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. ;)