Truck Computer - carputer - Build Log - Page 11

Some photos of audio cables. I made a total of 3 of these. Front speakers, Rear speakers and Subs... Once I hooked them up I found out the rear channel audio port on my motherboard wasn't working. Looking into it, but planning to RMA.







Last photo shows a cable I had crimped too tightly and grounded out the right channel.


...As for the dash. It's going to suck.
My polypropylene is bonding well to the dash itself but not to the hvac control cover.
I have a few options now...

1. I could cut a flat piece of pp to match the hvac control and weld it in. I wouldn't be able to snap the hvac in though so It would need to get a custom bracket to hold it in or get welded in.
2. I can melt the pp to whatever plastic the dash is made of (trying to find out from chevy right now) and use the composite for welding these two pieces.
3. I could cover the body with carbon fiber. Expensive and seems difficult with all the cutouts and contours, but would be strong, look sick and give me a surface I could bond to.
4. I could remove the hvac from the main dash piece and install it below.
5. I could take a mold of the dash progress so far and make a new one of carbon fiber/fiberglass... however I'm not sure how I would handle attaching it to the existing dash.

PC CASE CONCEALMENT WIRING HARNESS
AMP/SUB INSTALL
DASH FABRICATION
RADAR DETECTOR AUDIO THUMP DELAY/MOTHERBOARD 5.1

Its been fun and I'm learning a lot (like don't bite off more then I can chew)... !

But no seriously I love doing projects like this. I just wish I had more time and didn't get so many distractions to take me away from it when I get really involved. Altogether I've probably only put about 1-2 weeks of research into this build and 2-3 weeks of work. If it weren't for Dash fabrication that time would be cut in half (or more). I just don't want to work on a project unless I'm motivated because doing something to "just get it done" takes the fun out.

Ya know?

Not much to update.
I stalled out on progress when I ordered some more supplies.

Block of unedited text::
I realized I should have gotten the 4 ohm subs to pair with my amp so I could run it at 2 ohms parallel instead of 1 ohm. 1 ohm means I need 8 gauge speaker wire. So I ordered some tinned oxygen free copper "power" wires from knukonceptz. They are pretty cheap and get good reviews. I need about 10-12 feet of speaker wire for my sub box.
I also knocked out the terminals that came with the sub box and plan to fill those holes (with left over mdf I will use to mount the amp behind the back seat). Then I am going to drill and feed the wire straight through the box to shorten the run. Probably use silicone or rtv to caulk around the wires.
Also, I ordered a low profile video card. I am going to also check ground points and probably change out the cpu fan to eliminate as much extra noise as I can. Alternator whine is annoying so I'm going to probably ground the new battery to the chassis directly in addition to the engine block--see if that helps.
Finally there are a lot of little annoying things I will look into later.
My keyboards touchpad mouse won't work unless I disconnect and reconnect after windows starts (ps2 issue maybe?).
I can't find an xbmc skin that will let me go from full screen to windowed mode easily on the touchscreen.
My android won't pick up the adhoc network so I will probably need to get a router to put in the truck instead of wireless card.
Boot times totally suck without the ssd so I am probably gonna take the sale down and put it back in and use the other driver for storage.
No solution yet (or response from mini-box) about amplifier thump.
I need to find out more about ignition wires so I can run a line from the fuse box for my inverter. (not related to car pc, just annoying to have to unplug it/plug it in when I use it)

Despite all that text, I have not worked on the truck in about a week.

Again, not much progress.
I took this lul to address some of the minor nagging problems.

My wiring harness' ignition wire was coming on and off on its own. Since the stock radio wasn't having those issues the manufacturer suggested I RMA--it's in the mail.
The amplifier thump got addressed 2-fold. Turn out the psu CAN delay the thump further through the software/usb connection (I have yet to verify) AND I ordered an audio card and the problem went away.
I am going to just run a toggle switch for my inverter rather then play with ignition wires since it will draw up to 300w and recommends 10awg wire.

That's all for now.

-Wes