Completely New Audio Setup in progress

I went ahead and purchased a Pioneer Premier 8" sub that is made flat to have a less than 3" mounting depth. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm a little worried about power handling as it is rated at 200w RMS and my amp is supposedly underated at 375w rms. I would like to install my amps hidden like you did but I have 2 and they're way too big. I went with the Diamond D661s in the front like you did and i got their coaxs for the rear. You said the separates sound good? I found the sub on ebay remarkably cheap (around $90) so I figure if I blow it up, I'll just have to try something else. Let us see those pics when you get em'. :)
 
I was *this* close to getting the premier 8" and like you...it was very tempting at those street prices. I'm sure it'll work out great. Only reason I went with the eD sub is I figured that 8" is small to begin with so I went with the sub with the most xmax I could find.

From the little I've tested, the front components sound great. Still need to do more dialing in but I'm sick and congested so my hearing is not too great right now.

Good luck on the amps and let us know what you figure out. I would probably surface mount them to the side where the sub is but make a facade for it similar to the side sub enclosures.
 
The systems been in and working great for the last month. I've been more than satisfied. Took a nice long trip from San Diego to Sacramento and its was all great save for the crappy quality that XM has become with all the compression. CDs are most excellent however.

Sorry I have not posted the final pics as I have been busy but here they finall are.


Here is the HU dismantled. Took apart the motorized mechanism to access the HU face ribbon.
hu_dismantled.jpg


Soldered extention ribbon cable to the chassis ribbon cable.
chassis_ribbon_ext.jpg


I used a pair of DB9 (serial/rs232) connectors for the 16 wires. This worked out great. It's small enough to snake around and creates a solid connection.
ext_connector.jpg


Testing the remote face for the first time. Worked great!
remote_face_test.jpg


The HU chassis mounted in its final position. It's been solid there. Still easy to change CD's, just open the hatch and load.
hu_chassis.jpg


Remote face mounted in it's final position. Had to do a lot of sanding/positioning to get it to not face downward. It's very clean. I love it! The panel will open in the future to expose a slot loaded DVD-Rom for the carpc.
remote_face.jpg


Here's the sub finished. I till need to find a suitible trim ring for the stock panel but it's not bad at all like it currently is.
sub_finished.jpg


Here's the profile of the sub. Sticks out a few inches. I still have a very functional trunk area but with way more BASS!
sub_profile.jpg


I took a nice 4 day trip up to sacramento like I mentioned earlier. Had the rear fully loaded with stuff and the sub did not interfere at all. It's definitely low profile enough and out of the way. The stereo was great for the trip. I loved every moment of it and will be looking forward to my ski trips. In the end, I got what I set out to acomplish.

Now onto the next phast sometime next here...carpc, here I come.
 
man...i wish i could mount my subs like yours...but two 12's dont fit quite like the 8" would...i like a bit more bass than most people...or else i probably wouldve gone for somethin smaller like yours...
 
Yup..the stock radio no longer works. It's weird as I've reached for it way too many times after installing the other unit. :p It'll go away soon enough and leave space for an 8" widescreen VGA display.

Nugger, there's actually space enough for a single 12" to be mounted in the same orientation if you can make a fiberglass enclosure.
 
ooo...making things isnt my stron suit...at least not things that withstand the test of time...plus...finberglass sint something i have any experience in...plus...i have a '94...would there still be space?...havent looked into it too much...maybe?
 
rugger bugger said:
ooo...making things isnt my stron suit...at least not things that withstand the test of time...plus...finberglass sint something i have any experience in...plus...i have a '94...would there still be space?...havent looked into it too much...maybe?
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that it's a stronger suit than your typing or spelling?
:D j/k
Looks great TeCKis300, make sure you repost your progress with your Carpc. I'm planning on building my "budget" carputer with a laptop.
 
Update:

So the aftermarket HU that I was using decided to give up the ghost and quit working while on vacation after working nicely for 2 mths. Was a bummer cause I didn't want to have no stereo on the 8 hr drive back. :( Some quick rewiring and got my Zen Vision:m hooked directly to the amp so at least I had the front stage and sub working for the rest of the trip. :bouncy:

The HU I was using was older (2002). Looks like some transistors quit working. It'll work when it's COLD in the morning 15 F but will quit as soon as it warms up.

So I thought long and hard about doing the carpc in time for the next ski vacation which was 2 weeks away. Found a solid deal on a Pioneer AVIC-D2 for ($825) that I couldn't pass up. Decided that it was all I really needed and the HTPC wouldn't serve to do much else as I always carry a laptop with me and it would be much easier to use for anything more complex than audio/video/nav.

Dropped the D2 in and it's been sweet ever since. :bigok: With my Zen Vision:m, I can get all the music and videos I want to the D2. It actually is much better than I anticipated as I can feed the video out from my mp3 player so it will show up what song it's playing on the nav. Much more user friendly and integrated than an HTPC would be and my wife can use it w/o any hassles.

The dash kit was a PITA as I have a limited and there is no real double din kits for it. With a lot of fabricating and massaging, I got a metra single din + pocket kit to work nicely and looking OEM.

Descriptions don't don't do this justice so I'll post some pics later.
 
Sorry guys. Here's the pic. Better late than never?

The metra kit took A LOT of massaging but was well worth it in the end. Almost factory look without the cost of replacing all those A/C panels and stuff to get a real double din panel.

nav.jpg
 
TeCKis300, when you did the work on your faceplate..

did you have any issues with soldering and such?

ive heard alot of things like if you heat up the circuit board, the heat will move back and start melting the solder further in the unit..

Looking to do the same with my radio faceplate...ive been putting it off for wayy too long..

Is there such a thing as "low-temp" solder"
What kind of soldering pencil / solder are you using??
 
Correct. The heat will transfer throughout the board to other solder joints if you're not careful. The #1 trick to minimizing heat transfer is to use a thermal shunt (heat sink), if you have a long enough lead to clamp onto that lead of the component you are soldering.

Clean the solder joint (component lead and circuit board area) thoroughly with alcohol. Scrub with an old toothbrush if you have one handy. Dry. Pull some of the solder off the spool and clean that strip with alcohol, rubbing it with a cloth. You'll see the residue on the cloth. Use an iron tip that matches the size of the joint to which you are soldering (pencil for very tiny ones, but a small spade for most applications), & don't leave the tip on the solder joint any longer than 3-5 seconds at a time.

Stick with the usual Sn60 or Sn63 solder type and you'll be fine. Those two common types, found at Radio Crap, have the fastest time from solid to liquid state, without a utectic (plastic) state, meaning less time applying heat. That's probably what was used on the circuit board's joints anyway. Lower temp solders, which are rarely used and harder to come by, are a mix of different alloys could give you all sorts of problems.

Hope that helps.
 
yea i think i am going to buy a cheapo radios on ebay or at wal-mart and try it with them, just to see if i can get the soldering thing down...

I really dont ruin a perfectly good radio..

thanks for the advice..

i was thinkin of using netwoking cable, since the length i am looking at is a decent distance...
 
I had no trouble soldering the wires although I would say I'm pretty skilled at soldering. I doubt that is what lead to HU failure though as I never soldered anywhere near the actual components/IC's.

I actually think what did the HU in was the location of the HU in the armrest. It just didnt' get any airflow there and after a long 8 hr drive, it was notably toasty in the console before she let go.

Just a note to the individual wanting to use network cable. Just remember that most cat5 is solid core. This tends to be much harder to solder to small joints and isolate well enough so that it doesn't break away with some shifting.
 
VGA cable only has 15 leads or less so depending on your HU, that might not be enough. I went with ribbon cable I bought from a electronics supply house.
 
Metra only makes 2 kits for the 4runner. A SR5/Sport and a Limited version. This was the limited version that has 1 full din and a half din pocket. Just know that it will take quite a bit of work to make it look this way.
 
I like the idea of locating the headunit away from the face like you did. I searched the internet for this idea a few months ago and it's been done a few times. Everyone who did it has had the same problem though--the headunit dies after a few weeks/months.

Basically the drivers that drive the signal from the headunit to the face and vice versa aren't strong enough to send the signal over 3 feet of VGA cable and burn out pretty quickly. At least that's my analysis of why they seem to fail.

I'm still intrigued by the idea and might try it if I can find a location for the headunit body close to where I want to mount the face.
 
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