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Thread: Car Audio.

  1. #421
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    That Joying unit is... something. It's kind of odd. Would it sit in front of the panels?

    I'd rather have it flush, original looking.

  2. #422
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    It's clear their intention is that it can sit out front - check out the gigantic 10.1" version!



    However, my entire point is getting it into the dash, fitted as opposed to bolted-on. The 6.2" version would leave ~4mm of gap between the edge of the panel and the hole in the dash - I'd fill that with maybe some ABS or something. Maybe a bezel could be 3D printed, but I think the "layers" would be evident. Possibly some thick paint could fix that? In any case, I think it could be made to look factory-ish. It'll also require some interesting mounting of the actual chassis, but I picked up a spare factory cage to mess with. I have some good ideas about how to make that work. Well, I think they're good.

    I just really don't want to hack up the Viggen's dash in any way, and at the same time FM can only get you so far these days. We do have a kick-ass retro hip hop station now, but the ad cycle is unbearable.

    Edit: I will say that this Joying system is cool. I could definitely see a lot of applications where a fixed 10" Android machine stuck onto the dash would be super useful. I'll bet a lot of Lyft drivers would benefit.
    Last edited by thesameguy; September 27th, 2017 at 08:46 AM.

  3. #423
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    I thought about it some more and pulled the trigger on the 6.2" version. I think I can make it work in a visually appealing sort of way, and I know my tolerance for top-down motoring is going to be very limited with only FM radio. Hopefully it's as decent as reviews say. TBH, if I was comparing against traditional stereos that mostly just work I wouldn't have such a positive outlook, but comparing against the Pioneer AVH-X3800BHS in the Suburban, where lots of stuff doesn't work *great*, I think I can have reasonable expectations. Not sure how I feel about that.

    Anyway, I had all the right parts in the garage, so I made up an adapter to connect a regular stereo to the Viggen's proprietary amp and temp-wired an ISO radio harness to a spare Pioneer stereo to be sure I could easily make an aftermarket stereo work in the Viggen.



    Yep, that works.

    At least I know the wiring won't be a challenge. The challenge will be making it fit right.

    Unrelated, I yanked the subwoofer out of the parts 9-3 just to clear room in the trunk for actual junk.



    It's almost new. I'm really torn on whether I should keep it or sell it. It's one of those things I will almost certainly never use - I can't imagine being willing to give up trunk space to that monstrosity - but OTOH I won't get much for it, and if I ever do want a 12" sub... IDK.

  4. #424
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    Looking forward to the after pics.

  5. #425
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    What? Wire nuts not professional enough for you?

  6. #426
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    As long as you also electrical tape them.

  7. #427
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    Props to China. Order head unit on Wednesday, they deliver it Friday. I can't get mail from San Francisco that quickly.

  8. #428
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    I think this is going to work out great:



    99% sure my mounting solution will work without issue. The stereo includes an ISO-compatible wiring harness so is 90% plug & play - I just need to make an adapter to intercept the steering wheel controls. Only real things to do are figure out how (or if!) I want to actually block the space behind the display, and how best to make trim to fill in the space between the dash and the display. Those two things can be done after the actual install, so I can hopefully enjoy it for a while and make sure it fits my needs before investing time in custom details.

  9. #429
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    Stick some EL wire in the gap and call it a day.
    Whoomah!

  10. #430
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    Great minds! I was seriously thinking about some side-lit RBG LEDs. It would be totally stupid, but it would fill the gap.

    It's getting dark early these days, but so far so good.

    Factory cage lightly modified so that the 1-din Joying can be secured. I actually junkyarded this cage since I wasn't sure how this was going to go. Clearly wasn't necessary - I could have done this on the one in the car and still used it with the factory stereo.



    Two little half-moons in the dash to clear the screws in the cage. I probably could have found some nicer button-head screws, but I used what I had. You can't see this adjustment with the stereo installed.



    Cage and head unit chassis test-installed. No wiring is done, but proof of concept.



    Total panic.



    After three reboots the head unit fixed itself. Coincidentally, this is exactly what my clone Tech 2 did the first time I booted it up... totally scrambled display! There is a label on the head unit that says in truly broken English "After reattaching the display press the reset button" so I did that. It was less scrambled the second time, so I did it again. Looked better, so I did it one more time. Third time's the charm!



    I cycled the ignition a few times and it's stayed intact, so I think it's good. In doing so, I noticed the thing loses about half its settings every time the key is switched off and back on. I changed about a half dozen things, they get lost when I turn it off.

    Then I remembered reading somewhere that Saab swapped battery (+30) and switched (+15) wires on their ISO connector. That could explain this, so I will check it out tomorrow. I actually think the B5 A4 was the same, thinking about it.

    I was able to tune radio stations and all the speakers seem to be working. One thing I did not notice ahead of time is that the Joying has only a mono sub out. I can either run the door speakers in mono, or connect them to the rear pre-amp outputs. Not sure yet, a little disappointed about this but it's fine.

    The only other "challenge" so far is that Joying has separate leads for amp trigger and antenna trigger, and neither are in the ISO connector, they're just loose. I'm not immediately sure how I am going to deal with the antenna wire. I don't want to cut the factory wiring, but I may have no choice. I don't have any spare terminals for the Joying connector housing and I don't recognize it.

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