I want it sick
No, not sick sick .. you know bad
No,no,no, not bad bad.. you know really good
I give
up!!
Hey, thats what Raymond said when it came to the sound part of this project. I have always wanted to build up a system truly for the sound of it. Not just a pretty face but a hard hitting serious sound system in one of the GMC coaches and here is my chance. Come along with us on this part of the incredible journey:
Now comes some of the stuff I really enjoy,
wiring. Connecting up all the systems in a custom built motorhome such as
this can get pretty complicated, especially if you work hard to not only make
the circuits work but also logical to use, service and stay away from being a
"wire wad". Everything must be laid out in a logical pattern,
understandable and complete. The Audio/ Video system in the coach will be
one for the record books. We will have 2 of this 4400 watt MA Audio high
current amplifiers pushing 4 x 8" mid bass drivers and 2 x 12" sub drivers
This is no toy, this is pro sound equipment. The active crossover is "old
school" as Willie puts it
.
Many people opt out for using the controls on the side of the amps, I use those
as limiter controls and rely on fine adjustment of amp parameters to this
specialized piece of geer. The smaller amp (if you can call an 800 watt
amp small)
will pump the 4 pairs of 6.5" 3 way seperates for highs and mid. This is
going to be a kick butt system even for a machine the size of the Duramax coach.
But before you tear down the walls with the music, it all has to be wired up.
Each amp gets it's own "home run" power cable direct from the battery bank
Here the 2 ga. wire for each heads forward first in the ceiling then down the
wall and forward. The blue wire is EIA coded as the "trigger" for the
components.
Next we move to primary power for the
chassis. Primary power referrs to how you get the battery bank power to
the main harness of the chassis. I am leaving the electrical harness of
the chassis in tack to allow it to be maintained down the road by any GM
technician, I feel thats very important. So I'm not digging into the
factory harness to tie into the alternator, all connections will be tied ONTO
the original. I'm using a continuous duty contactor to tie the new living
area electrical system to the factory harness for alternator charging
along with a sealed marine application "combine switch". Control of the
battery bank will be controlled at the entry door by a latch relay circuit.
So, can you see the first sign of a pulse from the electrical system?
How bout that little red light on the hanging control panel on the left-- yep,
that says the chassis electrical system is hot, it also gives me it's "pulse" or
the battery voltage
.
So sitting around in the bay, the batteries have discharged a bit being hooked
up to the chassis and not being run. We have 11.8 volts, thats a partially
discharged battery bank.. Raymond will be able to fire up his batteries right at
the door when he walks in and check his battery condition right there-- hey,
thats a good thing! When he leaves the coach, with a push of a button, all
systems will be shut down, thats another good thing.
Now, I turn to the similar primary battery
bank wiring for the living area circuits. This is a bit different in that
we have a huge A/V system to connect and more exotic battery selection
We will sport 2 AGM batteries with selector switching, 3 resetable circuit
breakers, one for each power amp of the AV system and seperate fuse for the
radio memory and frig. I mean you don't want those to turn off every time
you press the button at the door! The logic of operation is a critical
issue in the new living area circuits-- you need control and safety but not at
the cost of comfort.
Friday, Wille came to start in on the awesome
ground effects and flare kit for the coach.
NO PAPARAZZI--- Willie says he wants no pics before he is done. Guess it's
like no one should look at the Mona Lisa till she smiles-- Members can go
to Member Mechanical and see one I snuk.
----------- 7.30.07
This weekend was all I expected with the work
on the Duramax project. While Manny was over there playing with his
transmissions, I was all over the living area electrical system. See the
yellow light on the head of the test probe?
That means the living area 12 volt primary wiring circuit is hot. Next I
turned to the prewiring of the living area electrical system both 12 volt
and the 110VAC circuits as well
With this mostly in I can now turn to the sound system driver wiring.
Raymond will have a warm feeling surrounded by maybe miles of wires. Jesse
and Caleb will be helping me with the sound system prewiring while Steve
continues on the amp panel box.
Here is the sort of stuff that just cannot
live in a project such as this-- more scotch locks!! So here's a side
panel in the bedroom area, it's showing some water damage and piles of wires are
coming out of it. Where it is will shorten the bed length so it has to
come out.
WOW, look at what was screwed shut under that panel
We have an old TODD 30 amp transfer switch, of course thats too small hey and
the company is out of business anyway. The 45 amp converter can be reused
but how bout that 110 wiring
I'm scared to look inside that yellow box to see how they wired that up!
I't all gotta go, Raymonds feet go where all that is and then I parted the
insulated water lines to find the 12 volt harness full of scotch locks
man what were they thinking? Thats all gotta go, hey its all out of there
anyway. I do it my way and thats the only way it will be!
----------------8.1.07
Allan at Statline has furnished us with some
really nice cast aluminum fuel doors to connect to our 2 modified saddle tanks.
Jesse took on the job of getting them on the coach
.
The one on the passenger side will be for the used cooking oil (so it can't be
confused with the regular or biodiesel) and the other one on the usual driver
side. I think these are a very tasteful style. Steve is grinding out
the slide closet so come back later for more on that
We need to have music outside, I mean how can
you sit under your awning and relax without the ball game right there with you
or the music or, a fan or a plug to charge your cell phone. I mean we no
longer live in the dark ages! Steve is fitting a panel into the original
frig side vent location
to give us a platform for some outside AV sources. The panel fitted and in
place
it comes back out to get laminated then cut outs done for 2 4" speakers, a 12
volt outlet, cabling for AV and a 110 VAC outlet-- all very important stuff if
you plan to entertain outside.
This project all ties together with the rest of the AV system to add convenience
and flexability. More to come on this...
---------------- 8.15.07
Finally got the amp panel built so Jesse
helped in positioning the components and cutting the wiring holes.
.
Caleb and Jesse both are amateur auto sound enthusiasts and are eager to get
involved in this part of the Duramax project. This system will really be
over the top.
Here is the amp panel mocked up laying on the table. You can see the Blue
LED push-pull muffin fans to keep the amps cool. The silver/blue
components at the bottom are power caps to give those huge amps plenty of stand
by power for those heavy duty bass notes. A 4400 Watt true power pro amp
is basically a power sucking pig and having 2 of them in this system means they
need all the help they can get. We may be installing additional batteries
and maybe even additional power converters to give this system breath, we'll
see.
The last thin last night put the completed
panel in the coach in place.
The panel would be too heavy to deal with if everything were in it so all thats
mounted are the cooling fans, crossover, relays and the mount for the visual
display. Oh, the visual display is a highly technical device with a very
deep acronym (LPD) That means "lights per dollar". We need for this
monster system to move, to do something while it pounds out ear drums into mush,
how's this
The "Plasma-1 from Power Acoustic
has a light show based on the bass content of the music around it-- hey, don't
laugh, this stuff is important! There is no doubt the system will rock, it
just needs to let everyone know where all that noise is coming from.
Presentation is everything in this sort of stuff and we're gonna be wearing tux!
The amp panel will open up for easy access to the wiring and to balance out the
system
,
here the panel shows how it is hinged from the right and opens to make easy
access to all the guts of the system. The trick today is to organize and
display neatly all those wires and more to come. This is great, I can wait
to see whats next! Remember we have 9800 watts of power moving 82" of
speaker cone, all totally adjustable, protected and visible. This should
be the centerpiece of the coach-- yea as if the Duramax motor it is sporting is
chump change! In 1986, I had a 15: Cerwin Vega sub and 2 Visonik 8's in a
VW Rabbit, my ears are already blown out, maybe we can tickle some of those hair
follicles left in my head with this system! I guess we'll just have to
see. Just ordered the "3/4" MDF", stay tuned and see what that is and what
it's for.
---------------- 8.16.07
Now that I don't do autosound everyday for a living, it's a whole lot more fun and having guys here excited about autosound and eager to help makes doing this stuff a blast. Installers understand what today was all about, it's the day all of those boxes get opened up, the wiring starts going in and things start to get interesting.
This is one of the 2 low frequency amplifiers
that this system will feature
.
This is an MA Audio "Hard Kore" series professional sound high current amp rated
at 4400 watts into a 1 ohm load, this is not a toy! To get an idea of
size, Jesse is a bit thin (needs more meat on his bones) but you can get an idea
of the size of this component here.
Now remember, we have one of these for the 12" woofers and another one for the
8" woofers. Each amp has it's own power supply wiring and power cap for
transients. The component for the 12" drivers will run Mono while the amp
for the 8's will stay in 2 channel mode. My theory is to use an amp more
powerful than needed to keep it running clean and cool-- I mean never reach the
top of the envelope and the amp will always run smooth and this system is
designed that way. These amps can do damage to any driver connected to it,
in our configuration the amps will be running extremely clean and cool while
your ears bleed from the insidw! Raymond said he wanted "sick", hey man
check your hospitalization-- you're gonna have "sick"!
The amps (like Elvis) have both entered the
building or the amp panel as it where.
The only components left to install in this panel are the power caps at the
bottom which Jesse was so excited to finish up he just showed up to do.
See he loves this stuff as much as I do. He and Caleb build boxes and do
autosound systems for their friends every weekend so he like me have been
dreaming about this all night. The great part too about the system is it's
lay out. I hate to create "wire wads" and like everything neat, ordered
and easy to understand and work with. The front of the amp panel is one
thing of beauty but it's insides open to another for of beauty as well
just like a breadboard layout in Dr. Frankenstein's lab, wiring for power,
signal and speakers are bundled, routed and terminated to create a mosaic of
art. Form and function come together here so Raymond will be able to play,
play, play with this high tech toy. Jesse truly is having a blast, I'm
jelious!
Willie came in yesterday for some more work
on the ground effects
,
he's had some health issues with his guys to deal with. We have to be
patient for this level of expertise. Pete, my connector supplyer, was
pleased to see I had Willie on the job with us here when he came to drop off
some more wire. Turns out Willie is the "go to" guy for many of the
autosound shops around Orlando when it comes to performance sound systems as
well as doing custom body mods as we are using him to do. It's really
feels good to know we are attracting the best of the best for this project.
I tell ya Raymond, this project has taken on a life of it's own-- every day
put's this machine farther and farther over the top. The amp panel is but
one aspect
of how stuffed with everything possible your coach is going to be.