That looks great and I am glad you got it done. I should have my Nav hood and the Xenarc this week so I will probably have alot of questions for you. Thanks for the pics and the diagram.

 

great stuff. but from the circuit, do u need to press & hold the "OPEN" button?
seems like there's nothing holding it open til motor stops...

 

Yes - you hold the button until it is open or closed. Is this the way the OEM ones work too???

 

OEM one works that you momentarily press open it opens all the way

then press 'tilt' to close a tad to get a different viewing angle until it is closed (this button is momentary but incremental).

also of it reverts to the same state the car was in when you had it on last so it should auto open when you turn the car on if it was open the last time you turned the car off (barring battery reset of course).

-J

 

rprxybyl and pikachu where did you guys get your Nav hoods? How much? I assume that both had non-Nav? I really wanted to do this for a long time, and I bought all of the stuff, but the project got delayed due to funds and my screen breaking.

 

Was wondering if your friend can incorporate a "hold close contactor" across the "OPEN" switch which has a timing of abt 3-5secs so that we can press the OPEN momentarily. I think there is such a contactor, I'm not sure what the contactor is called tho'. Otherwise, the circuit looks good to me.

 

I got mine from a wrecker (www.car-parts.com Search for gps/info screen)

I am currently installing the unit, and won't be making any changes to the buttons anymore. I think it might be better this way though, as you have the
'tilt' feature goIng up or down and can position it nicely.

 

Off-topic
Does some of you guys wanna sell to me the non-nav dash piece?
Shoot me a PM.

 

I actually thought of doing a similar circuit myself to control the buttons and lights, but didn't like the idea of having to press+hold the buttons to make it work (spoiled rotten of the way the oem nav works). So, after placing a Xenarc TS in the housing, I also went ahead and placed the OEM nav control board in the housing with the appropriate wires.. so, I'm using the same ORIGINAL LCD control board to both power and control the screen open/close/tilt features. It works fine asides from being really cramped in there (nothing visible anyway).. but all features are preserved, Auto-Open&Close and Tilt -- all with single press of buttons just like the original nav screen

 

I bought my nav hood from a junkyard and the wires were cut, but I do still have the connectors. Does anybody have the pin-outs so I power the screen motor and the open/tilt buttons? BTW I love RR.

 

Did that in the first place. Tapped all the wires from the Audio HU rear connector, they're almost all in the same color. Unfortunately the circuit blew up on me. Must be that I've forgotten to ground the case.

Download this. It shows all the wirings.

 

Thats what i needed.. thanks airspeed

 

I've done it so many times now, I don't even consider it hard anymore.. it seems there's some sort of re-sync on the circuit to where if the pod is closed, when you turn it on, it tries to push it all the way closed, then it works normally from then on. But you must do this with the entire pod assembled in place or it wont work (i.e. if you put try it without the pod in the dash, it won't sync).

 

Hi I dont know how to read your circuit diagram. For example, what is RL1 that is shown on the circuit diagram?

 

Says what it is right on the diagram. Its a relay that reduces the voltage from 12v to 6v

 

Hi rprzybyl, I have soldered the components onto a PCB. Now is just ready to disassemble my Nav screen. Is it true you have to remove the 2 original boards and just replace my own PCB inside and connect up everything?

Because the 2 buttons, open and tilt is already soldered to the original boards. Should I desolder and remove the buttons?

Also on your design, there seems to be a third switch "close for maximum power". May I know did you have another switch other than the open and tilt buttons on your dash?

 

Hi Rob, how's everything? It's sad that I have re-study the circuit board but cant find anything out of the ordinary that's incorrect. Anyway I have resolder 2 brand new 33ohms resistors. And they were still burned! But I managed to find out the following while the resistors smoked.

1) The open button doesnt work at all; but the tile button actually open up the screen which should be the exact opposite

2) The lights on both buttons does not lit up

3) I suspected that it is the relay RL1 that is different from the one Bob has used on your board. Could you ask Bob what is the exact relay he is using so I can hunt for one in my shops. I need the make, model number etc.

I have attached pictures of them on your thread. Please let me know what you think. Many thankx.

 

Hey success! 95% actually. I managed to get the motor up and running so the open and tile buttons open up the screen pretty nicely Turns out that my relay diagram is different from the one Bob uses so after reading my relay diagram again and resoldering my board, presto! The screen opens up.

The other 5% imperfection - is that the 33ohms for the lights still smoked and burned out. (Man! That's my third set of resistors) So no lights for now. (Any ideas on this?)

Other than that, Bob's circuit board works like a charm!

 

XMatrix...you probably need resistors rated for higher wattage...a lot of resistors have a rating of 1/4 watts but you can get ratings for 1/2 watts, 1 watt, etc...just try a higher rating and test again....you don't want your car to catch fire.

BTW...I'm trying to build this circuit too right now. Can you give me the part number for the relay and the nice connector where you're plugging the buttons? I would appreciate it a lot.

 

Okay, I have no idea really on the status of this thread. but when I came accross it I was looking for a solution to the problem in the thread title. I found one here:

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...7&postcount=72

with the help of alz0rz. However, the buttons do not light up, but they work. Which is good enough for me. In that post, the 12v source that he mentioned was the one going to the car pc, it is always hot, even when car is off. This wire is coming straight from the battery. The acc line could be an add-a-fuse, or simply the cigarette lighter power. then of course your ground.

Hope this helps!

 

@ rprzybyl
It seems from your posts that you have the original pcb's that came with the sat nav hood and you have discarded them in favour of the made up one.

It is possible to wire up the oem pcb's to run the hood open/close facility as they were intended. 5 wires are needed and are connected to the relevent pins on the large grey connector. This will give you one touch open/close facility and 3 levels of tilt using the tilt button. The buttons will illuminate and the system will remember where the screen was when it is turned off and return to that position when the ignition is turned on again. The hood will also auto open/close with the ignition. All the pcb's with the new screen will fit in the screen housing too.

There is a DIY guide to this on the UK RX8 owners club forum, but I can post a guide if you wish.

It seems, using the original pcb's will give you original functionality of the buttons and be a better solution than your current set up, ingenious as it is.

 

dino1now,
A link to the DIY guide for using factory wiring would be awesome. I have a factory Nav hood and want to rewire with the factory PCBs so it functioned the same a factory NAV hood.

Thanks
RogueRG

 

The OEM nav hood works like this:

The open/close button requires one push to open, and one push to close - you do not hold it down.

The tilt button, upon each press, will tilt the screen downward a few degrees (ostensibly for glare reduction, though I've never needed to do so), through three positions, and then back to full up. It does *not* close the screen all the way down.

Sounds like something is not wired up correctly from the functional descriptions I've read here.

 

The main problem people have is wiring up the OEM hood so that the open and tilt buttons work as Mazda intended. This is very easy. I've attached a schematic of the large grey connector on the back of the hood. I'm assuming you will be putting an aftermarket touch screen in place of the original. It is a simple case of dismantling the OEM hood and removing the old screen but retaining the original pcb's 2 of them, one inside the flip up screen with wires leading to the motor and the other joined by a ribbon cable to the second inside the metal housing with the big grey connector. The new screen goes in first, most come with the screen and a pcb. The screen replaces the old screen with the metal cover plate securing it in place, I used some thin foam as an insulator, the pcb for the new screen goes in next and the cables fed through the vents in the back of the flip hood. A hole will have to be drilled in the back of the main housing to allow the new leads through to the car. The pcb that attaches to the motor goes in last separated by foam or cardboard to avoid any shorting. Remember to feed the ribbon cable through the hood to the outside. The flip hood can now be closed and fitted into its housing, remember to feed the earth cable through the hinge and onto the metal housing on the back. Re attach the ribbon cable and bolt on the last pcb with the grey connector. Find a mini molex connector, the ones used to supply power to an old floppy drive on a pc. The pins can be removed and used to connect to the pins on the grey connector. You need 5 connection in all, so two mini molex connectors will give you all the pins you need. The wires are very thin, but this is ok as the current required is low. I attached all my wires to a molex connector ready to attach to the car wiring. It makes it easy to disconnect if you need to remove the unit. Insulate the pins so they don't touch and try to use different coloured wires (sorry, colored, english spelling) to avoid confusion. You need a permanent live, so the unit can remember the hood position, connected to pin 1Q top row 4th pin from the left. An accessory live, from the ignition switch 1st position, so the hood will open when ignition is switched on, connected to pin 1O top row 5th pin from the left. A ground wire to any suitable earth point connected to pins 1X and 1P, bottom row 1st and 5th pins from the left. The last wire is connected to pin 1V and is wired from any live light source, I used the cigarette lighter light as it comes on with side lights, but any light can be used. This supplies power to the lights in the buttons so they illuminate when the lights are on.

The whole thing can be done in a day, but I used and old pc power supply to bench test the install for a couple of days to make sure everything worked before putting the whole thing in the car.

Just for your info I used a Lilliput 629 7" led screen which fits just right, though I did have to desolder and move the IR receiver to behind the OEM hood window so the remote woud still function.

I hope this helps, I have taken lots of pictures of my install and I can post specifics if you get stuck. The original DIY guide is unfortunately in the members only area, so you wouldn't be able to view it unless you joined the forum at a cost of £30/$45. But it isn't difficult and if you get the lilliput screen, I've got photo's of how to do that.

Hope this helps.