Thread: Scion xB '06, in-dash Atom 330, Lilliput 889GL; details, pictures, links. Index: pg 1

Some Love for the Auxiliary Battery System

Originally Posted by hexxamillion

The aux batteries will definitely be a nice convenient feature. I am planning to integrate that down the road. Right now I'm just anxious to get my base system up and running.

It's interesting that the auxiliary batteries took me off on a whole different approach to carPCs. Before, I looked at them as something that ran for longer usage, not just a trip to the store a few miles down the road. I knew that a PC takes a while to boot and get itself up to speed, and I just accepted that. I focused on getting boot times down to a reasonable level with nLite and minimizing the number of things running.

Now, with the auxiliary batteries, I'm just not worrying about it. The PC just has to come out of standby, so it's ready right about the time I get my seat belt on. There's no time waiting for things to happen; I have navigation in moments, so I can put in my destination before I even get rolling; I don't have to multi-task, fooling with the nav system as I settle into driving.

Josh has a full-blown dual-core monster under his seat, and an Optima auxiliary battery. His system is ready to go in a flash, and will live on Standby for so long that he hasn't had it shut down since we got it all installed.

These cars are both daily drivers, so they get a lot of use. But, even if they were in use only a few days a week, the battery systems would be must-haves for both of us.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

Some Love for the Auxiliary Battery System

These cars are both daily drivers, so they get a lot of use. But, even if they were in use only a few days a week, the battery systems would be must-haves for both of us.

Definitely must-haves.

Big Install Weekend, Coming Up

The SATA extension cables came in, as expected, so I have everything I need to install the PC in the dash. I still have a few wires to solder on the lines to the control panel, but I should be able to get them done tonight.

I have to trace some sort of short in the dash, down where I added a wire to the ACC line, apparently. I've popped the fuse a couple times, and the last time I put the panel in, I heard a tiny electrical "Snap!" in there, so something is amiss. I'll figure that out while I'm getting the head unit back in, and before I install the PC.

Bad Week for Tires

I was headed home the other night after a long day and evening at the office, in traffic on the expressway, doing about 65. I hit something in the road, and the whole car jumped, but I never saw anything. I stopped a little later because the handling had changed, and looked at all the tires with a flashlight. They seemed okay, but these are low-profile tires, and I must have missed seeing the damage on the right rear tire. When I got out to go to work the next morning, it was dead flat. I added air to see if it was good enough to drive to the tire shop, but I could hear the air coming right back out, right in the center of the tread. Looks like I drove on a nearly-flat tire the night before.

I put on one of the OEM 15-inch wheels and tires that still has some tread, and dropped the wounded tire off at the shop where I bought it. Jimmy will check it out.

I like these Goodyear Eagle GT tires on the 18-inch rims. But, when they're done, I may consider buying some wider plain steel wheels in 15-inch rims (same as OEM, but 7-inch width, not 5-inch), and put the same sort of wide tires on them, because I want the handling improvement. As much as I like the look of the 18-inch rims, the ride suffers. I'd still get an interesting appearance with white sidewall tires on black wheels with small hub caps and chrome lugs, or even just chrome lugs with no caps, and I'd get a much nicer ride.

Then, if I really want to improve the comfort level, I'll find some great seats in the auto graveyard -- like from a small Lexus SUV -- and install them, so I can cruise in style. But that's a lower priority; right now, I need to get that tire healed or replaced, and then focus on getting the carPC in and the bezel started.

Bad Week for Tires, Part 2

The tire I damaged was dismounted and analyzed. It's dead. There's a 3/4-inch (19mm) damaged area in the middle of the tread. It might be possible to repair that with a patch, but the tread isn't the only part that hit. The sidewall is terminally damaged, as well. The upshot is that the tire will never be mounted again: it's either garage decor or scrap.

Bummer. That's about $160+ off the car toys budget.

I never even got to see what I hit. What fun is that?

Grumble grumble grumble.

On the bright side of things, the wheel is undamaged, as far as we can tell. Whew! A wheel would cost more than the tire, if I could even find one.

I'll get the replacement tire ordered tomorrow.

Installation Day -- or Installation Weekend

With only a dozen solder joints to finish on peripheral wiring, I'll have everything ready to install this morning, so this afternoon begins the actual install-it-in-the-dash phase.

I'll do one last bench test with everything running through the last connections I made, and, assuming everything works, it'll go into the car.

It's about time! I've been waiting for some good pictures in this thread for a while

Good luck!

Originally Posted by colin

It's about time! I've been waiting for some good pictures in this thread for a while

Good luck!

Thanks, Colin. Yep, it is about time. And the funny thing is, I thought I'd have it all in the car today. It's after 10pm and I'm still tweaking it on the bench. It's doing fine, now. Even though I have two USB ports that don't want to play nicely, I'll install it anyway. I can live without them, and I need to get some experience with the system.

I'll get those photos tomorrow while installing . . .

Installation Weekend

It turned out to be Installation Weekend, not Installation Day. The first Installation Day turned out to be a More Wiring and Troubleshooting Day. I made some good changes to the system wiring -- adding more disconnects so it's very modular -- and finally got everything ready to go.

Before installing the system, I put everything together on the test bench -- my desk -- and found two issues: the power-on LED wasn't working, and the four USB ports I added were dead.

I diagnosed the "no power LED" issue quickly. I had tried a solderless wire end on two connectors, and I immediately suspected them. I went back and replaced them with soldered joints, and the light came up fine.

The USB ports seemed strange. I took the top off the chassis and discovered that I hadn't reconnected them to the mainboard while I was in doing some tweaking. Oops. I reconnected them, and more testing showed two worked and two didn't, so I popped the top again. Close inspection showed the cable with the two dead ports didn't have the ninth pin wired to ground -- apparently it was a USB 1.1 cable, originally -- so I got out the fine soldering tip and built a ninth pin with a split lead, then soldered them to the other two ground wires. I put it all back together, and all the ports work.

As soon as I get Garmin Mobile PC installed and get the latest updates from Microsoft on it, I'll head down to the car and start getting it in there.