megacrazy

I agree with the sentiment that this forum is pretty quiet so here are some pictures to keep you all entertained. I got a CL a while ago and I've been pondering what to do to it so I started with correcting the paint a little and getting a spoiler that fits the car.






Then I decided to swap all lights to LEDs and get better HIDs for the headlights. This was a pain as a lot of the LEDs that supposedly work on Mercs really don't and throw errors. Finally found some Sylvanias that do work. I also retrofitted some Morimoto 2Stroke LED fog lights...which are bright as hell.

Continued with front lip, wheels, Lomo M1, exhaust work and custom rear diffuser.





Then I decided to upgrade the COMAND hard drive to an SSD which was surprisingly...not easy.





Then I decided to make a custom HUD for the car. If you take a look at my CLK thread...something like that. So I built a motorized one from scratch, to mirror the CLK HUD. Unfortunately becaue of the slope of the CL's windshield it wouldn't fit without major modifications to the dashboard. So...I started plan B. Using a non motorized HUD that was already out and hacked...aka the navdy. I wasn't comfortable with just slapping that on the dash so I started designing a cooling solution for it, as well as a decent mounting solution.

2 cooling fans and a nice mount...





Some 3D printing and lots of sanding and finishing later...the piece exists and is ready for paint.



Seems to fit well...



Even more painting and finishing later, the piece has vents on the sides, 2 fans installed, the navdy has a temp sensor installed and it's ready to mount.





Lots of cutting and adjusting and painting the instrument cluster...dash trim thing...everything seems to fit quite well.






So, we're gonna need a way to turn this on and off remotely, find a spot to mount the remote/dial that it comes with and put together hardware to control the fans and oh yeah...why not give the dial some cool backlighting...all adjustable via bluetooth. Well...looks like we're gonna need an Android headunit...so:





Let's tap the stock GPS antenna...cause the crappy antennas that come with these units don't really work. 0 satellites acquired with their antenna...and with the car antenna we have:



So next up...the navdy dial looks pretty sorry on its own so we have to spruce it up a bit. The android headunit also needs a decent controller...so hmmm. Why not take a Lenovo wireless keyboard with optical mouse, throw it together with the navdy dial and add backlighting to the whole thing while at it. Also...mount it where the useless phone keypad thing is...in the center console. Time to get chopping and 'making'. Frankenstein keyboard base ready for paint.




Then time to incorporate the navdy dial with all new aluminum trim.



Wire the a gazillion individually addressable LEDs...and yeah steal some MMI dials from audi (cause they're nice) and make them fit. Make a custom button on top of the dial...and voila'



Repurpose the keypad cover...yeah wrap it in original mercedes leather to match to use as a hand rest.



Let's see how it fits...



Seems to fit well...and the LEDs work too:



So how do we control the LEDs from the Android headunit you ask? Well we design our own hardware controller, program it and make an Android app to communicate with it...obviously.



Oh yeah and throw a light sensor in the keyboard while at it...so the entire ambient lighting for the car can self adjust automatically. Oh yeah, we're wiring the rest of the ambient lighting into the same hardware controller...cause why not.





The HUD looks and fits well btw...forgot to mention.





Next up we're gonna need to up the night vision a little by installing a thermal camera. But can we keep the stock camera and switch between the 2 on the instrument cluster screen? Hmmm...yes, we can tap the CANBUS. We can also use electronic switching instead of relays to turn any accessories we install on and off...preferably from the Android head unit....so time to build a monster controller box that can do CAN, control temperatures on the Navdy, provide different voltage outputs, turn accessories on and off, all via Bluetooth.



Let's integrate a screen and USB ports to show stats and make it easily upgradeable (software wise). The top for this case is definitely going to have to be a fan



*Some steps in the building process may have been skipped (like thousands of lines of code, sanding, painting, breaking stuff, rebuilding stuff, learning new stuff, etc.)

I think that's enough pics for now. I'll update more later, as progress continues. Hope you guys enjoyed so far.

1ForcedBenz

I'm in absolute awe. Your user name is spot on. You are the real deal and envy your abilities.

fallen

WOW is all I can say!
Taking custom orders by any chance?

xabo

Nice.......................have a better shot of the rear spoiler? What make?

Bahnstormer

Incredibly talented is what you are.

bentleymp21

Solo wing

Amazing work mate! Kudos to you.
Everything looks very clean and professional.

Viper98912

Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Someone put this on the MBW newsfeed.

megacrazy

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The spoiler is a Mansory spoiler. Here's a shot before the diffuser was installed.




Here are a few more shots of the LED controller which is now installed in the car.


Cover on ready to be installed.


With a project like this, harness labels are important



Lights off



Lights On



As it stands right now, the HUD is installed, the LED controller is installed, the key/dial/mouse controller is finished, and the android head unit is installed. Next steps are installing the main control box in the back of the car where the fridge unit would be and providing adequate cooling for it. That'll probably happen next week. The android app is also mostly finished. After everything is in, I'll tap the stock ambient lighting into the LED box. After that I'll take a look at where to install a FLIR camera and tap the CAN bus. There will be pics of everything as things progress.

Oh and if anyone is thinking about getting the android head unit, I can help with wiring diagrams etc. Also, the fit of the unit is not that great. It has about a half inch gap to the bottom dash trim..so prepare your trimming skills if that would bother you. Otherwise it works pretty well, and it works with wireless keyboards without issues, which is good.

megacrazy

A few mysterious bonus shots of version 1 that didn't fit because of space limitations. Motorized combiner, high res display, built in speakers and speaker driver, automatic brightness sensor, IR temp sensor, fans (not visible) and plenty of 3D printed parts. Finished with alcantara trim.

hyperion667

Mother fawker! This is awesome Sir! You are a wizard are you not? Very well done and thank you for the sharing! Your car looks incredible!

ItalianJoe1

Wait so you built and trimmed out the first setup that didn't fit? Damn man, that's a lot of work. I wish I had that patience and ability. I'd love some modern touches like that in my old CL. Very nice work!!

COOPERDB

`


Outstanding -

Simply outstanding -

The W216 in my opinion is the best looking

car Mercedes has ever built -

I will be following this thread daily -


Thank-You
D.B.


.

megacrazy

Yup designed and built 'in house'...or actually 'in garage'. I could've gotten it to fit but I didn't want to deal with the process. It would've been pretty involved, and after doing that to the CLK, my patience for that kinda stuff is stretched thin. The combiner and motor are borrowed form a Mazda if you guys were wondering.

Cooper - I will do my best to keep the updates coming. Daily might be too much pressure for me though

megacrazy

Continuing the barrage of pictures

So, the next step of the install was to put the control box in the car and hook it up. The most logical spot, as far as I could figure was the huge empty box on top of the SAM, where the fridge unit would sit. So, I had to run all the wiring from the front of the car to the back of the car. I assumed I could run it through the stock wiring tunnel which was wrong. Turns out said tunnel is under the carpet which would require removing the front seat and possibly the carpet. So...along the roof it is. There is plenty of room up there and with properly manufactured harnesses and mounting there will be no noise or interference with the air bags. First step was to remove a partial harness that a pro shop had done for a front/rear dash cam. Word of advice...do your own wiring if you can. I've yet to see decent wiring jobs from "shops". Thick enough wire to run 220V, butt connectors and plenty of electrical tape. Pretty nice for a house wiring job...a car...not so much. Anyway, big thanks to my friend Nick who is in charge of pics, while I am pretzled up in the trunk of the car trying to drill holes.

This is where we're going to install everything.


Let's throw some light on the situation and see if we can remove the box.


Next up let's finalize the control box and close it up. Who said home depot junction boxes can't be nice.


This box cleans up nicely. And not only does the whole fridge compartment unit box thing come out easily but the bottom is actually a cover for the rear SAM...which we can remove and install our box on top of it.


Summer is definitely going to be an issue for the electronics in there so let's throw a fan in there.


Next let's spend a long time properly routing all wiring from the front to the back. 2 8 pin connectors plus USB cables and a whole slew of other wires.


Even though the control unit has a good power converter to provide any voltage we might need for the future, let's install an automotive grade power adapter that can be programmed to do what we want. In this case, we want everything to stay running for a little longer after the car is off, to cool everything down and keep everything regulated at a flat 12V. If you ever need a power supply for your car project, head over to mini-box.com. No, I am not affiliated with them. Though I should be because I use their stuff all the time


Use some fuse taps....obviously. Though I am sure a "pro-shop" would much rather just use a splice connector on a wire somewhere...and tape it...for security you know.


Fan install complete so let's put everything back in.



Button everything back up....looks like nothing ever happened...but I know something is different now . The long USB cables are for comfortably updating HUD/LED controller firmware form the front seat of the car.



I think it came out pretty good.



So why all this drama? Well, because this control unit will be able to turn everything on and off, from the Android head unit, including any future accessories I might install. Think, radar jammers, dash cams, etc etc. Plus it will all be customizable via code. You want the dash cam to stay on for an extra 18 seconds after you shut the car off, but everything else to turn off? Sure...that's now possible.

The android apps are almost finalized. I am spending a lot of time to make sure the Bluetooth connections are seamless and recover easily from any errors...it's Bluetooth after all. The firmware for all the control units is also ready...so the next step is to flash everything to working order. After that I'll revamp the stock ambient lighting and make it work with the new system. That probably won't be until January though, as I am also working on new graphics/mods for the HUD, to match the stock instrument cluster better.

Don't forget to like and subscribe

megacrazy

Ok now that the festivities are over time to get back into it.

The Heads Up Display and the custom controller work perfectly so far. I'll do some separate detailed updates on that later. The controller box coding is complete and it runs the fans for itself and the HUD automatically, displays the status of the different power switches on the incorporated display, fan statuses and temps. It's also tapped into the CAN bus...just watching for now. So, I can easily turn the HUD on or off from the Android head unit, as well future accessories. Everything can be toggled to turn on with the car, or stay off etc. I can also check on all temps/fans via the app. The temps for the HUD dropped by about 20 degrees Celsius with the improved cooling.

The LED project is a little more complex than I imagined. Complex in the sense that it's a lot of work in order to get it exactly how I want it. I have it mapped out though and it should work out great.

The next step is taking care of the footwell LEDs that double as entrance/exit lights and ambient lights. The option I went with is doubling up on them...meaning I am going to leave the stock LEDs in place for entrance/exit and create my own for ambient lighting. Time to buy some replacement holders and throw my own LED modules in there. I mounted them about 5mm off the face of the aluminum base...so they should stay nice and cool. Make a custom harness and voila:



That was easy...about 1 hour of work per side.

So...now we gotta figure out how to switch off the stock LEDs once the custom ones are ready to take over the ambient lighting function. This will require some thinking . Oh and of course they have to fade...so stock fade to off, custom fade to on. So..let's make more custom stuff:



There we go...Nice power source for our LEDs (5V needed), a capacitor to take care of any possible spikes (overkill in this instance as power is coming from 2 perfectly clean power supplies), a P-channel MOSFET and a nice resistor to keep everything grounded when not in use. Looks and works great. Now to make a case for the thing...that we just made . It'll need some ventilation, cable savers, harness connectors etc. Oh and of course we'll have to cut mounting holes in the footwell covers for the new LED modules. According to my calculations we'll need 2 of these modules so better test the first one make sure it works well first.

So why all this drama for some LEDs? Well, I'm using individually addressable LEDs. That means I will be able to have a blend of colors going, instead of just one color as every LED can be a totally different color and brightness. I can also do custom animations when they turn on/off. The down side is that the LEDs run on 5V and they can be controlled with a data connection, not with voltage. So anyway, more work but will pay off in the end I think.

The coding for the microcontroller in charge of the LEDs is also evolving. It's a little complicated because it can run in multiple modes and zones. The zones are dashboard and doors, footwell, HUD dial, and the keypad. All these zones can run in individual color modes, manual or automatic brightness, be on or off. All the zones have adjustable gains as well so when you're in auto brightness, for example, the footwell lights are not bright as hell while everything else appears dimmer because the footwell lights might have more LEDs (brighter) than say the dashboard lights.

A lot of work also went into the fading animations, turn on/off animations as things are not easy when all zones are running separate brightness levels and possibly colors. Another issue was detecting when the car lights are on/off. I tapped one of the footwell LEDs thinking the car would reduce the voltage when the stock lights are dimmed. Turns out the voltage is PWMed...meaning it's not reduced to a certain level to dim the LED, but it's pulsed on/off very quickly. The length of the pulse basically determines the brightness of the light. All great and modern, but when you're trying to take voltage readings with a sensor to see if the car lights are on or off, these pulses totally mess up your readings. So, I had to figure out a reliable way to run an average of the readings and decide if the lights are on and off.

The LED android app, "Ambient Illumination", is pretty solid at this point. The Bluetooth connection to the microcontroller works painlessly and automatically. The only thing I added is some checks/fallbacks here and there and the dual color options. So, you can set dual colors as mentioned before, and it will sync all colors appropriately for you. So, for example, blue/purple, would be inner dash blue, outside dash purple...then doors would be purple (where they meet the dash) and blue towards the ends, while the HUD dial would be blue and keyboard stay white. The footwell modules would run a combination of blue/purple...probably 1 purple LED and the rest blue.

Anywhoo...more pics to come and probably some youtube videos. Hopefully the wordy update wasn't too boring.

hyperion667

hawg4fun

Awesome!!

megacrazy

Ok here we go...on to the next batch of pics.

Here's the stock ambient lighting dashboard setup. Pretty nicely made. We got 4 LEDs running off individual wires wired into the back of the center console/clock piece...aka upper control panel.









Let's take one of the stock LEDs out and see what's what.



Hmmm pretty puny compared to the new LEDs.



I wonder if we can make the new LEDs fit in the stock cases....With a bit of trimming of the board it will fit. Good.



Time to solder the wires required. The LEDs have passthrough connections...so IN - power/gnd/data, OUT - power/gnd/data...a total of 6 wires. Great. Time to solder, install connectors and assemble. I'm using silicone wire to keep things flexible for tight spaces.







No wires goes in without cloth tape. Yes, I order this stuff in bulk.



Time to get out power sources ready. They will power the LEDs and allow the stock footwell LEDs to function normally when the car is off...so you still have the necessary light when getting in/out of the car. Custom make the cases etc. Oh and labels. Labels on everything.



Next up let's install the new footwell modules and see how everything looks. Driver side first.




Now the passenger side.



Next up installing the door LEDs and reassembling everything. Hopefully you guys are enjoying the pics. Otherwise let me know .

rustybear3

I must ask: Are you Independently wealthy, out of work, retired, or just an insomniac to put in the work and man hours necessary. You have some fascinating ideas. Did you think these mods through, or just spur of the moment?

Congrats and keep the pictures coming!

COOPERDB

`


Outstanding -


Thank-You
D.B.


.

megacrazy

Haha...well I guess a little bit of all, with the exception of "out of work" and "retired". The mods, like "most" car mods (cold air intake...cough cough), arise from a need. Unfotunately, I can't just slap something on and call it a day. I have to make it unique and do the car justice. While it takes many hours and is very hard work, I enjoy doing it, learning and evolving my skills.

LED project is almost done BTW (looks/works great). I am working on making some youtube vids of all this stuff in action...and finished. Not sure if a "how to" would be helpful or feasible, at least for the setup I have put together.

2MERKS

+1

C280 Sport

wow! This is unreal! Great work!

megacrazy

Ok, time for the final update of the completed project. Keep an eye out for Youtube vids about the whole project, along with the HUD and other stuff.

I think it came out great overall. Everything adjust automatically so you're not in a too bright or too dim situation. Everything is easy to use and the code is easily adjusted if you want different areas to be brighter or dimmer (when in auto brightness)...so they each have their own gains. You can also set everything manually if that's preferred.

Main screen of the Android app


Color selection screen. Each area has its own color selection screen...or everything can be synced to the same color, which triggers either the same color everywhere, or specific color combinations for two-tone choices.


Orange


Blue



Green


Stock-ish Yellow


White


Two tone Blue Purple. Two tone colors start from the center console and go (in this case) Blue->Purple (on the dash) then continue to Purple->Blue (on the door)




White Green


Cyan Purple


Purple Footwell