2020 Camry.

Got the new pods just about finished and the drivers dry mounted...look good to me and very ballistic. I'm going to use small hanger nuts and bolts to mount the mid and tweeter, put a bit of damping fibre in the enclosures and run the 'speaker wires straight from the amplifier to the drivers with EC3 Connectors to break the wires behind the dash. Going out to work on the media player enclosure for a while before it gets dark.View attachment 13683View attachment 13684View attachment 13685
 
Painted the first coat of resin mixed with graphite powder on the media player enclosure and wet sanded to 800, going to apply another two or three coats tomorrow and wet sand it to crocus 2000 and pretty up the cutout edges. The photo shows the momentary switch for on/off/sleep, the XLR for 12 volt DC power delivery and the pogo-pins for connecting the power switch to the SBC. The front of the box is View attachment 13687where I will flush mount the high power magnets that will allow for attachment and removal of the Samsung Tab A tablet that I'll use as a control centre for the 'headless' system using the HiBy Music Player app:

http://www.theaudiophileworld.net/2017/10/the-hiby-music-player-for-android.html
 
Thanks. I am a few steps away from lining the interior of the media centre box with the copper cladding and when I do I'll make a bladder from a heavy duty garbage bag, apply resin to one side of the cladding, attach to the inside box walls, insert the bladder and apply 20K pascals (6 inches) of mercury to the bladder which will balloon out to fill the box volume and force the copper cladding onto the box walls and corners while the resin cures.

I'll try to make a video and/or photos' when I do it.
 
Spent a few enjoyable hours working on my car today, got most of the power/ground wiring done for the media centre...still have to pretty things up a bit and finish with the loom. The photo shows the 12VDC to 12VDC buffer I am using to keep the media player out of direct connection to car 12V power. The media player is rated for 2 amps max. and I am using a 1.5 amp inline fuse to the positive of the media player from the buffer with a 2 amp fuse from the main audio relay to the buffer so I am fairly certain I am covered there.

I am going to make a carbon fibre cover for the buffer so it's not such an eyesore.

I've decided to fab a second enclosure for the media centre so the original will be a duffer for working out mounting and dash installation.View attachment 13877
 
I've determined that the DC buffer is not going to work out on the kick due to lack of foot space and the distraction of it's presence so tomorrow I'll install it behind the dash...which also hides it from view so no need for a cover. Going to install a second relay in the engine bay for it with both relays activated by an 'add a circuit' connected to the switched cigarette lighter fuse.

BTW, if anyone reads this thread and thinks I am doing anything wrong on this install please tell me...I'm still learning.
 
Learned a couple of things today. I was planning to use small neo magnets to attach/detach the Samsung tablet I was going to use as an interface to the single board computer media centre but the magnets make the tablet go berserk with constant reboot and screen flashing. So I tried high strength velcro, which worked. I had everything installed and ready to go when I discovered that I could not get the HiBy audio player to automatically connect from the SBC (server) to the tablet (client), so after every restart-shutdown-restart cycle I had to remove the SBC from the dash/enclosure, connect it to my PC and restart the HiBy player server app. This would not do at all so I am back to using an LCD display connected directly to the SBC and using the HiBy player directly, this is not really a big deal but the tablet would have been nice as it has built in GPS, Internet Radio and a few other goodies but such is life at times. Tomorrow I'll be back at it.
 
Today I finally played music over the car PC system and I am still smiling. The VIM3L-Toneboard playback system so thoroughly stomps anything I've owned before that comparisons are laughable. Nothing rolled off or euphonic, just the music. Tonight I'll work on the new copper sheathed enclosure and get everything buttoned up before the rainy season starts in earnest.

Sorry about the manky photos', I had worked on the car all day it was getting dark.

I do have an issue with the occasional loud turn off pop and I am hoping to get advice on how to tame that on another forum here at CAJ.View attachment 13990View attachment 13991
 
Spent a few hours today on my install, the photo shows the 5" LCD touch screen I bought from Khadas taped to the front of the enclosure duffer...the screen is way too small for my use and I'm working on finding a 7" HDMI screen that will work with the VIM3L. No luck so far.

I did a quick and dirty tuning by ear and even with this highly inaccurate method the system sounds simply amazing. I had never realized how lacking and rolled at the frequency extremes View attachment 14005View attachment 14006some head units are when it comes to sound quality but I'm getting an education now.
 
Looks like these 7" touch screens will work with the VIM3L, they were recommended to me by someone in the know. I'll order them to try out and confirm functionality.


 
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I bought the Longruner 7" touchscreen to try first and received it this morning. I plugged the HDMI and USB-C in and it worked perfectly right out of the box so I am going with it. I took the new media centre enclosure out of the bag today and it looks good, just need to sand the flashing off the edges and prep it for the copper sheet I'm going to wrap it in. Then attach the touch screen to the enclosure, mount the SBC and get it installed in my car...hopefully by this weekend.

View attachment 14025View attachment 14026

http://longrunerpro.com/a/Products/20181122/109.html
 
Started covering the media centre enclosure in copper and learned a couple of lessons while doing so. The copper sheet I am using is .4mm (1/64th Inch) thick and while this might not sound very thick the sheet is not as easy to work with as I thought it would be...mostly it is not as ductile as I had hoped. I ended up bagging it on with MDF pressure plates applied between the copper and bag doing one side at a time using 15 minute epoxy. I got the majority of the enclosure covered and I'll finish the rest up today.

If I ever do this again I will make sure that the enclosure and sheeting are the exact same width. I could of fabbed a new enclosure and made things easier but I decided to tough it out and so far I'm glad I did.View attachment 14061
 
Just about finished with the media centre install, need to modify the right front AC vent to accept the HDMI and USB-C cables that go from the SBC to the display. I looked for a display that had the connections on the back or bottom but had no luck finding one so it is what it is. I meant to do a lot more work on the system today but I sat in the car listening to music for almost 3 hours and suddenly it was getting dark out. My wife came out to see what I was up to and she sat with me for about half an hour listening...pretty sure I'm on the right track sound wise.

I might change my plan for mounting the midrange-tweeter drivers from top of the dash to door mounted angled up into the cabin...going to do a dry mount to check it out and then decide.View attachment 14105
 
After considering all the +'s and -'s I've decided it's going to be the doors. This morning I did the aiming for the pods from the bottom of the door card to my listening position then modded the pods for the correct aiming angle. I cut the angle into the pods, wet out four layers of mat and two layers of 10 ounce cloth on a piece of mylar, laid the cut open pod backs on the wet out composite, added weight to the front of the pods while things cured after which I laid two 'glass strips inside the pods to secure the new backs in place...very solid connection. While the resin was curing I ran the 'speaker wires for the new set up...a very enjoyable day of work on my system with sunny blue skies and a hot cup of tea making things even better.View attachment 14135View attachment 14136View attachment 14137
With this set up the centres of the drivers are within 16 centimetres of each other which should make setting the delays less of a hassle and I like the fact that the music (except for the subwoofer frequencies) will be launched from one small area.
 
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Spent the day re-doing and shortening the grounds on the 12V buffer and media player and got the grills done for the speaker enclosures.View attachment 14163View attachment 14164
Also moved the buffer from the front of the cabin to the rear amp rack so now all grounds are star grounded. Since the +/- wires to the media player are now longer I took the wire runs up a couple of gauges.
 
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All wiring is now complete and loomed, the speaker enclosures are attached to the doors and all I need to do now is mount the DSP, the media centre, the fuses and start tuning. If the rain holds off tomorrow I should get most of it done.
 
Got the drivers in and grills on the speaker enclosures. The grills are pressure fit and I added a few small neo magnets for insurance. I'm going to paint the magnets and speaker hold down bolts black tomorrow as I find the shiny bolts a bit distracting. I also re-mapped the speaker wire today...just to be sure.


View attachment 14211
 
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