Getting Ready To Wire The S-1 Upper Console

I have worked out a work in progress wiring scheme for my season one Upper Console. The way I had it wired before when I was using the season 3 Upper Console which didn't fit quite right, was I had a separate power wire running to each of the switches. For some reason I didn't realize that I only needed one power wire to run to the Upper Console and then just branch off of that so long as the wire is rated the correct AWG to handle the load. I'm still trying to figure out what all of the Season One Upper Console electronics pull power wise plus all of the lighted rocker switches for up there as well. Once I know that I'll have a far better idea of what gauge (AWG) wire to run up to the console. Like I say though in the meantime I have worked out a work in progress wiring diagram for this particular job. Seeing how most of the electronics are LEDs and the switches will be just going to activate the magnetic coils of SPST Relays I can't see the power load being that much, I could probably get away with an 18 AWG or even a 16 AWG gauge wire running from the pawer fuse block I have installed into the lower hush panel on the passenger side. I just want to be sure first before I go to the trouble of running any sort of power wire up there.

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. ;)

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.

Season One Upper Console

I picked up another upper console from someone on Face Book who had two and was looking to sell, the price was good so I bought one from him. My reason being that although in many ways I like the one I had because of it's flatter streamlined design, I did not like the way it was fitting along the front part of the windshield. The part that wings out at the drivers side had way too much of a gap and although I could fill it in with additional padding along the head-liner I was not overly thrilled with my electronics in it, they are pretty boring and uninteresting, the season one console to me has nicer and more interesting electronics and does actually match my season one dash. Now I'll need to get the electronics and switches for this new upper console. But I took it out yesterday to do a test fit and although I need to modify my mounting brackets I had made for the other console I can already tell that this one is going to fit WAY better than the one I was using.