Japenese satnat replacement

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Lyndon
Posts: 49

Japenese satnat replacement

Post by Lyndon » Sun Oct 27, 2019 8:58 pm

Hey All,

I've got an 05' with the Japanese satnav screen. Before I go ripping things out has anyone done something with it before?

From my research some people in the UK have replaced the DVD unit to get it into english, but hard to find anything concrete on that.

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bernjean
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Post by bernjean » Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:55 am

Here is a link to this from a few years back

https://zclub.nz/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=5 ... nav#p38300
Bernie Kant
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Lyndon
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Post by Lyndon » Mon Nov 04, 2019 2:05 pm

Alright very interesting thanks for that bern.

Best I can tell there was an english disk for the UK models, which you can get online *cough*. I mean through nissan. *wink*. In the thread bern posted above, I am guessing he edited the iso himself to add NZ maps. Certainly impressive and I'm sure I could go down that route myself.

But from playing around with it I don't think trying to use that old thing in 2019 is worth the time. Even if you get it in English and NZ maps, it will be a 15 year old device. In computer years that basically makes it a dinosaur.

I'm going to pull the DVD unit out and see if that screen will accept any form of standard video signal. I know its got some integration with the car, its tracking the odometer for example so I'll see what that data is like and if its usable as well.

Ideally I want to try keep the original screen, tearing it out and trying to hamfist something else in has certainly can be done. But I'll see what I can do before resorting to that. Might see updates from me on that sometime in the future.

If anyone has information to add to the pile would love to hear it.

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Lyndon
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Post by Lyndon » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:55 pm

Well I am embarking on my journey here, not sure how far I'll get but lets have a crack at it. For anyone interested I'll see if I can document what I find.

My ideal goal here is to keep the factory screen intact. It has that motorized hatch to open and some buttons so ideally that all stays. If I have to remove it I will, but thats the nuclear option.

I've started with the obvious step of removing the unit.
photo_2019-12-17_14-41-56.jpg
photo_2019-12-17_14-41-53.jpg


Inspecting the unit I noticed a couple kanji labeing some plugs. (Kanji = Japanese Characters)
photo_2019-12-17_14-41-46.jpg


Hoping they would represent the function of the cable I've translated them.
https://jisho.org/search/%E7%99%BD
https://jisho.org/search/%E7%81%B0

They stand for 'white' and 'ash', so looks like they are just labeling the color of the cables.

- - - - -

From here I've thrown some part numbers into google hoping for a wiring diagram. So far no results, but it did lead me to this thread from the my350z forum.
https://my350z.com/forum/audio-builds/2 ... ation.html

In short this guy installed an xbox in his Z with the factory screen! These old xboxs just used component video which means that screen should take a standard video signal, this is very good news for keeping the screen. To achieve this it appears hes used an adapter product from this website.
http://tvandnav2go.com/infinitinissan/7 ... rface.html

Looks like that thing is converting the factory plug to VGA, before I buy one I'm gonna keep digging for a wiring diagram and see if I can make that adapter myself.

BRONZEE
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Post by BRONZEE » Wed Dec 18, 2019 10:50 am

Great documenting this Lyndon, will help someone else in the future. :)
Next - Z Club events:
= Check out events page here or our Z Club NZ Facebook page.

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Lyndon
Posts: 49

Post by Lyndon » Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:54 pm

I have found the datasheets! The following has copies of the nissan service manuals.
https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/coupe/

In my case the one I really need is the AV manual.
https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/coupe/2005/av.pdf

This sort of cracks the case open for making everything work. In here I can see which pins correspond to everything there is even a CAN bus wired in (OBD might be a more familiar term). Anything the existing system did I should be able to leverage within reason. There is also the GPS wire in the car which might have some interesting possibilities down the line.

What I want first though is to get something on that screen. I can see in the wiring diagrams the screen is using RGBS format. This is like the three colored RCA plugs old console/dvd/vhs appliances use. The annoying part is the 'S', which stands for sync. This isn't inherently a problem but using a single sync channel for RGB outputs is less common, most that use synchronization signals have a separate vertical and horizontal sync wires.
navdiagram.png

- - -

I am deciding a raspberry pi will be my weapon of choice, in my case an rpi3. Getting RGBS out of a pi may be non-trivial, I'm back to researching the best way out of this problem.

One possibility is making a simple circuit to trick a pseudo sync signal.
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/sync_r.html

But what might yield a better result is a SCART adapter.
http://arcadeforge.net/Pi2Jamma-Pi2SCAR ... ::264.html
https://www.hiscorebob.lu/2017/03/pi2sc ... pberry-pi/

I guess the price of a pi and adapter is approaching the cost of the conversion unit I posted previously. The pi will be the brain of my operation for many things more than just the video so I'll try carry on in that direction.

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Lyndon
Posts: 49

Post by Lyndon » Sat Dec 21, 2019 11:58 pm

Many more hours on google I think I have a plan.

Some interesting things I've found include this blog post from someone putting a raspberry pi in a 370GT. Looks like hes gone on a similar journey of discovery as I have. He is actually switching between his pi and current system, that won't be needed in my case. The jap satnav is basically useless.
https://colebrinsfield.com/car/

The aforementioned RGBs video signal seems like its really much harder than I'd anticipated, I can't see to find anything commercially available that does the conversion I need.

The pi has a composite and HDMI port, seems like the path of least resistance is converting HDMI to VGA. This gets half of the way, but VGA still has an HSync and VSync wire. The factory screen uses a combined sync wire, this really gets me as this standard for video hasn't been used in so many years. When you search for information the results are all around old video arcade cabinets which used it. I know these cars are old, but they aren't from the 80's and 90's, what the heck Nissan.

I'm going to order parts and build my own converter for the sync signal, same as the other fellow did in his 370GT.
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/vga2rgbs.html

- - -

What has become clear is that I will also need to build a little development/break out board for the plugs so I can work with them. I really really don't wanna cut the factory ones, it'll be super nice if I can build everything as a plug-in replacement.

I've spent far too long on google looking for the same plugs that Nissan has used in the back of the nav unit. For the life of me I've yet to find them, there are plenty of results for the later model cars. But what I want are connectors to match the back of the stock nav unit, as seen in my photos from my posts above. If anyone knows of a way to find part numbers or anything I would greatly appreciate it.

I have a backup plan for that on the way if all else fails.

- - -

In the meantime. What I'll need is something to mount my gear in where the old unit was, I've started with designing a simple 3d printed bracket to match the factory mounting holes. I'll take any excuse to break out my vernier calipers.
z33_mounting_bracket.png
The first layers still going down, so not a very impressive photo.
z33_bracket_ss.png

This is just my starting point, once the project is further down the road I'll revise the design with a faceplate etc. Its about a 9hr print atm, if you are interested my shoddy designs are all publicly available. (Happy to provide files if anyone is interested)
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/7a5b8 ... 4f9033e3dc

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Lyndon
Posts: 49

Post by Lyndon » Sun Dec 22, 2019 9:48 pm

photo_2019-12-22_21-45-33.jpg
Pi mounted on the tray.

photo_2019-12-22_21-45-41.jpg
In the car

- - -

I managed to measure the holes the wrong way around and are the wrong height by 5mm , nothing a drill won't fix for the prototype.

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Lyndon
Posts: 49

Post by Lyndon » Fri Feb 14, 2020 1:55 pm

Finally got the logic chips from china I needed to continue on this.

To catch up I've decided to try making a simple sync signal converter for VGA. Detailed more in my previous posts this is to convert separate Horizontal and Vertical sync signals to a single one. (Which is what the screen in the Z uses)


T3DFADP.gif
T3DFADP.gif (2.52 KiB) Viewed 6335 times



She ain't too pretty but for testing it'll do.
photo5042274546350139539.jpg
photo5035484211645098041.jpg


I haven't put in a power feed for the pi yet but that shouldn't be too far away till I can this this rig.

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