'11 Subaru Outback gets a new system

Greetings,
I just finished installing a new system in my '11 Outback.

Just snapped a couple pics before heading into work so I don't have many detailed photos right now.

Specs are:
Intel D510mo ITX motherboard w/2gig and 250gig hdd
M2-ATX power supply
RadioShark
Lilliput EBY701-NP/C/T Touch Screen Monitor with Auto Switching w/ transreflective upgrade
PowerMate
Clarion amp, 4 channel 100watt

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/imag...1a071ae4a0.jpg
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/imag...1a07166876.jpg

The motherboard, power supply, radioshark and amp are all housed in the spot the normal head unit goes. The space behind the front bezel is quite cavernous so there's plenty of room.

The box is about 4x7x7 and is made out of circuit board material with copper on both sides. I used my stained glass skills to solder the case together. It made it very easy to create the box and had an added benefit of making it shielded.

An ITX board doesn't really fit well in a normal DIN space..the connectors (usb, vga, etc) would have stuck out too far no mater which side I put them on. So I de-soldered all the connectors on the back and made pigtails for them. If I were to do it over, I'd count all the pins needed and find a single connector that would have enough. As it is, everythings hidden so oh well.

The display bezel was molded from epoxy, micro fibers and a little graphite to make it black.
A lot of sanding to get it to shape and some custom paint to match the brownish black of the dash. The CD, HDD, USB ports and power/reset switches fit perfectly in the cubby under the display.

I'll be posting more pics in a day or so, but just wanted to get the thread started.

Thanks for lookin,
davidk

Here's a view of whats behind the screen.
Not a pretty as what's on the outside but it works well. I spent last night transferring 200gig of my collection.

Lot's of cables going every which way...like I said, if I redo it I'll have one connector between the cpu and screen.

Looking it over there isn't one thing that wasn't modified. Connectors removed from the system board, screen removed from factory case, PowerMate shaft extended, etc...

The HDD is removable so I can take it inside to a duplicate system to work out any problems. Right now I'm trying to make the PowerMate connect 100%. Occasionally it isn't recognized when rebooted.
When I bought the car 3000 miles ago I told the Subie salesman that I was going to do this. I took it in to show them yesterday. They were sufficiently impressed :)

One thing I'd like to work out is being able to play all the songs of an artist and have it continue to the next artist when done. That and be able to jump to the next artist with the push of a button.

I'd like to thank everyone on this board for lots of great info. I've spent quite a bit of time searching here.
davidk

looks great!!! The image on your TS kinda pops out at you, almost as if it was photoshopped on there, lol

Thanks man! :becky:Yeah, it does pretty good even in the sun too.

I'm pleased with it and happy I didn't spend the extra $200 for optically bonded. If the touch part of ever goes I'm going to try a capacitive replacement.

Thanks again,
davidk

nice install!!
I'm planning to do something similar in my 08' VW Rabbit. not sure yet how much room is in there. at the moment I have a Kenwood DNX nav unit in there with BT and Can Bus adapter in there, so I guess I will have enough room.
very good idea to use pcb material for the box. maybe I will go the same route. why did you chose it, it was cheaper then aluminium or it was easier to work with?
how do you like that mb? I'm thinking to replace my single core atom with that dual core one and fanless. whow is the heat in there?
another question is which amp do you use that it fits in there?
good idea with the removable hdd.

[QUOTE]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tibimakai

nice install!!

---

Thanks, it's working well. Even the wife agrees that it's "ok"

Quote:

---

I'm planning to do something similar in my 08' VW Rabbit. not sure yet how much room is in there. at the moment I have a Kenwood DNX nav unit in there with BT and Can Bus adapter in there, so I guess I will have enough room.
very good idea to use pcb material for the box. maybe I will go the same route. why did you chose it, it was cheaper then aluminium or it was easier to work with?

---

It kinda came down to it's what I had on hand, however I think you can work it easier than aluminum. I can cut it with a tin snips and it went together easier because you just solder it together. I cut most of it on the table saw to get nice square cuts.

Quote:

---

how do you like that mb?

---

No real problems yet. It boots a bit slower than some. You can't disable the PC beep (I have an additional timer for turning on the amp so you never hear the beep) and you can't set the Intel graphics to the native resolution of the Liliput. One thing that may be a problem if you don't have a lot of space is all the connections like keyboard, usb, audio etc... I unsoldered everything from the board and made pigtails for everything. I don't really recommend doing that unless you have adequate soldering skills and won't mind buying a new board if something goes wrong.

Quote:

---

I'm thinking to replace my single core atom with that dual core one and fanless. whow is the heat in there?

---

The weather got into the high 90's and internal temps as reported by speedfan was 167f. Kinda high but it never hiccuped. As you see, I do have a fan sitting right over the CPU.

Quote:

---

another question is which amp do you use that it fits in there?

---

The amp I got didn't fit in the box initially. It's a Clarion 402a I found on ebay, 4 channel 25watt/channel. I took it out of it's case and removed the heat sinks. Then ran them through the table saw to remove 1/8" from each one.

Quote:

---

good idea with the removable hdd.

---

Thanks, yeah it's convenient that way. I can remove it to sync up to my master library drive without having to leave the car on and doing it over a slow network connection.

good luck with your install.

p.s. One thing with the D510 board was the small chip next to the CPU (it's the one with the round heat sink) gets really hot. I used JB Weld ( http://jbweld.net/products/jbkwik.php ) to glue a heat sink to the chip. JBQuick is good to 300F and it seems to be holding.

can I ask you from where did you get the power for the amp?

The amp gets power from the 'constant power' for the factory radio. It's then turned on by the delay from the m2atx. I didn't feel the amp needed regulated 12v from the atx since it's designed to be used in a car to begin with.

I measured the draw for the total system at 4.5amps. The factory fuse for the radio is 15amps. I measured the draw across that fuse and had plenty of head room so I didn't have to run dedicated power.

what are you using to connect audio from the pc to the clarion amp?

If you look at the pics of the system board and the one where the case is open you can see a gray and black cable leading to the amp. It connects the audio out from the motherboard to the low level input on the amp.
I'd initially connected it to the high level inputs but there wasn't enough volume. I've had very good luck with the audio. No hum at all.
I didn't do anything special about grounding either. The case is grounded to the system board via the standoffs but the power supply isn't. The amp heatsinks are grounded to the case as well, but I don't know if they are grounded in the amp.

Good luck on your project.
davidk