Sound chip install

[jediknight36]

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Anyway, I finally found the parts cheap enough to do my "talking car" mod. There was an old thread about it, but here is the run down of what I originally wanted to do. I have an unused button on my console. I wanted to use it to activate a small sound chip that would produce the sound outside of the car. I received the first part of my mod yesterday. I purchased an R2D2 figure from the Revenge of the Sith line and following the instructions that were posted in my old thread (R2-D2 Builders Group FAQ) I opened it up and started wiring the chip to a 3.5mm stereo cable.

The chip had a rubber button that presses on an area of the chip and activates the chip. The sound will travel to a small amp I have ordered, that has a 3.5 mm input which will output to two 500 watt tweeters that I am going to hide in the bonnet.

HEre is my dilemma: I lost about 1/2 mm on each of the internal speaker wire because my soldering iron sucks and I try not to have to deal with it. I had everything wired together at one point, and outputting sound to my macbook pro (nice and loud too) when the ground wire came off the board. Thats when I broke out my soldering iron and tried for 2 hours to get it to solder back to the board. Then I started soldering the contacts for the battery to wires so the battery pack I made could be away from the chip to save space. Then the positive end of the speaker wire came off the board and trying to solder it back on, the negative came out again. My soldering iron sucks and it was 1am so I decided to give up for the night, give u trying to solder it back together, and buy another figure. Luckily I found one on eBay and am in the process of wining it.

My problem now is that when I take the chip to the console to try to get it to fit, even with the contacts bent in and flattened,

a) the button on the chip doesn't match either of the buttons on the board. Ok, I can work around that…
b) with the wires coming off the contacts, it wont fit. And without the wires, its really tight.

So is there a way I can wire the spot on the board, maybe with tape or silicone, to the spot on the chip so that when I press the button on the console, it will send the signal to the chip like I pressed THAT button?

Any help is appreciated.

[John_H]

I've worked through the center console button board forward and backward such that I know all the buttons and LEDs and how to interface to them. I even produced a garage door remote interface to wire up any simple switch to the center console button bank though that professional-level offering ran about $60.

The term "chip" and "board" are a little confusing in your description. Your "sound chip" in the picture is a "chip on board" manufactured device. The board is the orangish-tan phenolic material with the green solder mask on the component side while the actual chip is under the epoxy circle between the button and LED. I think when you're using the term "board" you're talking about the button bank board and the "chip" is the sound chip board but I can't be sure.

Were you trying to get the item to fit within the center console button bank so you could mechanically activate it? I could see how that would be problematic.

Are you now trying to wire up a center console button to the "sound chip" button?

Please let me know which center console button you want to use. If it's available, the unused rear fog lamp button is probably the best.

I'm concerned about electrically wiring up the existing console button to the "chip" because you're also feeding an amp that might not be electrically isolated; it's not a problem until you want to hook up a button that's connected to the smart's internals. One side of the button you want to use [probably] is ground with the other side pulled up to 12V.

One possible mechanical solution would be to cut the rubber button plunger off [one side of] the membrane of your unused button bank switch and put in a very low profile surface mount switch (roughly the thickness off the removed plunger) available from electronics suppliers like digikey.com. If you have that itsy bitsy teeny tiny switch wired up and can use silicon to give it a firm attachment to the front side of the membrane, you should be able to route small wires from the new switch through one of two holes in the membrane that go all the way through - membrane, board, and plastic backing.

Or I can let you know a way to make things work by wiring up a couple components to the button bank board. Not the simplest work to do with a soldering iron that sucks, at least without damage.

Or I can provide something rough and cheap for the rear fog button without your having to open up the button bank electronics, just the connector (to insert the new wire) as well as tap into your battery supply.

PM me if you'd like to talk on the phone instead of using the forum for a slow back and forth with the associated confusion.

[jediknight36]

I wilk send you a PM anyway, but Just to clear up confusion:

Yes, when I say "chip" I mean the small circuit board I'm holding. I thought it would be easier to distinguish between the two.
I would MUCH rather power the small board using the car battery, but I haven't had much luck with doing that with this car. So I conceded to using the batterys that came with it.

I beleve it is the rear fog button, but I'm not for sure. It's the left button from the emergency flashers. I already made it useable as fsr as freeing it from the plastic.

The small circuit is just small enough to fit INSIDE the button, but it won't close again.

The amp I am getting is a small motorcycle amp that has a 12V power input. Not sure if it will come with a plug, but I reas really hoping to power it off the alternator. I used to just wire things like this or ligts to my fuse box, but this car hasn't liked that yet.

[jediknight36]

Thanks John, for doing the soldering work. Mine sux. Anyone here know where the easiest path would be from right behind the grill to inside the cabin to lay wires? Im attaching the tweeters inside the grill somewhere and need to lay speaker wire to the cabin.

[jediknight36]

Talked to John today, and it doesn't look like he can do it. Its been almost two years and the guy is SOOOOO busy. Anyone else think they can do it?