Thread: 2003 Saab 9-3: The SS Box (I know, name under construction)

Thanks Kiriller!

Another good day. I finally finished carving out the tool caddy just the way I like, so the box fits nicely in there, and there's room to open the case, as well as room for the cables sticking out the back. I also ran the power wires. I connected 14ga to battery + & -, & put an fuse inline to the + terminal, ran the wire through the rubber steering wheel boot (I hated doing it but couldn't find any other place) into the cabin. From there, I stuffed it under the door sills all the way to the trunk, under the carpet & into the spare tire well (STW). Power coming from the battery was 12.25V (car off) & 14.71V (car running).

For Switched power, I tapped a fuse. Also something I don't like doing, but it made too much sense not to. I have a nice fuse panel in the trunk, and I used a fuse tap to get power from fuse #17 (Autodimming mirror & Tire Pressure Monitors & Rain Sensor, the latter 2 which I don't have), which has a 7.5A fuse. It was 12V coming from the outboard rail (closest to the rear of the car). That means I put the tap on the blade closest to the nose of the car, that way the circuit is protected by the fuse. I ran that wire to the STW. Remember strain relief!

To make connections easy, I put a 4-pin connector on the 6-wire Opus harness (see post #18). So the 3 wires I have now from the car (hot, grnd, ign) went into the mating 4-pin connector. Plugged it in, and we're good to go. Well, I couldn't stop now. I hooked up the monitor & keyboard/mouse.
Fired it up, and damn if it didn't work. Just like it's supposed to. It was freakin sweet.

Technically, the move went well, and by definition, I now have a carpc up & running. Mind you, I still have to use my 50lb CRT, and the keyboard is only accesable in the back seat, but it works. I just gotta clean it up a tad.

I also looked at how I'm going to run the rest of the wires. Since all the remaining wires have to do with the center stack (aux-in, XM, Monitor) I'll probably run them straight from the trunk, under the rear passenger seat, go under the carpet about 1 foot & into the back end of the center console. From there it's pretty easy to route wires anywhere in the center stack, using instructions from Etadyne website. I want to order cables, but don't know what comes with the monitor yet. DAMN I need some dough for a monitor. There's a lot of wires:
VGA
USB
Audio in
Audio out
XM Control
Keyboard
Mouse

They're all gonna end up spread along the middle hump of the floor.

And I'm STILL not done with my skin. Getting closer though.

I found a great thread about fooling the computer into thinking there's a keyboard attached here .

I'm going to make a shunt so it's quicker for troubleshooting.

I was pretty much all set on purchasing my touchscreen monitor, but both of the ones I was looking at got taken down by the mp3car.com store.
SO I don't know what to do now. Get it anyway from another vendor? Was there serious quality/durability issues so I shouldn't get it? If not what else is there? I have to do my research all over again. Damnit.

Originally Posted by matt11601

Which ones were you looking at it?

I was looking at the only 2 that were sold here that fit in a DIN slot & folded outward. The Xenarc 700IDT & the MTSVO-SC.
Read about my frustrations here.

Originally Posted by Viscouse

I found a great thread about fooling the computer into thinking there's a keyboard attached here .

I'm going to make a shunt so it's quicker for troubleshooting.

I was pretty much all set on purchasing my touchscreen monitor, but both of the ones I was looking at got taken down by the mp3car.com store.
SO I don't know what to do now. Get it anyway from another vendor? Was there serious quality/durability issues so I shouldn't get it? If not what else is there? I have to do my research all over again. Damnit.

You know in BIOS you can change the Halt on [No errors] that way it doesn't complain about a KBB right ?

Originally Posted by IntellaWorks

You know in BIOS you can change the Halt on [No errors] that way it doesn't complain about a KBB right ?

Yeah, but I like the harware aspect of it, as I feel I'll be doing a lot of plugging & unplugging. Just seems easier than messing in the bios. Who knows, I may change my mind. But this is something I can work on in the midst of my TS angst.

Whohoo! I ordered my cables. I hope my monitor will support the cables I chose. We'll see. I got a pretty good deal (I thought) from http://www.thenerds.net/index.php. I couldn't find a nice way to browse, but if you do creative searches you will find LOADS of cables.
At least I can run my cables & have that done when the monitor comes.

No bondo thanks. But wait till you see what I have in store for the monitor.

Whoohoo! The cables are run (mostly). I got some of the cables & ran them from the trunk to the center console, just to see if I could. Finally, I caught a break with this car. It was (relatively) easy.
Step 1: remove rear seat cushion.
Step 2: I started in the trunk & fed the wires through to the cabin, under the back seat. There is a little foam that you have to go under, and it's easier if you happen to have 5' long arms, but oh well. Man up & crawl int he trunk & feed it through. It helps if you lift the load floor with your head.
Step 3: In the cabin, find the wires & pull em through It may help to tie the trunk-side ends in a loose knot just so you don't pull them through & have to start over.
Step 4: Remove the cover ata the back of the armrest. The top tilts out, and then you should be able to see the rest of the attachments. Notice the steel structure & the hole in the carpet where the steel meets the floor. You should be able to see where the gray parking brake cable sleeve is going.
Step 5: Using your cable snake (I'm not sure how you'd do this without it, coat hanger maybe?) start at the rear seat side of the center hump, and thread it under the carpet & foam to the hole mentioned in step 4.
Step 6: Once threaded, tie some string to the snake & pull it through. Now you're set.

Step 7: Bend the wires about 2 ft before the end, and tie the string to it. Pull the string to draw the cords under the carpet. It helps if you lift up the carpet with 1 hand while pulling. Don't pull the ends through yet. You should be able to pull the bend in the cables through the hole. It's hard, and you may have to make the hle a little bigger. Just remember where the plastic cover is so you don't make a hole that won't be covered.
Step 8: Once the loop is through, untie the string & retie it to the as-yet-unpulled cable ends. This way, when you pull the cable ends, the string will follow, and basically reset you at Step #6.
Step 9: pull the ends through. Repeat steps 7-9 for the rest of your cables.

Now I haven't tried big cables like the VGA, but I'm hoping it'll be the same.

After that, just run the cables wherever you want. There's a lot of good info on how to take your center console apart from Etadyne 's website. Just use steps 5 & 6.