Thread: 2000 Chevy Blazer - the long road ahead - *Pictures*

well three to four weeks became 4-6 months, and i'm still not done, school got the best of me, and so did the lack of a garage during the winter in upstate new york, so now i'm on break, no money, but i'm working with what i got!

the PC itself has gentoo linux on it, runs fluxbox, iGuidance3, and nGhost, i'm working on writing scripts to make the touch screen the only interface to the pc [ie no mouse or keyboard] but this requires some careful planning, also i DO have hand writing recognition through an application called "xstroke" so if i get in a bind i can use my finger to write on the screen, or use the on screen keyboard. i made my motorola pci wifi card work using ndiswrapper.

still nothing is perminently mounted in the car, the lcd is litterally just stuck in the dash, the pc is in place but not wired. my plan looks like this

1) order the rest of the wiring needed
2) run wire through-out car so that i can just drop things inplace when ready
3) fabricate a Fibraglass sub box, so that i get used to working with fibraglass
4) fabricate a fibraglass dash modification for lcd(needs fibraglass for support)
5) install lcd
6) install PC
7) install other things - ie gps dongle, relay control, bluetooth.

ok july 9th, i rigged up everything i needed to make my pc functional for a trip to pennsylvania last week, the night before i left one of my 4 awg amp wires shorted, making power a bit of an issue, but after removing my sub for the trip i found i could use one of the extra power wires from the sub amp and all was good again. the vga, usb, audio, and other misc wires ran up the center of my blazer from the pc in the truck under the console and into the dash.

all in all the pc worked exactly as it should, a few problems with acpi events (i'll resolve that later) but using nghost (linux front end) we listened to some tunes and watched top gun (well the passengers did) all the way to PA. sadly though once we got to our destination my head unit finally died RIP four years old alpine 7897 and the mechanical parts to extend and retract the faceplate finally crapped out.

so now im in the market for a new headunit, and new power wire .. all needs to be in before august 5th (NE G2G, springfield MA)

Looks like your project is coming along nicely. I am also working with a 2000 Blazer, and I am modeling my install after yours, I just wont be using a head-unit, I will be all amplifier. Do you have any pictures of the HVAC relocation? I am interested to see that, as I wasn't brave enough to relocate mine...not on this install anyhow. Did you happen to keep all your measurements and dimensions for your false floor or pictures of how you routed your power and other wiring?

The box in the back is just held down by gravity, there's a lot of equipment in there .. although if you wanted you could remove the four tie down hooks in the floor of your blazer and secure it that way [be careful though b/c i think those are "special" bolts, i took mine out at one point and i cant remember if they were or not ]

as for getting it snug w/ the interior i started w/ a large piece of cardboard, cut it so it fit just right, then took a little extra off [adding carpet adds to the size] used that as a template for my wood piece, and there it is .. sits real nice, mine also supports a ton of stuff in the back [moved back and forth to college 3 times w/ it, and trust me i had some heavy equipment]

--pictures coming--

I was still kind of curious where you routed your power wire, and other various wires. I am getting ready to tackle the wiring as soon as I get my monitor back from DigitalWW (taking FOREVER) and I was kind of stumped as to where I should route my 4 gauge wiring. I also wondered if you had any issues with any pinching, rubbing, or excessive wear on your cabling where you have routed it.
I was also wondering where you brought your power cable into your false floor/box, and did you modify any interior panels in the process.

can't wait to see the pictures of your install as well, ESPECIALLY your 10.4" LCD ...WOW man...WOW

I was still kind of curious where you routed your power wire, and other various wires.

ok so, what i havent update on this thread, is i have completely rewired my truck.
I now have a 0/2 gauge wire running from the battery to the back, it enters the truck through the Firewall on the passenger side real low. if you remove the panels below your glove compartment, and peel the carpet back a bit there is a plug in the firewall where your FM antenna wire comes in, what i did was drill a new hole for my fm antenna wire and use the existing hole [it's BIG] for my power wire. from that point i had to go a bit of a different route than you will, since 0/2 gauge wire is almost 1.5" think i took out all of the seats and the carpet and ran it up the center of my car [very carfully avoiding spots where the Rear seats contact the floor].

ALSO: i ran all of my other wires - VGA, 4xRCA's[front,rear,sub,computer], 3xcat5[networking wire, each has 8 wires in it, figured i could use them for something later, like turning on relays, so i put them in while i was there], 2xusb ---- try to run power and sound wires far away from each other, as the power wire can and will put noise into your audio

where I should route my 4 gauge wiring.

Bring it in through the firewall like i described above [side note i wrapped the wire in "aluminum heat tape" to help fight off engine heat]

Prior to my new 0/2 gauge, i had 3 4gauge wire, and i had them run up the passenger side under the door sills, or tuck them under the carpet near the doors.

I also wondered if you had any issues with any pinching, rubbing, or excessive wear on your cabling where you have routed it.

well i can tell you where NOT to put the wire, do NOT try to snake the wire through the fender then in the door jam into the cab, it works for about a year, then your girlfriend will open the door when you're bringing her home from your 2 year anniversary dinner and you'll hear that sound you fear, zap pop, and you know the shielding on your wire finally gave out, and the night is ruined

if you use the firewall/fm antenna method i talked about above i suggest using a gromet on both the power wire and the fm antenna wire

I was also wondering where you brought your power cable into your false floor/box, and did you modify any interior panels in the process.

Into the box was easy with the 4 gauge, snake the wire under the carpet from just behind the rear door, up by the wheel well, under your box, cut a little slice in your carpet and put a small hole in your box, and run it in, then use some sort wire hold downs to route it to it's final location cleanly.

can't wait to see the pictures of your install as well, ESPECIALLY your 10.4" LCD ...WOW man...WOW

I cant wait to put them up either, but being a student i've had NO time in the last few days, i'm hoping to catch a break tomorrow morning and get the pictures for you guys.

i've been working on this truck for 3 years now, and before that i had an s10 pick up for 3 years [same body style], so please feel free to ask away and i'll answer best i can.
i know this was long but i really hope this has been a help anything else, fire away, and best of luck on your installs!

as promised, pictures are posted in the first post

current status is:

the computer works well, it's running gentoo linux, as it is light weight and easily configurable, i dont use windows on any of my computers why bother using it in my car, my front end is nGhost, it's a really nice front end still under development, but check out there project make comments they listen, it truely is a front end made for the users, by other users.

I have iGuidance installed and "working" i do not have a sirfIII usb gps, so turn by turn will not work yet [it's on the christmas list]

i DO have an older garmin eMap which i've hooked up via serial to the carputer and i can get gps location through gpsDrive [but no turn by turn]

-- no progress, but a plan --

My carputer, has gotten buggy, my proof of concept install of a gentoo based carputer [named: MobileOne] has gotted to be a bit of a hack job, and it is now time to reinstall gentoo and cleanl install only the required packages.

possibly calling this install MobileOne.1 [hmmm maybe while things are compiling i'll make a logo for stickers something like: MobileOne.1

Features:

• Gentoo
• nghost 1
• iguidance3.0 in xover
• Suspend2 kernel
• wifi scripts
• on screen keyboard
• handwritting recognition [through x-stroke]

Possible new endevers:
control via PDA/cell phone
voice control

Well big idea's all dependent on time. and also in development is a bluetooth hardware/software application to control many features in the car [not linked to MobileOne other than to turn on the computer]

it is nice to have MOST of the fabrication done on this project [although i'm sure ill think of more this summer]