Thread: And so it continues... 2007 Chrysler PT Cruiser Touring Edition

Thanks, I'm going to get some good time to do stuff tomorrow, I've got 3 days off in a row, and I'm going to try and use as much as I can to get this all buttoned up.

Getting closer, but rain has stalled some progress.

I planned on getting the bezel finished, but I have no good place to lay some paint down, so it will have to wait a little longer. I got the controller in, and it seems to have fixed the issue, there is still the occasional calibration needed, and the screen started doing something wierd after the controller swap. I think the parts were not originally made for each other, so... I'm going to email dynamix and find out what's up.

After a little frustrating work, I remote mounted the power switch. The contact on the tact switch is so tiny, it was hard to get enough solder on it to hold to the wire. I finally got it and a dab of hot glue gives a lot better structure. The wires go to a headset jack, through an extension and to another jack connected to the momentary switch.

I originally had it connected to the modem port, but decided against it due to how hard it was to take it all apart with it like that.

Next step is getting a way to keep the monitor cable connected to the laptop. Stupid HP decided it wasn't that important to put the little bolts to screw the cable into laptop. I guess I'll have to add them my self. And then the next thing is the carnetix PSU and getting it all final mounted.

Upgrading speakers today.

I won some gift cards from work, so I'm going to put them to use in getting the speakers for my car. I'm going right now to pick up these:


Pioneer TS-A1702C Component Speakers for the front, and:


Pioneer TS-A1672R 3 way Speakers for the rears.

I love pioneer stuff, never dissappointed me in the past, and the price was right (pretty darn close to free with the gift cards.) I also like alpines, but they are a little more money.

I'm going to put the tweets in the small panel on the a-piller door (where the mirror attaches) and the woofs in the doors.

Pics to come...

I decided to take apart the screen to try and fix some of the blemishes on the bezel, and figure out which pins connect to what on the main board on the monitor. While doing so, I was going to try the "LCD Fix" here, but I ended up cracking the glass on the touch panel.

%$&^*%$^%!

Well, I think I was going to need a new one anyways, but I didn't think this would prompt it. The glass seemed pretty brittle though, I didn't put that much pressure on it I thought. I guess that gives me a little time to wait and hear back from Dynamix about the pinouts on the two connectors.

Here's the issue that I have right now with the connectors:





Both connectors have 2 too many pins, and I don't know which pins are used or not.

Also, the bezel is being painted in "Satin Nickel" which is the closest to the satin silver that I could find.

Some pics of the blemish fixes and the new color




Top part of the screen bezel



and my favorite:



The part above the window switches took the longest out of all the different parts, and it's nice to see it all completed.

I don't think there's much OEM stuff that looks this nice. And the funny thing is, it looks so good that most people who see it won't notice how perfect it is. That's a pretty neat accomplishment.

Beautiful work -- my hat's off to you.

Thanks for the compliment, it's taken some good patience with everything, but I keep thinking of the end result, and that keeps me motivated to take my time.

I'm so mad about the glass cracking on the touchpanel, I barely put any pressure on it, and it cracked, it was almost like it was thermal shocked, but it had been sitting inside for a while before I touched it.

Hopefully the replacement isn't too much, but that might fix the alignment issues at the same time.

I do have to take a second to comment on Dynamix Computers.

As with any company, you'll have people that just don't care about the customer, they are just counting the seconds until the clock hits closing time. Brian C, is not one of these people. He may be slow to get back to his emails sometimes, but he sent me a new controller free, and there's not even a glimmer of warranty on my screen, just to find out if there were some 816's being sent with a knockoff controller.
When I ordered my replacement bezel, he kept me up to date with the process (I guess it had to be made from scratch) the whole time.

Anyways, hopefully getting the replacement touchpanel will be a similar experience.

Some installed pics:

Powered off:




Powered on, with hAv1c+ V3:





This is without the touchscreen, so until I get the replacement I'll be using the wireless mouse and my leg as the mousepad.

Also, notice the Pioneer Deck is not finished yet, I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what to do with that area.

That looks super niceeee!