2010 Subaru Impreza 100% in-dash PC

**aindfan** · 05-10-2011, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by soundman98

the extra expense is sometimes tough to justify just looking at the cost difference

Tough, but luckily not impossible. I decided that the extra expense is worth the benefit that I will get out of it (what's the point of a screen that you can't see?) and ordered mp3car's transflective 669. A big thank you to Stephen for answering all of my pre-purchase emails.

Originally Posted by soundman98

and as frustrating as it is that your credit card company blocked the transaction, it's nice to see that they actually seem to care enough to try to help every once in a while..

Yes - I was coming from an angle of gratitude, as sarcastic as it may have sounded. I was able to chat with the seller on AliExpress and he/she said that the board should ship today once the payment goes through.

Total damage for the day: Opus 180W DCA9 (dual 90W supply), ByByte Double DIN, Mp3Car Lilliput 669 Transflective, 96GB SSD, 2GB RAM, USB bluetooth adapter, and USB 802.11abgn adapter. If all ships as planned, I might be building by next week!

**aindfan** · 05-13-2011, 08:55 AM

Shipping update: the seller in China has provided a tracking number and the board has left Hong Kong! I should find out next week whether it's actually what I expect to receive. The newegg order should arrive today (most of the PC components), the Opus should be here early next week, and oddly enough, my mp3car order (screen and case) has been sitting in a processing state for a few days (though I did contact them yesterday - hopefully it'll ship soon).

**aindfan** · 05-16-2011, 06:44 PM

The board arrived (amazingly) and wow is this board small. It didn't come with a power adapter, and I'll post (a) picture(s) of it running once I get back from Radio Shack (and start installing Ubuntu on the SSD).

The manual for the board is written in a language whose characters I cannot read, though there are enough latin characters to figure out the important parts (jumper positions, front panel connector pinout, header pinouts, etc). All of the board silkscreening is in latin characters as well.

**aindfan** · 05-17-2011, 08:10 AM

No luck so far. I can get the board to power on (green light and fan spinning) by shorting the power switch pins. I could only get a 2.5A 12VDC adapter at Radio Shack while the board needs 5A, so the display is not coming up. I will try to get a 5A adapter today and report back with the results.

**aindfan** · 05-18-2011, 06:55 AM

And oddly enough... my mp3car order still hasn't shipped since last week. Despite everything being listed as "in stock," it turned out that the new ByByte cases are not in yet. A few days are no big deal in the grand scheme of things, of course, but I haven't felt that they've been too proactive in communicating the delay (my order just says "Processing," and it took an email question to dig into what that means).

Ok, sorry, I'll stop whining. It's not like I can even use the board yet.

**davekra** · 05-19-2011, 06:41 AM

When you get started building it, post some pics. That small board sounds interesting.
I went with an mini-atx and unsoldered all the connectors from it. A nano-itx would have saved some work and worry that I was going to brick it.

davidk

**aindfan** · 05-19-2011, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by davekra

worry that I was going to brick it.

Let's not rule that one out yet. Power light won't come on since my attempt to solder power wires to the through-hole mounted DC jack... I might have to break it off and see if I melted in a short from +12V to GND in that area. If not, I likely melted an internal trace, and I'm SOL.

**aindfan** · 05-19-2011, 07:00 PM

Whoops! The board's hosed. Dead short between +12V and ground, likely caused by the soldering that I attempted. I'm trying to multimeter my way around the corner of the board where the power input is to see if I can wire 12V on the opposite side of some regulator or something...

Here's another idea... any chance I can save this thing if I file off the power and ground pads where the power supply would normally connect to eliminate any possible short there?

Thanks!

**davekra** · 05-22-2011, 04:35 PM

0 ohm's? Just because you get continuity between + and ground doesn't mean that it's actually shorted. With all the various components something may be providing a path to ground.
I don't know about removing the solder pads without seeing it, but at this point....
(no offence here) If your soldering skills aren't quite up to par, attempting to solder to a multi layer board can be frustrating at best. The multiple layer boards require lots of heat but only just enough. Too much and they start de-laminating.
Also the solder they use seems to have a higher melting point than the 60/40 stuff most hobbyists have. That only adds to the frustration when it doesn't melt when you think if should.

See if you can undo what you did and inspect the board. A good solder sucker is a must when trying to remove multi legged components from a board. Something like this http://amzn.com/B000F490AM
Good luck.

**aindfan** · 05-23-2011, 08:04 AM

Originally Posted by davekra

0 ohm's?

Yes, zero ohms, and the power light doesn't come on. I got an email from the seller suggesting that I try replacing a certain capacitor (a cylindrical surface-mount cap, which luckily is about a quarter of an inch wide) - I'll have to give that a try.

Originally Posted by davekra

(no offence here) If your soldering skills aren't quite up to par, attempting to solder to a multi layer board can be frustrating at best

None taken. I may be in over my head here.

Originally Posted by davekra

Also the solder they use seems to have a higher melting point than the 60/40 stuff most hobbyists have.

The solder I have is lead free, which I thought had a higher melting point, but maybe the stuff used on the board is even hotter. Another problem may be that my soldering iron tip is not particularly fine.

Originally Posted by davekra

See if you can undo what you did and inspect the board. A good solder sucker is a must when trying to remove multi legged components from a board. Something like this http://amzn.com/B000F490AM
Good luck.

Thanks! I have this from SparkFun, and for some reason it's not too effective on the solder that I have... Neither is the solder wick that I got at Radio Shack. I think I need to switch to an easier leaded solder.