The AACC Alien Audio Control Center

Thanks chaps :)

I cut my teeth on audio stuff and most of my knowledge of electronics come from the 90s when I used to build competition sound systems :)

Well I must have got a second wind yesterday because I ended up working on the project at midnight lol. Probably not the best thing to run a Dremel at midnight but hey, DILLIGAF comes into play again.

Any way I sorted out that video converter (cut off the screw tabs and de-stickered it) and made the support rails.



It was actually quite a job because I had to assemble the back, front and top to get the measurements (so that it wasn't twisted out of shape or anything) which meant about 20 screws.

Really hoping the drill bits come today.
 
Moar werk ! Today the drill bits finally came, along with the hole punch (works brilliant but too small punchouts :( ) some modding supplies, a fan splitter, and some other things I have forgotten.

Any way, last night I designed a revised IO panel along with 2mm hole marks. The reason I used Bradpoint bits is because they have a point that will follow a pilot hole making sure everything is straight.

So I cut a new back panel cover graphic from titanium. Sadly there are a couple of marks on it from where the blade has marked it but I wasn't about to pay £6.50 for something at the back.



I then cut another one out of scrap for drilling with.



And masked, cut out and applied it where the old one was.



And peeled off the masking. It's a bit of a two and eight but whatevs, only needed it for drilling.



And drilled.



Teh back.



OK so to get the final cover on perfectly I put a ruler down and basically cut out the old one.



Apply.



And build.



Back, noticing my careful placement of all of the grounds.



Now thankfully I can fit the RCA wires onto it without it being in the case, and then all I have to do is solder on the speaker tabs and bolt them on once it's in.
 
SPS said:
Not a fan of that font. The F looks like the R :(
Click to expand...

I was finding it difficult to maintain the details when the plotter cuts graphics. The middle of small letters were getting snagged by the blade and would vanish. It's not ideal but I know what it means :)

This is the loom for the stereo. I have been working on it bit by bit.



The one thing I did not like was how the fuse box and ground cables looked. I was worried about taking off the box because it has a filter in it that could prevent background noise.

I made a new ground and live cable.



Then desoldered and braided the cables going into the loom plug.



And then to finish it off I used some heat shrink, but not the regular kind. This stuff is for fishing rods/bike grips etc. I figured it would look better than just a plain slab of black. I've glued it now and it's drying :)

 
Do you have a background in electronics or have you just learnt it through experimenting?
 
SPS said:
Do you have a background in electronics or have you just learnt it through experimenting?
Click to expand...

I'm unskilled pretty much. When I was in my teens (13-25 lol) I was into sound systems in a really big way. I learned how to fit car stereos, taught myself cabinet carpentry (for speakers boxes) and got into competition in the mid 90s. Like, SPL (sound pressure levels) and so on. I had a Punch 500m running a Cerwin Vega Stroker 18". In a mini metro....

Then when I was in my early 20s I went to work for a company called Rogers, who used to make all of the speakers and amplifiers for the BBC studios. That was where I learned the electronics side and soldering etc. I used to knock out about 200 crossovers a day when we were busy. Rogers were always hideously expensive (like £1300 for the LS35A) but we made a budget model called the LS1 and it was extremely popular.

Audio is where I cut my teeth tbh. I only stopped doing it because I got married and went to the USA. Otherwise I would probably still be sitting my house in London with three 18" folded horns surrounding me lol. I used to do a lot of research for a company out in Cali called Cerwin Vega, then the Stanton group took over (aholes).

Any way, I decided to start assembly. I took a few pics to show how it all fits. There's literally millimeters in it.



Again, we're talking tiny tiny tolerances.





The only thing I forgot to measure was how much the top's sides come down. I effing lucked out on that, because there is practically nothing in it. You wouldn't get a cig paper in there.



I've put the top on to keep it bending. It's getting heavy now.. Later though I have to take it all apart because the IO plate won't go in as it stands.
 
Interesting stuff, have been interested in car audio for a while but never gone further than following various people on YouTube such as Steve Meade.

Sure is a tight fit.
 
SPS said:
Interesting stuff, have been interested in car audio for a while but never gone further than following various people on YouTube such as Steve Meade.

Sure is a tight fit.
Click to expand...

It's all lives (hot) and grounds (cold) dude. Those are the only ones you need to worry about really. Once you learn the basics (AMP REM, PWR ANT, ACC etc) it's really easy.
 
I had another second wind last night at 10pm, so I finished the back panel and did all of the soldering. I have now fitted it, and also done a few other small jobs (the main fat live cable is now connected to the rear switch for example and all ready to go, once I ground it with the cable I ordered yesterday). In the mean time some pics, as it was too late last night.







As the case is tiny and has no cable management at all I am going to have to use cable ties to make sure that the fan is not blocked. There isn't much I can do today really apart from connecting up the front switch (you can see the cables poking out) but I am now waiting on the ground cable as I can't fire up the stereo without it and I need to test a few things before I can proceed.
 
So it was time to wire up the accessory live to 12v switched and wire up the switch LED.



I did not want to use the internal PSU to test the LED in case something was wired wrong so I got out my test supply.



And tested the LED at 3v and 5v. 5v looked the best, so I have now wired that to the internal PSU. I then did a check and turned off the main power to the head unit (so it's getting none)



I used my multimeter to test for continuity, everything is fine the switch works :)

So I finished up the wiring.



I then fired up the internal PSU and heard a really bad sparking sound. Turns out one of the spare 12v lines was shorting. I crapped a little, covered the wires and tried again (measuring all of the voltages (3v 5v and 12v) and thankfully I had not done any damage. Sadly the LED looks orange in photos.



The postman turned up empty handed so I have about three hours spare. First I am going to make some covers for the side of the cage, then I will see about cutting the red and smoked acrylic to make the sandwich I need to make the feet out of.
 
I cut a basic cover for the cage sides to dress it up a little :)



Four rough cut 5mm acylic, red and smoked.



And a 20mm sandwich that you could knock some one out with.



Yes, it looks like a Radeon 6970 lol.

Forgot to mention, the top panel is done too.

 
Last edited:
So last night I cut the feet. It got hot, really really hot. So hot you could hear them bubbling and popping as they dried.



So hot parts of the swarf turned yellow lol. I spent about an hour on the Ghetto Lathe (TM CS) this morning and.

 
OK so I wasn't terribly happy about the feet. Due to the fact there is quite a large hole (about half of a 120mm fan) on the bottom at the front (I have the PSU exhausting through it so can't cover it) there is not a lot of metal for the feet to glue to. Not only that but they were rocking around a bit.

So last night I designed this odd looking thing.



And then cut four of them. The circle is only to depict where the foot will weld on.



If you look into the background you can see the ground cable just arrived, so I should be able to turn the unit on and off to my heart's delight shortly. Any way when I lay them out like this they should make more sense..



Ignore the cut marks. I normally polish them out but given they will be glued to the case and you won't see them there was no point.
 
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