Acura TL 2004 touchscreen install

moahdib · 09-28-2004, 11:51 PM

OK this thread was going on for a while in the acura-tl forum but since im a die hard member of this board, decided to move it here. =)

here it is for reference...
http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showt...5&page=1&pp=25

I have a non-navi TL which I badly want to put a touchscreen and setup a laptop for my carPC.

Here is how the stock dash looks like.

And here is what i want it to look like when I'm finished.

Now onto the details...
After taking everything appart, I discovered that the OEM LCD is a huge single PCB board with 2 char LCD's. =\

After removing the OEM LCD, I tried to see the fit of the xenarc and it was PERFECT!.

Here it is after some plastic cutting on the plastic bezel....

The aluminum backing for the OEM LCD, fit perfectly to cover and hold the xenarc in place.

Now... the storage compartment is where the OEM LCD is gonna go.

After all that I had to put everything back to where it was which was a breeze...except that now since I have cut the plastic cover out, it is now a removeable window. lol

cover on

cover off

Things to do:

- Extend wires for the xenarc buttons since it doesn't have infrared remote!!! I'll be using some momentary switches etc... and place somewhere else.
- Extend the wires long enough to reach the OEM LCD below the radio
- make a nice bezel to cover the OEM LCD in the storage compartment area. I'll probably use some smoked plexi with clear plexi on top of the LCD screen area.

All in all, I couldn't ever have dreamed that I could keep the car looking so stock. =)

I'll post more pics as the install goes along.

elah · 09-29-2004, 12:00 AM

slick slick

norejr34 · 09-29-2004, 10:44 AM

thats perfect, can't wait to see it finished

whatacar · 09-29-2004, 11:13 AM

moahdib, thanks for moving the post to this forum. Also on the connector information from you previous posts. Just to let everyone know, there is a parallel effort on to decode the Acura's communication bus. The idea is that the same CarPC VGA monitor will display the car's HVAC and radio information. This will eliminate the LCD.

So far I have found that the 04' Acura TL uses a NEC bus interface called the IE-Bus. I am in the process of designing a serial adapter to decode the information on the bus. This is the information from the car's radio. The HVAC information will be tapped from the LCD character generator. This is a three wire interface that is quite simple. The radio interface will be more complicated.

I belive older models of Acur'a (and Honda's) use the same bus. They call it GA-NET II. If anyone has any information that will help, please post it.

mykolJay · 09-29-2004, 11:36 AM

did you even have to remove the casing (and void the warranty) of the xenarc or did you simply leave it attached and hid it behind the console.

That looks great. My friend has a TL (not sure if its a 04 though) and I'm dying to rip into his dash.

mykolJay · 09-29-2004, 11:39 AM

That will look even better once you add a matching purple background color to the Xenarc.

jimmythecow · 09-29-2004, 11:48 AM

wow very nice. dont you just love it when things work out just to perfect for ya?

moahdib · 09-29-2004, 11:53 PM

Quote:

did you even have to remove the casing (and void the warranty) of the xenarc or did you simply leave it attached and hid it behind the console.

Xenarc is in the case and perfectly fits behind the console with full view of the screen. The size of the OEM console fits a widescreen 8" LCD.
I bought it used which already had voided warranty. My screen is the 700TSV with albrite upgrade.

Today i bought a piece of smoked plexi, I'm first going to try that instead of going the fiberglassing way which would take more effort and time.

The PC will be my old insipiron 4100 laptop which I have a docking station.
To turn it on i rigged Jeff's auto shutdown to send a pulse when the car is first turned on. Works perfectly!

I love laptops bc you don't have to worry about the PSU. =)

Can't wait to get those connectors from JAE which would save me a TON of time cutting and extending wires...

This car is probably has the BEST fit for any aftermarket 7" widescreen into the OEM space... minimal modification. I believe I am the first one to do this on a non-navi TL. All those navi owners who paid at least $2000 more for their navi system will just have to sit back and cry a bit once I am done.

hd54321 · 09-30-2004, 12:11 AM

Swweet!

mykolJay · 10-01-2004, 10:34 AM

Is the '04 TL the same generation as the '03 TL?

I would love to do this with my friends car. And its a lease, so no cutting is possible.

ITL · 10-01-2004, 12:45 PM

nope, 04 is the 3rd generation....it is the first year of the redesign

in reference to your friend's car, here is a link to our 2nd gen forum on Acura-TL.com:
http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=21
search here, I have seen some good projects in the 2nd gen grouping.

moahdib · 10-05-2004, 10:18 PM

Sup guys...updates are slow but forthcoming. =) I promisse to have pics as everything gets rolling as soon as i get my parts.

I was pondering the issue of audio input. Since there are no aftermarket product that will give you aux input for this car ( unless you want to lose XM) there are 2 solutions that can be easily implemented.

1- Tap into the XM unit using a 4PDT relay ( 4 relay contacts ) for L+ L- and R+ and R-. All you need then is to power on the relay by a switch to go from XM to PC audio.
Cost is like $12 for a 4pdt relay or you can use 2 DPDT relays.

2- Tap into the audio going into the amplifier if you have a 5.1 sound card. Then you will be bypassing all radio control functions ( volume mostly) which you can just use PC to control anyway. This would require 9 wires to be connected. Amplifier inputs from the radio are 3 wires (Left+, Right+, common) for Front and 3 more for Rear speakers. And 3 wires for Subwoofer and Center ( + Center, + Subwoofer, common).
This would need two 4PDT relays and 1 SPDT relay all connected together and a switch button of course to toggle between radio and PC input.

Sounds kind of crazy to use that many relays but I don't see another way of doing this. Right now I will go for tapping into the XM unit and see how that works and keep everyone updated.

Now the HVAC LCD fits very nicely on the lower compartment. I bough a piece of smoked plexiglass to cut to shape and cover the front. Just to make it look more stock I got a piece of carbon fiber vinyl (sticker type) to put on top of it and cut the rectangles for the display.

I just made a switch box with the buttons to control the xenarc and the switches for audio and disabling the power to the PC ( whenever I valet my car, etc...).
This weekened i'll probably take a look at how I will be wiring everything to the trunk.
Any of you guys looked into this yet?

On a side note... I also bought this:

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Griffin_...rMate_1040_PMT

Which just looks AWESOME and not to say that it has a blue light to match the interior of the TL perfectly. It looks EXACLY like the big knobs on the factory radio! I'll figure out a place for it when its all done.

Sorry for the long post =)

Quattro · 10-05-2004, 10:23 PM

The powermate will fit in perfectly with you radio, lucky, I will pretty stock. But I've heard it has some problems running under windows, thats why I haven't purchased one, plus its to big for my car interior and it doesn't match.

moahdib · 10-06-2004, 03:53 AM

I am also getting some help in interfacing the steering wheel buttons to work with the joystick port on the PC on this thread here...
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...749#post282749

Hopefully these diagrams will be worth the time i spent making it. LOL

and

moahdib · 10-13-2004, 09:38 PM

Here's a sneak peek =)