Hello all!

I just wanted to share with everyone a project I doing. It involves splitting the FC commander into two parts, monitor and controls. Both the boards are 3" X 2" and are soldered together with a 20 pins. I successfully unsoldered this connection and installed a 20 wire cable with a molex connector as a disconnect. I have about 2 feet of wire inbetween the boards now and as you can see from the picture it still lights up the monitor (so it is working). The monitor will be mounted in the lower DIN space for now and the controls will be mounted in the ash tray. I hope to have the final install complete by the weekend, so I'll take more pictures then.

 

that is awesome! i was thinking about buying a power fc, but i dont like the shape of the commander, and wanted something more stealth. Maybe if your's turns out good, then I will do the same thing.

Keep us posted

 

just wanted to say that looks pretty kick ***. how hard was it? (how small are the wires?) That would be cool to mount it almost any where!

 

NICE!

 

NIIIIIIIIICE

 

i hope you have it done by track day so i can see first hand how it turns out!!!!!

Looking good so far!!!!

Later,

 

very cool spyfish, as a sidenote, could you replace the led's on the board, and replace them with amber ones? Just like the nokia phone leds???

eric

 

Glad to see that you are taken advantage of that "SPARE TIME" that you have.

How is the car running?

 

Well yes, I'm using my spare time wisely . . .but I'm working on that too. The car is running pretty good right now ... no complaints at all -except for the never ending urge for more power!

I suppose you could replace those LEDs . . . but you better be able to solder in a REAL small area.

I was talking to SPOautos and he suggested an output to monitor. I think that would be cool or possibly one the APEX blue monitors. But that is way beyond the scope of what I am doing right now. I'll have to decide if I want to put that much time into reverse engineering the display.

All of the wires I used are small, but they are very reasonable ... they are 24 AWG.

Well I've got to go get my dremel back so I can finish my install. More to come later . . .

 

Well, I got my dremel back and it is installed. Here are some notes:

1) use at least 2 feet if not 3 feet for the extension.
2) solder wires on top -- don't try to go through existing holes
3) use heat shrink to protect joint and to prevent shorts

I will take a better picture soon. I need to make a new trim piece for both openings. Here is a picture now. I moved my radio down so I could get better visability of the screen. I'll take a picture of the keypad once I get it flush installed. It is just sitting in the ash tray area now.

 

All those pretty lights,,oooooohh! Ahhhhh! Huston, we have lift off in T minus 10,9,8....(J/K!) I think it's funny all the gizmos and gadgets we have in our Rx's, sometimes I look at mine and think that this is worse than mission control, wait! It is mission control!! Hey SF, Did you use the flat ribbon type wire harness from an old PC? That's an idea..Nice job.

 

I agree on the NASA thing .... my radar detector also beeps and flashes lights . . . my amp fans kick on . .... my turbo timer beeps . .... I only have one friend that can actually detect when something is wrong when I fire up the car. Everyone else is overwelmed.

I didn't use a flat ribbon cable ..... but I'm looking in to it. I will probably being doing suganuma's commander before too long and I'll apply some new parts and techniques to it, then I'll go back and rework mine.

 

hey carson after u become a pro at doing this, will u do them for a small fee?

 

we'll see ... there might be more than just this coming .... but let's wait and see. I'll give more info as the time is right.

 

Looks nice SpyFish. you beat me to the glory by a few days.

I'm doing something similar. I'm mounting the display on the underside of the center channel speaker cover (on Touring, not sure if others have it) in a nice box. A button swings the display up for viewing or face down for stealth mode. It's pretty sharp.... Hard to explain, but imagine the speaker cover being hinged in the back (front of car) and motorized up or down.

Anyways, I'll get some pictures online in the next week.

By the way, I used a ribbon cable to avoid messing with all the individual wires. I already have enough of those running around my car. I'll probably do the mod for others if they are interested.

-Matt

 

how difficult was it to wire from the center channel speaker? and how is the visibility from the dashboard?

is it motorized?? that would be cool

 

That's what I'm attempting too.
My center channel never worked and I don't have a passenger side air bag ('93) so that spot seemed to be the best place.

 

It's very easy to run the ribbon down from the center channel area to the stereo area. Of course, it's not in a perfect line of sight when you are driving, but it's much better than holding the programmer or trying to fish for it on the passenger seat.

Yes, it's motorized, which makes me feel ultra Fast and Furious'ish.

- Matt

 

Seems like the center speaker would be too far away to see good, especially in the day time with the sun hitting it.

Which brings up the point of it sitting in the sun all the time. I left mine in the sun for 2hrs on time(laying on the dash) and the display turned black for about an hour.

I still like the idea of installing a TV for it so that I can have a nice big display!!!!

Later,

 

The only way I see getting it on a monitor would be after the commander hack's done. And then where's a big-*** monitor going to go?

Spyfish.. I was thinking about doing this too.. but was thinking about mounting the control portion underneath the ashtray.. cutting holes for the buttons, just to keep it clean and hidden. Given this any thought?

 

Mine is going to be flushed in the ashtray. You'll just have to see a picture when I'm done. I am thinking there isn't a lot of room below the ashtray .... you start running into the transmission tunnel QUICKLY. That is not saying it can't be done though.

I would hack the FC commander, but I don't have the testing resources available to me at this point. That other group has dropped off the face of the earth.

 

that's about the coolest thing I've seen done on the inside of an FD - functional and inobtrusive. excellent job.

How did you mount it (the screen)? is it glued in there or do you have some other clever method?

 

right now it is stuck in place by 2-sided tape. The unit is very light so it is not going anywhere. I'm still playing around with some ideas in my head so I'm not going to finalize the install till I know I'm ready.

 

Good point. I have noticed the heat having a major effect as the commander sits on my passenger seat.

The diplay is mounted on the underside of the speaker cover and is mounted in a display box. When the display is not being used (99% of the time), the lcd is facing down and the speaker grill is closed. I don't think the heat will be as bad as leaving it on the passenger seat or mounting it in the dash.

-Matt