I was wondering how deep the DIN slot is on the dash after installing the Scocshe or Metra kit. How much room is back there behind the dash? If you make a box to fill that hole, how deep can the box be?

Thanks for any help.

 

if ur goign to put a double-din radio back there, it'll fit perfectly and has plenty for it. What do u wanna put a subwoofer? small amp? if u wanna put a small amp u MIGHT be able to if you put a single din radio w/ no pocket under it and fit one but it's a longshot.

 

Good info, I'll be stuffing my Sirius tuner back there

 

Does anyone know how deep the din slot is in inches/mm?

I'd like to fit a Mini-ITX mother board in there (behind a flat panel).

Thanks,
-Mike

 

That is exactly what I was planning on doing. According to crutchfield, there is over 9" of room back there, more than enough for a mini-itx board. I don't think it is that deep, but maybe so.

I was planning on retractable Lilliput on top DIN, Pico-itx with pico-psu and laptop HD and slotloader on bottom DIN. In theory, it would be the smallest x86 system you can build with production parts.

 

A little over 9" would be just about enough room for the motherboard behind a flat panel. I really hope someone else tries this before me...it could save me some aggravation


A Pico-ITX would be nice. How soon will you be installing it? I'd love to hear how it goes.

-Mike

 

I bought a mini-itx board and an m2-atx ps (not pico as I'm going double din). It's not installed as I'm waititng on my core 2 duo (woot). It's mounted in this excellent black anodized aluminum chassis (pricy but well worth it, as it even has mini-itx mounting holes) with the lilliput 619:

Mechatroniks Car PC Kits

Which fits perfectly, minus some dremeling of the double-din metra faceplate.

There is easily enough room to put that chassis in...I'll get an actual depth measurement if you need an actual dimension room in a few hours. There's even more leeway as the main restriction is a rounded pipe with you could route headers over/under.

I'll have pics of the whole thing by next weekend.

Feel free to ask away

 

Excellent! Where do I start? I guess I should keep the questions Fit-specific. The next biggest dilemma I'm facing is the location of the amplifier. Where are you putting yours?

I'd rather not put it in the back, as I'd like it hidden. I don't need a lot of power, so I'm hoping to find something small. I'm wondering if there's a model small enough to fit under one of the front seats, or (although I doubt it) one that can fit in the dash with the computer.

I'd love to see pictures, specs and a writeup of your install. I've never done a project like this before, so it sounds like you're my perfect example.

Thanks,
-Mike

 

Dimensions would be great if you could. Thanks

 

Sorry guys, took a weekend trip - I'll post the measurements tomorrow.

I'm going to try and fit the amp in the driver side foot well above the gas pedal - if you took under there, there's a surprising amount of room. Under the seats is almost certainly a no-go with all teh sensors and lasck of room - so I'm hoping this'll work out - I won't know eher else to hide it.

 

I'm working on the same project and have been debating on purchasing that WRX bezel... Also looking for a place to mount everything. I like the above the gas pedal suggestion... going to look at that right now.
So far, the smallest 4 ch amp I have found is the Sony XM-4S. It's a bit pricey for the specs and I've gotten mixed opinions from the car audio crowd.. since I mostly listen to NPR, I'm not paying much attention to those guys. There is also a very small Alpine amp with great reviews, but it's insanely expensive.

I would LOVE to see some fitment photos of the WRX bezel in the Fit dash!!

 

I was actually looking for very small amps for the glovebox. I was thinking an amp with 35W per channel will be enough to power the stock speakers and so I can recycle the harness that is stock. Also, with such a small power usage, being enclosed in the glovebox won't be so bad.

 

If you can fit the board back there, would there be problems with cooling the board?

 

I was just thinking, if you mount an amp there, wouldn't that be in the air stream of the heater? I hate to see in the winter with the heater cranked what the amp would be doing.

 

with an amp (no matter the size), you really need it out in the open to at least vent. It generates a good amount of heat. Under the seat is still ok, but inside the dash would be pushing it. Plus, having the amp inside the dash will give it a higher chance of introducing unwanted noise/interference from all the car's wiring and grounds.

 

There would be plenty of airflow for mounting above the peadel, as far as noise...I'm not concerned with such short runs and this isn't a huge concern for em anyway. Plus as far as hiding it - this location is ideal.

The center-dash vents actually flow right above where the pc would be (and air leaks in anyway without actually cutting a hole. Which I may do anyway so I can hide an IR receiver in there - classy). This would be great in warm enviorments where the ac is uaually on. For winter - this could pose problems, but with such low power consumption overall I bet it'll still be fine.

I've had a million years experience with pcs and overclocking and undervolting - I'm quite certain this won't be a problem, even on my core duo board (which I hope to get going on passive alone). The VIA mini-itx's run even cooler.

Worst case, hide a low RPM 80mm fan in there and seal off the center-dash ducts.

As far as the WRX DIY chassis...I give it one million thumbs up. if you're going to do a lilliput screen, there's really no other option. Worth every penny. Though I should reserve my judgement until I get all my cables in there

 

Ok, I just ordered the WRX bezel from Mechatroniks Car PC Kits. Between that, the Schoshe dash kit, and the very limited amp options due to size limits, I think I've spent more money on mounting than on electronics. Damn Honda for not giving us a standard double din dash.

 

I'm not sure how the wrx bezel will mesh up with the Schoshe kit I imagine you'll have to do a little tweaking. I have to dremel off the tops and bottoms of the double-din faceplate, and sand down about 1mm (so damn close) for it to fit in vertically. The chassis will be well worth it as you could slap it in any other car at a later point. I had to redrill the mini-itx mounting holes as the connectors on the board were pressing into the caps on the back of the lcd board. I lost about 2mm, but depth really isn't a concern - the connectors will be what take up space anyway.

I'm planning on mounting a 3.5" hard drive above the mini itx board (got a thin aluminum bar from home depot and will bend it into a HD chassis and mount the ps on it as well). I got some neoprene spacers as well in hopes that every hard drive I use won't die. My XP install will run off of compact flash (my mobo was nice enough to come with a slot) - so it won't get corrupted by vibrations.

The radio well is roughly 9.5" deep - 11" deep in one corner, and approx 9" across. The height is whatever you want it to be really. The tube I was talking about is higher up and won't affect any connectors. It's not boxed in, ie the slot is just any leftover space and is in fact quite large.

Wish I could get some pictures but I've misplaced my camera...

 

Because of those dimensions, can I assume that you can insert a box 7" by 2" by 9" deep? that would be a single DIN face that goes into the dash 9" deep.

Thanks for the awesome information. Now I just have to start buying the parts :lol:

Also, how are you going to interface the sound with the speakers? Amp? I was going to do what I did in my last car and use the wonderful external USB DAC from Silverstone which is in essence USB-to-RCA to provide an input to the amp. Then in the amp out to the harness for the stock speakers.

Since I have 6 speakers, I had some questions about that. Are the tweeters and fronts on two channels? Is there only a left and right signal and a crossover that drives both pairs? What I mean is the amp signals will go like this:

left amp output -> stock harness -> crossover -> left tweeter and left door speaker

right amp output -> stock harness -> crossover -> right tweeter and right door speaker

Then two more channels to power the rears, so it would be 4 channels total. Is that out it works in the Sport?

Thanks for the help guys. I should maybe start a Carputer thread for all generic questions and picture taking and ideas and plans for this.

 

Those dimensions would certainly be fine, the 9" deep *should* be fine, but with the recessed Schoshe kit it may be closer.

I'm going to out my 4 channel pc to a 4 ch amp and a mono amp for the sub - I might be able to configure the lfe channel without losing the center for 5.1. Then use a harness to go from pc (for some such as antenna) and amp.

The tweeters are run on the same front channel as the front speakers, for 4 channels total.

I have the base, which is also just 4 channels.

If you'd liek to start a thread by all means do so - I feel like this is worthy of discussion...maybe if we could move a bunch of these posts over there too...