Builds The Guzzler - 2009 LX570

[grinchy]

$30/liter for the ahc fluid at local Lexus dealer. Another $30 for the four ittybitty plastic split washers.
I seriously hate buying anything at this dealer.

On the plus side, all parts are in house and now I just need a time window.

 

[grinchy]

Left the truck here this weekend. Looking at some LX570 fitment for some of the TLC products.

 

[tbisaacs]

Left the truck here this weekend. Looking at some LX570 fitment for some of the TLC products.

View attachment 2130415

exciting!

 

[grinchy]

The bog out twin pro has landed. Nicely kitted up. It’s two kits, each has the bog out, 15m of extension rope, and two good size soft shackles. Each kit fits in one of those running shoe bag/backpack sacks. If you already have some quality synthetic winch line around you could skip the extensions. Can never have too many soft shackles, these are good quality and good price, have an abrasion wrapper.

Looks pretty straightforward to deploy and definitely gets me off the winch bumper plan, which I was looking for an exit on for a while.
Total weight is less than 10 lbs for sure.
When I get stuck next I’ll report on how it works.

 

[raincityrider]

Those look Cool!

What is Metal Tech doing for you?

 

[grinchy]

Those look Cool!

What is Metal Tech doing for you?

Prototyping. . . . I hope to have a more specific update in a couple weeks.

 

[raincityrider]

Your killing me!

 

[grinchy]

Your killing me!

I have nothing to confirm or deny at this time

on to the suspension. I think it’s fine I believe I was just running too high tire pressure. Down to 35psi due to winter cold and back to the lx570 goodness. I was up at 39 and that must have been too much for the 129 duty tires. That’s one problem with running an unusual size that isn’t in any charts, and Kenda ignored my queries.

i have the globes and will put them on, but I don’t expect any difference.

I Think I will tackle the amplifier and driver seat cover next.

 

[grinchy]

So a few months ago the Mark Levinson Amplifier crapped out. I've been rolling with a BT speaker and that was ok, but it's time to do something about it.

The "Tesla Unit" thread got me back interested, and it is dead winter up here in the north, so . . .

Mark Levinson Reference, 2009, 19 speaker, 450 watts, "16 channel". Per the electrical diagram, there are 12 powered channels. The factory setup uses 2 channel as the input!! With a digital line for the 5.1 or 7.1 on the dvd and dvd-audio. There are passive crossovers for the tweets and mids, and the woofers get their own channel. Tailgate speakers are just mid and woofer.

The problem here is that to awaken all the speakers takes 12 channels of power. And to offset what I assume are some pretty tuned drivers and house sound in the ML amp, there needs to be signal processing. On each channel. So that's a 2 x 12 DSP solution. There isn't anything out there for this. The JBL MS-8, rest its soul, was a 4x8 (with 20w/ch). One could get hokey with some of the newer DSPs that are 4x8 (dayton audio has one for $150), but until you get into the $600 range, there isn't anything with decent center processing. And that is unamplified. And don't forget, the whole unholy contraption has to fit under the driver seat.

Compromises: I'm not bringing a disc player into this world. I'm not fussing with 5.1 or 7.1. The control won’t be with the stock hu. It still does climate and nav.
Future planning: It should play nice with a Tesla style full replacement unit if I go this way. These have plain old 2 ch F or 4 ch Front Rear RCAs. Some have a sub channel.
Sources: 2 ch aux for any source. Bluetooth. I have a Zune and an Echo Auto and a bluetooth dongle, so these are what I'm sourcing first.
Desires: It sounds boss. Center channel works. Full control over delay, mix, eq, etc to work with the factory drivers.

Solution . . .

 

[grinchy]

After way too much time on the interwebs reliving my early 20s at audio sites, I've decided on a homebrew DSP and three 4 channel "marine" digital amps.
So:
DSP - a complicated waterfall of six of these 2 in 3 out dsps will get to twelve channels. It is a bummer that the breakout card is focused on a 2.1 solution, and not a 2 in 4 out, because the chip supports it, but we do have 5 woofer channels to drive, so not that big a deal when it comes down to it. It is also a bummer that every one has to be programmed separately. That will take two forevers and a Sunday, but I fall back on the winter excuse. Programmer is $25. DSPs are $30. Each DSP will serve 2 channel and pass on a full bandwidth signal to the next one in the chain.

Home

Dayton Audio DSPB-K DSP Kernel Board and DSPB-KE Kernel DSP Expansion 2-In 3-OutAdd the Dayton Audio DSPB-K and DSPB-KE bundle between your input source and amplifier to add powerful DSP processing to your next powered speaker or audio project! Thanks to the built in Analog Devices ADAU1701...

www.parts-express.com

These dsps have a ADAU1701 in them. It is fricken awesome and can do anything. Like 5.1 decoding, any eq, time shifting, time travel, anything. If I ever get a good tune on all six of them, across all 12 channels, it is going to sound amazing.

Amplifier - These are the cheapest, smallest, four channel digital amps I could find. Bonus! They are waterproof, so when I next find a deep creek hole, at least my amp won't blow. The three together should be manageable in size. I hope. $50 each.

Home

Pyle PLMRMP3B 4 x 300W Waterproof Micro Marine AmplifierThe Pyle PLMRMP3B micro size amplifier system comes with everything you need to give your sound system a serious boost while providing protection against the elements. Add up to 400 Watt Max power (200 watt power on each of the 2 channels)...

www.parts-express.com

For those playing along at home, we're up to $350 before incidentals. That is the repair cost (before shipping) for the ML amp.

To run the DSPs I need a crapload of USB ports. The 6x dongle was $13. I had to buy so many RCAs to loop around 12 channels. That was $75.

Bottom line: If it will fit under the seat, I'll have a minimum 1200W system (3600W at 2ohm!), with full 12 channel DSP for less than $500.

More on this once the parts are in.

 

[grinchy]

DSP analysis

 

[terdrocket]

Parts Express is a great resource. I've bought tons from them over the years. Good luck with this project!

 

[tbisaacs]

I knew you were a Zune guy

 

[grinchy]

just put a new battery in that ancient 30gb. It has an fm radio and it’s free. I expect to use it next to never. I’m all podcasts and pandora atm.

 

[grinchy]

Parts Express is a great resource. I've bought tons from them over the years. Good luck with this project!

Not stoked to be diy on this, but the market fails for large scale active management options. Tuning is going to be such a pain.

 

[grinchy]

To be clear there are other diy digital amp and dsp solutions out there. There are raspberrypi solutions like berrypi, and some kickstarter type stuff that involves kit building and part assembly. Dayton audio also sells the dsps with small digital amps onboard, that can slave another small amp. These pairs drive four channels and can be 50w x2 and 15w x 2. still six units but the dsp programming can be done in three pairs. Unfortunately at auto voltage 14v the amp ratings are halved, and I was worried it would be underpowered. Cost was even lesss, around $200 for the six dsp/amp boards. Package space was around 10x3x7. Which is definitely less than then six small dip boards and three outboard amps I’m rolling.

 

[grinchy]

One other design decision. I can absolutely include an effects package (7.1 surround, for example) either with a 2x7.1 dac on the front end or one of the many dsp virtual solutions that do 2.0 to 7.1, or using the audio software during tune to create fill and effect channels from input. A design criteria was a spatially aware center channel, so that will be in v1. the sub will get one of the dsp bass enhancement modules. not sure yet if the woofers will get anything more than appropriate crossovers.

 

[grinchy]

I've go the first SigmaStudio config done for DSP 6. Take L and R in. Outputs are 1) High Pass R for the rear tailgate, 2) Mixed Center with HW gain control (I expect the center to be the biggest level challenge), bandpassed, and with one of the fancy spatialization effects, and 3) Mixed Sub low passed. This DSP has by far the most the do.

I may have to come back in and delay the center some. And the high pass may be too high; I haven't done any response tests on any of the speakers yet.

The sub and tailgate are farthest from the listening position, so I am estimating they won't need any delay.

---

I reverified today that all the audio fuses are good to go, and yep, the amp is still not working. . . on other forums it is common for the fuse to blow, so not sure what is going on with it.

---
and since the radio and I assume CD player and AUX input are all 2 channel sources, and appear to be working, I plan to put the 2ch in as an input and see if I can't recover that functionality. Not like it will cost anything to at least try it out.

 

[CoLxRunner]

Any update on MetalTech? A second slider option is greatly needed.

 

[grinchy]

Any update on MetalTech? A second slider option is greatly needed.

I believe the appropriate proverb is "Patience is a virtue"