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

[scooter99]

So this was a learning experience. I forgot to post these pictures of me doing the make shift end panels. This is a sheet of aluminum, it's not very thick, I can't recall the size. I taped it up so that I could draw on it etc to get my shapes etc.

I cut them out with a pair of snips. Not the greatest move I've made. Jagged, not clean at all. I kind of knew at this point, they were simply not going to work. But I kept going any way to see how they would go. I used the lineman's pliers to bend the tabs so I could have some hold downs for screwing the panel down.

I got it to look ok, with the tape on it. But this is a little diceiving because it took a lot of tweaking and angling to make it look like this on the picture.

See how uneven the top is, well it's actually the bottom. That's there for the bottom panel to attach to when it's all done.

Here you can see the bottom, which is actually the top, tabs and the side tabs. These would get holes drilled and tapped for screws. That was the idea anyway.

Now back to the internals. I discovered that the connections were perfectly fine on the capacitor. So I took some advice and ca glued it back down so it was sturdy.

I ordered in a bunch of connection wire from Sparkfun.com so I could do the connections and soldering on the board. This little box makes it nice to keep the wire contained. Worked out well.

[scooter99]

I needed to think about the layout of the input panel.

So, I'll start making the wiring sets now. Trying to make sure everything is clean.

I love how twisted wire looks in a DIY set up.

[scooter99]

All of the wire sets are made up now.

Next I'll have to solder them onto the board. I'm going to make sure that there's plenty of wire to pass through each hole. I learned that lesson doing the remote. Let's get started.

I don't think I needed to connect each of the grounds on the RCA terminals, because I looked and it appears that it's all connected by the tracing on the board itself. Plus recall that I tested them all with the DMM and they were all connected. However, I decided to go ahead and do it anyway just to be thorough.

[scooter99]

I ended up having issues with the 3.5v LED connections. So the trace that came off, was connected on the board through the hole. I think when I pulled the LED, the tace part in the hole, came out with the LED. So I could not solder the wire in place in the LED hole. So, I went ahead and went diretly to the SMD resistor as I discussed as a possibility before.

However, trying to clean up the backside of the wiring, retwisting it (my OCD got the best of me), it popped off. So I resoldered it back on, and then ca glued it in place. My only concern here, is that the ca glue is conductive somehow. I guess we'll find out.

I was able to sodler the + side on the LED though. So these and the rest of the wires are all soldered to the board.

I then cut off the rest of the ends to clean it up.

Bottom side where the wires are.

[scooter99]

Next I needed to connect the relay and the board power.

So now they are connected, and everything is attached and in place. Now I need to just figure out the end panels so I can start getting it finished up.

That's as far as I am. I'll have to figure out the end panel situation and then I can figure out how to finish it.

[tboorn]

damn man thats some insane work, and those box renderings are super nice. so much time put into them just to see if you even liked it. I can dig it for sure!

[scooter99]

Thank you.

I have to make sure it's going to work before going through all the actual physical work. I'm still not sure what direction I'll go. But it's fun to design it all.

I have some more pics from today's work. I'll get those posted soon.

[graham0599]

Looks awesome! I wish I was that precise with soldering

[scooter99]

Thanks, although I've been having some issues for sure. At least with the latest stuff.

I've been having issues with my internet, so I'll have to upload pics later. Sorry.

[scooter99]

Starting the input panel components, I bought this profile board from Sparkfun. This is a different kind of board, because it's sliced, so to speak, so it can be broken into pieces or down to a certain size etc. After working with it, it definitely has it's pros and cons. Let's get started. The line is what i needed so I'll break it there.

Remember the components I removed from the BLD? Now I get to put them back where I need them.

So this is the nice part of them being snapable. You can make them the size you need.

They're pretty easy to snap, but it's much easier if you use a knife of some sort and score it.

I made a diagram of what I needed to do. Drew out the board and then decided where I needed to put everything. This was for the LED's. Then I broke the board one more time. So the LED's need to be vertical to stick out of the front of the input panel. The gain knob, sits vertical. This is another benefit of the snapable board.

Next I used a sharpie and marked the holes where I needed to put the LEDs.

Now it's time to solder on the LEDs.

This was the bad LED, the one that pulled the trace out of the board. If you look on the left pin, you can see the trace still on it. This is why it wouldn't solder.

All done. 4 Gain LED's and one Power LED.