Test Fitting The Lower Console With The New Mounting Tabs

After I had finished fabricating the mounting tab on the drivers side of the lower console I took it out to the car to do another test fit to make sure that the two mounting tabs were going to work well together. I figured they would but sometimes you never know with this stuff until you do a test fit, there could have been some adjustments that still might have needed to be made. Fortunately it fits great.

I think the mock panel on the top of the stock OEM console make need to be cut out, I say "Mock Panel" because I don't think it is a real panel held in with screws, just made to look like it does. Firebirds seem to have a few "Mock Screws" in them. I'll examine it in closer detail before I go and drill my side mounting holes into the stock OEM centre consoles sides.

In the mean time I can begin the long process of adding layers of primer to my modified lower console this way I can see better where there are any surface flaws that need to be sanded and filled. Once i have it all primed and smoothed out I can begin to look into working out how my switches are going to get mounted onto my lower console. I have a non functioning set of space mapping buttons that I had bought very early on in my Knight Rider Conversions Project but over time I have become dissatisfied with them given that there are plenty of working versions of the same type of buttons available, and on a personal note I want to make as many functioning aspects of my K.I.T.T. as I possibly can.

Received The Adafruit 2MB Audio FX Sound Board

I received the 2MB Audio FX Sound Board by Adafruit, it was dropped off late yesterday by UPS. Now all I need is the step down transformer to convert 12V DC to what this little board needs. Once I get that I can begin working on how I want to incorporate this into my dash to work with the switch pods. I know for sure I want it to reproduce the Turbo Boost sound when that button is pressed. Some other sound effects too that I'll see if I can work into my K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection System. It's going to take some figuring out but this tiny little board which was designed for props is small enough to stash just about anywhere.

Lower Console Modifications - Creating The Other Mounting Tab

I took the console out to the car for another test fit to see how it was looking with the new mounting tab I had fabricated, it looks good. My new mounting tab fits over the stock OEM console just beside the eBrake handle. I then needed to have a look at how it was fitting on the drivers side so I could see how I may go about making a mounting tab for that side also. I took a reference photo of the console so I could get a better idea of what I may need to do in order to make the tab.

I took the console back inside to my work shop to start fabricating the mounting tab. Once it was all glassed and then sanded flat and cut to shape I now have a method of mounting my console other than driving screws in through the top part of the console, which I may end up doing anyways depending on how secure it is with the side tabs. Tomorrow I will take it out for a final test fitting just to make sure there are no further adjustments to make. If it fits good I can go to a finer sand paper and smooth out any imperfections before applying some sandable primer.

Lower Console Modifications Continued

I have most of the glassing done on my lower console modifications to make it so as I can make use of the eBrake. I still have a few pot holes to fill and some rough spots to sand out and smooth but it's getting close to completion. I still need to take it out to the car to do another test fit before I can make the mounting tab or wing for the drivers side of the console so I will be able to mount my console onto the stock OEM console, with the mounting wings I'll be able to secure it down to the OEM console a little differently that what most others do.

Over all it coming along a lot faster than I thought it would be given that it's such an odd shaped part. At this rate I will be priming it soon and then looking at installing the buttons into the console. I have had those kicking about for a few months just twitching to install them but with so many other little projects needing to be done first they have been kind of on the "Back Burner." but it looks like we will soon be able to get both the console and buttons installed. :)

Modifying My Existing Lower Console To Be Ebrake Free

I started doing some Dr. Frankenstein work on my existing lower console I had bought from Knight Scan Industries. I need the eBrake to be free and unfortunately this current console was designed to cover the eBrake. They do make one that allows the eBrake to be free but I figured I should be able to have a go at doing some modifications to this one to see if I can make it so the eBrake can be used.

I marked out some lines for where I would need to do some cutting for my modifications. Once I had my lines marked I took out the good o'l trusty Dremel tool and did the cutting. I used two of the pieces I cut out and just positioned them back onto the console and taped them into place. I used some cardboard for the other areas that needed to be filled.

Next step was to take the console out to the car for another test fit to see if my plan was going to work. After fitting it into position I can see that it is going to work out the way I want it too. I tested the eBrake and it clears the side of the console just fine. My cutout area makes it easy to reach in and grab the eBrake handle.


Now all I need to do is glass these parts back together. I think one of the other things I am going to do is make some overlapping flaps down the sides that will make installing my modified lower console much easier. I'll make an overlapping flap inside of the eBrake alcove and another one on the side of the console on the drivers side.

One good thing about this is that I don't need to shorten the buttons section of the console. I was afraid for a while that I might loose close to 1/4 of an inch off of the middle section of the console but as you can see I don't need to change it so I can still fit all of my buttons onto the console just like normal.

Switch Pods To Sound FX Plan

I found this really cool little Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board WAV/OGG Trigger with 2MB Flash that I figure I could use in conjunction with my Switch Pods to make them play certain sound effects, like for instance if I press the "Turbo Boost" button I should be able to have the sound effect play through either the car's internal speakers or even through the Voice Projection unit loudspeaker mounted into the front nose.

I found this very cool little sound FX board after watching a very cool video by James Bruton of XRobots on YouTube. Check out this cool video and you may begin to see where I am going with this ;)

As you can see from watching the video it's a very easy board to use for props and you can put a lot of sounds on it. The board looks to be small enough to easily stash just about anywhere.

Now one of my concerns was about how the board is powered, for props as you can see it is just a matter of hooking it up to a small battery pack as the board runs off of a 3 - 5 V DC current. Now the car electronics run on a 12V DC Current.... So I remembered that there is a little thing out there called a "Step Down transformer" so I thought to myself;

"OK, before I go and shell out the Frog Skins for this cool little board let me see if there is such a thing as a Step Down Transformer that will convert from 12V DC to 5V DC?"

And guess what? There is! I popped onto Google and did a search and sure enough I found this little gem on eBay for a great price and best of all it's even made to work with the Arduino boards. 

Check out this very cool video that also shows how this Adafruit board can be used.

Getting The Annunciator Loudspeaker Ready To Install

I have all of my wires attached to the Annunciator Loudspeaker to make it ready to install into the front nose of my K.I.T.T. I soldered on the wires, taped them and applied Heat shrink tubing to help keep out the elements. All I need to do is drill some holes for the bolts into the front nose support plate. I think some people call it a "Slam Plate" ?? Not sure why. Once I have it bolted on I can run the wires in through the Firewall. I think what I will do is see if I can run the wires for the Annunciator Sound Board in through the same rubber grommet that the Speed Sensor cable runs through for the Cyberdyne unit. I'll run the Red Power wire down the battery side of the car and see if I can run it through that hole the old Antenna wire used just behind the passenger side Air Extractor vent, it getting a little crowded that hole but I'll see if I can safely fit one more wire through there. Then I can run that Power wire to the Red wire from my Voice Projection Unit Button. The Ground Wire on the Loudspeaker will just get bolted to the Chassis somewhere.

I'm still waiting for my 100 Amp In-line Fused Breaker Switch but I'll bet considering that I have ONLY the one 100W Annunciator Loudspeaker hooked up to my 2nd Fuse Panel that I could just for now and just for testing hook up one of the Inline AGU 40 Amp Fuse Holder and run that with My Fuse Panel to the Battery, just for testing until the 100 Amp one comes.

I've heard that these 40 Amp AGU In-line Fuses can run a little hot and fail so I'm somewhat wary about that news. My initial investigations did not uncover anything like that so I'll need to clearly do some more investigation into these AGU Fuses and Holders and make sure they are safe to use. If anyone has had experience with these your comments would be most welcome below.

Fuse Block Wiring

I started to wire the additional Fuse Block that I have installed onto the back of the passenger side Hush Panel. Right now I just have the once circuit for the Annunciator External Loudspeaker wired. I have a 10 Amp Blade Fuse in the block for this circuit which should be good enough for the 100W Annunciator Loudspeaker as it's only drawing around just shy of 8 Amps. I still have to install that into the nose of the car though.


I have my wire running from the fuse block into a four terminal block that I can mount the wires to using Ring Terminals crimped onto the ends of the wires from the fuse block and then screwed onto the Terminal Block, this way the install should be easier if I ever need to change something later on down the road as this projects gains complexity.

I ran the Red 10 AWG wire through the same hole that the old Antenna wire went through just behind the side Air Extractor Vent, up inside the fender and across to where it will eventually be hooked to the battery through an in-line fused circuit breaker rated at 100 Amps, this will protect the entire block and as mentioned in previous posts it will allow me to disable that entire block right at the battery by tripping the breaker. Very handy for any car shows I may do.

Here is a little video I made earlier today showing a little more about what I have done here, Enjoy. ;)

Less Power Wired Used Than I Originally Thought

Right on, I only ended up using about 6.5 Feet of 10 AWG Power wire for my Fused Power Distribution block which was much less that I thought I was going to use, and best of all it gives me some slack to be able to pull the Hush panel out far enough to be able to install wires onto the block easily. That's awesome, especially considering that the entire block is rated to handle 105 Amps Max. I'm going to be extra conservative and say 100 Amps even, forget the extra 5 it can handle also. According to the wiring selection chart at my 6.5' (Feet) of wire I am well within the tolerances of the wire for that distance.

Installing My Fused Power Distribution Block Into My Lower Right Hush Panel

The first step in installing my Fused 12 Position Power Distribution Block was to figure out a good location for the block where it will be easily accessible. I cut out a rectangular hole in the Hush Panel bigger than my fuse block. Filed the edges down all nice and smooth.

Next I would need to come up with some way of mounting the fuse block to the inside of my Hush Panel. I figured the best way would be to make up some Aluminum mounting brackets to secure onto the inside back of the Hush Panel, and then I could mount my fuse block onto that. 

First I would just simply hold the fuse block in behind the hole I had made in the Hush Panel just to give myself a better idea of where and how my fuse panel is going to be situated and see how its going to look.

I used some thin card stock I had kicking about to cut out a template for my Aluminum brackets. It's always better to try something out with some rigid thin cardboard first to see if something is going to fit right before cutting it out of your final material, this way you don't make a mistake and waste any metal. Once satisfied with the fit of my cardboard template I marked out my template onto some Aluminum, cut out the pieces and bent them into shape on my vice with a small hammer.

From here on my installation is pretty simple. I just placed my mounting brackets onto the back of the Hush Panel and held them in place with some masking tape while I drilled in my holes for the bolts. I drilled first my holes into the ends of the Aluminum brackets, and then into the plastic of the Hush Panel. Once secured the next step was to mark onto my brackets where to drill the holes for bolting on my fuse block. I wanted to make sure I mount it far enough over to one side so as I can get my fingers in there to pinch the release tabs for the plastic cover on the fuse block. Easily done, I drilled my holes and then bolted on my fuse block with some bolts that were long enough and used washers, on the back side of the Aluminum brackets I made sure I used locking washers that way the bolts will not come loose any time soon. You can use a little "Lock Tight" on the ends of your bolts too and this also helps prevent the nuts from working loose over time.

Here you can see my install into my Hush Panel. It's recessed in far enough that I can make a nice cover plate that I can screw on in the corners using 4 screws. I may make some kind of label to identify what the panel is for or even put the "Knight Logo" on it or something just to make it look cool, I don't know, I'll decide later. But I will definitely make a warning label for the inside back of the cover plate warning to NOT exceed 100 Amps for the entire fuse block or 30 Amps per circuit.

My K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit and Switch Pods Buttons Wiring Over View

OK I know from my experience with this project that sometimes it helps to see an over view of the the whole wiring scenario. So I have have just for fun put together a compilation of my diagrams for my Switch Pods and how they are wired to part of my K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit and how the Power Button is wired into the scenario as well. For many who have already wired their dash electronics the Power button located among the P.A.N.P. (Power, Auto, Normal & Pursuit) wiring will be "Old Hat" to them as it's wired the same way. This all assumes you are using the electronics from Knight Rider World.

The way I have this wired is that the Switch Pod Buttons will still make a tone through the Voice Box when pressed with the main Voice Projection Button turned off. I can even disable the fuse block for the Voice Projection Unit at the battery by tripping the breaker switch on the in-line fuse which I have rated at 100 Amps which is 5 Amps just shy of what the entire fuse block is rated for at a max. of 105 Amps, just to be that little bit extra safe. This way I can also control what functions I want my K.I.T.T. to have accessible at any car shows that I may do.

Voice Projection Unit Diagram Modified To Include Fused Power Distribution Block

I modified my wiring diagram for the Power Button for K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit. This new diagram includes both the in-line fuse holder at the battery to protect the Fused Power Distribution Block and Fused Power Distribution Block. The block I am using takes "Blade" type fuses but any type of fuse block will work. For now I will be just using a 10 Gauge (AWG) Power Wire from the battery to my 12 Position Fused Distribution Block as I don't really see the stuff I will hook into it being too heavy on Amps. If at a later time it looks like I will need to beef up the power cable then I can swap it out for something like a nice fat 4 Gauge (AWG) but for now with ONLY the Voice Projection Unit hooked up the 10 Gauge is plenty for now. But I do have some 4 Gauge on order just in case ;)

On an additional note one of the reasons I have placed, or I should say "will be placing" an in-line fused breaker at the battery rated for 100 Amps is that for one thing it's just shy of the 105 Amps Max. that the Fused Distribution Block can handle, plus I will be able to use it's breaker switch to cut off power going to that Fuse Block. So essentially any things that I have that are run by that particular fuse block I can enable or disable right at the battery. My thought is that this would be good for car shows where let's say I wanted some of K.I.T.T.s functions to be disabled, like sirens, smoke screens, grappling hook.... just for arguments sake lets say, you know the kind of stuff that you would not want anyone at a car show to trigger accidentally. ;)

Power Distribution Block

I picked up a Bussmann Ganged Fuse Panel with 12 Positions for all the extra gadgets that are being added into my K.I.T.T. I figured this extra Power Distribution Block will be good inside of the car on the passenger side under the dash, preferably somewhere convenient to get to unlike the "Convenience Centre" on the drivers side lol. I've never hooked up one of these before so I'm looking into what gauge wire is best to use for this type of thing, the fatter the better is my guess. I think it also needs and in line fuse close to the battery as well just to protect the panel, not sure though as I say I've never done this before so I'm trying to find some good information on the best and proper way to install this panel into the car, gotta be safe with power so information is a good thing. ;)

Voice Projection Unit Alternative Ground Hookup

After doing a little experimenting yesterday I realized that this is another option for hooking up the ground wire for the Annunciator Loudspeaker. It's simple and will save running extra wire depending on how far away you are placing your loudspeaker from the Voice Projection unit on/off button.

The Zip-Ties Worked

As I pretty much thought the Zip-ties worked perfectly along with the 4 aluminum tabs I made to secure that small piece of electronics board into place that holds the indicator LED and microphone for the Annunciator sound board. One of the tabs was also good for securing the wire bundle that has the Molex Connector attached for the wires that go out to the switch part of the relays board for the Switch Pod Buttons.

Aluminum Tabs Added To The S-1 Upper Console

I was trying over the last few days to figure out a good way to mount that small electronics board I made up that has the LED indicator light and Microphone on it that I relocated from the Annunciator sound board in order to make it install better into my S-1 Upper Console. I had originally thought of making up 2 or 4 "]" shaped brackets and bolt the board to the top of the bracket with small bolts. But I figured it's not all that big and it basically just need to be mounted in such a way that it's not going to move about all over the place so I came up with the very simple solution of making 4 small "L" shaped tabs with a hole in one end that a "Zip-tie" could be thread through and then through the hole in the corner of the circuit board, one "Zip-tie" for each corner hole. Just waiting for the fibreglass resin and matting to set but I'm pretty sure this will do a nice job of securing the small piece of board into position and still make it easy to take out at any future time that it should ever need maintenance.

On a separate note for todays accomplishments I got the rest of the switch power wires on my left hand Switch Pod connected to the Molex Connector that way they are not just flying around loose. I can attach wires to the other side of the Connector when I have a purpose for those other buttons. I'll need to pick up another 12 Pin Molex Connector for the right hand Switch Pod power wires, perhaps I'll do that this week just to get that little job out of the way and then those wires will have a connector and be well prepared for future use.