the panel

Even with this things were a tight squeeze. The company had mechanical drawings of their mount on the website, so I was able to model its foot print... then 3D print this template to make sure it will fit in my panel. I'm happy to say it fits... with about 1/4" to spare.

This is the size and shape of what has to fit behind the panel

[MikeFairbanks]

So I got the new iPad Mini 6 mount in and got to work...

I used the template I had 3D printed on the back of the panel to locate the 4 mounting holes, them moved it to the front to mark the panel cutout...

I then used a cutoff disk in a grinder to make a rough opening...

I then followed that with a dremel with a carbide bit in it to take things out to the scribed line, followed by a bit of file work to dress it up...

Between the iPad mount and the Powerwerx USB power supply I had about 6' of excess USB cable, so I set about cutting that down to size... those are some itty bitty wires!

I designed and 3D printed a mount for the back of it to install the Powerwerx box too, mounted the blower motor, and dressed up the wiring to include a plug for the 12V power to make it easy to remove should I need to...

All finished and installed, I think it came out great!