Another blow to my build, help and opinions please!

HiJackZX1 · 12-11-2001, 10:39 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by yaniv

I love the cactus

How are you planning to keep the screens up? If the car shakes even a little the screen will flop right back down like this.

I was going to put metal plates in the lid and have magnets hold it up and hold it down when its open and closed.

Quote:

I'd bet you could get a boneyard dash to work on and eventually give to Brian for fabbing. Is the dash surface steel, plastic or vinyl?

By the way, this is looking so good that you ought to change the thread name to "Another direction for my build . . ."

My Durango has a dash with unique texture. I cant seem to find it, so I went ahead and cut the dash. The screens now close 100% percent. the dash is vinyl.

Quote:

I love the cactus

How are you planning to keep the screens up? If the car shakes even a little the screen will flop right back down like this.

My parents have this weird thing about looking countryish............. I make fun of them all the time. Once again magnets will hold it up....

PS why is the year 2001? wow Mp3Car forums has weird issues sometimes.

HiJackZX1 · 05-15-2008, 05:17 AM

Well after moding some sunvisor flip downs to hold EBY701s, and working on this project for almost a year (the begginning of my build), I have decided to trash it. The EBY701 had such a thick wire or wires, that it required them to come out of the side of the visors then up into the headliner, this caused the sunvisor to be unable to move side to side to block the sun (very annoying). I also could not take the comments from people that swear vanity is the only thing that matters (the visors had no mirrors). So now I am ordering replacement stock visors......

My new plan (were I need help) is to have the screens flip out of the top of the dash. The nice thing about the Durango is, it has alot of dash that can be used to hide things. So I wanted to have it so I can cut 2 square holes and make some kind of spring system so that when a user pushes down on the screen when closed, it clicks and makes a spring flip it up. Does anyone have any clue how this is done? Comments and ideas are welcome.

Thanx in advance!

kazzxtrismus · 05-18-2008, 09:46 PM

try one of those sunglasses holder type things for a overhead console....im sure you can just use a spring on th eother end of the gear pivot....

they usually have a 90 degree rotation or 1/4 pie slice with gear teeth on the circumference (apex)....
they spring load it from one side to let is rotate down nice and "hydraulic like"...so my thinking is that you could spring load it backwards (anti rotationally) as an UP spring...

to hold a monitor you'll need a stron one and a strong spring but that should work...
my 06 altima has a nice up swinging door big enough for an 8" screen for sure but probably not heavy duty enough to swing up the weight of a monitor

HiJackZX1 · 05-20-2008, 04:19 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by kazzxtrismus

try one of those sunglasses holder type things for a overhead console....im sure you can just use a spring on th eother end of the gear pivot....

they usually have a 90 degree rotation or 1/4 pie slice with gear teeth on the circumference (apex)....
they spring load it from one side to let is rotate down nice and "hydraulic like"...so my thinking is that you could spring load it backwards (anti rotationally) as an UP spring...

to hold a monitor you'll need a stron one and a strong spring but that should work...
my 06 altima has a nice up swinging door big enough for an 8" screen for sure but probably not heavy duty enough to swing up the weight of a monitor

Ill have to try that.... but in the end I think I am leaning towards a 'Flip the d@mn thing open yourself " design, to make the screen very easy to build. I got my dremel off of ebay for $17.00 so Im happy. Has a nice speed setting and alot of attachments except the buzz saws, which I just ordered. Hopefully by the time the saws get here the plastic will be here. I am so excited to be starting this.

CarComp · 05-20-2008, 04:26 AM

I really think that monitors do not belong in the visors. You should mount it lower somewhere on your dash. Easier+no movement.

HiJackZX1 · 05-20-2008, 04:43 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by CarComp

I really think that monitors do not belong in the visors. You should mount it lower somewhere on your dash. Easier+no movement.

My bad.... here goes me not being specific. Thats actually what I am talking about, I ditched the visor idea because the cabling was a issue to hide and manage. The screens are being fabed to sit ontop of the dashboard, one iinfront of the driver and one for the passenger. I made models out of clay, but the new ones will be made out of abs plastic and use a combo of hinges, magnets and what not to work. Whats nice is that I will not have to cut much into the dash, just a tiny bit to get them to close properly.

Here some pictures:

Passenger Side:

Driver Side:

rdholtz · 05-20-2008, 05:10 AM

Looks pretty good. Interesting that the Durango has a wicker dashboard support -- never saw one of those before. Must be only for here in the tropics, eh?

I wonder if Brian (Nexson) could simply re-fab the whole top of the dash to fit the doors in and make it look completely OEM.

Bugbyte · 05-20-2008, 06:40 AM

Make sure that when the screens pop open, they will clear the windshield. It would stink for them to open 85% of the way and be blocked by the glass.

Also, try them out in the actual car to make sure they don't feel too far away. Mine flips up, but feels just a hair too far away.

HiJackZX1 · 05-20-2008, 12:51 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by rdholtz

Looks pretty good. Interesting that the Durango has a wicker dashboard support -- never saw one of those before. Must be only for here in the tropics, eh?

I wonder if Brian (Nexson) could simply re-fab the whole top of the dash to fit the doors in and make it look completely OEM.

thats what I am hoping.... Once i get the ABS plastic i will design one that he can intergrate into the dash. Only thing that sucks is that i will have to do light cutting into the dash to allow the screen to hold completely and flat.

HiJackZX1 · 05-20-2008, 01:02 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bugbyte

Make sure that when the screens pop open, they will clear the windshield. It would stink for them to open 85% of the way and be blocked by the glass.

Also, try them out in the actual car to make sure they don't feel too far away. Mine flips up, but feels just a hair too far away.

yes, that was the first thing i did........ Im trying to account for everything. I would feel stupid if i built them and the didnt have clearance.

rdholtz · 05-20-2008, 03:20 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

. . . Only thing that sucks is that i will have to do light cutting into the dash to allow the screen to hold completely and flat.

I'd bet you could get a boneyard dash to work on and eventually give to Brian for fabbing. Is the dash surface steel, plastic or vinyl?

By the way, this is looking so good that you ought to change the thread name to "Another direction for my build . . ."

yaniv · 05-20-2008, 03:46 PM

I love the cactus

How are you planning to keep the screens up? If the car shakes even a little the screen will flop right back down like this.

Bugbyte · 05-20-2008, 05:39 PM

Oooh...good point. For mine, it is servo powered, so it stays up as long as it has power.

Even over-centering the screen is no guarantee. A couple of times I drove around without power on the servo and had it slam shut once or twice. Them Xenarcs are pretty tough!

HiJackZX1 · 05-21-2008, 04:09 PM

Um what happened to my last post? The date says the year 2001 and its been bumped to the top ???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways: I cut into the dash and decided to go all out and rethink everything. Tell me what you guys think of my idea!

I cut the holes almost the same size as the screen, except one part that keeps the monitor from falling through. I am going to go into the main dash and cut off and seal to heater vents which are made to defrost the side windows, I live in FL so I dont need them and the one time I did use them, they dont really work to well. By cutting and sealing these vents, it allows me to cut into the really deep into the dash. So in the new holes I cut under the screens will go all the circuitry, which will have the monitor and components all in one little place. So now I am going to try to have the circuit hanging from a new floor panel that has vents in it to allow the head from the boards to rise up. I am also going to add a small switch so when the screens are closed there is no power to the screens, im doing this because I notice that when the eby701 is in standby, it still makes heat, and I do not want it to warp the screen if its closed all the time....

Someone in another thread helped me find a longer ribbon for the screen, but I cant seem to find a ribbon for the buttons, any ideas? I dont know what these ribbons are called, so its hard from me to find them.

HiJackZX1 · 05-21-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by yaniv

I love the cactus

How are you planning to keep the screens up? If the car shakes even a little the screen will flop right back down like this.

I was going to put metal plates in the lid and have magnets hold it up and hold it down when its open and closed.

Quote:

I'd bet you could get a boneyard dash to work on and eventually give to Brian for fabbing. Is the dash surface steel, plastic or vinyl?

By the way, this is looking so good that you ought to change the thread name to "Another direction for my build . . ."

My Durango has a dash with unique texture. I cant seem to find it, so I went ahead and cut the dash. The screens now close 100% percent. the dash is vinyl.

Quote:

I love the cactus

How are you planning to keep the screens up? If the car shakes even a little the screen will flop right back down like this.

My parents have this weird thing about looking countryish............. I make fun of them all the time. Once again magnets will hold it up....

PS: I posted this message yesterday, but MP3CAR was messed up and put the date as 12-11-2001, so it bumped it up to the top and didnt notify anyone a message was posted.