Thread: Samsung Galaxy 10.1 custom Civic install, Actual Build Started on Page 18

Finally! Glad to see someone tackle this install. I will be a similar build but much more simpler setup (no rear video) but I will be adding a rear USB port and 12v port and possible this http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ANMRTR-04.html or something similar. So my son would be able to connect whatever tablet I will be getting him.

As far as apps for the galaxy for this setup there is a lot to choose from. I'm going to use this app https://market.android.com/details?i...l.torque&hl=en and this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...n=&s=&v=glance. Should be a cool effect.

There are also a lot EQ and volume apps to help tweak the sound. So far I'm leaning towards this app http://powerampapp.com/

I also ordered extra dash pieces just in case, cuz I know I will have to modify the opening and relocate the econ controls. What finish are you going with once you have your faceplate modified? I've been kicking around messing around with this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcdG...eature=related . And actually I've been thinking about opening my own small business doing this.... but anyway I will be posting my build once I start getting some components...

So this is on hold for a minute till I figure out a different project involving my head unit. I'm doing some bench testing now so that's what you're about to see. The head unit and the tablet are completely separate. However, in order to finish the tablet I have to decide where I'm going to put the faceplate for the head unit. It's either going to go in the headliner above the rear view mirror, or under the tablet next to the Bit One DRC. That's where we're at, and that's what I'm going to post on now.


So here's where I'm at with the Alpine Face Plate Extension Project.

I got the head unit out of the truck tonight and just started looking at stuff and getting some ideas on how to tackle this project.

My oldest daughter was a little jealous, bless her heart cause her sister got to be on a picture in the build. So she wanted in on one as well!


So I got everything laid out, all my pieces to this puzzle.


Put the face plate on the unit and examined the contacts a little bit. Here is the close up on them.


You can see on this one, that there is a little tab on either side of the contact connector. This is key cause the contacts really only go in one way smoothly. The other way it goes in, but it's kind of forced. So this is a good thing for orientation purposes!


With this connector, you can see the top connectors extend down, and the bottom connectors aren't so extended. This is another helpful piece of info for orientation!


This is just a view of back of the female connector and the top of the male connector.


Showing them connected


Same basic thing, just roles reversed this time.


Connected


This just shows how the connector will go into it's spot

Both of the base plates. The top one is the new piece and then you see the connector in front. After looking a bit at it, I may change out the one on the unit cause it's a little worn. The one for the faceplate to be held on, doesn't need to do anything but hold the faceplate. The base unit one, needs to be moved if I need to put in a cd. Anyway, moving on.






Now it's time to get our color chart and wires all situated so I have a guide to go off of. No reason to mess something up by guessing right.








Now that I have that going on, lets take a look at the wires and colors


I wrote down colors as I thought they should go. But then I discovered later that they had numbers on the wires. So I changed the color code later.

Here's what's in each cable. Remember there's 8 cables in the main run. So each pair per cable equals 16 little wires. There's 16 contacts on each plug. Make sense now!


So after looking at the female connector I wondered what it looked like in the unit. So I decided to take the front off and look for myself.


To my surprise this is what I found. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but I thought I'd have a ribbon cable or something in there. It's a board that has another plug on it, that plugs into a female plug that's soldered on the main board. WOW.


This is how it's soldered to the board.


So I started stripping, wire that is!


One down, one to go


Two down.

Next to strip the ends and get em ready for soldering or tinning whatever you wanna call it.


Done and ready for solder.
.

That's as far as I got tonight. My eyes hurt, my head hurts, and it's time for bed. So I have to now solder the ends, solder the connectors, and then put them together. The connectors aren't very strong so this is a little intimidating. I wish I had a better solder tip, but I literally have no money in the bank right now, so i can go get one. But I think I have one that will work. I just don't want to ruin anything.

I did find this out however. This is the picture from above, altered. What it's pointing at is a button. That button is pressed by the arm that goes down when the face plate opens up. I'm guessing it has something to do with the eject button. That's just a guess though. But if that button has to be depressed for the eject button to work, then I'm going to have no choice but to do a face plate of some sort on the base. I was planning on it really anyway. I'm probably just going to get the piece that goes on the front, then I'll have an empty face plate. But it'll look good still.



So that's it for tonight. I'll see how much more I can get done this weekend.

Ok so last night I was able to fire up the soldering iron and get the head unit extension all finished up and working! Well, sort of! Here's how it went down!

First I got everything out and started working on it, pretty much where I left off from last time. Recall that everything was stripped off and ready to solder on the wires. Now my original plan was to just solder from the outside in, meaning I was going to lay the wires on to the tabs and solder them on and then bend them and do the other side. After looking at them for a bit, I decided that these tabs were just not strong enough to really do that. I decided the up most care was needed in the soldering and handling of the connector tabs. So to solve that and get that result, I decided that the best thing to do, would be to bend the wires in an "L" shape and solder them that way, and then when they go on the tabs, they'll be resting on the strongest part of the tab, which is not the wing, but the body of each tab. So that's where I started. I needed to tin each little wire. 8 pairs, twice = 32 wires! Actually kind of went pretty quickly! Check it out!

Before tinning


Just to see the plan, if it'll work better!


Time to solder


Same here, pre tinning








Now I started to solder the wires to the tabs. But I pulled these wires off.


Rather than try to fight space all the way down, I'm blind already and I was wearing my glasses, but my head was killing me after looking at this stuff for a while in crappy light! So I tried to make it a little easier on myself by doing it from the bottom up instead of the top down.

It's a little rough right now.




But I can clean that up!


Now it's time to move on to the next connector. I actually found this one tougher than the first one. These tabs seemed thinner and more brittle than the other one. I decided to do the same thing with these. "L" shaped wire from the inside. Also from the bottom up.


Again a little rough and then cleaned up! BTW, I don't claim to be the best solderer in the world, I'm still learning. So if anyone thinks they can give any suggestions as to how to better my solder joints, I"m all ears! Thanks! Moving on!




Soldered up and ready for some support and connection.


Got out the hot glue gun and started filling the wires up and this will help support the weight of the wires and prevent the soldered tabs and bare wires from touching.

Side one


Side two

Now to move a little up the wires for more support. Once again, it's not the cleanest, which if you all know me by now is driving me nuts, but like I said a bit earlier my head was killing me, and I was getting impatient with these connectors. No excuse to let the details get away from me I know, but it's what I'm using for this now.




Ready to put it in it's home.






What you'd see if I took the face plate off. Looks factory! I compared it to the one from the factory, and it's the exact same distance, which is flush. I'm happy with it.


Wires supporting themselves and the connector and base.


Now, on to the next one! Same thing done here, I'll just post pics, you get the idea.

Not the greatest picture but here you can see I filled in the sides of this one. The other one I wasn't able to fill in on the sides because the tabs in the center need to move in order to take on this connector. I didn't want to take the chance that it would be glued. But this one doesn't have that issue.


Got it on the face plate back, the false one.






Now they're ready to go!




Next I got out all the equipment and a battery and it was time to test her out! Remember this was the full length cable. 10 feet long. I had really no expectations for this one to work based on what I'd heard and read about extending these newer alpine faces. But my hopes were positive and it would be nice if it did work!


Now the false face plate base won't just sit in there. It needs the front in order to stay on, because the front is where the holes are for the bottom in order for those pins to go into and the plate to stay in place. So I did the next best thing, which was electrical tape it. So now it's in place.


The false base, is a different story. The face plate will stay on it cause it has those holes. Here it's in place and open. Just to show the contacts.


Up and in place.