|
Here is the
Single Board computer (Advantech 5862 I believe) running at 200
MHz with 64 Meg of RAM. It's installed in the map pocket area of
the Fiero Dash with a Plexiglas mirror as the background. All of
the cabling wraps around the board into a cut out behind the
computer to run under the dash.
Here's
a shot of the 10.4" LCD Display and the control equipment
(Power Supply, Hard Drive, and NewQ controller mounted in a
radio installation kit for the Fiero). You can also see my
Hi-Tech folding workbench, i.e. Ironing Board. Don't laugh! It
was the only thing I had that was long enough to support the
dashboard in the house short of bringing up the ungodly heavy
banquet table, which I don't even do for company.
On the
initial run of Cobra III, I had to find all the music and movies
preloaded on the hard drive. It's obviously working and really
only took 2 minutes to find 1200 songs and another 1 minute to
find over 200 Music Videos. Not bad for a throwaway compact
computer system! Truth is, it's running Windows ME Uggggh! But I
have learned to tweak the Windows boxes pretty darn good, so, I
guess I'll live with it.
Ok, now
that all the movies and music are found, it comes time to test
the picture scan speed. The SBC needed more video RAM, as 1 MB
wasn't enough. I just so happened to have an old video card
lying around that happened to have the "extra" memory
I needed. I popped it out of the video card and into the SBC and
it now works flawlessly! There's something to be said about
keeping old parts lying around! Here you see Eminem's video
"Without Me".
Ok, here's how
the LCD is attached to the dashboard. I'm using 2x 3/4"
standoffs on all 4 corners to give the ventilation needed to the
computer. Only 1 1/2" off the dash isn't bad at all. That
is a picture frame that I had made at Hobby Lobby to hold the
LCD. Now, how to hold the picture frame. A combination of 1
washer slid into the track on the backside and another washer on
the outside of the track all screwed together forms a nice jam
connection that is very firm and will not let go, no matter what
I do to it. I can literally pick the dash up by the picture
frame and be fine, which is what we need.
Now that I know
the system is working after I put it in the dash, it comes time
to put the dash back in the car for the initial mock up. You can
see a pretty good shot of the system and how close it is when
the seat is in the forward most position. The silver stuff on
the doors is the sound deadener called "Brown Bread"
This stuff rocks and it's much less expensive than Dynamat or
any other equivalent. At $150 for 70 Sq. Ft., it took care of
the entire car with 2 layers on the floor with no problem. The
wire coming out the center of the dash is for the JBL Center
Channel speaker and I have chosen the MB Quart 4"
components for the mains.
From this
vantagepoint, you can get a good look at my new leather seat
covers from Mr. Mike's and the custom built 15" Cerwin Vega
Stealth Series Sub. The nice part is that I can remove the sub
at a moment's notice if I'm to have company in the car. Quick
disconnects are a wonderful thing! To cover the bottom end in
the car with company, I have a Bazooka tube that fits very
nicely back there as well, though it lacks the awesome power of
the 15". What you can't see in this pic is the pair of
Fosgate 3 1/2" in the headrest of each seat. These fill out
the image very nicely.
With all
of those speakers, you need juice to bump them! Here you can see
the 3 Fosgate Amps and the Scosche 1 Farad capacitor that power
them. Hidden under the carpeting that is folded over is the
Audio Control Center Channel Processor. While the boxes of the
amps say that there is 500 watts worth of amps in here, the
birth certificates of the amps total out to 700 watts of power
as tested. All this in a Fiero. This is gonna be one VERY loud
car with some nice, clean sound to boot. The gray tube you see
is the flexible aluminum conduit the cables will all be run
through for protection.
The install is
still progressing with wiring as of right now. I'll be adding
onto this article as it is completed.
Author:
85frankenstein | 
