fiber optikon
Jan. 1st, 2019 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishYesterday I ... okay, this gets complicated.
Hactar, my Volvo S40, has a stereo system that includes a 6-disc CD changer, but not an audio line-in or a cassette deck, which means that the main ways of playing music off my phone aren't available to me. And I can't just yank the existing stereo and replace it with an after-market, because it's deeply wired into the climate control system. Looks fancy, works well, but difficult to modify.
There's a company called GROM that makes devices that you can use to connect your phone into the system, and as a bonus the CD-player controls on the steering wheel will work to navigate music tracks on the phone. I ordered one of those and it arrived while I was away. I watched a video on how to install it and thought "hm, looks complicated, but probably doable."
So yesterday afternoon I tried to install it.
You can probably guess from my choice of verb where this is going.
There's basically three parts to the process: remove the display so I can get at the components behind it, patch the GROM unit into the fiberoptic loop, patch the GROM unit into the 12V power supply. I got the display removed with only a moderate amount of swearing. Patching in the fiberoptic took substantially more swearing, and I may have broken a connector (but, I hope, in a way that doesn't actually affect the functionality.)
I tried for about ten minutes to get at the 12V power line and finally gave it up as a bad job. I think I have the right bundle of wires, but it's wrapped in fuzzy insulation so I'm not sure, and shoved far enough back that I can't reach it very well. I think it's ziptied to something but I can't see in there too well either.
I decided to leave it be and deal with it Later, where "deal with it" involves leaving Hactar at a car stereo installation place and paying them money to deal with it.
I then discovered that I'd somehow installed the fiberoptic wrong, and that that mattered because the dashboard lights are also connected to the fiberoptic loop. Which means if it's not working, I have no way to see the dashboard at night. Such as when I'm on my way to a New Years party. So I took fifteen minutes (and did NOT break anything else) disconnecting the GROM unit and reconnecting the display properly.
Everything still works, which I take as a minor triumph, and I'll go talk to a stereo place later this week.
Today I have showered, eaten (twice, and soon to be three times I think), napped, and read my book. Oh, and coughed a lot. In all a more successful day.
Hactar, my Volvo S40, has a stereo system that includes a 6-disc CD changer, but not an audio line-in or a cassette deck, which means that the main ways of playing music off my phone aren't available to me. And I can't just yank the existing stereo and replace it with an after-market, because it's deeply wired into the climate control system. Looks fancy, works well, but difficult to modify.
There's a company called GROM that makes devices that you can use to connect your phone into the system, and as a bonus the CD-player controls on the steering wheel will work to navigate music tracks on the phone. I ordered one of those and it arrived while I was away. I watched a video on how to install it and thought "hm, looks complicated, but probably doable."
So yesterday afternoon I tried to install it.
You can probably guess from my choice of verb where this is going.
There's basically three parts to the process: remove the display so I can get at the components behind it, patch the GROM unit into the fiberoptic loop, patch the GROM unit into the 12V power supply. I got the display removed with only a moderate amount of swearing. Patching in the fiberoptic took substantially more swearing, and I may have broken a connector (but, I hope, in a way that doesn't actually affect the functionality.)
I tried for about ten minutes to get at the 12V power line and finally gave it up as a bad job. I think I have the right bundle of wires, but it's wrapped in fuzzy insulation so I'm not sure, and shoved far enough back that I can't reach it very well. I think it's ziptied to something but I can't see in there too well either.
I decided to leave it be and deal with it Later, where "deal with it" involves leaving Hactar at a car stereo installation place and paying them money to deal with it.
I then discovered that I'd somehow installed the fiberoptic wrong, and that that mattered because the dashboard lights are also connected to the fiberoptic loop. Which means if it's not working, I have no way to see the dashboard at night. Such as when I'm on my way to a New Years party. So I took fifteen minutes (and did NOT break anything else) disconnecting the GROM unit and reconnecting the display properly.
Everything still works, which I take as a minor triumph, and I'll go talk to a stereo place later this week.
Today I have showered, eaten (twice, and soon to be three times I think), napped, and read my book. Oh, and coughed a lot. In all a more successful day.