Someone on this forum once suggested building a sat nav into the sun visor (I forget who, but thanks for the inspiration). I've been looking at the Prof Nav retrofit, but it seems so painfull, with a fair chance of never working all the kinks out. So I started looking into the options for a home made solution.

I came up with this using a Navigon 2110 MAX, since it's slim, and the power/TMC plus are on the bottom, rather than the back like Garmin Nuvi. Once I found a spare sun visor I took out the mirror and investigated the circuit for the mirror light in the headliner. Thankfully this is a simple circuit, though there was no way of preserving the switch for visor up/down since it's integrated with the mirror open/close switch. Since the power is not linked to ignition I didn't want it to be on full time, so I removed the bulb from the holder in the headliner and added a switch, positioned so closing the sun visor will switch the circuit off.

Once I'd cracked open the cigar lighter power adaptor for the Navigon, I fitted the voltage regulator into a smaller box and wired that into the cabling that I'd disconnected from the visors original switch. This was positioned so the power indicator LED on the regulator was visible. Then there was enough room from removing the mirror to hide the combined power/TMC receiver inside the visor, and fit the regulator and sat nav into place! Finally added some foam rubber to keep everything where it's supposed to be.

The Navigon works perfectly, quickly locking onto FM TMC signal and GPS satellites. Also the Grey/Orange colour scheme on the maps fits in quickly with the grey/orange instrument cluster...

It's not looking too smart at the moment, the sat nav itself is taped in place while I look for some Vinyl that's a close match to the sun visor cover. Then I'll use that to fix it all in place, with holes for the LED indicator and Sat Nav screen. But in it's current state it's easy to see roughly how it's laid out...









It's not clear in these pics, but everything is flush to the surface of the visor, so once it's covered, it should look quite good!

 

Great idea! I cant wait to see the finished product!

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting it finished too. The tape isn't a good look. Another nice feature of this is I can just pull the sun visor and light fixture and transplant into another E60 if I trade up...

 

cool!

 

Is'nt it mounted a little high for it to be safe whilst driving?Nice idea though.

 

The place for a outside satnav, is richiemail about here.

This's a Navigon 7120 in black as the dash, and sits pretty Ok in the dash,
don't you think?

 

Very innovative!!

 

I hear you. I prefer my Garmin Nuvi 350 to the 550's nav system.

The OP's nav installed in the visor is a well-executed innovation although I would not want to look that high up to see the screen.

 

PERFECT idea. I love it! Gotta love people who has the guts to rip things apart in their car. I cant wait until I see the final product after covering.

 

After a couple of days of driving, I'm forced to agree the positioning isn't perfect. It's not so much the height, but the distance between the sat nav and my face! Focusing on the sat nav and then back on the road is a bit of a strain... I've found tilting the seat back a bit, and pushing the sun visor all the way back to the windscreen is better. For long drives I think i'll find myself closing the sun visor and just using the turn by turn voice guidance, then just pull it down for complicated bits.

Ricracing's position is better, but I wanted a hardwired power solution, and didn't fancy drilling in the dash to put in close to the top of dashboard line. The 2110 doesn't have a great battery, it's only worth a couple of hours tops...