Project Done

Ok. Spend the most part of my waking hours today doing up my project - Changing of my ICE (In-Car-Entertainment).

Nothing fancy, just changing of HU (Head Unit). Below is the original HU :



Well. The Challenge is ripping out the silver panel in order to access the screws to remove the HU. Heard that the siver panel is held by clips, no screws. Ok. Here goes nothing...

12.30pm - Removed the glove compartment on the left.
12.40pm - Accessed the right of the silver panel. Tried to push with my finger. Ouch. Pushed Harder, it popped out a little. Used my key-chain tag to pry from below (where the 3 air-con dials are). Prying from left to right.
1.00pm - Ha ha ! Silver panel came out. With a bunch of wires and cables attached. The dials below had cables attached.

This view is from top. What you see on the left side is the driver floormat.



1.10pm - Had to remove the clock wires and the hazard light wires before I can tilt the silver panel down to gain access to the entire ICE. (Yes, it took me 10 minutes to pull out those cables. Limited space and also the connectors all have latches.)

1.15pm - Unscrewed and pulled out the HU. Sorry, in my excitement, I forgot to take pictures of every step. Now trying to remove all the cables attached to the HU.

1.25pm - Totally removed the original HU. Yeah, another 10 minutes and painful fingers. Compared the connectors and they are a match with the JVC that I wanted to install. Pin-outs were matching, as I had compared the manuals last night. However, there is one extra cable - Remote controller. There is no such connector on the JVC. Anyway, I do not have steering-wheel controller. So it doesn't matter.

1.30pm - Connected the JVC set to test it out. It works ! Ensured that the "left" and "right", "front" and "rear" channels are working properly.

1.40pm - Tried to screw the brackets onto the JVC set.

1.55pm - Mounted the new JVC HU in. Too low. Take out and remount the brackets.

2.00pm - Fully mounted the JVC HU in. Connected clock and hazard-light cables. Re-installed silver panel.

2.15pm - After slamming and hitting the panel home, reattached the air-con cables (I had to unplug some of them). Realized that the HU is too far in. The front cover of this HU is smaller than the original HU, thus it left 2 gaping holes on the 2 sides and able to see the screws. Oh shit. The only way is to make it protrude more, hopefully able to cover the hole.

2.20pm - Managed to take out the silver panel again. Lost one of the metal clips somewhere inside. I hope it doesn't rattle or create noise next time. I just can't find it.

2.45pm - Gave up looking for the clip. Adjusted the brackets. Fit HU back in, put silver panel halfway in to see if it covers enough. No.

3.00pm - Re-adjusted the brackets again. This time, it seems good. Mounted silver panel back home. Re-attached all wires, and cables.

3.15pm - Took the glove compartment. All my stuff dropped out. Opps. Reinstalled glove compartment. Put all my stuff back in.

3.25pm - Started engine, test aircon - Working. Test HU - Working. Great ! Mission accomplished. Wanted to wash car, but is drizzling. Remembered that I wanted to take photos, so here are is the new JVC HU installed :

If you look closely, you can see some scratch marks on the yellow panel bordering the silver panel.

This is taken with flash.



This is taken without flash.



Opps, my sexy legs can be seen. Heh heh.

Look at the cool colours. I am now able to play MP3 and WMA CDs ! It sounds better (higher power output than my original HU), more equalizer functions, and more FM channel memories. I am able to customize colours in different modes.

I have to find the software to allow me to download more pictures and animations into the HU. Bet you didn't know that it is possible, well, I didn't... that I can program pictures, burn them into a CD, slot it into the HU and pick the graphics that I want and associate them with various things like start-up graphics, screen-savers etc. This HU is cool.

The only function I find missing from this HU that my original one had - Ability to activate without turning on the vehicle power. Sometimes, when I leave people in the car and I bring my car keys with me (turning off everything in the process,) they now couldn't even listen to the radio.

If I hack the wires such that the HU connects directly to the battery power, then it will not auto-off when I turn off my car. Damn. Just one missing feature. The only thing I can do now without powering on, is to eject the CD.

4.00pm - Finished customizing the radio channels, audio volume, equalizers, etc. Ok. Rain stopped. Cleaned carpet. Cleaned leather seats. Washed my car

5.00pm - Finished washing. Now with my claybar, hunted around for foreign objects still stuck on the paint.

5.30pm - Drove to a brighter and dry area of the MSCP (Multi-storey Car Park) and start to wax. Haven't done it for 2 months.

6.30pm - Done. Ran out of water. Rushed home to drink cold soft-drinks.

Ok. Now you know how I spent the day.