Hi all,

Thought I would start a thread for this project as others may like it or find it useful if your retromodding. I am basically going to be adding a popup infotainment system to my early 944 (square dash), no reason something like this couldn't be made to work in a later 944 you will just need to figure out where to put it and if you want it to pop up or not and just replace the standard stereo slot (much further down the line you will find I will be annoyed I don't have obd2 as the infotainment system will be able to digital gauges with some programming... which mine doesn't). I'll also be adding a or rather replacing the headlight motor and its cut off discs with a micro controller allowing the headlight to show about 10mm just the enough for me to add some DRLs and then the whole light when needed and turn the DRL off.

I'll be doing a more in-depth record of everything from the CAD and cardboard designs to the computer and programming side over on my website if anyone is interested (https://mypocketgarage.co.uk).

I have just finished the basic cad designs for the screen how it will look when open and closed. From looking at a similar project on Pelican I have managed to make an educated guess at the size of the grill and the whole in the dashboard. I also have the exact specs of the screen I will be using which should arrive later today.
I will say this now, the dashboard is going to need alterations but the one on my 944 is cracked to hell so it will be coming at to either be recovered or replaced and at that time ill make the adjustments needed... Fitting brackets and hinges to hold everything in place and cutting out material from the hidden away part of the dash where I need space.

This image shows how the system will look when the car is off. The hashed out areas are a large cuboid that represents the whole in the dashboard and then everything including the grill (represented by a hashed out trapezoid that you can't really see). The screen and bracket on the back of the screen are in black and and a total depth of around 30mm so its pretty slim. It could be thinner but there is a circuit board that has to go on the back. The red area is the bracket/guide rail of the screen to move on and keep it in place. the screen itself when hidden away like this sticks out of the back for the housing by about 25mm so I am confident it will fit.

This second image shows the screen in the upright position. You can see the guide rail and housing haven't moved but the grill and screen have. To facilitate this movement the guide rails will have a moving pivot attached to the grill so the grill can move as required. you will also notice the wings on the side of the grill. These are cosmetic to hide the workings behind the screen and will have a bar at the bottom connecting both sides as part of the mechanism to lift the grill.

This last image shows what it looks like with everything filled in no hashed areas except the housing. Excuse the colours I don't have many realistic ones to work with.

I am considering ordering a grill off eBay to use with a cardboard mock up of the design as I think it will help me figure thinks out better.
I intend to use a couple of servo's to control the movement of the screen which I will order and add to the card board mock up once it is all together.

Programming wise I should receive the basics today and hopefully have the computer running and setup in a couple of days. I will then be looking at building a program that

• detects voltage when the ignition is turned to position 1 (this will raise the screen and power on the infotainment system)
• when the key is removed lower the screen and safely power down

These are just basic requirements for the system to work as required. I'll then be looking at building the infotainment interface which I will be looking at adding Bluetooth to as a starting point. But with a lot more planned like GPS navigation, internet radio, auxiliary input from the standard stereo, Spotify and so on.
Eventually I will look be looking at adding a few more bits to the car in general to facilitate warning lights etc but that's a long way off.
As far the headlights part of the project, I'll be starting by creating a similar circuit using LEDs and a small motor. This should allow me to get most of the programming done for the basic operation. Lift on ignition to show LED, full lift when headlights switched, down and off when ignition off. I may add auto headlights as well but I will need to look into that a lot more.

Let me know what you think

Thanks

Mike