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.

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.

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. ;)

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. ;)

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.

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.

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. ;)