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.

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. ;)

HMC5883L Digital Compass Installed In Upper Console

I installed the HMC5883L Digital Compass into the Upper Console, I struggled long and hard for s good starting place to install this very tiny sensitive device. You are supposed to keep them away from wires and metal, lol well good luck with that as where in a car can you install something like this that it's not going to be fairly close to some sort of metal or electrical wires. I thought about somewhere in the dash but again same problem plus that area is close to the Engine Bay so I figured "Nay Nay" on that idea.
The trunk area I thought but then I'm running an excessive amount of wires for a 5V tiny device. The Upper Console seemed like a good idea as it's only got the T-Bar metal to deal with, it's somewhat centrally located, and yes there are wires but how close is "Too Close" ?? I guess when I take the Upper Console out for a test fit I'll find out won't I? If that does not work then I am at somewhat of a loss as to where a good place to install the compass would be. At least in the Upper Console I can run the 5V Power and ground off of the same one that the Temperature Sensor Module and Compass Indicator LEDs are using. Anyways, I hooked it all up to my Arduino Mega & Unity 3D setup and gave it all a bench test and it seems fine with the exception of the Compass still needing to be calibrated properly, but it all works. That Temperature Sensor I'm very impressed with, that thing works beautifully. 

S-1 Upper Console Electronics Arrive

I got the Season One Upper Console electronics from Knight Rider World a couple of days ago (left). Here I am giving them a quick test simply hooked up to my Eliminator 12V power supply. They all work great so next will come the fun job of figuring out the best way to install them into my Upper Console. The double board with the digital text light ups on the top (right top) I'm not sure where I am going to put that one as I know it won't fit in the front of my console because on mine I have put the microphone, indicator light, Mic push button and I have installed the little circuit board for the Annunciator loudspeaker that I am using as part of K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit. So I'll end up figuring something else out to use that board for, relocate it somewhere else. I'll hook up the Count-Up display and the Dummy row to my third lighted Rocker switch on the side of my Upper Console so that way when that switch is turned on the Count-Ups and Dummy row will activate and do their thing.

Adding Switches To K.I.T.T.s Upper Console

I brought in the Upper Console from the garage seeing how it was kind of a crappy day out and did a little work on it in my back work room. I added those lighted blue and red switches from the season 2 console (that I was not too crazy about the fitment of) into the season 1 console. I pulled the wiring harness with the Molex connector off of the other S-2 console too. I figured that since my relays under the stock OEM dash were already set up for my Fog Lights I might as use these colored lighted rockers for the Fogs. No point running extra wires when I already have them in place and ready to use. ;)

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.