Thread: 99 Grand Prix - Minimal Impact Install

Here is a photo from my initial (indoor) setup and testing area:



I should mention that I have plenty of experience building computers, but not usually for a mobile application like this.

I used the cheap power supply and directly connected it to the MB and HD using the connectors first. I used a standard IDE cable and installed a HD and DVD Rom for the initial setup. Once I installed Windows I connected the M2-ATX to the MB and HD/DVD drives. I used a method I found on this site (I forgot the thread) in which you cut all the Yellow Wires and Black wires off the PSU. This gives you a 12V and a GND line simulating a car battery hookup. You then GND pin 14 on the PSU's Mobo connector so it thinks it is connected and will turn on, and I wired one strand of the yellow wires to a switch, which acted as a simulated ignition line. Overall it worked pretty well (photo below):



I also wanted my Lilliput to be powered from the M2, since at full power it pulls about an amp (12 watts or so). I decided to cut the end off the Cig lighter adapter that comes with the lilliput, and directly wired the + and - terminals to the 4pin addtl power adapter that fits on the M2. This, combined with the setting in the lilliput to auto-turn on with power, allows very low power consumption. The screen goes into 'sleep' mode when the computer goes to hibernate, and the M2 kills all power at Hardoff. Very slick stuff.


Since I also wanted a power button in the car, I took an old phone cable and used two of the wires and connected them to the J9 (I think) on the M2, so that it runs in parallel with the M2's Mobo power switch. This allows me to hibernate the system at any time, boot at any time (that the M2 is not hard-off), and also do a hard power off of the motherboard by holding down the button. The wire will be wired to the front of the drivers seating area so I can have easy access to it (and I already have a mute switch installed there for my pioneer deck).

Once the system is up and running, it was time to start looking at car install.

Based on the fact I wanted a fairly small install that wouldn't permantely damage my car and hurt the resale value of it, I quickly decided an in-dash mount with custom fabrication wasn't going to work. It's just too much work for a car that I'm selling in the next 3-6 months. Instead, after searching the mp3car forums, I came across a thread in which he just created a small hole above the vents and used a standard mount. So that's what I did.

I first drilled a hole through the middle of the stand that came with the Lilliput. I also used a dremel to clear some of the main support (the part that moves) so that a bolt would fit through it. The backside is secured with a very large washer (instead of a full metal bracket like the other guy did), and a nylock nut. I then shoved a bunch of foam in between to help add some extra support. I also added a small piece of rubber to the bottom of the mount to reduce squeak/noise. Here's a pic from the back of the panel:


And here's what the mount looks like assembled:


And this is what she looks like installed:


The unfortunate thing about this method is that I can't really hide the wires coming the LCD, so I kind of push them off to the side. I also plan on just cutting the RCA inputs on the cables to make it look a little sleeker. It's not the prettiest but it will work for a few months. In the following pictures I didn't twist tie it and it's wasn't pulled back yet, so they were hanging loose (I was using my laptop as a test run). On the plus side, with this method I get full control of rotating the left/right and also full tilt up/down. It's very movable using the mount it came with, but tight enough that she doesn't bounce when driving. It's nice to point it directly at me most of the time, rotate it to the passenger when applicable, and point it down a touch if the sun starts hitting it (although it seems pretty readable in the sun).

The install the computer, I decided to use my center console. I decided this for a number of reasons.
1) there's plenty of room
2) it's a nice central location away from most power cables
3) It has a nice removable bucket, so I can cut plastic away underneath the bucket without affecting resale.

Since I had to come up with a way to mount it, I decided to use some wood I had laying around and built the following enclosure. I just couldn't justify the voomPC box @ over $100. It is about 8.5" (front to back), 9" deep (at the deepest pt), and about 4" thick. I notched out areas for the wires. Since it is living in the center console, it doesn't have to be pretty. I did have to slightly round the bottom corner so that it would fit the curve of the console.


Now that I had a box, I needed to mount everything. I used standard bolts/nylock nuts. I also mounted a small piece of foam under each peg to help with shock, but mainly to get it slightly off the wood.
I mounted the Hard drive in a similar fashion:



And here's what the box looks like put together (note the use of the round IDE cable over the ribbon to help improve airflow slightly. I'm worried about the temps in summer so I'll have to keep an eye on it and add additional holes in my center console for additional airflow. Note that the CPU fan is completely unobstructed and there's a good chunk of empty space in the bottom (closest to the camera) section of the enclosure.

For the car install, the basic path is as follows:

• Remove two small screws up under the main bucket on the front of the car. This will allow you to remove the center console's top cover and get at the area around the shifter
• Remove center console top cover by prying it with a screwdriver. Note the center console door has to be open since it clips in. You'll also have to shift the car down to D or 1-3 to get it to pull up. The change holder should just lift out.
• Drill a hole in the plastic piece between the shifter area and the inside of the center console. Make sure it's beg enough for all the wires.
• Drill a hole in the bottom of the console container (this is where the cables from the trunk come from)

That was the basic setup.

Running Cables
The next step was running the cables. For this I also had to remove the dash (if you've changed your radio this is a common step). I tapped the ignition line off the one going to my pioneer deck (it was solid red). I ran that down behind the dash, through the middle of the center console. I ran the power switch I created in a similar fashion with button coming through the small hole in the front of the dash (you can see the similar blue mute switch in the LCD pics above).

For power, I realized the cig lighter already uses a 15A fuse, so I spliced into those (after removing the connector!) lots of electrical tape and insulted connectors. I should also mention that during indoor testing, the entire system pulled about a max of 6A, most of the time running right around 4 while defragmenting, running gps, reading a cd, and powering the screen, so I'm not too worried about the power draw.

The GPS (with 16.5ft active repeater) and Wifi antenna are magenet mounted on the trunk. I removed the backseat and ran the wires straight down the middle of the car under the seat and the carpet and right up through the hole we created in the bottom of the center console. This way the wires don't have to be too long but they are invisible from inside the car. The carpet ends about 1inch towards the back of the car from the main bolts in the center console, so there's no need to cut the carpet.

The lilliput wires are run along the side of the dash and back behind the center console. they are then run up inside the center console along side the shifter and up to the hole we created:
Here is the hole we created:


And here is how she sits in the console:


A move overall view:


That's pretty much it. I still have to wire the radio adapter and ODB scanner so I haven't screwed anything back in place yet, but the center concole top cover (around the shifter) just snaps into place to hide the wires, so looking at the car you have no idea there's a computer in there (except for the huge LCD of course).
The other benefit of how this is mounted is that the entire box pulls out (as long as there is enough cable, which I made sure of), and you can access the M2 jumpers and the Mobo jumpers pretty easily. Since it's all prety removable, the entire box can come inside the house and plug into the cheap PSU and I can install/test new apps or swap parts. go back to the car plug in the cables, and rotate the box back into the console and we're all good to go again. The only thing I don't like about my install is the lilliput mount, but I can deal with for the next 3-6 months.

The aux cable will be run up the amp behind the dash and through the center console next to the shifter like the ignition cable and hard power switch. The deck is handling all FM/AM for now, and I plan on getting a slim dvd drive.

For storage, I also added a bunch of foam to my glove box to create a little next spot for my lilliput so I don't have to take it out of the car but I can still hide it. It works pretty well but it's getting annoying taking the screen off every time I park somewhere. Not that audio works through the deck yet, but I've been playing with the GPS side of it this week.

I'll try to post some more pictures of the dash cables and running the cables up the center console this weekend when I install my audio cable and the mini key board I have coming. I also want to get a compactflash reader since I have a canon dSLR and would like to use the car as a temp storage place for dumping off my photos and viewing them. More to come....

I <3 the 740mp

gorgeous screen mount. you get an A... no, I take that back. You get an A+ . i gotta stop being stingy with grades.
- sh00k