Re: Rod's new Rig
Posted: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 7:45 +0000
Well I have been doing a bit more on my Car PC. I have been driving around for the last 2 weeks with a 1/2 finished system and no rear seat, But I gotta say, I love it!
Today, I got my Reversing Camera installed and also found time to tuck my blluetooth dongle in behind one of the interior panels. First, I tackled the reversing camera. This will give you an idea of what my rig looks like at the tailgate end:
Because I have a canopy on my rig, I don't drive with the tailgate down so I decided to screw the camera onto the bottom of the tailgate. Anywhere else would have restricted the view. This is where I put it:
It was a bit tricky to get the wiring up there. I had to replace the corrugated conduit that takes wires up into the tailgate for the reversing light. This is because I just could not push the coax for the video and the power wires through. I had to cut the conduit off as the factory version did not have a split in it. I replaced it with normal split conduit the same size but the split allowed me to get all of the wires in there. Looking down onto the open tailgate, you'd never know this was not factory:
Once I got the wires into the tailgate, I joined them up to the tails that were provided with the camera and mounted the camera in the centre of the tailgate:
Sorry, no pics, but I used some large shrinkwrap tubing on the plug in power connector and the RCA video socket at the end of the wiring tails on the camera so that the plugs could not come apart. I also did this with the bluetooth dongle, so the bluetooth pics below will give you an idea of how this works.
I ran the cable back into the back of the cab on the LHS where I shared the grommet that the fuel filler release exits from the cab. Under the car, I encased the video coax in corrugated split conduit which I fed all the way up into the tailgate.
I ran the video power leads back to the LHS tail light where I spliced into the reversing light to power the camera and drilled a hole and earthed the -ve wire after sanding off the paint. After checking that I had a good earth with a multimeter, I sprayed a bit of paint over the bare metal to keep rust at bay.
All of the wire connections I soldered in. The coax I used was a 5m wiring kit. I used an original connector at one end, and soldered on another RCA at the other end after trimming the length to suit.
So after testing that everything worked (and it did first time), I decided to permanently install the Bluetooth dongle behind a side panel up near the rear passenger's ear!
I used a USB extension lead, and cut off one end and soldered it to the USB screw in fly leads I had to mate with the off road hub I made. I staggered the joins so nothing would touch, used some insulation tape and finally replaced the shielding with some aluminium foil befoere adding a final layer of insulation tape.
I plugged the Bluetooth dongle into the USB connector and secured it with some shrinkwrap. Fortunately, I have a hot air gun which makes shrinking the tubing child play! I had also bought some self adhesive cable tie anchors from Jaycar and I thought this would be a good time to use them:
Once I got everything ready, I slipped the dongle in behind the internal panel up near the top seatbelt mount for the rear seat. This shot is taken from the car door looking between the outer panel and the inner plastic trim panel:
So now, the main wiring I have to do is to get the GPS puck tucked in under the plastic cowling where the windscreen wipers are. I bought a high quality 5m USB cable which I will solder on to a screw in connector for the hub. I hope it will work as it will be close to the maximum length in the USB spec!
After that one is done, the remaining wiring will be for the Armrest USB hub, and a few switches and controls to let me manage the Car PC frpom the cockpit.. Still got a lot to do.....
Today, I got my Reversing Camera installed and also found time to tuck my blluetooth dongle in behind one of the interior panels. First, I tackled the reversing camera. This will give you an idea of what my rig looks like at the tailgate end:
Because I have a canopy on my rig, I don't drive with the tailgate down so I decided to screw the camera onto the bottom of the tailgate. Anywhere else would have restricted the view. This is where I put it:
It was a bit tricky to get the wiring up there. I had to replace the corrugated conduit that takes wires up into the tailgate for the reversing light. This is because I just could not push the coax for the video and the power wires through. I had to cut the conduit off as the factory version did not have a split in it. I replaced it with normal split conduit the same size but the split allowed me to get all of the wires in there. Looking down onto the open tailgate, you'd never know this was not factory:
Once I got the wires into the tailgate, I joined them up to the tails that were provided with the camera and mounted the camera in the centre of the tailgate:
Sorry, no pics, but I used some large shrinkwrap tubing on the plug in power connector and the RCA video socket at the end of the wiring tails on the camera so that the plugs could not come apart. I also did this with the bluetooth dongle, so the bluetooth pics below will give you an idea of how this works.
I ran the cable back into the back of the cab on the LHS where I shared the grommet that the fuel filler release exits from the cab. Under the car, I encased the video coax in corrugated split conduit which I fed all the way up into the tailgate.
I ran the video power leads back to the LHS tail light where I spliced into the reversing light to power the camera and drilled a hole and earthed the -ve wire after sanding off the paint. After checking that I had a good earth with a multimeter, I sprayed a bit of paint over the bare metal to keep rust at bay.
All of the wire connections I soldered in. The coax I used was a 5m wiring kit. I used an original connector at one end, and soldered on another RCA at the other end after trimming the length to suit.
So after testing that everything worked (and it did first time), I decided to permanently install the Bluetooth dongle behind a side panel up near the rear passenger's ear!
I used a USB extension lead, and cut off one end and soldered it to the USB screw in fly leads I had to mate with the off road hub I made. I staggered the joins so nothing would touch, used some insulation tape and finally replaced the shielding with some aluminium foil befoere adding a final layer of insulation tape.
I plugged the Bluetooth dongle into the USB connector and secured it with some shrinkwrap. Fortunately, I have a hot air gun which makes shrinking the tubing child play! I had also bought some self adhesive cable tie anchors from Jaycar and I thought this would be a good time to use them:
Once I got everything ready, I slipped the dongle in behind the internal panel up near the top seatbelt mount for the rear seat. This shot is taken from the car door looking between the outer panel and the inner plastic trim panel:
So now, the main wiring I have to do is to get the GPS puck tucked in under the plastic cowling where the windscreen wipers are. I bought a high quality 5m USB cable which I will solder on to a screw in connector for the hub. I hope it will work as it will be close to the maximum length in the USB spec!
After that one is done, the remaining wiring will be for the Armrest USB hub, and a few switches and controls to let me manage the Car PC frpom the cockpit.. Still got a lot to do.....