'01 VW Jetta 1.8T Carputer worklog

**Jacampb2** · 01-08-2011, 07:01 PM

More progress! I got off midnights this morning, slept a few hours and then went out to the shop and fired up the CNC and made my aluminum parts.

The aluminum pieces came out great, however, when it came time to mount them I ran into a few issues. I ended up cutting a lot more of the plastic out of the factory cage to mount the MOBO a bit lower. I didn't have to, but on one side a lot of the plastic had to go anyhow for the connectors, so I decided to really hack it up and get the MOBO the most cooling I can. Anyhow, this meant it would mount in a wider section of the cage than what I had measured, rather than re-cut the whole thing I made some design modifications and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. First off, I cut off the back two mounting tabs I machined because I was able to use the plastic center piece at the back for more support. To make up for the wider mounting width I mounted one side tight to the plastic, and used a standoff to make up the width difference on the other side.

Anyhow, it is together. I have a few issues still. The HD and the M4 power supply mount under the MOBO. The HD screws I have are pan head type screw, and they were to tall in the position I mounted it. They interfered with the heat spreader under the MOBO. I'm going to have to pick up some countersunk M4 screws to mount flush under the MOBO. The power supply is not going to work out where I had planned it. It interfered with the plastic on the back of the cage, so I am going to have to re-drill those 4 mounting points further forward.

I still need to mount the lilliput video board. That is not a big deal, but it still needs nailed down. Test fitment looks like it is going to be tight between the DC-DC supply and the video board, but it should be doable.

Here are the pics:

Later,
Jason

**Jacampb2** · 01-09-2011, 02:04 PM

Oh man, I feel like I am getting really close on this. I tied up a bunch of the loose ends I mentioned yesterday. I remounted the HD with the old screws, and just spaced hte MOBO standoffs up a hair. That was all that took and it fit perfect. I did the first test of the whole thing mounted up in the dash piece this afternoon. It all went well.

I have a bit more plastic I still need to remove on the connector side of the MOBO. I still have to work out the M4 mounting. I looked at moving it forward on the bottom of the MOBO mount, but I am not sure that is the way to go with it. It will work there, but it will be terribly tight. I still have not messed with the video card mounting, but I did install it with the flexible extender today just to make sure it worked without a hitch. I have a lot of cable reworking and routing to do, there is simply a crap ton of wiring to fit in here.

Anyhow, I powered it with the 12V supply and the M4 just to make sure it worked. First try nothing, cycled power and it fired right up-- no idea what was up with that, but hopefully it doesn't become an issue.

Next on my list is redoing the lilliput cable, it is like 8' long and I have absolutely no place to put it. I need all of 8 inches, so I will cut it down and solder on new VGA and USB connectors.

I am back to work tomorrow, but start my 7 day off stretch next friday, so I am hoping like heck that I might be able to wrap it up and get it installed. Wish me luck!

Here are the pics:

Later,
Jason

**Jacampb2** · 01-15-2011, 12:32 PM

A bit more progress. I got the M4 supply mounted. Just had to go a bit further forward than the original plan. I butchered a bit more plastic and have decent access to it. I spent some time routing cables and trying to clean things up a bit. I think I am making progress. I cut up the lilliput cable and shortened it to a few inches. I still need to pick up a hood for my VGA connector, I thought I had one-- guess not. Right now all the cables with the exception of the mouse and keyboard are pretty well contained in the footprint of the DD.

I still don't know what to do about the damned video card. I don't have much room left to squeeze it in anywhere. I might have room on the very bottom, back behind the heater controls, I have to check. I also may be able to fit it directly in the PCI-e slot if I can just find a thinner heat sink for it. So, anyone know where to get a low profile heat sink that fits a 43mmx43mm mounting square? This heat sink is almost an inch tall, I think if I can get something fan cooled and half it's height that it will fit right where it already is. I have some small peltiers I might be able to fit too... Hmmm....

Here are the pics:

Later,
Jason

**freeflashstuff** · 01-15-2011, 03:25 PM

If shipping speed isn't a major concern for you, you can check DealExtreme for a heat sink. Last time I checked, they had several different types. But they ship from Hong Kong, so it takes a while to get to you...

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**4ofakind** · 02-24-2011, 12:24 AM

Jason,

It appears the on board bluetooth and the "blue" plastic cover are one piece. How did you seperate them?
Also, I am supposed to desolder the chip and solder the connections to the new chip right? Do they go in any particular order? The little capacitor on the new chip, does it face up or down when I solder it on?

Thanks for the help, Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics

Mal

**Jacampb2** · 02-25-2011, 03:34 PM

Sorry for the delay in reply. I have been really busy-- been side tracked on the car PC project too, I got another SS tarantula for my collection and have been busy bringing it back to life.

For the BT transceiver. You're right, your pics do suck! Lol, remember, I never took the shield off mine before I pulled it out. I ended up breaking the plastic part inside the riser, it is really thin plastic and basically just a tray inside the riser. I grabbed a hold of the blue plastic lens with a pair of miniature pliers and just pulled and wiggled until it came out. There were two rather stiff locking tabs on the thing that engage the shell of the riser.

Since you have the back of the riser shell off, I would just delsolder the four pins, and pull the board and plastic piece out together. When you solder in the new dongle (hopefully you tested it with the blue soleil stack) just put it in exactly as if you were plugging it into a USB port. I bent each of the four leads that used to be through hole on the factory board, and just soldered them to the surface pads on the USB dongle. To make it really secure, you should probably drill through holes in each of the pads on the USB dongle-- I thought about it at the time and did not for some reason, it may be that something on the board interfered, I don't remember. Anyhow, that is how I did it, if you act like you are plugging the dongle into that slot, the pins line up correctly.

Good Luck,
Jason

**4ofakind** · 02-25-2011, 08:02 PM

While waiting for your reply, I chose to just go for it.

I burned up the original BT chip trying to desolder it. The blue plastic comes apart into two pieces once out of the silver housing. Getting the new BT chip in was ALOT easier. As per your reply I think I lucked out on putting the connections in the proper sequence. I plan to test everything to morrow when I have some free time. I took pics but i'll save you the trouble of looking at them.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mal

**Jacampb2** · 07-11-2012, 03:26 PM

So, long time no progress, but I ended up buying a new house last summer and doing a remodel, so I never got around to this project last year. Anyhow, I am now trying to get it installed and am having nothing but problems. All this stuff was working flawlessly off the DC power supply in my bench. Now, on install I find that my video card is junk, while test fitting I got to rough with it and scarred some traces, and its shot. Replaced video card, now monitor works, but win is reporting USB device not recognized. I have searched here for advice, I tried the Lilliput AC adapter via extension cord in the driveway, same deal, monitor works, touchscreen doesn't. I'm about to start shopping for a new screen, but I can't figure out wtf happened to this one, I mean it hasn't been booted up in over a year, but, it worked perfectly then, and has been in an enclosed cabinet indoors since then. Obviously if you look at the build I can't just "pull the monitor" at this point, but I suppose I can hook the whole kit and kaboodle to another PC if someone thinks its is related. I did boot a live Linux distro and got the same USB results there too. Please advise! Thanks in advance folks.

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