Thread: Rod's Rig Car PC (2007 Toyota Hilux)

Finally got the PC starting and shutting down with the Ignition with a relay circuit. Not 100% but at least it is a start.

I used this circuit (Constant to Momentary Output) minus the resistor:


So translating this to an automotive relay pinout for my Opus:

86 = +ve 12 volts from Opus (yellow wire)
GND from Opus and -ve capacitor (black wire)
85 = +ve capacitor
87,30 = Laptop switch

With the resistor in the circuit, it only shut down and did not startup.

The shutdown timing with this relay is not ideal (I was not expecting the shutdown pulse to occur), it happens way after I would like when the Opus finally turns off, not when the Opus would normally shut down the PC, I think it might be better running it off the Amp shut down (which I just realized will allow it to run on 19 volts). I'll try that tomorrow, hopefully, there won't be a THUMP. I may need to do some more research to find a circuit that only pulses on start up and let the Opus shut it down.

I got a response from Xenarc about the best way to power the monitor (remembering that I am powering from a separate dual battery which is isolated when cranking) and they said:

"Best practice is to use a regulated power supply. Unregulated power may cause interference in the monitor display. And even if the monitor is isolated when the engine is cranking, the voltage will fluctuate while the vehicle is being driven."

I am just waiting for Xenarc to confirm this means 19 volts regulated is OK. Hopefully, I will have the power sorted soon...

Progress is happening, but slower than I would like.

Rod

Not much happening here, been playing with power supplies all week. I managed to rig up a relay circuit to shut down and startup the lapop to keep me going. Xenarc have confirmed that 19 volts is fine for their monitor and Opus are sending me revised firmware to control the laptop. So that means I can get rid of the Laptop brick!

I found out I need to adjust the shut down and startup voltage as by default, startup is set to 12.5 volts and my system was at 12.4 volts last night, so it would not turn on until I started the motor. Good for some, but not good for an off road rig. I have an 80 amp hour dual battery in my rig, so I will change this to a much lower setting.

I have ordered the PIC progrmamer that Opus told me to get. Prices ranged from AUD $160 to AUD $42, so not hard to guess where I ordered it from. It's a week before I go on holidays for 3 weeks, so things will be quiet here.

Hopefully, I will find a bit of time to install Bluetooth, Reversing camera and GPS puck over the weekend, otherwise it will be another month befor much happens on this thread...

Cheers

Well today, I got my Reversing Camera installed and also found time to tuck my blluetooth dongle in behind one of the interior panels. First, I tackled the reversing camera. This will give you an idea of what my rig looks like at the tailgate end:



Because I have a canopy on my rig, I don't drive with the tailgate down so I decided to screw the camera onto the bottom of the tailgate. Anywhere else would have restricted the view. This is where I put it:



It was a bit tricky to get the wiring up there. I had to replace the corrugated conduit that takes wires up into the tailgate for the reversing light. This is because I just could not push the coax for the video and the power wires through. I had to cut the conduit off as the factory version did not have a split in it. I replaced it with normal split conduit the same size but the split allowed me to get all of the wires in there. Looking down onto the open tailgate, you'd never know this was not factory:



Once I got the wires into the tailgate, I joined them up to the tails that were provided with the camera and mounted the camera in the centre of the tailgate:



Sorry, no pics, but I used some large shrinkwrap tubing on the plug in power connector and the RCA video socket at the end of the wiring tails on the camera so that the plugs could not come apart. I also did this with the bluetooth dongle, so the bluetooth pics below will give you an idea of how this works.

I ran the cable back into the back of the cab on the LHS where I shared the grommet that the fuel filler release exits from the cab. Under the car, I encased the video coax in corrugated split conduit which I fed all the way up into the tailgate.

I ran the video power leads back to the LHS tail light where I spliced into the reversing light to power the camera and drilled a hole and earthed the -ve wire after sanding off the paint. After checking that I had a good earth with a multimeter, I sprayed a bit of paint over the bare metal to keep rust at bay.

All of the wire connections I soldered in. The coax I used was a 5m wiring kit. I used an original connector at one end, and soldered on another RCA at the other end after trimming the length to suit.

So after testing that everything worked (and it did first time), I decided to permanently install the Bluetooth dongle behind a side panel up near the rear passenger's ear!

I used a USB extension lead, and cut off one end and soldered it to the USB screw in fly leads I had to mate with the off road hub I made. I staggered the joins so nothing would touch, used some insulation tape and finally replaced the shielding with some aluminium foil befoere adding a final layer of insulation tape.

I plugged the Bluetooth dongle into the USB connector and secured it with some shrinkwrap. Fortunately, I have a hot air gun which makes shrinking the tubing child play! I had also bought some self adhesive cable tie anchors from Jaycar and I thought this would be a good time to use them:



Once I got everything ready, I slipped the dongle in behind the internal panel up near the top seatbelt mount for the rear seat. This shot is taken from the rar door looking between the outer panel and the inner plastic trim panel:



So now, the main wiring I have to do is to get the GPS puck tucked in under the plastic cowling where the windscreen wipers are. I bought a high quality 5m USB cable which I will solder on to a screw in connector for the hub. I hope it will work as it will be close to the maximum length in the USB spec!

After that one is done, the remaining wiring will be for the Armrest USB hub, and a few switches and controls to let me manage the Car PC frpom the cockpit.. Still got a lot to do.....

No, The bezel is not to hand. I left the US on the 17th. Hopefully it arrives by Friday as I am going away for 3 weeks... Richard assured me it's the bezel for the 706TSA, not the older one. Useless for me if it is an older one!

I must say now I have got this up and running, I was a bit annoyed to find I have got a bit of noise from the Silab. It was not there in earlier testing using the factory head unit and/or the PC speakers and there was no noise. Now with an extended antenna, decent amp and awesome speakers I can hear it.

I tried an antenna filter $9 from Strathfield, but got no sound at all, so that did not work. I might try this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=350100252928

Anyway, before I try this, I found this plugin for RR which has made a huge difference, but the noise is still there:

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/s...ead.php?t=9978

Anyway, now using this plugin and the DLL (same as FreeIce uses I think), I found Post #522 on this thread which looks interesting.

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/s...fdshow&page=35

So from here, I am going to try to play with using FFDSHOW noise filtering to see if I can get some improvement. I think this will work becasue I remembered that Winamp 2.95 had similar noise that disappeared when I upgraded to the latest version, so it probably can be controlled by software.

If the software solution does not work, I'll try the hardware solution. A lot of people said that the AS100filter on the ebay link above fixed their Silab noise...

Cheers

Rod

Well I finally got onto my CAR PC monitor install over the weekend. Had an interruption on account of 3 fantastic weeks in a campervan touring New Zealand. Never got lost once even without a GPS.. but anyway back on with the article.

I am using this monitor:
http://www.xenarc.com/product/706tsa.html

and a Dual DIN LCD display, I purchased from here for another brand of monitor from http://www.bybyte.com/ which worked out OK.

So I started by stripping the monitor out of the case which voided my warranty


Then after removing the dash fascia

and the radio, I stripped the mounting rails of the factory radio, placed the frame into position on the back of the facia where there are some DIN sized mounting guides


and screwed the radio mounts onto the LCD frame through existing holes.

I had also bought some of the Toyota ears that are required if the larger factory radio is replaced with a DIN sized one. You can't get these from Toyota, but I bought them from Strathfield. go figure... So these ears bolt onto the outside of the mounting brackets to fill in the sides if a DIN radio is installed.

So the next step was to attach the ears, by again fitting everything up against the back of the fascia. It is critical you get these exactly positioned, straight and even up and down or the assembly won't fit in the facia later on.

Ok, so how to mount the monitor? I cut 4 L brackets from some scrap aluminium SHS. Then, I placed the montor into the LCD frame and drilled a hole in each bracket so I could screw the monitor onto the brackets using some handy screws on the monitor. Only 3 of the four holes were in use, but the thread is identical to a HDD mounting screw. Just check the thread length and add a couple of washers



I lined everything up again and used a pair of vice grips to clamp the l bracket to the LCD frame, removed the monitor and drilled a hole and screwed the L bracket onto the LCD frame. It all worked out easy and everything ended up in the right position.

There is a separate glass touch screen in front of the monitor and the frame had self adhesive tape inplace to mount it but warned that you would break the glass if you removed it. I did not like this idea, so I simpley taped the touch screen to the monitor case which allowed me to obscure some of the touch screen surrounds that as not hidden by the LCD frame. This is what I ended up with before installing the assembly back in the dash:



You can see the daughter board for the monitor buttons which I still have to work out what to do with.



So the easy bit was putting it back in the dash, but I did have to rework my CB radio microphone mount again!



In the shot above, you can see the daughter board for the monitor buttons



I had hoped to mount them above the fresh/recirc Air Con control here, but the board is a bit toolong for this.



The other trick a lot of people do is simply leave the daughter board in behind the dash, remove the Infra red sensor and use some wire to extend it to another convenient location. I am still thinking about the best way to go...