mrbean_phillip

Hello Everyone,
After arriving in Melbourne, from South Africa, I decided to pick up a UTE and do a few mods to it, wrt both the engine and the interior, fit a Carputer, etc.

With Projects like these, I always like to set myself some goals - or, more precisely, what the end project should look like...be like...perform like....you get the drift....

Goals:
1) Most important is the factory look! The mod must/will not detract from original factory looks...

2) Powerful system, doing multitasking without ANY hickups.

3) Deadreckoning GPS system, using Gyro and GPS input.

4) Capacity to play MP3's, DVD's

5) Internet Wireless connectivity.

6) Infrared (IR) control of computer

7) On/Off activation either manually, or selectively ignition controlled

8) OBD-II (onboard diagnostics) display and logging of variables.

9) Quiet operation, minimizing powerdrain.

10) High-quality Touchscreen - 5-wire resistive is the best.

I decided on a Morex Cubid mini-itx case, Commell LV-677 board, M2-ATX PSU, Merom 1.86gig Core 2 Duo Laptop CPU, mini-pci wireless card, and Commell mini-pci GPS.

Other items include Pioneer Slotload Multiburner, Seagate Momentum 7200rpm, Sata 2.5" drive, and 1gig Geil ram.

Al these cards onboard would make for a small footprint, yet very powerful setup.

Here are some progress pics, and don't be mistaken, even though it is an extremelly small rig, with the addition of a decent 8800-based gfx card, you will be able to play any game at max settings! Serias.

I realize a 8800 will not fit in this little box, but other than that....wow....

Here I am busy assembling....



From the other side:



and to give you an idea of the size, look at how big it is compared to my WinXP Embedded case lying next to it



Here is a shot from the back....



and one of the front.....



one from each side.....





and one from the top, showing how it fits together, and location of components.



I will post some new pics later, showing how nicely I have tidied up the inside, cabling etc.

I will re-design the slightly tacky perspex front, instead use 5mm aluminium plate, which I will brush. Should add that something extra to the look - even though it will be hiding in a custom console I am designing for the Bakkie.

Using the special automotive dc-dc powersupply, the M2-ATX, I had problems with the board starting up everytime, and I studied the issue with the manufacturer, and they discovered a timing issue with one onboard smd capacitor, which had a 22nf value, and was supposed to have been 10nf to be compatible with the Commell LV-677 motherboard.

They wanted me to ship the PSU to the USA, and would fix it, so I decided I will do it myself.

In the follwing pic, you can see the tiny smd capacitor, just to the left of a standard case-screw - hehe - not for the faint hearted.....



After firing up my small solder-iron, using additional lighting, and 1 minute later, we hadd the new cap fitted - see area in purple....mmm...looks like a robot had soldered it in place, so even if I am close to 40, my eyes are still good, and hands are not shaking to badly

Here's the result....



So, now the Commell board starts up everytime, and no niggly shutdown issues either - well worth the effort, only problem was I have a total of 199 of these little capacitors left, as I had to buy minimum 200, but it was only $11- Aud, so no problem.

Let me know what you think....

MP3Car.com

 

mrbean_phillip

a Pic to show how small these mini-pci modules really are - here is my Commell WiFi card next to a USB stick.



The Commell LV-677 has 2 onboard mini-pci slots, similar to what a Laptop has to accept, for example, a WiFi card.

With that in mind, I ordered a MP-954 GPS module, and a MP-2501 WiFi from Commell, for this application. Here's a few pics to show how these fit, and the compact size of this setup.





and it this one, you can see the WiFi antenna fitted to the Morid Cubid case, just enough space for it, and still allowing the lid to close proper.



I still need to fit the socket for the GPS antenna to the case, similar to the one for the WiFi, just on the opposite side.

A Few pics from the rear, without the WiFi antenna fitted, and with it fitted - looks rather nice, and ....well....small.

mrbean_phillip

a Few pics of the intended victim. These generally come stock with around 270flywheel Kw, if you want HP divide that by 0.7456, to make it 362. Torque on the flywheel is 550Nm, or divide by 1.356 to get FtLb, 406FtLb, which is rather healthy for a Turbo 4Liter inline six.

Generally, on average, these F6's make around 230rwkw, so that would give 308HP on the threads.

Look at the numbers a bit later on to show what I did to it though











Here I am standing next to my UTE on the Dyno



This is what came out of the engine bay



This is what we had before....



and here is a few shots showing the difference, see if you can spot them....

mrbean_phillip

See attached dyno-sheets. - please note that these graphs represent rear-wheel power figures, not on the flywheel The car-buffs will understand what I mean.

I settled for a conservative 368rwkw, leaving room for a bit more if needed, I have a 2nd tune for around 381rwkw, but, it is not significant more. Will give me time to get to know the UTE a bit better before I go overboard with powerlevels.

Runs a bit better than the stock F6 Grandma Grocery-getter, so I need to be wakeup around the handling side of things now, as, even though you can see very nice linear build of boost, and thus power, the torque is a phenomenal 530FtLb on the wheels - add 22% to that to get the flywheel numbers, and then convert to Nm, quite decent numbers.

To convert 530 FtLb torque to Newton-meter, we must use 1.356x530=718Nm, and this is on the rear wheels. Add 22% to this, and we get 875Nm on the flywheel - which makes for a fun experience.

Same with the horsepower, for 493hp on the wheels, we will have 602hp on the flywheel 368rwkw x 0.7456 = 493hp, + 22% = 602hp (flywheel)

493 odd HP vs torque (FtLb)


RWKW vs Boost Press



and RWKW vs Lambda



Let me know what you think.

mrbean_phillip

Lastly, a 11meg video clip to let you hear what a approx 600hp-on-the flywheel sounds like on the Dyno - screaming like a mad dog.

MrJamieR

Great start to your project. I'm nominating you for lucky bastard of the week. Great car (if you're a fan of Team Blue) and a nicely spec'd carputer. I liked the case you used but couldn't find a reference to "Morid Cubid" anywhere. Where do you find it? BTW is it a mini-ATX or mini-ITX case?

MrJamieR

Just had another look at those dyno sheets. Make it lucky bastard of the month!

djmickyg

Very nice car! fitted with the cobra kit.. I'm not even gonna ask how much this has all cost.

__________________
2006 Ford Xr6 Turbo Ute [●●●●●●●---] 70% DONE

The old car and install - 1995 Toyota Hilux 4x4

long.1

G'day Beanie,

Can't say your not dedicated or passionate about your vehicle. An impressive list of achievements indeed, and the carputer is just one of them. It will be quite different for me though, if and when my carpc goes ahead, it will most likely represent 100% of the car mods.


Responding to your questions (above) raised in a separate thread, my car is a Ford Territory Ghia (shown here), so the "official" specs listed are:
- The Premium ICC (with dual climate control, large colour screen and trip computer), and
- Premium audio system (with colour screen & 6-disc in-dash CD, 150 watt amplifier & sub-woofer).

So looking ahead a little, I'm naturally interested in your dash fabrication given our similar dash. At this stage I'm still heavily into project research, so I'm not too sure what components my CarPC might end up with. We'll see I guess.

Good luck for the rest of your project, and no doubt future projects. I'll be a keen observer, and with any luck a contributor.

Cheers,

Long.1

mrbean_phillip

Heya Guys,
Thanx for the feedback from everyone, it is appreciated

I am indeed lucky to have such a nice toy to play with - very lucky, and I am grateful.

@ Long.1: I have the std Manual MCC, you know the small single color LCD one.

Well, today I have picked up some more hardware, to actually turn it into a full-blown Dual-Zone Climate Control like yours, I have the ICC already, with 6-stacker (although my Prestige sound have the same stacker) and I had to replace a damaged LCD panel on this ICC - cost me a healthy $640- Aud

So, still need a wiring loom, and then Ford must reflash both the BEM, and HIM modules to correctly operate the new ICC.

It's going to look 100% factory, as I will beusing the same TFT color LCD that the big unit comes with, I need to get a NTSC 15kHz composite VGA converter - std LCD panels use 30kHz as a sync.

This specific Ford LCD's use arcade-type sync, so I should get something somewhere, or simply build a level converter.

It would leave me with a decent 8", and 7" Xenarc TSV700 as spares, but that is ok.

All I need to do is get a Touchpanel overlay for the Ford LCD, and I am set

Will keep you posted, and waiting with baited breath on both yours and djmicky's setups.

Best regards,
Beanie.

long.1

You certainly sound like you know what you're doing. I'm impressed and intimidated at the same time !!

I should mention that I'm also a member on another car forum (to keep track of experiences of others with the same type of car). They have some written guidelines in their Technical Resources section that may be of help to you with your ICC efforts. I know you have a different car to me, but still, you might find the info of some use. See the links below:

ICC Screen Upgrade/Changeover
In Car DVD Kit
Reverse Camera Installation

Cheers,

Long.1

mrbean_phillip

Yep, I am a member there too, thanx for the links anyway - appreciated!

Anyway, we just tickle along, get a few things here and there, slap them together, and crash-boom-bang ..... Hopefully it works

Thanx for the feedback, will keep you posted.

mrbean_phillip

Ok, a small update - yet, a significant one:

This is my standard Manual Control ICC (Integrated Command Center), that performs audio, and airconditioning functions. It will display radio frequencies, audio data, and aircon fan speeds etc on the mono-color LCD.



Well, I had decided to keep in line with this statement in post 1:




So, I decided the best way to get full-blown factory LCD TFT Color screen, is to update to the Auto ICC Dual Zone Climate Control unit - spot the difference:



In this pic, please ignore the bubbles on the LCD - it still has protective plastic cover over. Why?

Well, when I purchased the unit of another person, it came with the screen damaged - see areas circled:



After some discussion/negotiations, the Seller was kind enough to contribute towards1/2 of a new TFT panel, and I got this:



and fit this:


So, now I have a brandnew LCD TFT color screen in my new ICC, which I will retrofit to my UTE as soon as I return from
Finland next weekend.

a Few things more to do, like external temp sensor, and wiring looms to be fitted - sensor is located in the passenger mirror, so need to replace the complete unit, plus passenger door wiring harness.

Also need to add another actuator, and split airbox shafts to allow dualzone independant climate control, but at least making good progress.

What you guys reckon?

mrbean_phillip

Two distinguishing factors of the LCD, no, rather 3:

It has no Touchpanel, so I will need to source a standalone Touchpanel overlay, and add that.

Secondly. it use RGB arcade-style input, meaning it uses a Composite sync, at 15.7kHz, where std VGA inputs have independant syncs for vert and horiz. So, to rectify the situation, I grabbed myself a very nice ArcadeVGA PCI-Express GFX card which supports the Composite Sync on this specific LCD Ford chose to use in the car entertainment system.

I could have made things a lot easier, and just have grabbed a factory SatNav system, but then I would have no Carputer functionality, eg OBD interface, Wifi, etc.

So, now I am awaiting arrival of this card, which should get here next week - when I am in Finland

Well, patience....

Thirdly, the screen as built-in I/R receiver, but I will replace that with bi-directional unit, that will communicate directly with the PC.

After all, using the ArcadeGFX card, I may need a slightly higher case, as the card is to high to fit in the Morex Cubid 2688.

Well, things are progressing, it seems I will have a brandnew Xenarc 700TSV for sale soon, maybe, and then a 8" LCD touchscreen too....let's see....


Will keep this moving along, with frequent updates.

mrbean_phillip

a Short update - managed to test then new ICC i wanted to fit - replaced scratched TFT LCD, and took it off to ASL Logistics to have it tested on their software simulator, seeing they are the Ford warranty repair agents. I must admit, people can go and learn a lot wrt Customer Service levels from Fadi - thanx Mate, great Service!

Just as a reminder, this is what the UTE came fitted with from the factory, manual aircon control unit, monocolor LCD, nothing fancy.....



So, I fitted the new unit this afternoon, and this is what it looks like in daytime:



and then, in nightime, it inverts LCD background to take strain away from your eyes while driving:



a Big upgrqade, one that would now allow me to mount my carputer, and display that info on the
TFT LCD in the new ICC, something which enables me to keep that "Factory" look

One of my goals, when I started with the project.

What is nice about the controller used here, there is an overlay control line, which senses when
Carputer will use VGA input, and display that video, the moment you press any button, or turn
volume knob, it will put those actions to the foreground, with a certain transparency, while you
can still view the carputer video " underneath.

Well, everything working, except aircon system - will need to take the Bakkie to Ford tomorrow, to
flash "high-level" HIM (Hvac Interface Module) software, to enable new control unit to correctly
operate aircon and ventilation system, pump, vents, etc.

10 minute job, then nearly done

Let me know what you think.

MP3Car.com