Maybe it's meant to have a remote control.
Plenty do these days.
Try it first with the ground straight to the battery. You might be lucky. I chased my tail for a long time in one of my cars thinking I was doing the right thing. Did some research and grounded to the stereo cradle and it was clean as a whistle.
Guess who...it's Q!
Moderator: Moderators
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Good stuff mate. I think it was already mentioned but thats a threaded antenna connector i think F type. They use them on cable tv internet type connections. Jaycar will have that. Thats if you really want radio. Im not sure what your trying to accomplish as i couldnt read it all. Are you keeping the headunit in the boot? Then it dhouldnbe fairly easy quick setup with only the antenna lead being long to the front lossibly an ignition or remote wire.
Looks good. I bet it kicks serious butt!!
Looks good. I bet it kicks serious butt!!
'You can never test fire too many times.' - Hybrid
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Couple of suggestions:
Might be best to install a bus bar/powerpost etc discreetly in the boot so when you remove your amp you don't have a live 12v power cable you need to tape up and hide. In this instance you would have a 1m fly lead attached to the amp so you just undo a nut and this lead comes out with the amp gear.
Also crimp some "bootlaces" onto the remote on and speaker wires to facilitate easy removal an replacement.
You seem quite concerned with looks so would it not be better to track down some black power cable (or earth cable from your local welding shop) if it is going live in the car discreetly during shows?
Those 6m RCAs almost need a haircut too (unfortunately).
Might be best to install a bus bar/powerpost etc discreetly in the boot so when you remove your amp you don't have a live 12v power cable you need to tape up and hide. In this instance you would have a 1m fly lead attached to the amp so you just undo a nut and this lead comes out with the amp gear.
Also crimp some "bootlaces" onto the remote on and speaker wires to facilitate easy removal an replacement.
You seem quite concerned with looks so would it not be better to track down some black power cable (or earth cable from your local welding shop) if it is going live in the car discreetly during shows?
Those 6m RCAs almost need a haircut too (unfortunately).
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Thanks George, yep I've extended the antenna, the remote wire and the usb connection so they reach the dash.
Thanks for the suggestions Trav.
I don't think I'll enter Q into shows anymore...they just aren't my thing so the most that I will probably take out is the trap door so that the interior looks stock. I doubt I will be needing to make the trunk original again but if I was always pulling the amp out for shows then your suggestion for the post is a good one.
All the wire I came across was semitransparent black so they still didn't look right, I didn't think of welding cable I will go get some.
The RCAs are 1m. The speaker cable is similar though which is why it might look so long.
Thanks for the suggestions Trav.
I don't think I'll enter Q into shows anymore...they just aren't my thing so the most that I will probably take out is the trap door so that the interior looks stock. I doubt I will be needing to make the trunk original again but if I was always pulling the amp out for shows then your suggestion for the post is a good one.
All the wire I came across was semitransparent black so they still didn't look right, I didn't think of welding cable I will go get some.
The RCAs are 1m. The speaker cable is similar though which is why it might look so long.
Last edited by Foresight on Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Sorry mate - I just assumed the RCAs would be a typical 6m length as supplied in most amp install packs.
Osborne Park Welding supplies are my usual supplier. Welding cable is cheap, very flexible and the insulation/cover is much harder wearing than typical automotive B&S cable. Get them to crimp on a lug or two if you know the lengths unless you have a good cable crimper at home.
You should be in the 8 AWG (rather than 4 AWG) range with that reasonably mild setup but just check current requirements vs length.
A little split tube, spiral wrap and heat shrink where required and it will look shmick.
Osborne Park Welding supplies are my usual supplier. Welding cable is cheap, very flexible and the insulation/cover is much harder wearing than typical automotive B&S cable. Get them to crimp on a lug or two if you know the lengths unless you have a good cable crimper at home.
You should be in the 8 AWG (rather than 4 AWG) range with that reasonably mild setup but just check current requirements vs length.
A little split tube, spiral wrap and heat shrink where required and it will look shmick.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
I tried Osborne Park Welding Supplies but they only have it in orange.
Edit: Looks like Altronics will be where I get everything from. $3.95 a meter...can't complain about that.
Edit: Looks like Altronics will be where I get everything from. $3.95 a meter...can't complain about that.
Last edited by Foresight on Wed Nov 25, 2015 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Ok so I went to Altronics and the guy behind the counter was stumped by the antenna connection. Luckily there was another young guy there buying some electronics who was very familiar with Alpine gear and was adamant the head unit should have a standard connection. He whipped out his multi-tool and gave the central rod a yank...and out she came. It turns out Alpine might have a small QA issue, the rod or part of the plug that is used to test the antenna port had been left behind in the port. So long story short, it is a standard DIN port.
I read that if you are running a dedicated ground wire back to the battery it should have a fuse on it. The theory is that if your main ground fails that everything will try to earth through your remaining dedicated wire. Is this a legitimate concern or is the potential for this to happen pretty low?
I read that if you are running a dedicated ground wire back to the battery it should have a fuse on it. The theory is that if your main ground fails that everything will try to earth through your remaining dedicated wire. Is this a legitimate concern or is the potential for this to happen pretty low?
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Finding someone elses rod in your socket... that can't be nice.
Fuse on your ground... Current will always find the path of least resistance. If that ends up being your radio ground, then yes this could happen. Having said that.... Never heard of this happening.
Fuse on your ground... Current will always find the path of least resistance. If that ends up being your radio ground, then yes this could happen. Having said that.... Never heard of this happening.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
The doofening was a bit of a can of worms which resulted in me touching up a lot of trim panels, soldering some suss wiring and re-gluing some of the fold down seat carpet. Having said all that the project is pretty much done and man does it make driving that little bit more fun!
Parts List:
Head unit with bluetooth, external mic, remote and USB
4 channel Amplikfier
6 inch component speakers
12 inch subwoofer
Spare trap door
Infrared repeater (pac-irx)
Remote bass control knob
Inline fuses
Blade, spade and ring terminals
Solder and heat shrink
Carpet and glue
Spray paint and primer
Mostly 6mm plywood and 9mm mdf for speaker backings
4m Antenna din extension cable
5m USB extension cable
6m lengths of wire for powering the amp and headunit and also a dedicated ground for the headunit (6m gets you from the battery, down accross the radiator, up the left firewall, through the speedo hole, over the pedals, under the the sill plate, under the quarter trim and out near the trap door corner.
5m split conduit
Tools:
Soldering iron
Jigsaw
Wire crimper and stripper
Drill
Electric screwdriver
Scissors
The Process:
To start with I roughly wired everything in to test the gear out. I'm glad I did because I had tapped the ignition wire instead of the accessories line as mentioned earlier! After I was happy with system it was time to tear the car down.
The dash, A piller trim, foot well trim, sill plate, quarter trim, fold down seat and the trap door needed to come out. It took a while to get all the stuff out but it made it a lot easier to plan. You can see the rough route the wiring took under the fold down seat and quarter trim.
With the wiring able to be routed properly I accurately measured the wires and then went to town on the terminals. I'm a firm believer in doing wiring properly so you only need to do it once. Everything was crimped, soldered and heat shrunk and then run through conduit to keep the wires safe, especially because I was running dedicated power and ground wires. Wires run through the engine bay were sheathed where they past through openings.
With the wiring sorted I needed to figure out how to mount the head unit (HU) since it is in the trunk. I ended up making a box that positions it in the lower corner behind the trap door so that I had access to the controls for tuning and settings but it was hidden otherwise. The location works really well.
One of the issues with putting the HU in the trunk was controlling the music and volume so I overcame this by using an infrared repeater. They basically have 3 components, the sensor, the repeater and the emitter. You point the remote control at the sensor and press a button, the sensor sends the signal to the repeater which boosts it and sends it to the emitter which fires the signal back out as an infrared signal that the HU can read. They work for anything that uses an infrared remote.
After mounting the HU I decided to throw the amp and sub in to figure out how to lay everything out. My initial plan looked pretty crap and the speakers looked really messy.
To clean up the speakers I made some MDF trim panels to cover the wiring and holes cut in the trap door. I wasted a full can of paint because I was slack and tried to save half an hour by not priming the MDF. The spray paint just soaked in and the finish ended up being furry so I started again with high fill primer and then sanded it all back. After priming and sanding I used around a third of the paint and the finish came up great. They are attached using the 4 speaker grill screws which protruded a little past the trap door.
Once the trim panels were in it became pretty clear as to what I needed to do. I centered the amp and built a shroud to cover it all and make it look like an integrated unit.
The spare wheel is an on going saga. I found a BA falcon space saver spare which is the right diameter but it is much thinner than a a full size spare. The speaker still protrudes too much which means that the wheel can't be mounted directly over the factory spare attachment point so that is the next problem to fix. I touched up the wheel though and it's come up great.
Lessons Learnt:
Use a multimeter to test your amp and HU trigger wire to make sure you have tapped a switched power source ie the accessories line and not the ignition wire.
If you detach your battery to store the car you will need to run a direct fused power source and ground from the battery to the HU or the HU will lose its memory and settings every time.
Having a 6m ground for the HU didn't introduce any noise into the system. The amp had a 1.5m ground.
The fold down seat comes out in the order: seat base, top panel in front of the trap door and then the folding seat back.
The folding seat back has a vinyl flap that is screwed to the car body and extends under the seat base.
Carpet is impossible to position accurately because the glue sticks instantly. I found cutting roughly to size and then trimming after its stuck down gave the best results.
Electric screwdrivers are worth every cent.
If you lock your keys in your car but you left your trunk open you can break in with a small child.
Parts List:
Head unit with bluetooth, external mic, remote and USB
4 channel Amplikfier
6 inch component speakers
12 inch subwoofer
Spare trap door
Infrared repeater (pac-irx)
Remote bass control knob
Inline fuses
Blade, spade and ring terminals
Solder and heat shrink
Carpet and glue
Spray paint and primer
Mostly 6mm plywood and 9mm mdf for speaker backings
4m Antenna din extension cable
5m USB extension cable
6m lengths of wire for powering the amp and headunit and also a dedicated ground for the headunit (6m gets you from the battery, down accross the radiator, up the left firewall, through the speedo hole, over the pedals, under the the sill plate, under the quarter trim and out near the trap door corner.
5m split conduit
Tools:
Soldering iron
Jigsaw
Wire crimper and stripper
Drill
Electric screwdriver
Scissors
The Process:
To start with I roughly wired everything in to test the gear out. I'm glad I did because I had tapped the ignition wire instead of the accessories line as mentioned earlier! After I was happy with system it was time to tear the car down.
The dash, A piller trim, foot well trim, sill plate, quarter trim, fold down seat and the trap door needed to come out. It took a while to get all the stuff out but it made it a lot easier to plan. You can see the rough route the wiring took under the fold down seat and quarter trim.
With the wiring able to be routed properly I accurately measured the wires and then went to town on the terminals. I'm a firm believer in doing wiring properly so you only need to do it once. Everything was crimped, soldered and heat shrunk and then run through conduit to keep the wires safe, especially because I was running dedicated power and ground wires. Wires run through the engine bay were sheathed where they past through openings.
With the wiring sorted I needed to figure out how to mount the head unit (HU) since it is in the trunk. I ended up making a box that positions it in the lower corner behind the trap door so that I had access to the controls for tuning and settings but it was hidden otherwise. The location works really well.
One of the issues with putting the HU in the trunk was controlling the music and volume so I overcame this by using an infrared repeater. They basically have 3 components, the sensor, the repeater and the emitter. You point the remote control at the sensor and press a button, the sensor sends the signal to the repeater which boosts it and sends it to the emitter which fires the signal back out as an infrared signal that the HU can read. They work for anything that uses an infrared remote.
After mounting the HU I decided to throw the amp and sub in to figure out how to lay everything out. My initial plan looked pretty crap and the speakers looked really messy.
To clean up the speakers I made some MDF trim panels to cover the wiring and holes cut in the trap door. I wasted a full can of paint because I was slack and tried to save half an hour by not priming the MDF. The spray paint just soaked in and the finish ended up being furry so I started again with high fill primer and then sanded it all back. After priming and sanding I used around a third of the paint and the finish came up great. They are attached using the 4 speaker grill screws which protruded a little past the trap door.
Once the trim panels were in it became pretty clear as to what I needed to do. I centered the amp and built a shroud to cover it all and make it look like an integrated unit.
The spare wheel is an on going saga. I found a BA falcon space saver spare which is the right diameter but it is much thinner than a a full size spare. The speaker still protrudes too much which means that the wheel can't be mounted directly over the factory spare attachment point so that is the next problem to fix. I touched up the wheel though and it's come up great.
Lessons Learnt:
Use a multimeter to test your amp and HU trigger wire to make sure you have tapped a switched power source ie the accessories line and not the ignition wire.
If you detach your battery to store the car you will need to run a direct fused power source and ground from the battery to the HU or the HU will lose its memory and settings every time.
Having a 6m ground for the HU didn't introduce any noise into the system. The amp had a 1.5m ground.
The fold down seat comes out in the order: seat base, top panel in front of the trap door and then the folding seat back.
The folding seat back has a vinyl flap that is screwed to the car body and extends under the seat base.
Carpet is impossible to position accurately because the glue sticks instantly. I found cutting roughly to size and then trimming after its stuck down gave the best results.
Electric screwdrivers are worth every cent.
If you lock your keys in your car but you left your trunk open you can break in with a small child.
Last edited by Foresight on Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:54 pm, edited 8 times in total.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Totally awesome.
Though why use an ir repeater if you have BT. You can control the head unit via phone or tablet via an app.
I hope cage sees this as hes going through the same thing
Though why use an ir repeater if you have BT. You can control the head unit via phone or tablet via an app.
I hope cage sees this as hes going through the same thing
Last edited by gbx78 on Mon Dec 28, 2015 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
'You can never test fire too many times.' - Hybrid
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Nice work... good to see it posted that time.
Definitely not enough text there to cause a failure.
Definitely not enough text there to cause a failure.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Thanks George 
The Bluetooth doesnt reconnect sometimes and it can only reconnected from the head unit which is a pain. I also can't find an alpine app that allows you to change source etc all I seem to be able to control is the music and volume through the iPhone music app and volume control is lost when the iPhone is plugged into USB so I still need the remote for both Bluetooth and USB.
I've got a firmware upgrade though which is meant to improve the Bluetooth so hopefully that helps, I swear the audio quality isn't as good as through the usb too.
Yeh worked this time Jeff, I'm road tripping to wave rock because I've got nothing else to do so I retyped everything on my phone 😦
The Bluetooth doesnt reconnect sometimes and it can only reconnected from the head unit which is a pain. I also can't find an alpine app that allows you to change source etc all I seem to be able to control is the music and volume through the iPhone music app and volume control is lost when the iPhone is plugged into USB so I still need the remote for both Bluetooth and USB.
I've got a firmware upgrade though which is meant to improve the Bluetooth so hopefully that helps, I swear the audio quality isn't as good as through the usb too.
Yeh worked this time Jeff, I'm road tripping to wave rock because I've got nothing else to do so I retyped everything on my phone 😦
Last edited by Foresight on Mon Dec 28, 2015 4:08 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Bluetooth audio quality probably won't be as good as USB because you have restricted bandwidth over BT.
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Yes thats the nature of bluetooth however plenty if apps there that can assist but also that headunit has heaps of configurable options specific for each source ..keep tinkering. I found that different apps sound better so might be best downloading a better quality app but dont conflict eqs between what the app and HU are doing itherwise youll just venture into distortion land.. have fun with it. Killer set up. Would sound heaps better in your car than us noisy buggers competing with exhausts . Great writeup!!!
'You can never test fire too many times.' - Hybrid
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
Re: Guess who...it's Q!
Because you can configure each source. .i setup usb playing the same as my bt and configured the bt accordingly. Have to remember playing through usb the HU is doing all the processong with a flat file. With BT your are going through several layers app and hardware before the HU does its processing too hence my comment above. Im using neutron media player in android. Fantastic app and quality processing.
'You can never test fire too many times.' - Hybrid
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead
'You can never have too many gauges' -
Boofhead