Installing The Molex Connectors For The Switch Pod Buttons

To help make installing the Knight Rider 2 TV Dash a lot easier I started adding in a 12 Pin Molex Connector for connecting my Switch Pod Button wires to the Mini Relays board that will be installed under the OEM plastic dash in the car.


This Molex Connector will be for the left hand Switch Pod Buttons, the right hand buttons will be on a separate Molex Connector depending on what is being hooked up to them. Whatever it may be I can still see them needing to go through a Relay so another Molex Connector will be the logical choice. I still need to add the wires to the connector for the other buttons but I'll do that tomorrow sometime. I'll need to pick up another Molex Connector just to have on hand for when I get around to adding a little extra length to the right hand Switch pod Buttons wires and running them to the Relay board when I figure out what I want them to activate.

Indicator LED Lens and Microphone Grill Added Into Upper Console

I installed the LED Indicator light lens for the Annunciator sound board into the Upper Console. Drilled a hole and then filed it to fit the lens. I cut out a hole for the microphone and snipped out a small piece of speaker grill I had kicking about. I glassed the grill over the microphone hole to secure it in really well.

The next step will be to mount in that small piece of circuit board with the microphone and indicator LED attached to it over where the LED lens and microphone hole is located. Once that's done I just need to loom the wires up nice and secure. I still need to determine a good place under the hood to install the Annunciator loudspeaker as I know I'm more than likely going to need to lengthen it's wires, seems they never give you enough length of wire on any of that stuff... lol then again I guess they never figure someone is going to be installing it in such a way as I am here. ;)

Voice Projection Unit Power Button Wiring Scheme

I think I have worked out a wiring scheme for the Voice Projection Unit Power Button. This is pretty much following along the same as the dashboard's Power Button, it should pretty much work in the same way. I figure what I'll do is pull out my Voice Projection Unit Power Button that is currently mounted in under the OEM plastic dash in the car. I'll set it up in the back room along with the dash and see if it works along with the dash powered up. My intention is to have the Voice Projection circuit only active when the Voice Projection button is powered to ON. If it is OFF then the Switch Pod Buttons should ONLY produce their DTMF Tones played out through the Voice Box. That's the plan, as near as I can tell from looking at my wiring schemes this is how it should work. I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm in the process of getting all the parts to the Annunciator sound board into the Upper Console.

Installing The Annunciator Sound Board Into The Upper Console

As part of my process of installing the Annunciator sound board into the Upper Console I needed a cover lens for my indicator light showing the system active so I picked up a small warning or indicator light. I just needed the plastic lens cover from the light so I removed the tiny light bulb, the stem was a tiny bit too tall so a cut of about a 16th of an inch off of the bottom to make it fit better over my indicator LED that I relocated from the Annunciator sound board to this smaller board for easier relocation into the Upper Console. I also made a paper cone to fit over the microphone to help capture the sound better when it's installed into the Upper Console.

I was careful to make my microphone cone have the same height of the indicator light stem. Here you can see it being put together, currently glued and held together with little mini spring clamps until the glue dries. Next step was to paint the microphone cone with a flat black to seal it, I did a couple of good coats of flat black to create a good seal.

Once the pain on the cone was dry I glued it onto the base of the microphone with a generous amount of Contact Cement to make sure it stays put when the board is secured into the Upper Console next to the Annunciator sound board.

In order to install the Annunciator sound board into the Upper Console I had to make some Aluminum mounting brackets, I first carefully made paper templates to test how they would fit against the board without interfering with any of the electrical components or board tracks. Once satisfied they were good it was out to the garage to cut them out of some Aluminum pieces I had kicking around.

Once cut out and filed the Aluminum brackets could then be mounted to the sound board. I used some short bolts, washers and rubber washers to fit the brackets onto the sides of the sound board.

Getting this particular board into the Upper Console was a bit of a pain, simply because of the Volume Control wheel. It had to fit into a slot I had cut out in the Console for it to fit into. If this was just a matter of mounting an electronics board I would have just glued in the mounting brackets with Contact Cement, waited for that to dry and then glassed them into place. This was a little more tricky because of it's careful positioning. 

Once it was successfully test fitted into the Upper Console I was ready to use some fibre glass resin to secure the sound board and mounting brackets assembly into the Console. 

Right now I just have it secured into place with a little resin only. I'll let this set really well and then add some layers of fibre glass matting tomorrow just to give the mounting brackets a lot more strength.

The next step will be to make some mounting brackets for the separate small board I did up for the microphone and indicator light and then make a hole for the lens cover for the indicator light and secure that into place, I'll also need to make a hole for the microphone and make some kind of cover plate for that to make it look more attractive and look the part.  I'll also install a small momentary button for the microphone too and install that into the Console also. Then hook it all up and give it another testing to make sure everything is still all working as it should.

I suppose another thing I will need to do next is make up a wiring diagram for how I'll need to hook up my whole Voice Projection unit to that Voice Projection button I have on my lower dash, same sort of button found in the P.A.N.P. group of buttons. This way the Switch Pod buttons that I have hooked up to the sound effects generator will only activate the sound board when the "Voice Projection Button" is ON.

Using A Switch Pod Button For Message Centre Cycle Option

After I had conducted my Multimeter test yesterday to determine if those red wires I had soldered onto the Switch Pod individual button terminals were power wires I realized I needed to make a minor change to this other diagram I had done for an option of using one of the Switch Pod Buttons to cycle through the Message Centre messages. The Momentary Button on the Pod closes power to ground which energizes the magnetic coil of the Relay closing the Relay's internal switch and this then if hooked up as a switch between the GND and CYC should cycle the message on the Message Centre.

K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit Parts Wiring Assembly

It took me a little while to assemble all of the wire and Molex Connectors and wiring harnesses. I'm making all of the parts for part of K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit all prepared and ready to install. I have some of them assembled here in this photo and numbered as follows:

1- Sound Effects And Microphone Board With Volume Control

Modified slightly using the board from the hand held unit of the Annunciator Loud Speaker. I basically added wires to the connections for all of the momentary push buttons and I relocated a couple of components from the board like the Mic and Indicator LED and moved them to a small board so as the two boards can be fitted into my Upper Console.

2 - Long Wire Harness With Molex Connectors

This is a long wire harness of 12 22 AWG wires connected at both ends with a male and female Molex Connector. This wire harness will run up the drivers side window frame across the top and go the the Upper Console where part number 1 will be fitted.

3 - Short Wire Harness

This short wire harness is basically the same as the long wire harness only it has one Molex Connector on one end, the other ends of the 12 connections will go to SPST Relay terminals that the Switch Pod Buttons will then activate when pressed. This wiring harness will be fitted to the inside of my Knight Rider 2 TV Dashboard.

One Minor Change To My Switch Pods Diagram

OK after my experimenting today I found I had one minor change, or major depending on how you look at it. Now although the wires I soldered onto the individual Switch Pods Buttons are "Red" they should in fact be "Black." Red wires should come from my 12V Power source and go to the Relay's Magnetic Coil, as near as I can tell at this stage. I will do a Multimeter test and check if those wires are reading voltage or not, probably something I should have done to start with. In any event as you can see I made the changes to my diagram for now, it may change later depending on what I learn with my Multimeter, but this has been tested using one of the Switch Pod Buttons to test out using a single Relay. The circuit appears to work as currently illustrated although like I say I HAD put "Red" wires coming from my Switch Pod Buttons that go out to the 86 of the Relay, here I currently have them illustrated as being "Black". I was using a SPST Relay rated for 40 Amps which is way more than what needs to be used for this purpose, I will most likely use some mini 12V Relays for this diagram as they should be plenty good here.

Voice Projection Unit Update II

OK as I kind of sort of suspected those 4 mini-push buttons on the face of the board from the hand held unit are indeed momentary switches, I can only assume after my wire test that there must be components on the board that make them act like latching switches when pressed. This is all good because my thought of using simple SPST Relays in conjunction with the Switch Pod Buttons is valid and should work, I have very little doubt about it not working after conducting my simple wire test of soldering on a couple of wires to the back of the board for the button connection points, powering up the board and simply touching the ends of the wires together, it worked like a dream, so yeah I'm sure a Relay will do the trick.

I also detached the Microphone and indicator LED from the board and migrated them over to the small piece of "ProtoBoard" I had picked up earlier this morning. I powered up the board again to give it another test to make sure all of my mucking about was still working and yes everything looks and works great. Now all I need to do is figure out a good way to mount these two boards into the Upper Console, extend the wires and make a Molex Connector to make the job of installing the Upper Console easier. I have made a video demonstration of what I have done here so I'll upload that shortly so you can see first hand what I have done in video format.

Voice Projection Unit Project Update

I went out this morning to my local electronics supply shop which is not more than a couple of blocks from where I live, gotta love that kind of bloody convenience let me tell ya ;) Anyways I picked up some thinner 22 AWG stranded wire and a small piece of blank "ProtoBoard" that I can use to relocate two of the components from the hand held unit of the  "Annunciator" 5 Sound generator and Voice Projection Unit that I am going to try and use as part of K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection System.

One of the things I want to test is solder on a couple of wires to those top 4 push button connections on the back of the board, attach the power supply and see if just touching the wires together will produce the same result as pressing the buttons as I'm not sure how those buttons work in relation to that board. As I had mentioned in one of my early posts I tested them for continuity with my Multimeter when each button was pressed, they appear to be momentary buttons but yet when pressed they act like latching buttons so my test with two soldered on wires to see if it will produce the same result is important to my ultimate purpose with this board. Just in case I may need to use a step relay to do the job for each of those buttons. The separate "Horn Buttom" is most definitely a momentary switch and I know for sure I can get a simple SPST Relay to do the job when one of the Switch Pod Buttons is used that function.

If all goes according to plan I should be able to relocate the indicator LED and the Microphone from the hand held unit board onto that little pice of "ProtoBoard" and mount that most likely into the Upper Console somewhere. I'll make a mounting bracket that will orientate the Hand Held unit board that has the Volume Control Knob on it in such a way that it can be adjusted easily. The whole set up I will eventually wire up to my Voice Projection Unit Button I have mounted under my dash so as that system is only active when that button is pressed. First though I'll see how my little wire experiment goes with one of those 4 sound effects buttons on the top of the hand held unit board. ;)

Voice Projection Wiring Scheme

I think I have the connections on the circuit board from the 

"Annunciator 2 in 1 5 tone / 3 tone electronic siren with mic." that I got from eBay figured out. I tested the buttons with my Multimeter to see which connection points on the board would give me a continuity reading when each button was pressed. One thing puzzles me a little is that they appear to be momentary buttons but yet when I watched videos on YouTube showing how the unit worked they appeared to be latching buttons, perhaps a pulse from the button temporarily locks a connection somewhere and when the button is activated  again it breaks the connections, not sure about that, or how that will work with the wiring scheme I am thinking of trying out. It's going to be a little experimenting I guess but from just fiddling about with it I think it should work with the simple SPST Relay setup I have worked out in my diagram. Some of the other bits on the board will be relocated like the indicator LED and Mic.

Voice Projection Hand Held Unit Dismantle

I dismantled the hand held unit of the "Annunciator 2 in 1 5 tone / 3 tone electronic siren with mic." It appears to be pretty simple, just like figuring out the Switch Pod Buttons I should be able to do the same here and add wires from the button terminals and run them to the switch of a SPST Relay to duplicated what the buttons are doing on this simple circuit board. The micro or mini button on the ends of the two black wires look to be a simple ground momentary switch, in either case a Relay will do the job for that button too. The side button for the Mic appears to be also a simple micro/mini momentary button so again another simple SPST Relay should do the trick. Now those 4 other micro switches I'm not sure if those are momentary buttons or latching, those may be a bit tricky trying to figure out a good way to use my Switch Pod Buttons for those 4. I suppose the other few things are the indicator LED light, Volume Control Knob, the Mic, those items on the board I will need to think about soldering them off of the board, extending their wires and relocating them somewhere. I mentioned in my last post about the Mic being installed into the upper console somewhere, that is certainly a possibility. I suppose the Volume Control Knob could be located beside the Mic along with the indicator LED light. The Circuit board I could mount in up inside of my Knight Rider Dash securely to another bracket I could glass in somewhere.

It's going to be a bit of mucking about with my Multimeter to figure out what is what for sure on this little circuit board and some playing about with some soldering and finer gauge wires, and some fiddling about with Relays but if I'm not mistaken I think it can be done.

K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Parts Arrive

K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection parts arrived today in the mail. Now this is just something I am going to experiment with. My plan is to see if I can dismantle the hand held unit and figure out it's buttons. My thought is that I may be able to hook up the button connections to a few of the buttons on the Switch Pods Unit and perhaps hide the microphone part of the device into the Upper Console. The Switch Pod buttons I should be able to assign 4 of them to the built in sound effects that came with the Loud Speaker and hook another button to the Voice Projection function. I'll have to test it out first and then see if I can take apart the hand held unit and see if I can fiddle with in relocating it's internal guts to fit my purpose for K.I.T.T. Given my limited electronics knowledge this is going to be another challenge but I will keep my progress well documented so if you want to attempt the same sort of set up, and as long as mine does not blow up then you'll be able to easily follow what I have done and maybe even improve on it. That being said I'm pretty sure what I am going to try and do has already been done but I have NOT yet seen anyone show it.

Some K.I.T.T. Dash Snapshots

Clear Coating The Voice Box Bezel

Above are my before and after shots of my Voice Box Bezel after it had been clear coated. As you can see I masked off the surrounding area and then gave it a good coat of Clear Coat. I did end up doing a little wet sanding first with a 1000 grit stage 4 sand paper just to take out any of the brush strokes from my painting with the fine tip brush. Cleaned it up with a Q-Tip and a Tack Cloth before applying the Clear Coat and there you have, one shiny Voice Box to match the rest of my nice shiny Knight Rider Dash :)

Dash Views - Final Stages Of Completion

With my Knight Rider dash now clear coated and left to dry overnight morning time taking off the masking tape I must have been like a little kid opening his presents Christmas morning, lol at least it certainly felt that way as I carefully but feverishly peeled off each strip of masking tape being extra careful to cut around any edges that might stick with my X-acto knife. As each layer of tape peeled away revealing the gleaming Lexan displays I could not help but giggle with glee like a school girl ;) lol... Yeah I know I'm such a kid with this stuff ;)

With all the masking tape off and giving the dash a good going over I can see it could use a little wet sanding and then polishing here and there with a Polishing Compound. Nothing major though and I would bet over time just the good polishing here and there would eventually take out any minor surface roughs from the clear coating. Over all I'm very pleased with the way my dash has turned out. Looking at it all glossy with the Lexan plastic overlays I had made for each of the displays it looks really sharp. Very sci-fi like and futuristic, it's a no wonder I have always loved this dash in K.I.T.T.

I need to let the dash sit for a few days to let it fully cure, but in the meantime another little job I need to do is to had paint the Voice Box Bezel, I figure it will be easier to just spray some paint from the can into a small container and use a fine brush to paint the Bezel, I'll have a lot more control over the paint this way. With this stage of my dash out of the way the only thing to do is replace those fake temporary T.V. screens with real 5 inch LCD touch screens. Another thing is to work out which one of the Switch Pod Buttons I want to use to cycle the Message Centre. I have a plan for that I posted a few articles back about how to wire each Switch Pod Button individually. For the Message Centre Cycle button all it needs to do is close a ground connection on the board terminal and this can be done with a simple SPST Relay, a Mini-Relay would be more than good enough for something that simple.

Outside of all of that my Knight Rider Dash is getting super close to completion compared to several months ago in January of 2014 when it first arrived from Knight Rider World in Italy. It's been a lot of work, fun, and sometimes frustrating but very rewarding work too, especially to finally see it at this stage of completion. :)

Dash Clear Coated

Finally the clear coat has been applied to my Knight Rider 2 TV Dash. Now to just let that cure overnight and then see about any wet sanding that needs to be done in the morning. The dash looks so nice all black and shiny. I'm glad I went with the gloss versus the satin finish as to me the gloss looks more "Futuristic" to me somehow, just a personal preference I guess but I like it.

Starting The Dash Painting Process

I didn't think I was going to get to this part today but as luck would have it I was able to get the first coat of gloss black paint on my Knight Rider dash. In truth I still have a few minor spots on the Switch Pods to do a little light sanding on but I can do that just as easily with the painting process started. You probably can't tell in the photos as like I say it's a few minor areas but I'm picky about it so I notice.

It's sure nice though to be finally getting the dash to this stage. It looks so nice already with just the first coat of gloss black applied, it will look even nicer once it's eventually clear coated. When it's clear coated and fully cured I'll see about doing another video with the dash turned on as it will looks so nice all lighted up, animated with the finished dash surface. :)

Preparing to Paint The Knight Rider Dash

In preparing the Knight Rider Dash for painting I fist carefully masked off all of the areas I don't want affected by the primer or paint. Took a little while to get all of the masking tape carefully put on and cut around the edges of the Lexan plastic overlays. Once that was done I had a little more sanding to do in some areas but with the masking tape on it helped keep dust out of my dash display panels.

With the minor sanding done I then was able to get a couple of coats of sandable primer on, not so much to prepare for painting just yet, more for me to have a better look at where I am sitting with my progress. I can see I have some very light sanding to do in some areas but nothing major. With the first coat of primer on I can see that the glassing of the Pods to the Dash has a really nice blend, the two look like they have always been together, perfect as that's the look I want. I should be good for a few more coats of primer after that and then I can begin to paint my dash. Almost there.

I have not yet decided if I am going to paint my dash a Satin Black or a Gloss Black, although I do have to admit I am leaning more towards a Gloss Black as that I'm thinking would go well with the Lexan Plastic overlays on the display panels. Once all the painting is done I'll clear coat it a few times and then see if it needs any wet sanding.

It's sure nice to be finally getting the dash to this stage, steps closer to getting it in the car and hooked up the the connectors I have attaches to the stock OEM dash.