2004 Chevy Astro cargo van

**jizzajam** · 09-02-2007, 01:37 PM

Just got the major stuff installed and working in my work truck, a chevy astro panel van. (sorry that the pics look aweful)

Specs are:
Shuttle SK41G Case/Motherboard
AMD Athlon 2600+
1GB RAM
60GB HD (probably going to die soon)
Nvidia GeForce4 Video
Opus 150W DC-DC power supply

15" Touchscreen Monitor
Ram-Mount with VESA plate
150W Inverter

XM Direct tuner / USB Adapter
USB GPS

Alpine MRV-F450 5-channel amplifier

Better picture of the ram-mount

It connects to the seat bolts. computer is behind the passenger side seat, I put a 120mm fan on the front of it, as well as an 80mm fan directly under the hard drive

Couldn't find an affordable dc-dc power supply to run my monitor, it wants 48W at 12V, so i got a cheap inverter. Later realized that the inverter goes into "low voltage" mode if you switch the 12V power going into it which requires a manual reset. so I hacked it and wired the switch to a relay and wired the power to constant 12V.

My rats nest of wires, which is conceiled pretty well, as well as the amplifier

One important issue for me is to be able to keep the factory deck functional for downtime (which I'm pessimistic enough to expect plenty of). Each speaker lead is wired to a relay, NC connected to the amp and NO connected to the factory deck, and the coil is energized by a relay connected to the power antenna wire on the factory deck. So when the head unit is turned on, the speakers are switched to the head unit. don't know if this is overkill but i'd rather be safe than sorry

**Crawdaddy** · 09-05-2007, 05:51 PM

WOW, that is one hell of a backup plan. Nice install. Those relays don't mess with the quality of the audio....or burn out for that matter?

**jizzajam** · 09-05-2007, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by Crawdaddy

WOW, that is one hell of a backup plan. Nice install. Those relays don't mess with the quality of the audio....or burn out for that matter?

Under normal operating conditions, all the relays are off. so they would only effect the sound when using the stock radio (if there was any effect due to the energized coil, doubt that there would be though).