Knight Rider '06 Progress Report

Posting from inside the car!

Well, the computer is now installed and the subwoofer box is under construction. It appears as if the project will be completed just barely in time to present on Friday. There are a large number of things that have taken place since I last posted. Monday I organized the computers wires and connected everything. The same day the subwoofers arrived in the mail and we were able to track down the two amplifiers for the front and rear speakers. After I hooked up the computer we tried to test it but it would not boot so after an hour of so of fiddling with settings on the power supply we went home. The next morning I called the power supply manufacturer and they were able to halfway solve the problem. The man on the phone had me unplug the extra USB ports that came with the case because the opus company had the header for the USB misconfigured for my motherboard.

This took away some of my concerns but the computer would still not boot. Mike searched through the power supply documentation and figured out that the power supply had to be configured the first time it is connected to the battery and so after that the computer booted! I went online and figured out the proper way the extra USB ports plugged in and then they worked as well. I then re-installed the computer to the car only to find I had forgotten to put in the IDE cable to the hard drive and so it had to be taken out again and then properly set up. This time I made sure everything was right before it put it back inside the rear panel in the car. I connected all the wires and then connected the touch screen...

After connecting the touch screen and powering on the screen instead of displaying the computers information the screen turned solid white. I called the screens manufacturer and they said it was probably a bad ribbon cable and that I could send it in for repairs. That wasn't going to work because of the time constraints on me so I overnighted a new screen and should have that Thursday. In the meantime I am using a screen from home to test out the functions of the computer. First post the computer would not boot this was caused by the USB DVD rom drive so after I unplugged it the computer booted. This left me with the problem of the computer not working with the DVD rom drive, which is a must, and while I was doing this Dave and Mike began to construct the subwoofer box. Windows was a bit confused by all the ports being changed on things, but eventually everything worked out and I even made the computer boot with the DVD drive plugged in.

The only thing left now is for the screen to come and the subwoofer box to be made and have the amps configured. The car should be assembled back together, mostly, tonight. I have no way to connect my camera to this computer, but I will post some pictures when I get home.

posted by THL @ 10:36 AM