KITT Can Reverse Audio V2

There are still some things to be worked out like the remaining false VR triggers for one. We need to source out a small but fairly powerful computer. So Far I like the Mac Mini as it seems to be small and has plenty of computing power. The Unity 3D people are working on the dual display issues and I'm hoping they will have that issue solved soon. A few other things that I believe are minor but its coming! 

K.I.T.T.s SURVEILLANCE MODE W.I.P.

You guys are gonna love this!!

While K.I.T.T. is in Surveillance mode he can determine if someone he is talking to is NOT Michael. And then ONLY accept conversational commands.... in other words if it is NOT Michael then he will ignore any commands that activate K.I.T.T.s functions like button presses, doors, scanner, trunk popper.... you name it.

Also Unless you are Michael ONLY certain "Factoids" are accessible like for instance ONLY Michael can ask for information about K.A.R.R. or Who is Michael Long, Or Who is Wilton Knight.... and so on.

"Factoids" like "Who is Billy the Kidd" can be accessed by anybody.
While in Surveillance mode someone could come up to K.I.T.T. and say:

"Where's Michael?"

And because it is Not Michael who has asked that, K.I.T.T. will respond with:

"Michael is indisposed at the moment."

IF it is Michael he will respond by saying something like:

"Are you kidding me Michael?"
Or
"You must be Joking."

K.I.T.T. while in Surveillance mode, when motion is detected he discreetly asks for a password on his monitor, during which there is a 10 second window to give the correct password.

A failed attempt within that 10 second window and K.I.T.T. goes into an "Intimidation" mode where he runs through a sequence of inquiries at a high threat level detection.... he is ONLY in a High threat level mode because a password was attempted within that 10 seconds.
During his inquiries he is waiting for responses that are either:

Favorable Responses
Or
Unfavourable Responses.

Depending on which one was given, he responds....
During this inquiry it is possible that someone simply passed by and accidentally triggered that mode so he does a final check to see if motion is either still being detected and he is hearing vocal commands he recognizes.

If there are none and no motion is detected he then just goes back into a "Loiter" mode.
Otherwise he figures there is still a threat and his inquiries are just being ignored to which he will respond by saying:

"Well... Don't say I didn't warn you."

From here he then goes into a "Defensive mode."
Our Knight O.S. Surveillance mode is getting really tricked out

Knight Rider Guy You Tube Channel Promo T-Shirt

I made a nice promo T-Shirt to help advertise my Knight Rider Guy You Tube channel a little more. I figure it'll be kinda nice to have a custom T-Shirt for when I do my development videos.

If anyone would like one of these attractive T-Shirts that feature Our Knight O.S. Logo, along with stylized text that reads:
"KNIGHT RIDER GUY"
And the You Tube address to my channel you can order them here from my Red Bubble Shop

Upper Console Installed

FINALLY! Got the Upper Console installed, finger marks all over it, I guess I should have polished it a little before taking pictures but Oh well, one thing at a time. First time when I was test fitting it yesterday I connected up the Car battery to give it a run through, as it turned out my Fog Lights switches were not working, when I was spray painting the console I ended up getting spray pain inside of the Molex Connectors so some of the connections were "Masked" for lack of a better word. So I ended up spending a good hour yesterday cleaning out the paint with Acetone and some pipe cleaners. Hooked it up today after another cleaning session and everything appears to be working fine now. Funny thing is that when I was spray paining the Upper Console, in my mind I kept telling myself:

"You better mask off this connectors chum otherwise you're gonna have a problem."

But did I?.... Nope... Oh well, live and learn right ;) Anyways, job done and the Upper Console is FINALLY installed. Seems like it has been such long & troublesome journey getting this blasted part installed. For many that have been following along you will remember WAY back I had the other version of the console but had not only fitment issues with it but I had later on decided that it was a little too boring of a Upper Console for my taste so I bought this one only to discover similar fitment issues, that's what I get for buying parts from anyone other than a reputable parts vendor. Sometimes in this hobby you spend so much you are tempted to try and cut a few corners by getting a good deal with someone either selling some parts on eBay or "Face Book" in my case. As you know I had to heavily modify this Upper Console in order to make it fit properly, it seems to now but what a pain in the backside it was getting it there. Like I have mentioned before, If you don't mind doing a lot of custom work then buying some cheaper parts is a pretty good way to experiment, but if your looking for quick and simple I'd say make sure your parts you are buying are from a reputable parts vendor otherwise you'll be in for some extra work like I had to do.

Re-Finishing The Rear Side Speaker Covers

I re-finished my rear side speaker covers using some of the left over Headliner fabric. I actually found these to be a lot simpler to do than the Headliner, maybe because they are smaller or it might even have been the fact that I had the original fabric to use as a template to cut the shape of the new material out of. In any even they were easier to do. The one thing I did do is re-attach the clips on the back with some rivets used in leather work. I really did not like the way they installed those clips, seemed a pretty weak way of doing it if you ask me, in fact a few of the metal clips had actually fallen off over time, I saved them and riveted them in place (top left & right).

I used the Headliner adhesive spray to apply the new material after carefully taking off the old material, which was in surprisingly good shape, just the colour no longer matched the new Headliner so it had to go ;)

You can see my finished pieces here (left). They turned out great! :)

Applying The Headliner Fabric

First time ever doing this so this was fun. I didn't have the shape of the original fabric so some guess work was involved in how best to do this. I traced out the Headliner shape trying to leave a good two inches for overlap. Next step the messy, (Well hopefully not too messy) job of gluing on the Headliner fabric.

I applied the glue is stages working from the middle outwards. This is the Headliner before the backsides were folded over and glued into place. (Left) On the right you can see my finished job of how I folded the overlaps over. I'm not a pro. at this so the Pro's may very well do this differently, this seemed logical based on the video demo I watched on YouTube on how "JEG's Garage" did his Headliner fabric install. I probably could have done my inside back corners a little better but overall I'm happy with it for a very first time ever doing this. I'm just super happy I managed to not get any of the glue on the good side of the Headliner fabric. ;)

Here is my finished Headliner lying on my kitchen floor ;)

Test Fitting The Headliner

Test fitting the fibreglass headliner by Joe Penko. this thing fits like  glove, I have the holes cut and all lined up with the mounting holes in the car, now I just need to apply the headliner fabric which should arrive today. The next step will be to install the heavily modified Upper Console.

I have the fist stages of the priming going on, I have some spot sanding to do still and then prime it again before painting, then let it cure for a week. once that is done I should be able to get the Upper Console installed.... lol I'm hoping to get that done before the snow flies.... apparently we are in for an early winter here in Winnipeg, go figure.... summer went by WAY too fast this year.

Upper Console Modifications

I had to make some modifications to the Upper Console I had bought from someone on Face Book. As luck would have it the upper console did not fit very well in the front almost like it was a little warped and possibly was not glassed enough on both sides and front on the console. The back part fit fine although a little snug so I'm still a little concerned about how that will fit after the Headliner fabric has been applied to the fibreglass headliner I got from Joe Penko. I might need to take my heat  gun to the back part of the console to spread it out a little.... we'll see.

But this is the stage I'm at so far with the additional glass work I had to do to the Upper Console to make it fit better.... always something with some of these fibreglass parts if you buy them from someone other than a reputable vendor. This is why the Foundation has the "Trusted Vendor" list. This in some ways I have learn ed the hard way with this project. We all like a bargain and we all like to try and save some money on our Knight Rider projects when and wherever possible, but in doing so you have to be prepared for the fact that you are in many cases going to end up doing some customizing on fibreglass parts from vendors that are not on the "Trusted Vendors" list, which is OK I guess so long as you don't mind doing the extra work. ;)

Working Feverishly on The knight O.S.

This was me today working feverishly on the Knight O.S. dash software. We are fast getting closer and closer to being done, we basically just need to do some VR tweaks, find a suitable system to run our Knight O.S. on and then the beta should be ready I would think.

5 Inch LCD Touch Screens Installed Into Frames

I have installed the 5 inch touch screens into the monitor frames I got from Knight Rider World. I think because my 5 Inch screens were a little different than the ones that KRW uses I had to make a few modifications on how I attached all of the electronics to the back part of the frames. It took me the better part of this morning to figure out a good way to secure the boards to the back of the frames. I didn't have any circuit board spacers on hand so I used some plastic rigid tubing I had that I cut into short lengths and slipped over top of my long bolts that I used to secure the circuit boards to the back plate of the monitor frames. They seem to be pretty solid so unless they break I think they should be OK for now.

After I finished I soldered up the female end of the power connectors and then with fingers crossed I plugged them into my 12 Volt power supply pack. They started up OK so that is good, no shorts in the wiring. Hopefully I have enough separation between the circuit boards to allow for good air flow. I'm not sure how warm the boards will get if the monitors are on for any great deal of time, that is something to test out of the car for sure is a good endurance test of the monitor's electronics. I think they should be OK though. Next will be to test them out with the Knight O.S.

Knight O.S. Surveillance Mode Module Installed

I installed the Knight O.S. Surveillance mode module just under where I have my Voice Projection button & Knight Rider Theme cut off buttons installed. I hooked it up to our Knight O.S. via my Mac book.... gotta use that until I find a suitable P.C. to use in the car.... rough but it gives you an idea of what is supposed to happen, My Dash is out while I'm working on installing the new monitor frames for the 5 inch LCD touch screens..... over all it's coming together though.... keep a look out for a video demo coming up soon.

Installing the P.I.R. Sensors Into K.I.T.T's Front Nose

I installed the two P.I.R. Motion Sensors into K.I.T.T's front nose by mounting them onto the Fog Lights assembly. I made a couple of "L" shaped brackets for the P.I.R. sensors that I have installed into small project boxes. Each of the Fresnel Lens Domes on each P.I.R. Sensor has been sealed around the edge with black silicone, the same with the connector plug at the back of the box with the Power, Ground and Signal wires. The project boxes were then mounted to the "L" shaped brackets which were in turn mounted onto the Fog Lights assembly.

While I had my front nose off I had remembered that my Fog Lights look like they could come down a little, more the centre two, probably by about a good half inch or so... that will be something to tackle while I have the whole front end all "Discombobulated" ;) I'm happy the P.I.R. sensors are installed... just need to be wired up to our Knight O.S. and then all will be good and ready for another testing. I REALLY wish those P.I.R. Sensors worked through smoked glass or plexiglass that was smoked then they would not stand out so much.... Oh well we work with what we have I guess.... but hey if anyone knows of a P.I.R. sensor capable of that I'd love to hear about it ;)

One More tweak to The Login Screen

I made one more change to the log in screen buttons, I liked the idea of having some variety in the way that the log in code can be made a little more complex without being too complex, if that makes sense ;) I also came across this Keypad on eBay that can easily be used with Arduino and hence ultimately our Knight O.S. Software too. So I added in the A B C D buttons to allow for the use of those character entries also.

Rear PIR Sensor Mounting Bracket

I was trying to figure out a good place to install the rear PIR sensor without making it too visible. One of my first thought on the idea was to install the sensor in the rear bumper just above the licence plate area, the only thing about that idea I didn't like was that I would have needed to drill a hole in the bumper and mount the sensor box in behind the hole with the white fresnel dome poking through the bumper. With it being white I felt it would stand out too much even though it would be a pretty clean install method I just did not like the idea of this "White Spot" on K.I.T.T.'s nice black bumper, so what to do? My 2nd thought was to perhaps make some sort of bracket that the sensor could be attached too and have it installed a little more out of sight under the rear bumper. So I made this aluminum bracket I will test out and see if it works well in that location. A little experimenting will be no doubt in order but if it catches infrared motion fine there then all good as the sensor will be a little more less noticeable.

New login Buttons

I made a series of new buttons for the log in screen seeing how the monitors are only 5 inch touch screens and the small Space Matt buttons I was using before might well have been a little on the small side for anyone who has "sausage fingers." ;) This new set of buttons is more the classic phone type key pad style of buttons, the beep SFX is still the same just the buttons have changed to make the log in screen a lot more user friendly.

This to Fit This

This is a job I am not particularly looking forward to as there are a lot of wires to redo and reroute in order to make room for the blue plastic Gauge Cluster housing I modified to fit the Arduino Mega Enclosure, 16 Channel Relay Module and additional NAIS Relays Module.

Way back when I first started this project I was really not sure how many Relays I was going to need or really any sort of direction as to how to go about hooking them up. Now I have a lot more experience with this stuff and a lot more of a structured direction to go in. Like I say it's not a job I am looking forward too but the upshot will be that when I am done the install will be a lot cleaner and easier to manage. It's going to be a real wiring "Knightmare" though. ;)

Relays Labeled

I have all of the 16 Channel Relay Modules Relays controlled by the Arduino Mega labeled so that way I can know what they are at a glance even though I also have the wires going to each on the low voltage input pins labeled too having the tops of the relays visibly marked helps things a lot too. I figure this will make the job of connecting the switch side of each 10 amp Relay up to it's corresponding device a lot easier. The funny thing is that many of the Relays I don't even have a device to hook up to them yet, but it's sure nice knowing that the initial framework is all in place and ready for very easy hook up when I do eventually have the devices to hook up to them.... and that my friends saves a boat load of work to do in the future right? ;)

A Smaller Relay Module

Some of you may recall way, WAY back when I first started my dash install I had a series of NAIS relays mounted onto a piece of Lexan plastic that I installed in the area where the old Gauge Cluster used to be. If not maybe this image might refresh your memory a little ;) One of the reasons I had done it this way was,
one: I was not sure how many Relays I was going to need,
two: I was not really sure how to go about hooking up any devices I was going to want to install which also meant not knowing how many Relays were going to be needed too. So needless to say I was a little all over the map in some areas and fairly indecisive as to what direction to go in. So I went with the idea of;
"I would rather have too many than not enough."

Eventually as this project progressed and I started developing my own Dash Software (Knight O.S.) things started to become a little more clear as to how many and what sort of Relays I would need. So I pulled the old Gauge Cluster housing out of "Mothballs" and began modifying that to house the Arduino Micro Controller and some Relay modules.

I took about 6 of the NAIS Relays and soldered them onto a piece of Proto-board along with screw terminal blocks that will serve and the low voltage inputs to trigger the magnetic coil of each Relay. I then soldered on some 18 AWG wire for the outputs on the switch side of the relays. I soldered some pretty thick tracks onto the photo-board to make sure I had more than enough to drive any current the Relays are capable of, probably went a little "over kill" but what the heck, you know me..... lol or you should by now. ;) I took the extra precaution of reinforcing the wires soldered onto the photo-board by applying a good coat of fibreglass resin on the tracks side of the board and the top side. rest assured those soldered connections are going nowhere. ;)

I then took a strip of high density foam rubber that has a sticky back side and applied that to the track side of the board. (See Left)

I then mounted the newer more compact relay module into the Gauge Cluster housing like this. (See Right) 
With that all hooked up in there nice and neat that will give me 6 more additional Relays to use if I need them. I still need to mount in the 5 pin Relay that is used for the Headlights & Running Lights, but I should be able to work that into this scenario. I'll keep you posted on what I do for that.

Arduino Module

Lots of soldering wires today for the Arduino Module to control the 16 Channel Relay Module. There are lots of connection still to have wires soldered to when I get another Relay Module. As it is it's pretty crowded with wires and I have that project box pretty stuffed, but neatly stuffed. I'll take to top off in a later post and show how it's all put together. Depending on how much stuff you want our Knight O.S. software to run will really determine how stuffed your project box will be. My guess is that if you wanted every device hooked up you would need a bigger project box to make room for all of the wires as they take up a good deal of space.

As you can see I have my wires for each of the Arduino pins that they are connected too so I can track which one goes to which of the Relays on the 16 Channel Relay Module. If all goes according to plan I may very well be able to install this Arduino Module and the 16 Channel Relay Module into the blue plastic Gauge Cluster housing that I spent the better part of this morning cutting out all of the "greeble" to make usable space inside of the old Gauge Cluster housing. That was a time consuming and messy job that involved lots of cutting with my Dremel Tool.

Here is a shot of the old Gauge Cluster housing all cleared out to make space for the Arduino & Relay Module. I should be able to mount those other Relays I have installed under the dash into this thing too and it should make my install a lot cleaner of a job. ;)

Here is a shot of the Arduino Mega with the Connections "Hat" I made with the wire connections soldered on for the 16 Channel Relay Module, LDR Sensor, Temperature Sensor and Compass Module & Compass LEDs. As you can see if one wanted to hook up all of the other pins you would probably need to make some holes in the sides of the Project Box or use a bigger Project Box to contain it all. But even a bigger Project Box will still fit quite nicely into the blue plastic Gauge Cluster Housing area.

Arduino Mega Connections Hat

So in an effort to try and make things a little more compact and try and eliminate a lot of the "Spaghetti Wires" scenario which is a little difficult when you have so many connections like this. I'm giving this idea a shot, it's basically an offshoot idea as to what you have seen in my previous posts with the Connections Proto-Board I had been experimenting with. It's basically all that just turned into an "Arduino Hat." The "Hat" is then connected to the Arduino using Header Pins instead of all of those loose flying "Spaghetti Wires." I mean I'll still have wires but they will be coming off of the "Hat" and then going into Molex Connectors.

I had a pretty easy time soldering in all the header pins to the piece of Proto-Board I had cut the the right size to fit on top of the Arduino until I got to the last row of pins. As it turns out on my Arduino the one row of female sockets closest to the USB connector was offset by just half a hole spacing on the Proto-Board so when I got to it I thought: 
"Oh great! Now what am I going to do?"
 Luckily I came up with a solution. I used a very fine bit on my Dremel to drill tiny holes between the existing holes on the Proto-Board and then used another fine bitt to grind off the copper solder pads around the holes. I then soldered on the header pins into the newly drilled holes and uses fine wire clipping from component wires to run the solder to the "offset" holes in the next line. I used my Multi-Meter to make sure there were no shorts as it was a tricky soldering job that anyone following hopefully will NOT have to contend with. I was just unlucky enough to get an Arduino that had this slight manufacturing flaw. Either that of maybe it fits the factory made "Proto-Shield Hats" better?? I guess I'll find out when the two I ordered off eBay finally arrive ;) In any event I was able to work around it and create my own "Proto-Shield Hat" that I can solder my Optocouplers, Resistors and Jumper Wires on too.

Here is a diagram work in progress of what I am working towards with this idea.

I soldered in the Optocouplers and the 10K Resistor for the LDR Sensor. You can see here in these two photos that it was a pretty delicate job but just took some patience. lol I don't think the six cups of coffee helped much for having a steady hand so I had to brace my hand against my work bench just to keep it stable ;)

I may need to solder in a couple more Optocouplers as I may need them for screen transition requests via a Switch Pod button or some other button. I have the room on the "Hat" I'm making so a little forethought in that area might be handy ;) The Optocouplers currently on the "Hat" are for the Left & Right Turn Signal indicators in the Knight O.S. interface. 2 others are for Forward & Backwards direction indicators (Currently not set up), One is for the Manual Override Screen Request, and the other is for one of the Environment Scan Screen Requests. The Optocouplers take either a 12V Positive or Ground to trigger a 5V ground on the Arduino and are completely isolated from the 5V Arduino.