Sneak Peak: My Jurassic Park Explorer

[FR-425]

Gotta love it!

Hey, is that Dilophosaurus spit on the glass!

 

[scoodidabop]

Lol awesome pic!

So I've got my interior monitors up and running. They're screen accurate and do a decent job at showing the 'tour program' but I want to make it more interactive at some point.

Also the dash is finished. Gotta figure out how to convert my gauges from analog to digital before I can install it though :/ Anyway it came out pretty good I think. Fabricated the left side and AC duct out of a spare dash I bought off a buddy.

Textured it with "homax" drywall texture (see screen used dash below for comparison) but due to it's brittle nature I had to clear coat the whole thing like 4 times. Might have to do another coat or two. Here's the dash with the custom AC ducts installed on the back and the air vents put it;

Texture comparison:

Wide shot:

 

[deamon3]

ok now i have to ask, how did you make the other side?

 

[deamon3]

Oh and I just noticed , you have four air vents and the movie vehicle only has the two outer vents.

 

[scoodidabop]

Yup 4 vents. I live in Texas so the extra air flow is certainly welcomed! That should give you a clue about how I made it though; I butchered a spare dash (that was in perfect shape sadly) and used pieces of it and the spare ducting to fab up the left side. Gaps were filled with foam then fiberglassed with a little bondo to fill low spots. Sanding, primer, texture, primer, paint, then semi-gloss clear and that was it! The coats of primer and paint and such dried really fast in the sun so it didn't take much time for all those layers.

Here's some progress pics:

 

[deamon3]

That is outstanding. I know it's impossible but if you could vacuform that and send it to me that would be amazing. lol

 

[FR-425]

Hey, Scoodidabop

I Have another thought on the digital conversion. :scratch:

You could snatch a OBD-II computer and diagnostic port from 96' to whatever, Ford any-model, and supply it with power and only the inputs you want, i.e.

Engine temp.

Oil press.

Volt/amp.

Vehicle speed. (off VSS on the transfer case) note: the Android software would do the odometer calc for you.

Tach (crank position sensor is used to drive tach on these)

No problem Google'n the pin-outs for whatever computer you end up with.

Then just plug your Android gizmo into the OBD-II test port.

It'll be throwing 10,000 fault codes but it it will still process the desired data for your purposes.

The OBD-II is tune-able so any of the inputs that are out of scale could be tweaked to your needs. For example if the computer you get samples the crank two times per revolution the tach reading would be doubled, but that sample rate can be changed to one sample per revolution and flashed in.

Then of course you need to get it on the Panasonic boob tube.

Maybe gut out the Panasonic and fit your tablet into the case, to keep the movie accurate look. And for touch screen interactivity!

It would help keep things simple however to get a computer from a car/truck with an OHV V6 engine and similar vehicle speed signal device)(some use ABS wheel speed and others like the first gens use a generator on the speedo cable)

 

[scoodidabop]

That's a really interesting idea. Are the '96 sensors similar enough to the '93 that the '96 OBDII computer would recognize them? I'll have to explore this further!

 

[FR-425]

That's a really interesting idea. Are the '96 sensors similar enough to the '93 that the '96 OBDII computer would recognize them? I'll have to explore this further!

I believe they are!

At some point I think they start using the rear ABS pick-up as the speed sensor; but 96'-98' do still use the same VSS.

So if you stick to the one's with the OHV engine you should be golden.

Keep in mind you don't need the OBD-II computer to run the engine; just display the vitals. So like I said it will have a lot of fault codes, but it will not be providing feed back to your engine.

It's just a computer it won't burst into flames or turn it's self off; it will do it's job no matter how many in-puts/out-puts are missing.

I'm intentionally leaving out model year 95' as it is the transition year from OBD-I to II so it's a freaky year. stay away from those.

 

[scoodidabop]

Well in checking some parts dealers online (google shopping and AutohausAz) it seems like most, if not all, of the sensors are basically the same part numbers across the different years! So that's good news. The computer itself seems pretty cheap on ebay ($10-$20 used) but I think want to get it from the junkyard since I'll be able to get in there and grab the proper wiring harnesses for it. The computer (pcm?) looks like it only has one large port on it so I'm guessing that single connector handles both 'in' and 'out' signals before going to the OBDII jack.

I think you're on the right track sticking to just the 1996 since Ford likely began making changes to the signal path at some point to get away from their old analog circuitry. This looks very promising!

EDIT: Spelling

 

[FR-425]

Yep, I think this is totally doable and cheap too.

And yes, off to the bone yard so you can yank all the plugs and such.

Bingo! here'a a link to a thread with 1996 explorer PCM pinout: Nice! (Power-train Control Module) (computer) you know the thingy!

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162444

 

[scoodidabop]

Yes! That pinout is clutch! I'm going to the pick-a-part on Tuesday so look for my progress and updates soon!

 

[FR-425]

We are watching with anticipation!

 

[scoodidabop]

I didn't have much time and didn't have my 8mm socket with me which made things worse. Walked away with only a 1996 odometer, which hopefully can be wired to operate correctly as a standalone mileage counter. Anyway I didn't know where to look for the ECM (turns out it's in the engine bay? whaaatt!?) but next time I'll be prepared to grab it and all the wiring that I'll need.

I found a little brain/computer behind the center dash to the left of the radio that looks like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1996-Ford-E...Parts_Accessories&hash=item33893007e7&vxp=mtr

So what the heck is that thing!? I thought I was looking for this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1996-96-OEM...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f2c6a675b&vxp=mtr

....right? I'll take both if I need them I'm just not clear on what each part does since they're both referred to as "computers".

 

[FR-425]

The one in the dash is the GEM (Generic Electronics Module)

It is use for radio, keyless entry, idiot lights, dome light timer, junk like that. Body related stuff, but no engine vitals or anything you need. The computer will run without it.

You basically just need the PCM, test port, the connectors and enough "pigtail" on the connectors to splice onto.

You will just be tapping into your sensor outputs so they are sending the data to 2 computers.

The second computer will only be translating the data to OBD-II for use with the digital display and not being used to actually control anything.

Make sense?

 

[scoodidabop]

Makes perfect sense thank you! I'm glad I didn't take that GEM but I nearly did! Anyway the wiring it a bit tough to get to but I'd like to make sure I take enough of it that I can perhaps grab some of the various cluster wiring harnesses and whatnot.

So the proposed setup is: '93 OEM engine sensors>'96 PCM>OBDII port>OBDII wireless (or USB) adapter>android brain. This should be interesting!

It looks like the speedometer on the '96 is digital so I'll have to purchase an adapter for my cable driven version in my '93. If the frequency generated by the adapter works with the '96 odometer without any modifications then that'll be sweet... standalone odometer ftw!

 

[deamon3]

Because the explorers gauges are all electrical I was just going to make a ribbon cable connector under the dash to the stock cluster and plug it in when I need it.

I wont always need every single gauge when driving , so I was just going to use a cheapo gps for the speedometer. definitely the cheapest/easiest way to go.

 

[scoodidabop]

Because the explorers gauges are all electrical I was just going to make a ribbon cable connector under the dash to the stock cluster and plug it in when I need it.

I wont always need every single gauge when driving , so I was just going to use a cheapo gps for the speedometer. definitely the cheapest/easiest way to go.

I'd go that route but the stock cluster won't really fit ontop of the custom dash I made :/ Sucks! I thought about doing just the speedo on top the dash but it's a 21 year old car I want to know if it's overheating or whatever.

Got a wiring harness from the junkyard for $9 but they wanted $50 + core charge for the computer. Nope! Found several on ebay, free shipping and half that price. The pinout diagrams seem to lack any OBD output port notation. I matched up 4 or 5 of the wire colors while I was out there today so I guess I'll just tie on to those and hope for the best? Also, I'm assuming I need to provide power to this thing but is 12V safe? Which pin should I supply power to (there are more than 1 marked 'power')?

 

[FR-425]

Power all of them.

The computer has three at least, one for the "brain" one for memory, and one always hot for stored memory.

You are NOT going to need to keep your speedo cable; the OBD-II computer will use the VSS for speedo and odo. So when you hook up your Android you will have both.

That is not the right pinout for 96'

Srcoll down that post to #12 that's the correct one for 96' OHV v6

You can see on that one the DLC "Data Link Connectors" are on the pinout chart.

The DLC's are for the test port.

 

[FR-425]

This is going to take some careful picking through.

For example; Pin 90 "Reference voltage" is what the pin function is described as.

What does that mean?

A little research reveals that this is an output to many different sensors and is 5V.

It goes to the Throttle position sensor, the Temp sensor, Idle air control, Mas Air flow, and so on.

You can ignore this pin because the original computer is already supplying the reference voltage to all the sensors.

I also noticed that there is no pin for oil pressure. Maybe that is not done until later years if ever. Probably just stick with an idiot light on that. (pass/fail)

Recommend contacting the guy who posted that diagram and ask him to e-mail you the PDF.

It likely contains better function descriptions for the pinout.

I used to look at "Pin-up's" now I'm looking at "Pin-Out's? what happened.. .... .. . .