Thread: 1995 Volvo 850 T5 -- 2 din install

Originally Posted by Cris

Aaaah, what have you done to me???!!!

Now I want a retro fit too...


Nice A4 bezels you put in there. That will look sweet once the flutes are gone.

Retrofitted HIDs are addictive! The huge amount of well distributed light puts a smile on my face

Minor update!

Received some parts... which includes a bulk of ~1120 misc value 1/4W resistors (was running out), 6ft of heatshrink, PWM-capable CCFL inverter, 7812 regulators,
various caps, Atmel MCU and of course... my ALPS 8-way rotary encoder..

Encoder size in comparison to TO220 package-- it's small! Will need to extend the shaft.


The angle at which the side-to-side toggle activates... very small.

Originally Posted by Cris

Really nice encoder! Where did you get it?
It will work similar to the iDrive one I think, right?

It's a great little encoder. Got it from Mouser (http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?hand..._pcodeid=68807), costs about $8. Would be nice if it was optical for a longer life, but a mechanical one is just as good. It allows for rotation, push center button, and 8-way tilt (up, down, left, right, and 45 degrees in between each of those). I am going to use an Atmel MCU to control this, it'll send commands via the serial port which will be picked up my a VS.NET application I'll write, and translate them into other commands or keyboard clicks.

The device is sorta similar to the iDrive controller. iDrive has force resistance, so once you reach the end of a menu, it'll prevent you from moving the controller in that direction. Kind of hard to do that with just a rotary encoder. They have a specially designed one of course.

I'm looking for a GOOD knob for this. It needs to fit into a spot in my center console, w/o being too tall or too wide.

Looks great..

But where are the rest of the updates?

Originally Posted by segerdahl

Looks great..

But where are the rest of the updates?

Been busy, but here is a test fit in the dash. The frabrication is not done yet (hence the blue painters tape holding stuff in).

Using the RoadRunner iDrive skin.



Also, the aluminum case I'm making for the trunk. I have a large sheet of 1.6mm thick aluminum that I will be cutting (no idea with what) and bending (have a bending brake). The graphic below shows the bottom side of the case with the two sides, the top portion will have the other two sides.

All to scale, the thing under the PSU is the 3.5" hard drive. The PSU and the motherboard are going to be flush with the right side of the case so that their connectors and LEDs stick out.

Being tested at my workbench.... you can see my new Holux GPS receiver infront of the hard drive.



iDrive skin looks good! LCD bezel needs lots more fabrication though.

So thus far I have decided on how things fit in my custom case, as well as how many things I can fit.

I have also tested out the power usage of the system as a whole. It uses about 2.5 amps @ 12V when just playing MP3s, and 3.0amps @ 12V when using Winamp visualizations. Adding the LCD, it goes up to 4.0amps @ 12V.

Clockwise: 3.5" HD, OPUS PSU, laptop-sized CDROM (will be replaced with DVD drive soon), a PCI card to test fitment, M10k.


The PCI card will be connected using a flexible riser card, not the one in the photo.

Height with the standoffs, it'll be about 5mm lower. Even with this height, there is about 20mm of clearence between the top of everything and the case's cover.


Ammeter setup to measure the DC-DC PSU and the LCD. 4.12 amps in the photo.


Going to get the aluminum stock cut tomorrow so that I can bend it an assemble my case, finally.