Thread: 2003 Honda Accord Sports Coupe - a worklog

Sub looks really nice. I was wondering about some sound colouration or mushiness caused by slight flexing of the fibreglass enclosure with sound pressure but the sound deadening, thick covering along with the installed fit should have removed any of that. Once again, really nice job.

I read you mod to the GPS receiver. I have a similar unit and was tracing a Windows USB disconnect- reconnect sound, repeated about 10 times after a minute of PC running time. I realised the GPS battery was draining overnight and the charging current at start-up was affecting the USB extension repeater feeding the GPS. Removed the battery and it’s perfect. I was going to mod for a switch as you had done but at this stage it gets a fix so fast I may just leave the battery out.

Have you had a chance to fire up the sub? looking forward to your thoughts on how it sounds.

Thanks Mickz,

I have fired up the sub, and it sounds pretty good -- I'm happy. My happiness meter will go up after the sub has a few hours to break in. I should note that Wyvon did the resin trick (fill the box with resin and swish it around so that the seems are solid) and added an additional layer of matting on the inside. I really should get him to note where he gets his matting from, because it was way better than the crap from Home Depot. All said, the box has a little weight to it - and it is REALLY solid, no worry about flexing here.

As far as the GPS, I had tried removing the battery -- but I was getting iffy results, which is why I went with the mod. It may have been more to do with Navit then with the GPS...

Ok,

Back to the actual computer part of my CarPC. I have owned for a bit a nice shiney new fusion brain (with case) for a little while now. Finally got around to putting it into the car, as the new sub makes a much louder 'thump' :}

Install was pretty straightforward, after noting it needed both the USB connection and the 12V power supply (so I can switch the relay). A small script that runs as an application, takes care of staring it up -- and a small one for shutting it down (need to tweak it). Otherwise silence until music starts -- as it should be!

Wow,

Been a bit since I updated this... So, over the last week I had to tear out my wiring in my car... Which was a result of white smoke coming from my dash, followed by everything stopping working. The direct cause was wiring I was using to provide on/off signals was too small. The real problem was that over time I had added/subtracted/changed the configuration of my system. Worse, when I started off - I had sometings done by other people/companies (and not the same people/company for all the work). This resulted in me not really knowing the where/why/how of all the wiring in the car. A minor example, my usb soundcard is about 18" away from the amp (on purpose mind you, but not the orignal configuration) - however, the cable was about 10' The wires that caused the issue were 20 AWG, and the thought was they would carrying enough current to turn on devices (less than the 1.5 Amps it's rated for). However, from the source of the power to the last device it touched (following the wire path) had to be longer than 20'. Plus some devices (backup camera) were actually powered off that line.

What had been holding me back from fixing this was not knowing how my seats came out... Well, turns out that was pretty easy. So, everything is now cleaned up and back to it's orginal glory. While I was doing this, I replaced the VGA with HDMI -- and it make a WORLD of difference. The screen just looks so much clearer. Only concern is those connectors aren't very secure. Wonder how everyone else holds them in.

BTW: cooked wires only blew one 30 Amp fuse and (maybe unrelated) tube fuse falling apart. -- otherwise all my parts seem to have survived.