Subaru WRX TR (WRXTEAR) carputer progress thread

[ajdale]

I have a question that just came to me right now that I can't believe I've overlooked. Well, no overlooked, just pushed it out of the way untill the time came to answer it, but I figure it should be answered now;

How are/did both of you guys wire this up? I notice Tissy that you're running the wiring through the trunk(boot) of the car through a black tube.

Have you stripped the interior and running the wiring in the insulation under the seats/carpet next to the frame? or is there a way to get it clean looking without dismantling the whole interior?

Brand new Impreza and I don't want to ruin it.

[Tissy]

The wiring was fun !!

I too had a brand new Impreza in October and it has been VERY important for me to install the CarPC without adding ANY additional holes or structural modifictions to the vehicle. This included the actual mounting of the PC in the boot.

I will add a couple of pictures to my site over the next few days to hopefully illustrate how i have done it.

But for now, main power straight from the battery to the boot is fed down one of the door sills (for me its along my drivers side), with a suitable grounding point in the boot to cut down on the amount of cable needed. The main feed was 10AWG cable. This then passes up into the boot. I also passed 2 other twin core cable feeds from the boot to the front which is 12v and 5v. These will be from the CarPC Carnetix power supply. Again for future expansion.

Then all signal cabling which comprises of Audio, LCD, USB extension (for front hub) etc is fed from the boot and then down the transmission tunnel. Again, i will try and illustrate this with some pics. Good idea to keep signal and power seperate to reduce possibility of noise interference.

I then have the GPS receiver mounted in the corner of the rear parcel shelf.

One small 7 port USB hub in the front and one 7 port hub in the boot. The front one is powered from the 5v feed i previously spoke about. I have also fitted a nice mini-4 port hub in the glove box. This gives easy access for memory sticks and my electroluminescent keyboard.

All i will say is plan it and then plan it again. I have installed it with expansion in mind. You never know what is around the corner so get all your power feeds for now and future applications installed once and you shouldn't have to take the car apart again. Thats why i have fed 12v and 5v up front. The 12v isn't being used at the moment. I have also fed a cat 5 cable from the boot to the front. Not for networking, but as a good 8 way cable solution should i need to fit any other electronic i design which need to interface from the front to the back.

None of the cables are shown unless you look into the boot corner where they emerge in some nice trunking. You will not be able to install this without taking some of the car trim apart. The rear seats are held in by 5 bolts, thats the back and base, so these come out easily. This is where the majority of your cabling will go under. The rest of the trim is predominitaly held in by clips. So again, comes off easy. Set a day aside and you will get it done. My cabling was installed months before anything else and i have only had to take the car apart once or twice at the most.

If you are using Road Runner, have you seen the post regarding my dynamic clock modules ? - New Road Runner Clocks/Logos (By Tissy)

A long post !!!!

Hope this helps and i will try and do some more work on the web site soon.

Regards,

Steve

[f1vlad]

Hi Steve, very helpful info. I was planning to run 12v and 5v wires from battery to inside the car via tunnel under clutch pedal. That is what I use to run a vacum wire for my boost gauge. However I will be shopping for boot today. Don't know where to start, probably RadioShack to begin with.

Steve, could please send me that .psd for WRX windows boot screen and possibly a link that shows how to modify windows boot screen what to change in c:\windows?

Thanks!

p.s. my LCD is in looks much better, pics will come soon guys.

[Redian]

Question for WRX guys: Do you guys take both ignition wire and regular 12v to power PSU from headunit?

sorry for taking so long to respond to this question, but i am now since i havent seen a definitive answer to your question.


first, you cannot use the regular 12v to power the PSU, the reason why...

the wire is small, it will melt without a fuse (which there is), and the fuse is only 15 amp (you could change this like i said, but that would make the wires melt, and then you have a bonfire)

second, you CAN use the +12 volt accessory wire for the iginition startup on the computer, (i am doing that), like the "accessory" part says, it only runs when the ignition is on. if you plane on using a side terminal to connect it, make sure you tape up the end of the terminal (where it goes into the stock radio) since if something shorts, the fuse will blow (or wont and you will have a carcus of a car left) and the ignition wire would not be powered.


however, i would use a reverse terminal instead, then tape each end of the extra wire indivually. you can get that at the cardomain.com sound system store

P.s. it also makes it easier to wire the speakers if you do that.




oh and one more thing, DO NOT run power lines parellel to you speaker/rca cables, the noise is terrible.


pm me if you have any further questions

[Redian]

Steve, sorry never mind I now found pictures.

Question for you, is this windows start up splash screen:



If yes, can you teach me how to do it?

just a little tidbit of information....

its initializing, not initialising...


also, if you change the gramatical error, please send it over to me! i would LOVEEEEEEEE that in my car as well

[Redian]

I have a question that just came to me right now that I can't believe I've overlooked. Well, no overlooked, just pushed it out of the way untill the time came to answer it, but I figure it should be answered now;

How are/did both of you guys wire this up? I notice Tissy that you're running the wiring through the trunk(boot) of the car through a black tube.

Have you stripped the interior and running the wiring in the insulation under the seats/carpet next to the frame? or is there a way to get it clean looking without dismantling the whole interior?

Brand new Impreza and I don't want to ruin it.

clean looking without dismantiling the interior? look at my thread... its impossible. to my friends it looks SOOOOO clean, but in reality its not, i find many faults with it and i did take apart the whole interior. however....

taking apart the interior is not hard at all, (i didnt take the carpeting out, so i can say that). At this time in the auto industry factories they make cars as modular as possible, the end result is that it is VERY easy to take apart and put together a car. for example, the middle console area. to take out the radio, you take off the bezel, which is held in by little clips, so you just slide a screwdriver now the side and they pop out one by one. then you open the useless cup holder, and take out the two screws behind there. then youpull out the cupholder, and then just shake the rest of the top area off (also, push the hazard light back (theres a clip on the top) once you get the top part off completely. then you have that out, all your do is unscrew the screws holding the radio in, disconnect the ground/radio harness/antenna, and you disassembled the radio area completely.

the middle console area (where the shifter and cd case holder thing is) is even easier to open. firs you take off the middle part (which surrounds the Ebrake) by takiing a screwdriver and sticking it inbetween the cd case holder box and the middle part. then just snap off two parts then slide it back a little and snap off the rest. after that is off, take off the other top part thta holds the shifter knob (just unscrew the knob, and pry that from the backside too) then just open the cd case box unscrew the two screws there, and the two screws at the front. and tada you have taken off hte middle console. (well both are for the '04 wrx)

perhaps i should make a tutorial on that... anyway, what i am trying to say is it is VERY easy to take apart a car's interior nowadays (JUST BE SURE TO DISCONNECT THE NEGATIVE TERMINAL OF THE BATTERY FIRST) you dont want airbags deploying

[Redian]

Hi Steve, very helpful info. I was planning to run 12v and 5v wires from battery to inside the car via tunnel under clutch pedal. That is what I use to run a vacum wire for my boost gauge. However I will be shopping for boot today. Don't know where to start, probably RadioShack to begin with.

Steve, could please send me that .psd for WRX windows boot screen and possibly a link that shows how to modify windows boot screen what to change in c:\windows?

Thanks!

p.s. my LCD is in looks much better, pics will come soon guys.

2 thigns.

one, you can use the program called bootscreen (get it ^^) for the... bootscreen (however redundent that sounds)

and two, buy an obd-ii wire and cconnect that to your computer (via serial connection or usb) and just use a boost gauge on the computer... along with an oil temp air pressure o2 gauge.. etc

the obd-ii controllr knows all

[Silentbob343]

just a little tidbit of information....

its initializing, not initialising...


also, if you change the gramatical error, please send it over to me! i would LOVEEEEEEEE that in my car as well

not across the pond they use S instead of Z.

Tissy is located in Essex, United Kingdom. hence why he used S instead of Z

[f1vlad]

not across the pond they use S instead of Z.

Tissy is located in Essex, United Kingdom. hence why he used S instead of Z

Yeah I was going to tell too that it's British way. Initialise is actually gramatically correct.

And for taking interior apart, I agree with Redian, it is not that hard. I was worried about myself until I gave it a try. Proved to be not too complicated at all.

[Redian]

heh.. yeaha i just realized that... looks better with a z though :P