CarPC Picture Diary (56k Beware..)
Thread Starter
GTcars - Post God !
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 6,032
From: Macomb, Michigan
Rep Power: 952 
Well, wiring that damned face plate has turned out to be a ******' huge project. Apparently my soldering skills aren't as good as I thought, as I am measuring a few shorts but my dad says it could be normal because some of the functions might be grounded, we're not entirely sure yet. Worst part is I jumped the gun and put silicone sealant over the wires and plug on the face plate, and that **** is stuck good. So, before I can fix the face plate's wiring I get to cut and scrape and pull at this silicone and hope it didn't ruin the circuit board. In retrospect I'm really wishing I would've just wired to the plug, instead of trying to bypass the plug all together, I soldered it straight to the circuit board's solder joints for the plug, so I'm also worried I fried the board.
Thread Starter
GTcars - Post God !
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 6,032
From: Macomb, Michigan
Rep Power: 952
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW! 
WE GOT IT WORKING!!! Thanks to my dad's help, we sorted out the problem and got it to work. We went back downstairs, covered the Db25 plugs, and then taped the wires into position on the headunit and faceplate respectively (so the joints couldn't move) and then went upstairs to test it again before we siliconed it all into place, son of a ***** didn't work again. But, atleast we had it working for a few minutes and all the features were operational. We're cutting off the bastard Db25 plugs (that normally are supposed to be very trouble free, but not in our case) because we think there's problems with the connection on the plugs. It worked fine until we put the casing for the plug on.. But yeh, just an update. Once it's all working, we're going to silicone it and get it recessed into the sunvisor at an angle so that you can control it without moving the sunvisor, it'll be at about a 45 degree slant recessed through the visor, should look cool when it's done. After the radio is fully working again, then it's just a matter of finishing up the LCD screen's bezel, getting the computer put back together and finishing up some computer work (install drivers, voice recognition) then paint the bezel and put it all in! 
I've decided not to worry about the DVDrom or new harddrive just yet -- I only have 400 some mp3s total and they all should fit on the hard drive I have in there, but i'm not too sure. In any case, when it's in the car if I only have room for a hundred mp3s or 200 mp3s I think I can manage.
WE GOT IT WORKING!!! Thanks to my dad's help, we sorted out the problem and got it to work. We went back downstairs, covered the Db25 plugs, and then taped the wires into position on the headunit and faceplate respectively (so the joints couldn't move) and then went upstairs to test it again before we siliconed it all into place, son of a ***** didn't work again. But, atleast we had it working for a few minutes and all the features were operational. We're cutting off the bastard Db25 plugs (that normally are supposed to be very trouble free, but not in our case) because we think there's problems with the connection on the plugs. It worked fine until we put the casing for the plug on.. But yeh, just an update. Once it's all working, we're going to silicone it and get it recessed into the sunvisor at an angle so that you can control it without moving the sunvisor, it'll be at about a 45 degree slant recessed through the visor, should look cool when it's done. After the radio is fully working again, then it's just a matter of finishing up the LCD screen's bezel, getting the computer put back together and finishing up some computer work (install drivers, voice recognition) then paint the bezel and put it all in! I've decided not to worry about the DVDrom or new harddrive just yet -- I only have 400 some mp3s total and they all should fit on the hard drive I have in there, but i'm not too sure. In any case, when it's in the car if I only have room for a hundred mp3s or 200 mp3s I think I can manage.
Thread Starter
GTcars - Post God !
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 6,032
From: Macomb, Michigan
Rep Power: 952 
Last pic is real dark because I couldn't have flash for the faceplate being on and what not. Anyway, here's a sneak peak.
The 2nd pic is actually standing about two feet outside of my driver side door, while the actual headunit is sitting in my glove box, and we had plenty of slack. It's about a 9foot extension in all.
Thread Starter
GTcars - Post God !
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 6,032
From: Macomb, Michigan
Rep Power: 952
not right now, I was hoping to have it done by the end of the year but that's seemingly slim right now with all the computer work I have to do and the computer is entirely dismantled across my patio table in the basement. We'll see tho.
