Analogue to Digital TV in 2002 S8

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

a pretty good location with the aerials barely visible to front or rear seat occupants (or from outside) as they are against the black glass surround.

I've found another factor that seems to influence reception quite a lot; the way the aerial lead joins the aerial.

It seems necessary to route the lead directly away from the aerial (it emerges from the centre of a "T") for a few cm and keep it away.
So placing the aerial at the edge of a window (including the windscreen) then running the cable beside it towards the tuner doesn't work well.
(I guess the earthed outer shield interferes with signal reception if it's very close to one branch of the aerial)

My interior trim is light and the cables are black so there will be some visibility until I can figure out how to disguise or hide them.
A photo of the initial/test placement is attached .... (this is the nearside, not tidied up, offside is a mirror of this). Taking the lead inboard then under the edge of that trim works fine.

What really upsets me is not the short length of cable on show but the irreparable damage to the alcantara headlining done by an aggressive valet before I got the car :

[HPsauce]

One step forwards and two back as ever.......
I intended to fit everything properly today but only managed the aerials.

The RNS-D wouldn't quite go all the way back so I need to rejig some wiring behind it, and one aerial lead doesn't quite reach where I needed it to.

This prompted a rethink of what goes where; there are quite a few separate components to secure and connect. But it's sort of grown organically as I've experimented.
So, it's back to square one and a redesign resulting in a more logical and tidier layout. Hopefully I can start fitting it this week, it's only a few minor wiring changes and placing some units in slightly different locations. All are around/behind the drivers knee panel area.

As it stands this evening the only working parts (over OEM) are the reversing camera, video interface and video-in-motion switch.
The XcarLink and DVB-T have been temporarily removed, as has the knee panel.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

video-in-motion

An interesting observation on this, I'm using the Kufatec solution which cuts the GALA feed.
With VIM enabled it stays on the video input irrespective of speed. As you would expect.
With VIM off (i.e. normal speed sensing) you get the warning message for few seconds then it reverts to another (standard) input. I've not 100% worked out the logic behind this (I haven't really tried) but mostly I end up back on the SatNav. Which is fine.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

One step forwards and two back as ever.......
I intended to fit everything properly today but only managed the aerials.

The RNS-D wouldn't quite go all the way back so I need to rejig some wiring behind it, and one aerial lead doesn't quite reach where I needed it to.

The best laid plans and all that. Today was earmarked to get everything back and working.
However so far, after a TITANIC struggle with uncooperative cabling, all I've actually achieved is to get the aerial leads to a convenient place and the RNS-D back in place without excessive force.
And the XCarlink and reversing camera are still working.

Tomorrow I'll attack refitting the TV tuner, tidy up the cabling and see if the knee panel will go back with all the extra (carefully-located) stuff behind and in it. Fingers crossed.

To take my mind of this I might indulge in a bit of "Woolies Therapy" first.

[David's8]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

The best laid plans and all that. Today was earmarked to get everything back and working.
However so far, after a TITANIC struggle with uncooperative cabling, all I've actually achieved is to get the aerial leads to a convenient place and the RNS-D back in place without excessive force.
And the XCarlink and reversing camera are still working.

Tomorrow I'll attack refitting the TV tuner, tidy up the cabling and see if the knee panel will go back with all the extra (carefully-located) stuff behind and in it. Fingers crossed.

To take my mind of this I might indulge in a bit of "Woollies Therapy" first.

The simplest jobs sometimes seem to take the longest but, what the hell, its a labour of love

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by David's8

its a labour of love

It wasn't love with Woolies. I managed to knock the bottle of renovator over and despite having the "plug" in (which popped out) most of it ran out and made an almighty mess.
Lots of swearing while I cleaned up and tried to recover as much of it as I could.
Eventually got 2 coats on the drivers seat facings and will have to seal that tomorrow before diving into the drivers footwell to finish the TV job.

[HPsauce]

Channel 4's coverage of Monaco and a nice sunny day was too tempting, but I still made some progress later this afternoon.
Had to finish the drivers seat leather work first and TBH it's a bit of a curates egg and rather patchy; I suspect I need to do it again soon.
Much of the wiring is now fairly tidy and most major (and minor) components are fixed in their final places.

Just the TV tuner to site and cable up now before putting the knee panel (with XCarlink) back, if it still fits!
Also did a quick functional test before tidying up for the day and everything is still working.

[HPsauce]

Mission accomplished.

Good job that I test thoroughly at every stage though. Just before I was ready to put the knee panel back I found that the reversing camera wasn't working.
A bit of logic and observation led me to suspect the power supply to the radio link receiver and indeed there was a poor connection there in the 12v lead. Easy to fix at that stage but not soon after as the wiring was about to be certoflexed and buried!

Then I found one of my TV aerials had been dislodged, messing up reception. The hot weather had softened the adhesive holding it to the window glass. I can live with that problem for now.

DVB-T works fine, radio and TV and the reversing camera is fine too. Video-in-motion controlled by an OEM-style switch in the blanking plate position on the lower right dash. XCarlink fully functional including Bluetooth to my iPhone for calls and music and the CD changer is still operational too. Microphone for phone calls installed in what I think is the OEM position near the reading light switches. XCarlink unit is in the drivers knee cubby so that I can swap SD cards and plug in USB storage and mini-jack audio inputs if necessary.

Magic eye for the TV remote is at the bottom left of the instrument cluster, on top of the rectangular blanking panel that covers one of the fixing screws. See attached picture which also shows the TV working with BoJo on the BBC news!
(Also shows my radio controlled clock is working well and a piece of Velcro that is now superfluous and needs removing )