2005 Hyundai Tiburon/Coupe Full Install

**Greeno2k8** · 10-19-2009, 05:04 PM

Well I've been working on my install for quite a while now and am about 2-3 weeks from being finished so figured I'd post a quick summary of what's been done so far and what's still to be done.

Everything based around my CarPC (no surprises there!):

Intel D945GCLF2 1.6Ghz Atom Mainboard
1GB Ram
160G WD Scorpio HDD
VoomPC case installed under drivers seat
M2 ATX 160W PSU
Creative Audigy 2 NX USB Sound
OBD II interface (Not programmed into the software yet, but hardware installed)

Figured I should just list everything else, vast moajority of this is complete some bits still to install:

2 x USB hubs under passenger seat (11 ports used!)
VGA Splitter/Amp to feed the 3 displays in the car (also under seat)
All centre console buttons/dials integrated into PC/front-end. Replaced with 7" transflective t/s and slot load DVD/RW drive - Nice and clean!
Lower centre console has phone dock/charger, MP3 player dock/charger and space navigator controller
lower centre console arm rest storage has CarPC system hard drive - Mounted in hot-swap enclosure for easy removal (disk is regularly cloned at home with the spare being kept in the car for quick 'disaster recovery'!), USB card reader and loose USB lead for plugging in extra/occasional devices. Also acts as storage for Logitech DiNovo Mini Keyboard
Glove box is pretty much standard, apart from a 230v mains outlet fed by a 150W inverter mounted behind the dash
2x12" red cold cathodes in each footwell
Red LED illumination under driver and passenger seats
2 x 12" red cathodes in each door well
200+ red LED's in each door card controlled by microcontroller which is controlled by car PC (sound reactive etc)
Rear seats long gone, replaced with 2 x 12" in-phase XT12 subs - independantly amped in Independant sealed enclosures
2 x 17" TFT screens in boot floor
2 x Component speakers front
2 x 6x9 Speakers mid
2 x 6x9 Speakers rear
Approx 3200 LED's in various rear panels controlled by microcontroller as with door LED's
10Lb Ny-Trex bottle with solenoid valve and electronic pressure sensor (fed into CarPC)

System is completly independant from car ignition. Everything is controlled from two switches in the lower centre console (roughly ankle height). First switch gives power to PC, USB + screen & DVD. Second switch energises a 200A contactor for all the other equipment in the car.

All of this additional equipment is controlled via 20 x relays which are in turn controlled by the CarPC/front-end. So basically nothing gets power unless the PC says so!

PC also reads battery voltage and current being used by my install which allows me to keep an eye on it as well as allowing the PC to alert me/take action if the battery/alt could be suffering.

Front end is completely custom, mostly VB6 with a bit of C++. Anyone with a really good memory might remember me posting a thread about it a year or so ago after 'version 1' was complete (My Own Front End From The Ground Up). Well now version 2 is pretty much done, main changes are:

Re-Written for 800x480
Graphics changed to higher contrast White/Black/Red
Generally more efficient/reliable - the original had a few 'minor' bugs!

Think thats about it, just a rouh summary tbh. I've posted a few pictures below, took them on the phone so quality not all that good. Should be obvious where the screens are going in the boot floor, nitrous goes in the 'trench' behind that. Again, sub locations should be obvious!
Rear 6x9's will be installed in the next to last panel on each side with the majority of the LED's being installed in the larger panels forward on from those.
Panels are all 5mm black acrylic/perspex. 6x9 and monitor panels are backed with MDF and mounted on pretty substantial steel mounts. The little trough for the nitrous sits on a box steel sub-frame with the bottle mounts bolted all the way through and the sub enclosure is just faced in acrylic, underneath its 18mm chipboard.
Still 4 panels left to fabricate (at the very back of the boot, just visible in the photos). Then they all need to be fine tuned and have their endges sanded and finish polished. The surfaces are still covered in their plastic 'peel-away' protective coverings and will be until everything else is done (its pretty much a mirror finish under there, if they make black mirrors, lol).
And just finally to try and describe my design (i find it hard to describe to myself sometimes, lol). The idea was to simplify the front hence no buttons just the screen and keep everything black. The back is kinda 'stealth' (dont laugh, lol). Black panels, lots of complicated angles, uniform gaps in between all panels (trust me, the gaps are intetional!) and visible mounting bolts which are actually black oxide hex bolts, all still to be countersunk level into the panels. I'm not a fan of multi-coloured lights in cars so all the illumination is red, I've always liked black and red.

Phew, here's the pics, I'll take some better ones when im done (2-3 weeks realistically):

Excuse the two switches poking out of the centre console! only there for testing till the proper switch panel is re-installed

Jonny

**Greeno2k8** · 10-21-2009, 03:27 PM

Well Promised myself I'd keep up to date with this thing until i'm done!

Cut the holes out for the 17" screens in the back today. Took a while longer than expected but being that I dont have the materials to replace the 2 rear panels if I crack them I thought it would be best not to rush the job.

Wasn't too complicated, just used the original plastic trim from one of the screens to mark out and roughtly cut out the sections with a jigsaw. Then hot glued the surround to the top of the panels when they were in the right position, flipped the panel over and used a router with a flush trim bit to finish off the job. Was a little nervous about that bit as I've learnt the acrylic has a tendency to melt instead of cut if the bit gets too hot and the waste material has nowhere to go.

Then put the two panels together, face to face and marked the coutout for the second screen to make sure they were symetrical.

As the screens themselves are quite heavy, I'm gonna fabricate a sort of steel clamp frame to hold them in place on the back of the acrylic panels. Should be able to get at least one of those done tomorrow, hopefully both.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, never seem to have enough time in the evenings after work, it's getting dark real early now!

Jon

**rdholtz** · 10-21-2009, 03:49 PM

I like your attention to detail, and the consistent color scheme.

I must be missing something; what are the 17-inch screens going to display? Who sees them?

**Greeno2k8** · 10-21-2009, 03:55 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. The rear of the car is for just for show. I think function/usefulness is way down the bottom my list, lol.

To start with, the screens will simply mirror the main display (music videos, visulaisation etc) but I might develop a dual display setup in the future.

Jon

**ratbagu** · 10-22-2009, 03:40 AM

I love the install and the integration of the controls into the carpc.
Where are you from, Greeno2k8?

**Greeno2k8** · 10-22-2009, 08:09 AM

Hey, thanks for the comment.

I'm in the England, West Yorkshire.

Jon

**Greeno2k8** · 10-22-2009, 03:46 PM

Three days running and still updating! That's real dedication for me, lol.

Well got the holes cut out for the two rear 6x9's using the same process as for the monitors. Drilled the holes for the four mounting screws.

Couldnt resist temporarily mounting one of the speakers backwards in its panel and peeling of the protective film to see how it would look. Obviously none of the holes were countersunk and none of the edges were polished but still gives a good view of what these panels actually look like under their cover:

Then got started on mounting one of the tft's. Drilled six holes in the panel, 3 above and 3 below. Put one of my hex bolts through each and screwed a connecting nut on the back, basically just an inch long 6mm nut. Cut 4 lengths of steel tube, laid them on top and quickly tack welded everything into place, you don't wanna spend too long welding a frame thats sitting on top of plastic, lol!

So then removed the frame from the panel and welded everything securely. Thats as far as i got. So tomorrow ill add another 3 bolts onto each side of the screen and join those to the existing frame then use some scraps of acrylic to fill the gap in between the steel frame and the tft panel. Some slow cure epoxy will allow me to roughly glue them in, flip over the panel and adjust the tft into the perfect position. When the epoxy is cured, i'll add some more re-inforcement until im sure the tft is securely fixed to the frame then replicate the whole thing for the second screen.

Jon

**Greeno2k8** · 10-24-2009, 04:08 PM

Well just a quick update. It's been a busy couple of days, It took longer than expected to finish off the mounts for the two LCD's in the back, I ended up using 10 hex bolts for each one with quite a good amount of epoxy on the back to keep the screen pressed firmly against the back of the panel.

The screens plus the mounts were heavier than I thought they would be so the next job was to reinforce the steel frame in the car that supports these two panels, after that was done I figured it was the perfect time to strengthen the mounts for the rear 6x9 panels as shown in the above photos. I added two more mounting bolts to the existing 2 and welded in a few more supporting braces to stiffen everything up.

It was getting late and raining like hell by this point so the last thing I did was to finish sand and polish up the edges of one of the boot panels to see how it would look and I was very impressed. I figured I'd take a proper close-up picture with my SLR to show how it looks and make up for the low res pics in this thread but couldnt find the memory card for the camera, DOH! Hopefully it'll turn up tomorrow.

I guess i'll be spending most of tomorrow fine tuning, sanding and polishing the rest of the panels.
I'll store them inside once that is done and take care of a few remaining wiring jobs in the electrical system. More updates to come

Jon

**Greeno2k8** · 10-28-2009, 04:26 PM

ok, quick update.

Finished all the rear panel fabrication over the weekend. Removed all the panels and the sub enclosure from the back so I could get to work finishing off the electrical system.

Although the majority of the electrical system has been in the car for over a year, there was still quite a lot to add/fine-tune. Too many to list but basically along the lines of wiring for lights/neons, adding extra protection for some of the power feeds, calibrating the voltage/current measurements, re-feeding USB/monitor splitter direct from car pc etc etc.

Anyway I fired up the door LED's this evening, did a bit of reprogramming for the LED controller and wrote a quick test program for the car pc just to basically test that all the LED's work. Thankfully they did so decided to shoot a quick video to demonstrate a few bit of the system working.

It was filmed on the phone and obviously it was dark so the quality is as you'd expect but it will do for now. It roughly shows:

- HVAC controller - turning fans on/off, A/C temperature etc
- Media player - Playing a track with no album art (hence my little 'no art' picture! lol)
- Cathode/LED controller - Footwell cathodes, door cathodes, under seat LED's (no seats so they're loose on the floor) and EL linings around the door LED's
- Diagnostic/testing program for door LED's (here just controlling the speed of the up/down motion)
- Power controller.

As with the pics, i'll make a few better quality vids when it's all done.

Demo Vid

Jon

p.s. I've just watched the vid myself, apologies for the hideous sound quality, lol.
p.p.s Haven't got round to installing the 800x480 drivers yet so it's actually a 800x480 front end running in the middle of an 800x600 desktop!
p.p.p.p.p.s. Just so you know, the rumbling when i turn the A/C on is my exhaust, it's not the A/C pump about to explode, lol

**Greeno2k8** · 10-29-2009, 04:39 PM

Well mostly just software work today, although i did re-supply the external soundcard from the PC instead of a seperate regulator and wired in the display controller for the rear LCDs. It basically converts the secondary S-video output from the CarPC into VGA at a resolution that the 17" LCD's in the back can support as they won't play ball when you give them 800x480 direct from the CarpC VGA port.

Updated the software for the CarPC and LED Controller. Got the spectrum analysis working properly to control the LED's in time with the music and also developed the diagnostics program to show a few more features of the LED setup in the doors.

The LED software still needs a lot more work to really get the most out of the lights but for now im only trying to make sure that there are no hardware issues before all the panels go back in and the wiring is covered. Software can be updated after all that is done.

Uploaded another vid onto youtube to hopefully give a better impression of what the LED's can do. It's basically just using the diagnostice program to sweep up and down at various speeds and with various patterns (bar, dot, brightness, reverse bar and reverse dot).

I tried filming the LEDs when they were reacting in time to music but the camera wasn't quick enough to make any sense of it! You can see what I mean on the vid when early on I speed the 'bar sweep' up to 25ms, on the vid it looks to be jumping when it's actually very smooth when you see it yourself.

Anyway, There was no music in the car at the time so just overlaid music on the vid for my own satisfaction really, lol.

LED Demo

Jon