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Little bit different build - Nissan leaf
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<blockquote data-quote="defiance" data-source="post: 7580310" data-attributes="member: 549442"><p>Alright, so it looks like I'm going to shift directions quite a bit. But first, a few quick updates:</p><p></p><p>For the pods, I like the texture stuff but it's tough to use - I screwed up the first pass badly. They're in there and they work great, but the texture is all wrong and the color's way off too... Need to pull &amp; refinish. There's a little bit of reshaping I'm going to do as well, just to mesh better. The stage sets up nicely though, so I like them.</p><p></p><p>Also, the sub/amp balance was off with all three subs in place. I tried it with two and it sounded pretty good and I used it like that for a while - but I really liked the aesthetics of the three. So after playing around with a bunch of things, I came up with - two, but leave the third in place as a passive radiator. I had to add a bit of weight to the third to get the tuning low enough (epoxied some small weights evenly distributed around the underside of the cone). Sounds extremely good and keeps the look I was hoping for. I'd originally wanted to do a low-tuned ported enclosure in here anyway, but didn't have the room for the size port I'd need - this gets close to that effect.</p><p></p><p>Finally, someone asked about the dayton subs... I don't much like them. They sound pretty good, but even with this small amp I can bottom out the subs pre-clipping. The xmax just is not enough for anything significant, apparently. I'll keep using them and just limit the volume, but eventually I'll probably switch. No hurry though.</p><p></p><p>Having said that, I'm going to end up going to some extremes to get rid of this head unit. The alpine integration unit is CRAP for someone like me; there's basically nothing really user configurable beyond crossover points, levels, and time delays - all the eq stuff is autotuned by mic and not user-configurable, and the software is horribly glitchy. And I like to tweak. Plus, doing line level conversion is a problem; I managed to get the signal *somewhat* clean, but not as good as I'd hoped for. The factory unit clips at different volumes across different frequencies, and I think even that varies based on the overall level at other frequencies. So I can get it to where I *think* there's no clipping, then I'll play a different song and it goes nuts. Not to mention hugely imbalanced relationship between frequency response and volume. I could put a remote knob from the alpine to control volume, but it would look out of place and would not be as ergonomic. Not to mention nissan's UI design is a slight upgrade from hammered ****. There's a lot of awesome stuff about this car, but the head unit/control center UI is probably the worst single aspect of the entire vehicle.</p><p></p><p>Of course replacing it is going to be more of a project than the entire rest of the vehicle has been... I have to build a can bus monitor, monitor 3 different can busses (primary, charging, and infotainment) to identify all the signals the head unit is responsible for (which is a lot; Besides the obvious audio/phone/nav/backup cam stuff, I already know it is responsible for sending the remaining range estimation to the dash, recording charge timers &amp; turning on the charger as needed, displaying power/efficiency-related info, displaying climate control info, displaying and changing settings related to how door locks, lights, and other bcm functions operate, etc.), build a car-PC, and write the software to handle the functions it's replacing. Quick fact: the head unit has 83 (yes 83) wires going to it! Hooray for factory service manuals... Honestly most of the connections will be straightforward, it's just the canbus interaction I'm worried about... I've done a bit of embedded development though, so I believe I can handle it.</p><p></p><p>So the plan for now is to use one of these: <a href="http://www.bybyte.com/BBX-1_content.htm" target="_blank">Bybyte Infotainment Solutions - Mini-ITX enclosure</a> as the screen/case in the factory location, with an AMD e-350 APU (I thought APUs were pretty stupid until I started looking at what I needed for this project - The mobo I'm looking at has a good audio chip, toslink output, passive cooling, draws less than 40w in cpu/gpu burn-in testing, and can even play some older games), a small (60gb) ssd, and this PSU (80w, 96% efficiency, TINY!: <a href="http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80" target="_blank">picoPSU-80 12V DC-DC ATX power supply</a> ) - plug in a USB GPS &amp; bluetooth dongle (the mobo has wifi built in), then either a usb 3g/4g modem or just autoconnect to my phone for net (it's rooted and will do wifi, bluetooth, or USB tethering). Then this guy for interpretation of all the buttons: <a href="http://store.mp3car.com/Joycon_EXR_S..._p/com-159.htm" target="_blank">Joycon EXR Steering Wheel Control PC Interface</a> .</p><p></p><p>Still deciding whether a USB AM/FM radio and/or CD/DVD drive is worth it. I rarely use either. The AM/FM would be easy to hide, but they're ridiculously expensive (~$120); the CD/DVD is just the opposite - dirt cheap, but not sure where I'd put it.</p><p></p><p>The real interesting part will be the CAN interface. I figure I'll just build a little board with a USB controller, Atmel ATTiny chip, and 3 CAN chips - I initially thought I'd just program it to act as a 'dumb' go-between, sending the PC everything and letting the PC interpret and act on the signals, but that would mean the PC would have to operate 24/7 since it controls charging as well... at 40w that could run for hundreds of hours on a charge, but that would be wasteful- So instead I guess I need the miniboard to function as a standalone charging controller at a minimum. Nothing else I've found needs to function when the vehicle is off, so everything else can still go through the PC software.</p><p></p><p>As for audio, the plan is to completely yank the alpine. I hate the thing. I looked at an MS-8, but the problem there is the number of digital/analog conversions going on: From the motherboard, digital sound gets converted for analog out, then converted in the MS8 to digital again for processing, then converted again for the analog out again... I considered replacing it with a rack of minidsp's, but to do what I'd like (3-way + sub + maybe rear fill) I'd need 3 minidsp's, a MiniDSP, two miniDC's, and all the support equipment ( the larger 2x8/8x8 minidsp's won't run multiple plugins, and the default doesn't have rear fill+long delay or 31-band eq). I was also considering a bitone, or arc, or mosconi, etc.etc.... But then I realized that the PC can already do all that - Add either thuneau frequency allocator lite software or vst + the appropriate plugins, and the sound processing is just as robust as any of the other solutions, can be controlled in the in-dash pc, costs nearly nothing in comparison, and means I only use one DAC in the whole system.</p><p></p><p>So now the question is whether to use the onboard realtek sound or get another card - the realtek is compatible with the processing, and has a 103db snr, independent 8-channel 24-bit dacs... I think it would likely produce a really clean signal. Given the nature of double-din casing, PCI or PCI-express is pretty much not an option, and USB cards I've found all have only 2-4 channel outputs (need 6). So I'm not opposed to paying for another sound card, just thinking the onboard actually would best server this application.</p><p></p><p>So anyway - if anyone has experience interpreting proprietary canbus messaging, I'm open to advice... I figure that one part of it is going to be the major hurdle to the whole thing. I've already got a bunch of AVR USB kits just lying around anyway, so once the mcp2515 &amp; 2551 chips I just ordered get here I should be able to get a monitor running in no time...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="defiance, post: 7580310, member: 549442"] Alright, so it looks like I'm going to shift directions quite a bit. But first, a few quick updates: For the pods, I like the texture stuff but it's tough to use - I screwed up the first pass badly. They're in there and they work great, but the texture is all wrong and the color's way off too... Need to pull & refinish. There's a little bit of reshaping I'm going to do as well, just to mesh better. The stage sets up nicely though, so I like them. Also, the sub/amp balance was off with all three subs in place. I tried it with two and it sounded pretty good and I used it like that for a while - but I really liked the aesthetics of the three. So after playing around with a bunch of things, I came up with - two, but leave the third in place as a passive radiator. I had to add a bit of weight to the third to get the tuning low enough (epoxied some small weights evenly distributed around the underside of the cone). Sounds extremely good and keeps the look I was hoping for. I'd originally wanted to do a low-tuned ported enclosure in here anyway, but didn't have the room for the size port I'd need - this gets close to that effect. Finally, someone asked about the dayton subs... I don't much like them. They sound pretty good, but even with this small amp I can bottom out the subs pre-clipping. The xmax just is not enough for anything significant, apparently. I'll keep using them and just limit the volume, but eventually I'll probably switch. No hurry though. Having said that, I'm going to end up going to some extremes to get rid of this head unit. The alpine integration unit is CRAP for someone like me; there's basically nothing really user configurable beyond crossover points, levels, and time delays - all the eq stuff is autotuned by mic and not user-configurable, and the software is horribly glitchy. And I like to tweak. Plus, doing line level conversion is a problem; I managed to get the signal *somewhat* clean, but not as good as I'd hoped for. The factory unit clips at different volumes across different frequencies, and I think even that varies based on the overall level at other frequencies. So I can get it to where I *think* there's no clipping, then I'll play a different song and it goes nuts. Not to mention hugely imbalanced relationship between frequency response and volume. I could put a remote knob from the alpine to control volume, but it would look out of place and would not be as ergonomic. Not to mention nissan's UI design is a slight upgrade from hammered ****. There's a lot of awesome stuff about this car, but the head unit/control center UI is probably the worst single aspect of the entire vehicle. Of course replacing it is going to be more of a project than the entire rest of the vehicle has been... I have to build a can bus monitor, monitor 3 different can busses (primary, charging, and infotainment) to identify all the signals the head unit is responsible for (which is a lot; Besides the obvious audio/phone/nav/backup cam stuff, I already know it is responsible for sending the remaining range estimation to the dash, recording charge timers & turning on the charger as needed, displaying power/efficiency-related info, displaying climate control info, displaying and changing settings related to how door locks, lights, and other bcm functions operate, etc.), build a car-PC, and write the software to handle the functions it's replacing. Quick fact: the head unit has 83 (yes 83) wires going to it! Hooray for factory service manuals... Honestly most of the connections will be straightforward, it's just the canbus interaction I'm worried about... I've done a bit of embedded development though, so I believe I can handle it. So the plan for now is to use one of these: [URL="http://www.bybyte.com/BBX-1_content.htm"]Bybyte Infotainment Solutions - Mini-ITX enclosure[/URL] as the screen/case in the factory location, with an AMD e-350 APU (I thought APUs were pretty stupid until I started looking at what I needed for this project - The mobo I'm looking at has a good audio chip, toslink output, passive cooling, draws less than 40w in cpu/gpu burn-in testing, and can even play some older games), a small (60gb) ssd, and this PSU (80w, 96% efficiency, TINY!: [URL="http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80"]picoPSU-80 12V DC-DC ATX power supply[/URL] ) - plug in a USB GPS & bluetooth dongle (the mobo has wifi built in), then either a usb 3g/4g modem or just autoconnect to my phone for net (it's rooted and will do wifi, bluetooth, or USB tethering). Then this guy for interpretation of all the buttons: [URL="http://store.mp3car.com/Joycon_EXR_S..._p/com-159.htm"]Joycon EXR Steering Wheel Control PC Interface[/URL] . Still deciding whether a USB AM/FM radio and/or CD/DVD drive is worth it. I rarely use either. The AM/FM would be easy to hide, but they're ridiculously expensive (~$120); the CD/DVD is just the opposite - dirt cheap, but not sure where I'd put it. The real interesting part will be the CAN interface. I figure I'll just build a little board with a USB controller, Atmel ATTiny chip, and 3 CAN chips - I initially thought I'd just program it to act as a 'dumb' go-between, sending the PC everything and letting the PC interpret and act on the signals, but that would mean the PC would have to operate 24/7 since it controls charging as well... at 40w that could run for hundreds of hours on a charge, but that would be wasteful- So instead I guess I need the miniboard to function as a standalone charging controller at a minimum. Nothing else I've found needs to function when the vehicle is off, so everything else can still go through the PC software. As for audio, the plan is to completely yank the alpine. I hate the thing. I looked at an MS-8, but the problem there is the number of digital/analog conversions going on: From the motherboard, digital sound gets converted for analog out, then converted in the MS8 to digital again for processing, then converted again for the analog out again... I considered replacing it with a rack of minidsp's, but to do what I'd like (3-way + sub + maybe rear fill) I'd need 3 minidsp's, a MiniDSP, two miniDC's, and all the support equipment ( the larger 2x8/8x8 minidsp's won't run multiple plugins, and the default doesn't have rear fill+long delay or 31-band eq). I was also considering a bitone, or arc, or mosconi, etc.etc.... But then I realized that the PC can already do all that - Add either thuneau frequency allocator lite software or vst + the appropriate plugins, and the sound processing is just as robust as any of the other solutions, can be controlled in the in-dash pc, costs nearly nothing in comparison, and means I only use one DAC in the whole system. So now the question is whether to use the onboard realtek sound or get another card - the realtek is compatible with the processing, and has a 103db snr, independent 8-channel 24-bit dacs... I think it would likely produce a really clean signal. Given the nature of double-din casing, PCI or PCI-express is pretty much not an option, and USB cards I've found all have only 2-4 channel outputs (need 6). So I'm not opposed to paying for another sound card, just thinking the onboard actually would best server this application. So anyway - if anyone has experience interpreting proprietary canbus messaging, I'm open to advice... I figure that one part of it is going to be the major hurdle to the whole thing. I've already got a bunch of AVR USB kits just lying around anyway, so once the mcp2515 & 2551 chips I just ordered get here I should be able to get a monitor running in no time... [/QUOTE]
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Little bit different build - Nissan leaf
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