Black Beauty Project Build - 06 Ford F-250 Super Duty **1/27/18 - New pics starting on page 41**

[scooter99]

Thanks.

Mike Singer 370a alt.

[scooter99]

Ok so let's start a few projects shall we? I have a couple in the works, since the tablet dash started and the Beast-350 ended.

Little update with that, fixed the heater hose leak I had, so now the motor is 100% done. Drives like a monster, nice, clean, loud, and powerful! Very happy. So much so I almost don't want to sell her. But, I've hit some financial troubles so I need to. I'll be selling her and some other gear I have. Some was for this build, although I'm not ready yet for it so it's ok. I'll buy again when that time comes. No big deal. Some of it is also from my shop that's been sitting around.

But I didn't post this to talk about that. I posted to talk about the F250 projects. Let's get started!! Who wants pictures?!?!?

[scooter99]

Ok so this is the beginning stages of an amp rack for the cabin components. Matter of fact, I've almost ditched this idea already for something that will be much much better. But I'm not sure if I can make it work or not. Let's get started.

Started with 3/4" birch, partly because I have some, but I think it's too thick.

Here is the space in which its going. The feet (3 of them) are level with each other, however that hump in the middle is just a touch higher than the feet. I am thinking of options for this.

Here's the temp board in place.

And the amp placement. 2 150.4's and 1 2000.1

Overhead view. They aren't really aligned, just kind of put in place.

With the seat down, these could come forward. But they'd be fine where they are.

Sits flush with the front of the seat. The corners would be rounded to match the contours of the seat corners as well

2000.1 is as far back as it can go.

Another thought I had is to flush mount this in the seat bottom. Then the 150's would be on the floor, and the 2000.1 and another unit would be on the seats. My thought is a 150.4 on either side, then power and ground distribution in the middle for show. The split seat is actually almost perfect for what I want to do here. The 2000.1 will fit well in the long seat and the "other unit" will fit well in the smaller seat.

So I can hear you guys saying it already, "well just get to it then". Well here's my hesitation. I don't have another seat if something goes wrong. If you don't own, or have never been in one, these Superduty Crew Cabs do not have a very thick back seat. This amp is about 2.25" thick. I think the rear of the seat is almost that. It might be right at 3". So that could pose a problem. I'd love to hear it if anyone has any thought on this, or suggestions. I may pull the seat this weekend and pull the seat cover, it has velcro on it and a clip in the back, so I can see what I'm working with. So there's my hesitation with it. But this is how far I got with it.

Well why not do the amp rack you were just working with? Well I'm glad I asked, let me tell you. Right now, in the picture, I have 3 amps. Well what I failed to remember until the end, was that I'm going to have 4 pieces to go back here. 3 amps and "the other unit". So this amp rack to have all 3 amp on will not work. Plus it messes with my OCD since the 2k has the silver strip and the 150's have the new black strip.

So Scooter......................................."WHAT'S THE "OTHER UNIT"? Well, let me show you!! Stay tuned!!!

[Wicks]

Updates!!!

MOAR........

[scooter99]

So what is "The Other Unit" I keep referring to? Pretty simply it's a glorified RCA splitter. I didn't really want to roll this out yet, but I can't stand it cause I'm super excited about it.

I don't know how many recall but I was talking about a big unit that I could split RCA's several times and not have to use a processor. I've asked several people, some willing to give me suggestions, some just willing to tell me I'm nuts and "if I were you.........(insert opinions here)". Well I think if nothing else around here, I've established I'm willing to go against the grain more times than not, because I'll never know the answer to the question, if I don't try and build it, or whatever to get that answer. So, this is me doing that.

Will it work? I have no idea. In theory it will, in my designs and mental diagrams, it puts together great. I've purchased most of the stuff for it. So I'm giving it a go.

Basically I've nicknamed it the Signal Distribution Unit - 99, or SDU99 For short. Why 99? My favorite number. It's large and odd, like me! LOL SO here goes!!

That Ampere love.

Several months ago, when I first came up with this idea, I wasn't running Ampere Audio. I was actually running all Crescendo Audio amps. I put up a few threads here and there and on Facebook asking for some of the Symphony amp cases. I wanted it for this project. Never found one, and then after some thinking and persuasion by Kyle, thanks buddy, I decided to ditch the Crescendo gear, and jump on the Ampere Audio bandwagon. After some decisions being made, and some research, I had a nice long talk with Andrew Bailey about this idea. I explained what i was looking for, and would love the 150.4 case to do it with since it's small an thin. Much like the symphony amplifiers. Unfortunately, he couldn't get me just the case for that. It was going to be expensive and just not worth it in the long run. I may as well have bought a 150.4 and gutted it. Then I'd be left with amp guts that were perfectly usable and paid a huge amount for the case.

Then he said, but, I have a case in the shop here from a blown amp that was decided to just be ditched. He kept it just in case I needed it for something, and that I could use that and cut it down. I made sure to ask him if he'd be ok with me making my own product in a case with his business name on it, and he was cool with it, as Andrew usually is. So, with that, the project suddenly was off the ground!!

I give you an empty Ampere Audio 3800.1 case. No ends, no back, but I knew I had to tool the ends anyway, and I'd have to cut the back down too, so I thought maybe I'll make one out of plexi or something. That's still up for debate.

See, empty!

So all of my testing with my tablet has been done using a line driver. I am using the HDMI usb output from my tablet because it gives me the greatest quality. Using the DD-1, I can go full tilt with zero distortion, where as the using the 3.5mm headphone jack, I couldn't. Plus, I wanted the ability to just plug in one plug to be able to charge and play music. So I've done a ton of testing with it, and it works perfectly, with one exception. There's only about a 2v output that way. But it's a clean 2v. Great. So I decided to incorporate a Balanced Line Driver.

Welcome the Rockford Fosgate Balanced Line Driver. This little beauty should allow me plenty of output voltage and a clean signal. I'd love to build my own, and not use a brand name product, but unless Jamie (Wicks) is looking for a side project aside of remodeling his house, then I'm shit outta luck cause I'm not that tech savvy! So for now we'll use this! I did some testing to see how it would fit in the case. It really fits perfectly inside the rails of the case. Seemed meant to be.

And plenty of space over top if I need to raise it up.

So you all know me, I can't just leave shit alone. Let's crack her open and see what we're working with.

These two screws remove the feet and sides.

Back here, the output rca nuts need to come off, and the back panel needs to be unscrewed. Only the two screws here. Inside there are a couple of clips that just pop when you pull on the panel.

Now the same needs to be done on the input side. There are no screws here however. Just the RCA nuts.

Now the nuts are removed, the board should slide out.

The RCA nuts are what hold the board in place. The leds sticking out of the holes in the case help too.

There's the board. Before I saw this is when I was thinking maybe I could do something like this on my own. I pulled this board out, and started laughing. So, I'll use this. LOL

So, that was a little R&D to see what I was working with. Now I have to decide where to cut the amp case.

[scooter99]

After taping up the amp case, I decided I didn't want to have the screws sticking out, in case I needed to flip the case over when I cut it. I didn't want the screws to create a wobble point during the cut. So I took them out.

But then I decided i needed to hold them somewhere. So I put them back in the amp temporarily. When I cut it, I'll remove them.

So now it's all taped up. Inside isn't, but I'll need to do that to double check the lay out and finalize the size of it.

Originally I came up with this size. 11" wide.

After that I got on ordering a few parts and pieces and thennnnnnnn.......................................

I got a few deliveries. 4 Axxess Volume Knobs, a bunch of panel rca jacks, a bunch more rca connectors, some Gepco rca cable, and a 12 pair multicable for the remote.

This is the only downside of the multipair cable. That's next to a piece of Sky High Car Audio OFC 1/0. I would love to use something smaller, but it's not possible. Besides, if you're already running 1/0 in the truck, should be nothing to hide this too.

Here's why it's so big. Each color, has 3 wires in it. A drain wire, a red and a black wire. Each cable represents a single channel, or single RCA. In this unit, I'm running a remote with 4 control knobs. That's a main in from the unit (2 channels/cables), a Main/Front back to the unit (2 channels), a rear back to the unit (2 channels), the mid bass sub back to the unit (2 channels) and the subs back to the unit. 4 knobs, 1 in 4 out 5 pair of RCA's at 1 pair cable per channel. 2 channels per pair x 5 = 10 pair. This is 12 pair multicable. Just in case. Is it all overkill, maybe, but I wanted full control of everything, to be able to turn the rear down if I want to, to turn the mid bass sub down if I want to, the subs in the back, full control.

Now, I'm aware, that in a retail situation, this would be a turn off for consumers, but I'm not retailing this. So i went with it. I was actually going to use a couple of CAT6 Cables, but that's only 8 pair, leaving me 2 short even though it's half the size of this. A third puts me almost the same size. So I've decided to stay the course with the multipair cable.

So I sat down at my table last night to get some more work done on this. I started making a log on the amount of time it's going to take me to make this. I'm also going to do an accounting on how much it cost for parts as well.

Recall previously I said I needed to tape up the inside. I decided that I would do it in regular masking tape so I could see my lines better.

Then I taped up the case on the BLD so that I could center everything.

Drew a center line. I'll base everything off of this.

Then centered the BLD. Then I got an idea. I was thinking, because I have to make my own end caps for this, What if i left the board in the case, and then drilled holes for the RCA's and the gain, and everything else. Well after playing with it, adjusting it for a while, I decided the case was going to be too much. Takes up too much space, not going to work. So I got an idea!

[scooter99]

And out came the DMM. What if, I removed the RCA's from the board all together. But could I do it. How does it work? I've never had experience with the 4 pin RCA Jacks before, so I thought I'd check things out and see if I could make sense of it for myself.

So looking at the jacks, the pins work like this. From what I can see, there are the two outside pins, they are ground, and then directly under the rca (out of view) there is a third ground. The center pin there, is the positive. Let's do some testing and find out.

"BEEEEEEEP" those are connected as ground.

"BEEEEEEP" Those are connected as ground as well.

"BEEEEEEP" and just for kicks and giggles, I tested these as well and the same thing. So all 3 have been determined as ground.

No beep, no connection. So this is the center pin, and is positive. What I did not get pictures of, my bad, is of both RCA's being tested against each other. So recall that this is a "Balanced" Line Driver. There is a switch on the output side (this is the input side) that determines Unbalanced/Balanced. So I decided to test those as well. I tested both grounds against each other and with it Balanced (I believe) it did beep, revealing that they are in deed connected at that point. Then I flipped the switch and tested again, which revealed no connection. Just some further information from my testing in case there are any questions about it.

So with that information in hand I decided it was ok to remove the RCA's. I'll remove them from both sides and then when the time comes to install it all, I'll solder or hard wire straight to the board.

I clipped the 3 pins.

Then I desoldered the last pin. I didn't think I could do all four that way. However, I will clean up the board and pull the other pins before I put any new wire on.

Output side.

So this gives me much more ability and much more room for the unit. I was using the jack on the other end to measure and get an idea of how much depth I needed.

Then I put in a relay which I'll be using in order to power all of the remotes for the amps. The BLD has a remote out, so I'll go from that to the relay, and then out of the unit. I will also use the Power and Ground for this as well.

So I got all excited when I was doing the layout on the other side because I was able to go from 11 inches down to 6 inches. So I flipped the case over to mark my lines, only to find out my disappointment. The reason I had the case at 11 inches was because I wanted to retain the Ampere Audio​ logo. So I compromised and brought it in a couple of inches to 9. I was able to retain the logo, and still have enough room for the screws to get re tapped. It's not 6 inches, but it'll work. Next thing to be done is to cut the case down to size.

Hopefully tonight I can get this cut and down to the size it needs to be. Then I can start on the ends.

There's still a lot to do. These are the very beginning stages of this, and I'm already excited to see what it becomes. I'd love to do a few other things like remove the gain controls, and the leds, and put them on the end, but I'm not sure if I can do that with the gain knob. We'll see. Maybe I can get the board close enough that a nice hole and a long screwdriver will do the trick. I shouldn't have to adjust it after I've set it anyway. But I'd love to have the leds on the outside to check them if I need to.

So that's where I'm at with this. should be lots more happening after the case is cut down to size.

Thanks for tuning in, more to come soon!

[Wicks]

MAJOR modifications.............LOVE it

Where'd you get that multi-conductor wire?

Man, I could have used that a while ago for some signals I have running from the dash to the trunk.....

[scooter99]

MAJOR modifications.............LOVE it

Where'd you get that multi-conductor wire?

Man, I could have used that a while ago for some signals I have running from the dash to the trunk.....

I got it from Markerteck.com. They have a pretty good selection of all kinds of electronics stuff. Cable, rca jacks, connectors, etc.

[Wicks]

MAJOR modifications.............LOVE it

Where'd you get that multi-conductor wire?

Man, I could have used that a while ago for some signals I have running from the dash to the trunk.....

I got it from Markerteck.com. They have a pretty good selection of all kinds of electronics stuff. Cable, rca jacks, connectors, etc.

Ahhh yes, should've known...I've gotten a few things from them. Good stuff and lots of it.