Neil Blanchard Designs

This is the final version of the SketchUp model of CarBen EV5, which was used to generate 2D CAD drawings. Those drawings were then used to generate the G-Code files for the CNC machine that cut the XPS foam sheets. These are all the profile sections cut through the model, and all of the layouts of the 2' x 8' x 1" thick foam sheets. For most of the sheets, I cut two copies to make a 2" thick layer. The first six feet of the CarBEN EV5 ready to be joined up - clamping with a ratchet strap and lots of weight required as the glue dries. The front half of the CarBEN EV5 chassis sitting in it's proper position. I constructed a temporary shelter that is high enough for what will end up as a 12' high stack of foam layers! The front 2' of the nose will be glued on after I don't need access to the front. Last layers of the rear bumper glued in place and drying! I worked from a scaffolding platform on 8' step ladders, and some 12' high step ladders, as well. All the major gluing is done - the hatch door and wheel skirt panels, etc. left to do. Open Source means shared ideas and shared improvements - anybody can build one. Creative Commons (instead of Patents) gives attribution but lets ideas get used as much as possible.

Do the same seperation for the Connects2 wiring harness. It should have all the matching colors as above. Strip the ends of both wiring harness and line them up by the first 2 clusters mentioned above. Depending on which method you would want to join the wires, either get wire tappers (the blue things above) or rubber shrink wraps (or normal electric tape). I would recommend to solder/twist connect them to keep the wire harness compact, but its really your preference. Go ahead and connect them together according to the same color of wires on each harness. Only the first 2 clusters, leave the parking signal and power antenna free at this point. You will end up with something similar with above (together with the little black box). Congratulations, you now have a fully plug and play harness! Plug in your harness now to the new HU. It looks like the above after you plug in the main harness and the steering remote wire (from the little black box). Strip the handbrake signal wire (light green).

You need to ground this somewhere (well at least if you want to view videos on the move. I opted for the top screw on the rear of HU, as shown above. Unscrew, loop the exposed handbrake signal wire around it, and screw it tight. Make sure you tug it to be sure its secure. Strip the end of the blue wire on fakra antenna adapter. Join it with the dark blue wire (in the last wire cluster mentioned above). It should look like above. At this point, plug in your antenna adapter to the HU, and the plug & play Connects2 harness to the CANBUS of your car (the big square block). Also, if your HU comes with an external mic for bluetooth like mine, DON'T FORGET TO PLUG THAT IN! Routing time. I hope you got small fingers. Route the USB cable anywhere you want. If you want it in the glove compartment like me, route it as per above.

Take out your user manual so you can see the hole where the wire would come through. Put back the manual once you pulled through as much wire length as you want. Don't worry it looks super neat once the manual is back in place. Next, route your external mic. I wanted to place mine on top of the steering column, so I routed initially through the bottom of the steering rack. Look under the steering rack and you should see a hole (as per above angle) to route the mic through. Here is where I mounted the enternal mic. Try to mount it as far as back as possible, so that not too much of wire is exposed (neater). I mounted mine on top of the steering rack, to the left. It will pick up your voice very well from there, no worries. Double check that you have connected all the cables properly, then slide in the new HU into the DIN cage.