OP
Trepkos
10+ year member
CarAudio.com Elite
- Thread Starter
- #32
Part 8 - Almost there, I can feel it.
Sadly with the amount of complications and kinky diversions that took place as described in my last blog entry, I was unable to ultimately finish the build entirely before college classes began. Though I was able to get the receiver installed and the receiver to amplifier connections sorted(with some tricky wire-splicing or the remote wire and the 12v red wire). It was finally...somewhat coming together. The amplifier problem seemed as just a small bad and weird dream with no known cause for its complications; same with the remote wire issues.
Oh yes, did I mention that FedEx decided it wouldn't mind delivering my package after a week of the first quoted arrival date? Mind you I have had no formal experience installing anything car audio, especially dash installations. Never mind that, I decided to give it a go anyways. Amazingly I installed the CD player singlehandedly without any real flaws. Well I hadn't bothered with the RCA cables nor the remote wire which had no real purpose due to the absence of the Hifonics amplifier which was still in shipping after having learned that there was absolutely no problem with it(wtf :S).
So my plan was very simple, get the Hifonics in once delivered, get the remote wire/RCA's connected and working properly and also effectively hidden instead of the whole 'lets drape it over the seats because I don't have time to move it under the floor'. Once again the name of the game was 'Take out the seats and do stuff', in which originally planned before the very first start of this build was that the action of removing the seats and re-installing the seats was a one time deal. Unfortunately at this point I had probably removed the seats to fix, reposition, remove, or generally just work at least three times. Well a friend decided that he would help me with a bit of the hands-on wiring work especially regarding the remote wire coming from the head unit to the mono amplifier(which had shipped that day.) Since there was two possible remote wires(p. cont(power amp control) and ext. cont(external amp control); neither of which worked as remote wires, we simply tapped into the red trigger wire. No harm, no foul.
Ah, now to actually run it under the floor and out to the Hifonics amplifier; did I also tell you that the fuse in the distribution block that controlled the power cable of the Mono amplifier's side of the vehicle had blown, so I had to swap the one on the other side(2-channel amp side). Meanwhile I also ordered a 5-pack of 150A mini-ANL fuses, thanks to Knukonceptz and their convenient fuse-type with its ever-so available supply. But it was my own fault for accidentally not specifying the type of fuse that I needed and simply ordering the block with the default 30A fuse.
Well the remote wire was successfully connected and hidden and the amplifier powered on properly, now it was simply the case of placing the subwoofer box back into the vehicle and wiring the subwoofers to the Hifonics amplifier. This whole time we were pressured for time due to the fact that the seats must be re-installed before the next day and I couldn't allow myself to place the seats back in there with a job not done to a degree. So basically the plan was to just get the subwoofers and amplifier connecting and working properly(which is to get them to play, yes a difficult feat if you read my earlier blog). This was done and thus I was happy, even though the speaker wires were not tunneled under the floor and simply placed under the subwoofer box or that there was no remote wire running from the mono amplifier to the 2-channel amplifier/ and of course the distribution block only had one fuse inside it which powered the mono amplifier. There was also the issue with the "bass boost" remote bass control which just laid in the floorboard. But ultimately, as raggy and clustered this sounds, it was a large step-up from the previous scenario and also the lack of available working time also produced such results.
Ah but that was two weeks ago, this past Monday I decided it was time that I would tune up the amplifier more appropriately and fix a lot of the wiring. So, my faithful friend and I actually took the seats out once again.... This time we actually installed the remote wire from the Mono amplifier to the 2-channel amplifier and since the 150A fuses arrived, the knukonceptz distribution block was properly fused by quite powerful mini-fuses. The remote wire between the two wires were effectively hidden under the floor but we also too the speaker wires going from amplifier to subwoofers and also routed them underneath the floor as well. This provided that the only slack of wire seen was the small few inches from the amplifier to the hole and from another hole to the terminals on the box. Everything is looking extremely well and coming together fairly well. We also took the remote bass boost and the cable which wired it to the amplifier and hid that cable underneath the flooring and mounted the remote control onto the dash, the cable came from behind a small lower-middle removable panel. Well that sorta covers most things; all wiring has been hidden and everything and working flawlessly. I changed the mono-amplifier's crossover to around the area of 70hz which drastically improved the sound emitted from the large subwoofers.
But there was one final touch to finish the day this past Monday that I felt was very important to the entire installation. Blue neon lights....
Yes, ricer maybe? But I had purchased two 10" blue neon tubes and using zip ties, I mounted them way up and under the dash(or technically behind) on the drivers side and used what little available support on the passenger's side to zip tie the other neon tube. The plan was to keep the neon tubes from visibility but for them to emit a blue glow in the floorboards at night so I wouldn't have to worry about having to really search around if I lost something in the floor...right? Hah, well yeah, but it looked cool too. This was also a success and the wires were also effectively hidden behind the lower-middle-panel.
So I'm in a very interesting but ultimately good position in the case of this installation and ultimately my first car audio installation. Though my work time has been limited due to college.
But everything is coming together quite well and the substage and HU are almost all ultimately done with maybe a few minor adjustments, as I'm getting aluminum grilles for the subwoofers because of the little distance between them in the back of the seat.
But as this is said, I am preparing for the final and possibly the toughest installation of this yet......the component system.
More pictures and vidoes soon.
And if you bothered reading all that text, don't I will make sure the next entry is mainly images and videos. And for those who didn't, well, enjoy the next entry aswell.
Sadly with the amount of complications and kinky diversions that took place as described in my last blog entry, I was unable to ultimately finish the build entirely before college classes began. Though I was able to get the receiver installed and the receiver to amplifier connections sorted(with some tricky wire-splicing or the remote wire and the 12v red wire). It was finally...somewhat coming together. The amplifier problem seemed as just a small bad and weird dream with no known cause for its complications; same with the remote wire issues.
Oh yes, did I mention that FedEx decided it wouldn't mind delivering my package after a week of the first quoted arrival date? Mind you I have had no formal experience installing anything car audio, especially dash installations. Never mind that, I decided to give it a go anyways. Amazingly I installed the CD player singlehandedly without any real flaws. Well I hadn't bothered with the RCA cables nor the remote wire which had no real purpose due to the absence of the Hifonics amplifier which was still in shipping after having learned that there was absolutely no problem with it(wtf :S).
So my plan was very simple, get the Hifonics in once delivered, get the remote wire/RCA's connected and working properly and also effectively hidden instead of the whole 'lets drape it over the seats because I don't have time to move it under the floor'. Once again the name of the game was 'Take out the seats and do stuff', in which originally planned before the very first start of this build was that the action of removing the seats and re-installing the seats was a one time deal. Unfortunately at this point I had probably removed the seats to fix, reposition, remove, or generally just work at least three times. Well a friend decided that he would help me with a bit of the hands-on wiring work especially regarding the remote wire coming from the head unit to the mono amplifier(which had shipped that day.) Since there was two possible remote wires(p. cont(power amp control) and ext. cont(external amp control); neither of which worked as remote wires, we simply tapped into the red trigger wire. No harm, no foul.
Ah, now to actually run it under the floor and out to the Hifonics amplifier; did I also tell you that the fuse in the distribution block that controlled the power cable of the Mono amplifier's side of the vehicle had blown, so I had to swap the one on the other side(2-channel amp side). Meanwhile I also ordered a 5-pack of 150A mini-ANL fuses, thanks to Knukonceptz and their convenient fuse-type with its ever-so available supply. But it was my own fault for accidentally not specifying the type of fuse that I needed and simply ordering the block with the default 30A fuse.
Well the remote wire was successfully connected and hidden and the amplifier powered on properly, now it was simply the case of placing the subwoofer box back into the vehicle and wiring the subwoofers to the Hifonics amplifier. This whole time we were pressured for time due to the fact that the seats must be re-installed before the next day and I couldn't allow myself to place the seats back in there with a job not done to a degree. So basically the plan was to just get the subwoofers and amplifier connecting and working properly(which is to get them to play, yes a difficult feat if you read my earlier blog). This was done and thus I was happy, even though the speaker wires were not tunneled under the floor and simply placed under the subwoofer box or that there was no remote wire running from the mono amplifier to the 2-channel amplifier/ and of course the distribution block only had one fuse inside it which powered the mono amplifier. There was also the issue with the "bass boost" remote bass control which just laid in the floorboard. But ultimately, as raggy and clustered this sounds, it was a large step-up from the previous scenario and also the lack of available working time also produced such results.
Ah but that was two weeks ago, this past Monday I decided it was time that I would tune up the amplifier more appropriately and fix a lot of the wiring. So, my faithful friend and I actually took the seats out once again.... This time we actually installed the remote wire from the Mono amplifier to the 2-channel amplifier and since the 150A fuses arrived, the knukonceptz distribution block was properly fused by quite powerful mini-fuses. The remote wire between the two wires were effectively hidden under the floor but we also too the speaker wires going from amplifier to subwoofers and also routed them underneath the floor as well. This provided that the only slack of wire seen was the small few inches from the amplifier to the hole and from another hole to the terminals on the box. Everything is looking extremely well and coming together fairly well. We also took the remote bass boost and the cable which wired it to the amplifier and hid that cable underneath the flooring and mounted the remote control onto the dash, the cable came from behind a small lower-middle removable panel. Well that sorta covers most things; all wiring has been hidden and everything and working flawlessly. I changed the mono-amplifier's crossover to around the area of 70hz which drastically improved the sound emitted from the large subwoofers.
But there was one final touch to finish the day this past Monday that I felt was very important to the entire installation. Blue neon lights....
Yes, ricer maybe? But I had purchased two 10" blue neon tubes and using zip ties, I mounted them way up and under the dash(or technically behind) on the drivers side and used what little available support on the passenger's side to zip tie the other neon tube. The plan was to keep the neon tubes from visibility but for them to emit a blue glow in the floorboards at night so I wouldn't have to worry about having to really search around if I lost something in the floor...right? Hah, well yeah, but it looked cool too. This was also a success and the wires were also effectively hidden behind the lower-middle-panel.
So I'm in a very interesting but ultimately good position in the case of this installation and ultimately my first car audio installation. Though my work time has been limited due to college.
But everything is coming together quite well and the substage and HU are almost all ultimately done with maybe a few minor adjustments, as I'm getting aluminum grilles for the subwoofers because of the little distance between them in the back of the seat.
But as this is said, I am preparing for the final and possibly the toughest installation of this yet......the component system.
More pictures and vidoes soon.
And if you bothered reading all that text, don't I will make sure the next entry is mainly images and videos. And for those who didn't, well, enjoy the next entry aswell.
My eyes hurt. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif
Activity
No one is currently typing a reply...
Similar threads
- Started by BriceF08
- General Car Audio
- Started by Jay's ranger
- Car Audio Build Logs 2 3
About this thread
