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

[scooter99]

Next I need to put the gain knob on the other board.

This is what's left of the board after making it how I need it to be.

These are the two boards I made.

A little ca glue and it'll be put together.

I decided to use some wire and make some braces. Figured it would keep the boards sturdy.

[scooter99]

Now that the board has been made, I need to connect the wires from the BLD to it.

Again, with the sharpies, I marked what wires go where.

And here we have the cons of the snapable board. It's pretty flimsy. I ended up breaking part of the horizontal board that was holding this one on. Oh well, I'll figure out what to do after I've wired it up. Now I'm wiring up the LEDs.

Both Boards wired up and ready to install. Sort of.

This is how I fixed it all. I used a bunch of ca glue. With the LEDs, with the boards, and the joints. Notice that I had to turn the lights. Well, Unfortunately I made the wires a bit too short. Live and learn on version 1 right? So this is how it's going to sit now.

This is the amp terminal I got from ebay. It's obviously a 4 channel amp terminal. However, I figured I could use it for this project. I'm guessing I'm in for some fun to solder onto those thick terminals though. We'll see.

Decided wrapping the terminals with wire and then soldering would be the best bet. And just as I thought, it was a pain in the ass to solder. But it worked out.

I know, they're not the cleanest looking joints, but I think they'll work. We'll see obviously. I would have rather used some spade terminals, and then heat shrinked them, but I just didn't have the room to use them. If the terminals were straight out, instead of a 90 degree, then I could've worked that much better, not to mention much cleaner.

And that's it. It's ready for the panel itself, and then the HDMI breakout for the remote. Still some work to do, but I'm getting closer. Really need to get those end panels done.

So that's it for now. I think I've pretty much done as much as I can until those panels are done. I'll work on those next. Hopefully I can do more soon. Thanks for checking this out.

[scooter99]

Ok, so I have a few things going on. I've been trying to figure out how to address the end panels, and I may have it. I need to try it out, but I haven't had the time. It's dark by the time I get home right now, and my concentration has been selling a few things to pay off credit cards. So I've been meeting with buyers, dealing with scammers, and other shit.

I'm supposed to work this weekend, and it's supposed to rain this weekend but maybe I can get something done in the garage.

Here's my idea. I'm using thin sheet metal for the ends. As you saw in teh pictures before, using aluminum and bending it by hand doesn't produce the best results. So, since I don't want to fork out the money to have one machined and bent, I'm going to do it myself. I'll be doing a template cutout out of 1/4" hard board. I need to add tabs to it for bending, but other than that it will be the same shape as the end of the amp.

I'll use a piece of 1/2" birch ply, set the amp end on it and trace it out. First I'll cut out the middle of it with a jig saw. Then I'll attach it back to the ply with some foam tape. On the bottom of the amp. I'll be using some flat stock to close it up. Otherwise it just looks like a c. Then I'll run it over on the router with the flush trim bit. That will give me an outer template. Next, I'll use a second piece of 1/2" ply and trace the inside of the amp again. This time I'll have to use the jigsaw only and cut the template as close to straight as possible. This will give me an inner piece.

Next I'll take the sheet metal, and cut it out according to the template with the tabs. Set the metal on the bottom (outer template) and then set the inner template on top. my plan is to use some 3/4" ply on each side and press it together somehow. I have a vise, I have a bottle jack, I have all kinds of stuff I can probably use. HOPEFULLY, in the end, I'll be able to press the metal into the outer piece and form with the inner piece and I'll have a panel end.

That's the plan anyway! We'll see if it works.

I've also decided, for now anyway because I'm still a long ways off from that point, that I'm going to just go through with the 2 XL15's in a 4th order blow through. No-one seems to want to buy them at the price I have them listed at, and i'm at the bottom of what I'm willing to let them go for. I dont' want to buy the other subs and then be sitting on 2 brand new 15's. So at this point I'll just hold on to them and use them. I sold the shell so it would be a full blow through not just through the window like before. When the time comes, I'll have to figure out if I want to just take the gamble and bolt to enclosure on the bed and weather proof it, or if I want to spend the money for a tonneau cover. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

My 2 XP3000's arrived today I believe, so with those I'm about ready to go on equipment. It's just finishing this project and starting the install! More progress should start happening soon.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more very very soon!

[boom50cal]

you're patience level is over 9000....

not exactly sure if I am following your plan for the sheet metal bending plans... but I've seen some pretty decent work done with one of these cheapo HF brakes

http://www.harborfreight.com/18-inch-bending-brake-39103.html and for $40 it's almost worth the shot. Spend that much on wood and time for the other plan

[scooter99]

I actually have that. The problem is, hang on let me find a picture,.................................

Ok so see how in the picture, the center of the amp has the step downs? If you go from the side, it goes toward the middle, then steps down a quarter inch, goes over a quarter inch, and then steps down to the top of the amp (bottom in the picture). Well the two sides are what need to be bent over to hold it in place. The middle is higher than those sides, so if I use the brake, I would end up bending the top down as well as the sides.

I guess, just looking at it now, I could just bend the top over and use that to attach it. That would make more sense, it's longer which would make it sturdier. So instead of making side tabs on the top, and then the top being flush, I could make the top bend over and the sides flush. DAMN IT, Why didn't I think of that!! Thanks BOOM!!! I'll make it up tonight if i can. Much less work too I think!!

See this is what happens all to much with me. Sometimes I need an outside perspective, which is why I post just about everything I'm thinking about.

[boom50cal]

you da man scott. giving me new ideas and motivation to be creative

[scooter99]

Well I'm glad someone is motivated around here! HAHA I get all pumped up here at work and then I get home and the couch has this suction gamma ray built into it sucking my ass down into the seat! It's amazing, I could be in the kitchen and it just pulls me in! I'm sure it has to do with the fact that it's dark at like 2 fucking o'clock now. Oh well, next week starts Christmas break for the kiddos so that means no homework when we get home.

[scooter99]

Ok so I got a few things going on. I got some deliveries this week.

First I got a couple of Karkov's XP3000 batteries on Wednesday. UPS being UPS, but I think all is ok. Just come cosmetic bullshit.

Damn it finger!!!

And again, WTF?!

Second one was fine.

Except this part but that's just the Styrofoam on the corner there.

So those will power the 3800.1's nicely I think. I was thinking of using the xp3000's on the 3800's and then I have 2 XP950's left from the civic build. I was thinking of using those and putting them in as well with the 2 150.4's and the 2000.1. What do you all think about that? Would that cause issues?

[scooter99]

And I didn't exactly want to throw this out there yet, but I'm too excited not to. I have the SDU V2 starting already. I'm just doing some R&D on it. Nothing building yet. I'm not really even doing anything but accumulating equipment as of right now anyway. Still fully working on the SDU V1. But, here's what I have for V2.

SO I got these a few weeks ago to play with, but I haven't had a chance yet.

What are they you ask? Well let me tell you.

This is a Digital Stereo Audio Control Board. What is that? Well you take an audio signal and you input it to one side, and it filters it among other things, and has the knob you see on the right there that is an encoder, and it controls the volume of that board. Then you have the output on the other side. It has RCA and 3.5mm inputs and outputs.

This is a Bluetooth 2.1 board. This is pretty much the lower level Bluetooth board. I actually found this out after I ordered it, so I ordered the 4.0 board which is much better. Basically in my case, I can send the audio signal out via bluetooth from the tablet and it will pick it up on this board and then send an output signal through the RCA's, where it would go into the board above.

This is the first piece I picked up because I was playing with some other ideas and I figured I could use this for volume control. Then I found the other boards above and everything has take off from there. This is basically a separate piece to what is built into the first board.

Then I got this in yesterday. This is what excited me. I stumbled upon this while looking around Sure Electronics website. Wasn't that pricey, so I picked it up. Figured it would be a good learning lesson for me.

You may be asking again, what are thossssssseeeeeeee!!!!????? Well those are basically a decoding board for I2S or IIS (dont' ask me what those are, I'm still learning!) and a board to accept optical toslink inputs. So, again, in my case I'm running the HDMI signal out of the tablet, currently that's the plan, and then into the distribution amp splitter thing. Then I can do either optical toslink out or analog rca out. Well if I can utilize the optical output, I would rather do that, obviously. So this will allow me to do that. It will take that as the input, and then the decoding board will do it's thing and send it out via RCA's on the second board. Here are some better close up pictures.

Inputs

Power, it can be connected to a power adapter, or hardwired to a power supply. These take 12v so I think I can just hook them up straight to positive, but I want to make sure of that before I do it. So I'll have to get back on that one.

A whoooolllllleeeeee lot of dip switches and stuff that I don't even know about yet. Unfortunately the only negative thing, well one of two, that I can say about Sure Electronics, is their manual are lacking big time. Some boards have them, most don't. They have a whole download section and alot of these things are not on there. I don't know enough about electronics so this is a whole new ballgame for me. So those manuals are very important for me to understand what's going on, what different features there are, how to operate it etc. I have an email in to them asking for some sort of manual. I'll have to wait and see what they say. The other negative, they're in china. You can order these things off of ebay, parts express, amazon, etc. but these boards I'm ordering I can't get here and get quickly. They come strait from them. So it does take a while. I think it took the better part of two weeks to get these two boards. Thankfully I'm not in a big hurry since this is V2, and not dependent on finishing V1.

Pinouts. There are two harnesses with this board and a third with the other board. I don't know where they go, besides connecting the two boards which I know already. But there are obviously 3 spots to connect these harnesses so I have to figure out where what goes to what, which I could use the non existent manual for. See what I'm dealing with. Damn I should've gone to college. BTW that connector on the right, is for my daughters hoverboard. We've basically told her she can't use it anymore until they figure out why they're exploding. Nothing to do with this piece.

This is the second board, the output decoding side.

On this board you can either go RCA out or hardwire out. I'm most likely going to remove all of these RCA's and hardwire out everything.

This is where the harness connects to connect both boards.

So this should be interesting. I forgot, all of the knobs, have a push button on it as well. So you just push the knob and it's a switch. I have 3 or 4 more of the Digital Stereo Volume Control Boards coming, plus the 4.0 Bluetooth board. This is the plan, a little rough diagram of what I am planning. But I'm not sure if it'll work the way I want yet.

I'm looking around for a different enclosure for V2. I like the amp case idea, to match everything, but it's not the most ideal situation. Even though I have 2 more pieces that will work. It's been tougher than I thought using them. So we'll see how this finishes up. I'm still trying to find another enclosure though. I also thought about something big that I would just basically install in my dash. But we'll see. The nicer cases are pretty expensive. I have some ideas also about making my own. There's lots more going on in V2. But I'm trying to hold off on doing anything with it just yet. I need to finish V1 first.

That's it. I'm planning tomorrow to get the SDU case ends done, and hopefully get some more work done on that this weekend.

[scooter99]

Just throwing up more stuff in case anyone wants to see. Made some big purchases yesterday. Merry Christmas to me!

I'll be picking this up tonight when Jon A Claus rolls through town.

2 pair - Dual 1/0 to 1/0 inputs

1 pair - 1/0ga to 1/0ga inputs

2 pair - 1/0ga to 4ga reducers

7 - Set Screw Fuse Holders - 4 black / 3 white

50ft - 8ga cca Speaker Wire

4 - 10pk 2/0 heatshrink white/black

4 - 10pk 1/0ga heatshrink white/black

2 - 10pk 4ga heatshrink white/black

2 - 10pk 8ga heatshrink white/black

1 - xxxl FAT GUY T-SHIRT!!

Also ordered from Andrew at Ampere Audio

2 - 160 mil 21sq ft packs vibraflex (back wall, floor, roof)

1 - 80 mil 21sq ft pack vibraflex (doors)

So, now once I get the damn SDU done, I'm ready to install everything!! Getting closer!!

I had thoughts yesterday about something too. I need to find a good app, or something that I can get radio channels with on the tablet. Either that or I'll have to get a head unit to combine with the tablet. Really the only reason for it would be for things like the drive-ins which we go to so much in the summer time. I thought there was a USB "dongle" out there somewhere that actually did that. Some app that had a dial and everything. I'll have to go look for it.

That's all for now.