How to make: iDrive armrest

Cris · 11-10-2005, 08:26 AM

This all started with Zorro's incredible MWI software.

And I thought it would be great to have this in the car. But where can you mount such a thing to be confortable and accesible at all times> In the armrest ofcourse. Thing is the Escort doesn't have an armrest, so I decided to fabricate one myself.
But before building the actual armrest I had to find a nice looking button. After searching a lot of time for one, I couldn't fin one I liked so I decided to fabricate that myself also. (you wouldn't believe out of what...)

In the first pic you can see how it used to look like, when I first came up with the ideea.

In the second pic, a second state of the button.

So, in the third pic, you can see how the button looks like in its final state.

1. That's the cap from a D&G parfume bottle, wwhich looks really nice, and it's really resistent as it has some kind of plasitic underneath.
2. That was taken from an old rotative tweeter I found laying around. The upper half is glued to the actuall button, and the button one is glued to 3. the stative support.
3. I took that nice looking support from a leg table, took out it's existing bolt, and driled a hole.

In the fourth pic you can see how it looks on the not yet finished armrest.

You can see in the last pic some of the button's elements intheir almost initial state.

UPDATE:

You can see in the last pic, version 2 of the armrest.

Cris · 11-10-2005, 08:32 AM

Here are some more button fabrication pics.

Ok, so now I had a pretty nice looking button, but I had to make it functional as well.
So, inspired by TonyG, I put in there an encoder I had laying around from the Citroen head unit I hacked up to put some buttons in the dash. You can also see here the donor mouse tucked away inside the armrest.
Now it's functional and it works great with Zorro's MWI.

the nice thing is that it's all one pice now. Everything is glues together.

Cris · 11-10-2005, 08:39 AM

Now for the boring part: the actual armrest. The buttom part in the first pic, is a part of the cars center console, which will be bolted down to the car to support the armrest.
So I made the buttom part of the armrest first. I also wanted to include a small storage space in armrest for a mouse and some small stuff. So I made a wooden pocket. I then cut a piece of thin plywood to cover it.

Cris · 11-10-2005, 08:46 AM

A couple of other pics of the storage compartiment...

I covered eveything with paper tape, in order to poor down the foam.
You can also see in there I included a PS2 and an extra USB slot, just in case.

Sorry about the poor quality of some pictures. The phone was closer.

Everything will be covered in soft foam.
Basicly this is as far as I got until now. It's still a work in progress.

Cris · 11-10-2005, 08:49 AM

Just in case you were wondering, inhtere there will be a small display for the outside and inside temperature.

StrataG · 11-10-2005, 08:54 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Cris

Just in case you were wondering, inhtere there will be a small display for the outside and inside temperature.

Ahh, thought that was the trash bin

With as lazy as computers make us, it would make sense even though it was obviously a joke

Looks like it'll turn out great and the knob looks sweet. Very resourceful with the parts.

Scouse Monkey · 11-10-2005, 11:18 AM

I thought it was going to be a tissue holder noxt to the idrive knob for when you are watching porn!

Cris · 11-10-2005, 03:45 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Scouse Monkey

I thought it was going to be a tissue holder noxt to the idrive knob for when you are watching porn!

I've applied the foam. Should be ready to cover it by tommorow.

Bravellir · 11-10-2005, 04:13 PM

Looks great !!!

Xander · 11-10-2005, 04:58 PM

Fantastic! Can't wait till this thing is finished..! (Gonna steal SOOoO many of your ideas mate.

) (... but still im gonna try to make it somewhat unique..

)

Quattro · 11-11-2005, 01:13 AM

WOW, you amaze me,Cris. First the headrest monitors, now this. Can't wait to see it finished.

blacklancer · 11-11-2005, 01:36 PM

WOW is right. unbelievable man. i can't wait to see the finished product!

Cris · 11-11-2005, 05:44 PM

I cut the foam to the shape I wanted, then I covered it with a thin white foam.

As you can see I filled in the gap for where the display will be be with filler.
Also covered the storage compartiment.

I also made a cover for the upper part of the armrest, to gain easy access in case something goes wrong with the mouse or the display.

I covered the upper part of the armrest with thin wite foam allround, and then only the top with some thicker foam in order to be more confortable.

All left now is to cover it with fabric or leather (can't make up my mind...

)

mgithens · 11-15-2005, 04:32 PM

this is a GREAT idea, I think that the rotating joystick is a good idea, but I am not seeing how this is any different than the Griffin Powermate...?? I've got one, I just am holding off on installing it until I get my other projects finished... the powermate does quite a few functions, rotate, click, double click, long click, click+rotate - those are all user assignable functions - their app is clean and is already written... emulates keyboard strokes or macros, etc...

will your "stick" also incorporate the left, right, up, down controls that the idrive offers??

PS - I love your work, keep it up - I'm not criticizing, I'm just trying to clarify...

Cris · 11-16-2005, 12:55 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by mgithens

this is a GREAT idea, I think that the rotating joystick is a good idea, but I am not seeing how this is any different than the Griffin Powermate...?? I've got one, I just am holding off on installing it until I get my other projects finished... the powermate does quite a few functions, rotate, click, double click, long click, click+rotate - those are all user assignable functions - their app is clean and is already written... emulates keyboard strokes or macros, etc...

will your "stick" also incorporate the left, right, up, down controls that the idrive offers??

PS - I love your work, keep it up - I'm not criticizing, I'm just trying to clarify...

...stick...

I'm not sure what you mean by left,right,up,down, but it does all that's necesary for me. I could've added more buttons, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
I only posted this, to give a basic ideea how to make such a thing. Ofcourse this can be done as you said with the Powermate, but these are all parts I already had, and it didn't cost me a dime...

From what you said, my stick does everthing a Powermate does, only 60E cheaper. I'm not especially concerned about money, I just like doing things myself.

I called it iDrive, first of all to be as expressive as it could, and second becose the armrest's edsign is closer to 2000's BMWs armrests.