2003 Toxic Tacoma

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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by ToxicGumbo »

Between cleaning the house and childcare, I was able to find some time today to build an improvised GPIO cable, relocate the RTC on the Pi (from it's previous and ultra-sketchy jumper hack), solder the audio female jack on to the FreeEMS load/run jumper wire, and hot-glue the jumper wires in various places to sustain road vibration (those jumpers like to work their way off even when sitting still). It's a tremendous feeling to actually put most of my tools and supplies back where they belong.

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^ Here's what the RTC arrangement looks like now. I used a ribbon-cable jumper set and heatshrinked the ends together, then hot glued them lightly at both ends to hold them in place. The RTC clock was tucked away in the case and is taped by the IC to its wall via 3M double-sided tape.

The cable just in view orbiting the Pi is a hack I'm both embarrassed by and proud of. It's two ribbon jumpers stacked on top of two ribbon jumpers stacked on top of two ribbon jumpers. I had a pile of old Radio Shack resistors that haven't been used in 20 years of owning them, so I chopped the legs and fed them between each jumper, then used heatshrink to hold them together. The end result is a long extension cable for GPIO shutdown. When power is cut from the Mausberry unit, power is diverted from always-on battery power, a script is called, magic tasks happen, and the Pi shuts down. At first, that's exactly what it will do, but in the future I hope to sync fresh logs, firmware updates/dumps, and Ultimate Tools updates with Dropbox prior to shutdown. That capability alone justifies all this fuss, but I plan to do a lot more (tuning, weather, shortwave audio, YouTube, LiDAR mapping, GPS navigation, voice assistance, bluetooth telephone, etc.).


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^ First audio test and...it works! Not bad considering all the wiring is yellow, it was done while on the job, and I entirely relied on the harness' "wiring diagram according to most Toyotas" claim. My fears were confirmed, however, that the two audio jacks were each mono for left/right channels. That's a pain because I'm one ideal cable short and all my splitters and converters arrange in ways that don't fit. Still, very exciting to hear music pumping away agreeably at 50% from my iPhone. Here's the song that was readily available:


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^ This song never sounded better than hearing it on my own hardware.

With the test successful, even without the proper audio cabling I can install the cage and guts permanently. If any cables have to run over the metal edges, I'll consider hotgluing a split cable's insulation across the edge so the machined metal can't saw away at anything. As for the heatsink, it wasn't warm to the touch after one song played with gusto, so I don't anticipate having to install any fire retardant foam or shielding so long as the cables are run carefully.


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^ For context, the view from the cab during testing.
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by ToxicGumbo »

Realizing I didn't post older photos of the RTC setup and amplifier cage, here they are for reference. Note that at the time I didn't have any better options for the RTC since the PiCAN2 board and stock pin header didn't leave room for additional devices. I since bought an extended-pin header and that changed everything.

Real Time Clock hack:

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Early amp prep:

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Fred
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

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"This song never sounded better than hearing it on my own hardware."

Two comments:

2) Isabel and I both disliked that track quite significantly. I apologised for having played it.
1) I know the feeling. Most of my music listening is through my amp and speakers :-)

"if any cables have to run over the metal edges, I'll consider hotgluing a split cable's insulation across the edge so the machined metal can't saw away at anything."

Volvo one upped you here. The frame that holds the steering column in 700/900 series cars has sharp edges from pressing/sheering, and has rubber edges clipped over it to protect, not wiring, but rather your wrists! :-) I have a tweet....

Lower right, reused on front edges: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0352279553
This one, this one! https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6363767810
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

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LOL. It's amusing that I'm able to conjure such revulsion half the world away and in such a short amount of time. Apologies to you and Isabel. :-) I don't keep music on my phone and it was available to stream...she's a bit off-key and it sounds caricaturistic of his other music, but was suitable for my "Watson, come here...I need you" euphoria. These small gains are rewarding given how stretched thin my time and money has been.

Thanks for linking the Volvo examples. It has me thinking and I hope to resolve it today.
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

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Turns out that corrugated cable guide works well enough. Here's more or less what it looked like before some cutting and hot-gluing:

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I tried installing it in the dark which turned out to be a bad idea. Seems that the various dash cables need to be re-situated, something I'll take care of during lunch tomorrow.
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Fred
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by Fred »

Jeff, is that welding I see in that photo? :-D
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Matthijs
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by Matthijs »

ToxicGumbo wrote:...
(parts of diary left out)
... The sidewalls were so shaky without the rest of the case bolting them into place that I made some really crappy Harbor Freight 115V flux core welds. ...
(parts of diary left out)
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by ToxicGumbo »

Thanks for the quote, Matthijs. :-)

Some progress, bold text as a reminder-at-a-glance of specific needs:

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^ After rerouting cables, the amplifier cage fit. HDMI will require a 90deg adapter and the CAN DB9 will need to tether to raw wire due to the temperature controls sitting immediately on top. Those parts are already on their way as is some more appropriate audio cabling.


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^ With spare time, I decided to go ahead and hook up the Pi and check clearances. 3/4 of the USB cable ends are too long, so that will need to be resolved. They include: A powered hub with one spare slot, the ECU, an extension cable for flash drives, and a microphone. I'll either look for an unpowered 90deg dangling-cable-style hub or, more likely, a powered duplicate of the hub I already have and swap out the CB power for the interim.


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^ The good news is...it runs! The bad news is that I eventually got a power warning and reset, something I'm a bit alarmed by. The Mausberry unit is supposed to handle 3A--more than my desk configuration--and I'm wondering now if it's 1.5 per port. This requires some investigation and possibly another solution for just the Pi itself or possibly swapping the hub and screen power lines.


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^ And of course, I forgot to put my parking tag back on before heading in to work, so witness the obligatory parking ticket (yellow).


The very next test has nothing to do with the above, however. I'm simply curious my the car will start in a few hours as the Pi was still receiving power despite being shut down. While the Mausberry unit is designed to handle safe power down, I'm thinking it never cuts power to the live source in the final steps. That's bad since it'll leave a parasitic draw and means the screen absolutely has to be powered from another source.
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ToxicGumbo
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by ToxicGumbo »

Despite the doom and gloom of dark skies and rain, I was able to get some additional work done:
  • Labeled cable ends
  • Re-crimped a new end on the Mausberry ground
  • Plugged the visor Mic into the powered hub
  • Re-soldered the cigarette lighter plug back onto the CB radio
  • Removed the Y cables for the CB and socket bundle, added a 3 socket expansion for two USB ports and the CB
  • Ordered the remainder of what I need (last night via Amazon)
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^ Much-needed labels!

The two USB ports will be for the touchscreen and hub, each rated for up to 1A. The Mausberry will now only power the Pi, hopefully up to 3A. One of the USB adapters was acting glitchy, so it will be replaced.

Tomorrow:
  • Finalize new power routing
  • Actually configure safe power-off
  • Close up the bottom of the waterfall, but leave unfastened for future reset switch to Pi USB power
Final goodies should arrive within the next 10 days. After that, it's mostly a matter of software configuration and development of a custom hardware interface (which I already have the parts for) and haven't seen done in any setting other than academic.

Edit: For my own reference, the Toyota cigarette lighter wiring appears to be good for up to 20A, so the CB on transmit is likely the worst offender and well within spec even if the fuse limits the max.
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Fred
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Re: 2003 Toxic Tacoma

Post by Fred »

ToxicGumbo wrote: Image
^ The good news is...it runs!
Image
DIYEFI.org - where Open Source means Open Source, and Free means Freedom
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FreeEMS dev diary and its comments thread and my turbo truck!
n00bs, do NOT PM or email tech questions! Use the forum!
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