lithium

Hey guys, I'm back with an update. Weather hasn't cooperator with me but what do you expect this time of year. I attached the tweeter pods to the mid range pods with some epoxy. Notice I had to print a new tweeter pod for the left side to gain some clearance. I'm using some camera tripod mounts and threaded inserts to hold the pods to the A pillar trim. I'm not sure if this will hold up but I'll see how it goes. On the rear of the A pillar trim I used some large round pieces of metal to reinforce the trim piece. I did a few test fits before getting things right but this is how the pods are installed for now. Sorry for the bad quality pics. I decided to throw these in there and go grab some late night Chinese food. This photo is from right above the driver side headrest. should give you an idea on how they're aimed. My lazer pointer worked pretty well! I'll play around with the tweeter orientation as I tune. So the whole point of this build was to see how low I can get these 4 incher to play and see if they meet up with the midbass in the 100-150 hz range. I haven't tested too much yet but I think that it will work. Unfortunately, my mdf baffle on the driver side door is complete fucked from water so I ordered some plastic cutting board material and a jigsaw to make a new baffle...

scrap the rear and spend that money on alittle sound deadening up front

Those mounts look sweet. thanks for the suggestion!

Attaching these suckers to the A pillar will be tough. I think I'll try to use some metal washers epoxy to reinforce the A pillar trim. I may end up attaching it the pillar itself.. not sure yet.

Quick update. I made a holder for a cheap laser pointer. The laser isn't pointed straight so in practice you have to rotate the laser pointer in the holder, this makes a circle on the object your aiming it at so you can estimate the center point. Not ideal but it works.

I think I paid less than 300 on the cr-10 but I had to spend more to put in new fans and isolating/dampening mounts on the x and y motors. It was too loud to operate in my 1 bed room apt otherwise. I plan to print some of the parts for these pods in abs later this year. But I will likely have to make some modifications to the printer to print in abs. Most ppl build an enclosure around the printer to keep temps higher I believe. I went back and forth between the cr-10 and the prusa i3 mk2 when I was shopping for printers. Not quite sure what happened to the nd20. The dome is hard/brittle to the touch. Perhaps it was exposed to some chemical or light.. it slightly discolored as well

One of my dayton ND20's has a damaged cone so I'll probably use these guys for now. The tweeter dome kind of dried up.... not sure if you can fix that.

Quick update. Started building the speaker/tweeter pods. Current internal volume available is about 56 in^3, with polyfill it would add a little bit more to that effectively. I could go larger if needed. You lose quite a bit of volume to wall thickness with the pvc pipe. The tweeter pods were designed in fusion 360 and printed on my CR-10.

I can definitely add a tweeter. I got some little dayton nd20's lying around somewhere or the slightly larger Tang Band 25-1166SJ 1".

So a car battery is wired to the ignition of the car. When you start a car or turn the key to the ON position it will turn on other components in the car (hvac, lights, etc). This is accomplished with relays. When a relay is switched on it sends 12v from the battery to the components wired to that relay (lights for example). If a car didn't do this then the battery would be drained because all the components in the car would be constantly powered on. So if you look at basic wiring diagram for a headunit you will see the 12V constant power from the battery and accessory power (switched power from the ignition). You can think of the accessory power as the remote IN to the headunit. The headunit will then create a remote out [sometimes called the antenna out, (some cars use this signal to raise the antenna)] which is wired to other audio devices in the car (amps, LOCs, DSP, etc). So these components are effectively passing through the accessory power from the car's ignition.

Unfortunately, both the inner and outer rocker panel rusted through so its good that I was able to add some of the structural integrity back. I made sure to cover any exposed metal with por15 and bed liner so it should hold up longer then I intend to keep the car.

Well I think its time to start updating this thread again. I took a bit of a break from car audio stuff over the last year or so. In Dec 2016 I was laid off from my job in Illinois and moved to Michigan. Two months later I was offered my position back at my previous job and decided to take it. I'm not a big fan of central IL but the work is considerably more interesting. In 2016-2017 I made a few undocumented upgrades to the car, I swapped out the two minidsp 2x4 units for a minidsp 6x8. Shame I didn't see that dayton audio DSP (perhaps it wasn't out then) but seems like a better deal. I also swapped out the two 2-channel amps that powered the tweeters and midrange drivers w/ a ppi900.4. A few months later I was jumping the car and blew the amp. Not exactly sure why it blew, it was purchased used but I suspect that I it blew because I keyed the car on, connected the battery jumper, and then started the car. Perhaps the voltage drop during the engine crank zapped it. Anyways, I replaced it with a nvx800.4 since you can not find the ppi amps anywhere (and I think I grabbed it from the ssa store, iirc). In 2017 I had to address some significant rust issues with the rocker panels that almost pushed me towards buying a new vehicle. I decided that "repairing" would be a better option as the cost to own a low mileage (2001 w/ 75k mi.) GM sedan is pretty cheap. I cut the rocker panels off below the door seam, separated the pinch weld, and attached a new rocker panel with 3m panel bonding adhesive and self taping screws. Obviously not the correct way to do it but I only drive 15 miles round trip to work and put a whoppping 5k miles on the car last year. I also pulled the fiberglass panels out with the intention to re-upholstery them. But, I haven't gotten to it yet. My original upholstery job looked decent, I managed to get a decent color match with a spray dye/color coat product. But the summer heat caused the glue to fail. I got some tonneau cover adhesive that I hope will work better. Anyways, future plans for the car are to move the midrange drivers up to the A pillar to address some issues with the frequency response from the driver side kick panel. I plan to try out some Markaudio drivers or use my Tangband w4s. I will probably not use a tweeter but I have several lying around if needed. The sls 8s might be swapped out if I cant get the 4" midrange to play low enough. updated pic of the amp rack, https://imgur.com/Gdu11nn

Hey guys, been awhile. I've been messing around with the build here and there for the last 2 years and its largely remained the same. I swapped in a mini dsp 6x8 and a new 4 channel amp for the mids and tweets. https://imgur.com/Gdu11nn Currently the build is a 3 way front stage with SLS 8's in the doors along with Tangband w4's and some peerless tweets in the kick panels. The problem is that the driver side kick panel is this strange black hole for mid to high frequencies. I've spent the last two days trouble shooting the amp and wiring to make sure its not something electrical. That all said, I think I'm going back to the A pillar full range setup (either with or without a tweeter). I ran the sls 8s with a set of peerless full ranger in my previous car so I'm aware of what to expect. The only issue I had at the time was that the 3" has trouble matching up with the sls'8 in the 250hz range. I'm not sure if that was due to the drivers or some cabin modes. I'd consider upgrading the 8's if need be. So i'm looking for suggestions on what 3-4 inch full range drivers to try in the A pillar. Not sure if a 4" would work in the A pillar? Drivers I've used before: Peerless 830986 Fountek FR88EX Hivi B3 (have a pair from a Zaph project) Tang band w4 1337 Other options Tang band w3 bamboo FaitalPRO 3FE25 or other drivers from FaitalPro Dayton audio? Vifa TC9FD Install will likely be PVC end caps temporarily and later I will fiber glass. I might play around with 3D printing the enclosure to some extent.

if the auto sense feature doesn't work as it should than its trivial to run a remote wire to turn the lc2i and amp on. the voltmeters are tacky garbage. Unless you listen to music to with sustained tones the meter wont show you quick transient dips in voltage. Just do The Big Three and use your ears and eyes when you're listening to music. A 1kw amp shouldn't be tooo bad for most vehicles I would think.

If I get creative with some PVC pipe I could play around with enclosure size for now. Its not quite that cold in central IL but I do not have access to garage either... Interesting, I'll look into UV resin.

I think i'll grab a pair of those markaudio drivers just for fun and mess around with some A pillar pods for now. Too cold to do any fiber glassing for now.

I'd be interested in swapping out the midbass if I dont lose too much midbass. Though, I'm probably not pushing the sls 8s all that hard as these GM doors are not very robust, even with a massive amount of sound deadening treatments. Any suggestion on 8" drivers?

i'll have to go back and check my build log. I don't even remember the issue. Probably fixed it w/ either the new amp or dsp.

I think I will try making a mold with expanding foam and use that to figure out enclosure size. Venting the enclosure might be possible. There is a plastic molding that runs across the dash along the windshield which I could remove. Venting into the dash might be a good option. I'll add the Markaudio drivers too the list. I've seen them on madisound but haven't seen maybe people run them. Do you run full range on axis or off axis w/ a tweeter. I have an the channels available to use tweeters if need be.

They were mounted in PVC end caps using some threaded rod to attach them to the A pillar (on axis to the driver). From what I remember, yes. I put some FR88's in my brothers car but I matched them with a Dayton audio 7" so I probably crossed them a bit higher then what I can do now.

Thanks guys, grabbed a Sony. Taking a trip to Peru in two weeks and wanted to carry something other than my phone during our 4 day hike to machu picchu.

Hey guys, how's it been. Anyone have a cheap point and shoot camera recommendation? I'm going on vacation and want something other than my phone for taking pics.

oh just from the power options. sweet