Mobile Bunker is Operational
While my first large attempt at getting stuff done on the Jeep project was a big waste of time, after I gave up on the touch screen and just continued with the installation, things got much much better.
First through careful observation and measurement, Dad and I were really able to improve on the original design. Rather than removing the airbag and relocating the door/light/computer display to the passenger side dash, we manage to fit the HVAC just below the door/light/computer display and instead just cut out the ash tray, lighter, and power outlet.
Then it was realized that the screen could, indeed, fit into the center dash without having to modify the vinyl dashboard cover at all. This was a huge update to the quality of the modification because it meant a lot less custom work for us.
Dad created a great housing for the LCD components out of some oak boards he ripped and assembled into a self contained unit that contained the LCD, lcd/touch controller, and backlight power module. Then he created a great mock-up of the screen out of scrap lumber that matched the dimensions great so that we wouldn’t have to risk the safety of the expensive screen while doing our preliminary test fits.
I then used the drimel tool to hollow out a huge region in the center of the dash for the screen to fit, and then I built some mounts on the LCD module and the interior of the dash out of oak and 2×4 to do the final mounting. There were a lot of last second small alterations to get everything finished, but it looked great.
By far the dash modification process was the vast majority of the labor. Then while I was finishing that up, Dad started working on the computer housing to fit into the console. It was a tight fit, but he fabricated another oak housing to hold all of the components that belong to the center console, including the motherboard, hard drive, regulator, and Morex dc-dc converter. I ran some power back from the power outlet cables to the rear portion of the console.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I was unable to get the computer to boot from the Morex power supply kit that I purchased. I recalculated all of the math and I can’t see why it didn’t boot, it was well under spec for both voltage and amperage. So I went into a backup plan and fell back to an inverter and a 250 watt power supply and installed those. The inverter is below my back seat, spliced into my sub amp power run with a distribution block and some 6 gauge cable. Then the regular “computer power” cable runs from under the seats to a power supply that’s just sitting behind my driver seat on the floor.
After that was handled, the cdrom was installed into the “flip up” door on the console, which was absolutely perfect.
My goal going into the weekend was to have a working system, with GPS navigation operational for the drive home. While I didn’t finish until about 4:30am on Monday morning, that goal was reached. Looking at all of the difficulties had during the installation and the general difficulty level of the entire installation, I’m really pleased with how this has turned out so far.
The sheer ingenuity of the installation just reconfirmed my believe that there are two people that I could do absolutely any project with. Between myself, Dave Plumb, and my Dad, just about any project is do-able and will probably turn out great.
I’ll get some pictures and more updates up soon.