Tige TouchPad Upgrade Project Thread

[IDBoating]

Update: Backing plates and miscellaneous mechanical components arrived yesterday. Assembly house informed us this morning that all of the components have arrived; they have everything except the PCB's and snapdomes.

UPS should deliver the PCB's here tomorrow, after which we'll build up the pre-production model and then deliver everything to the assembly house. Still hoping they can sneak us into their production schedule a bit early!

[IDBoating]

AWESOME! The PCB's were delivered a day early! They arrived with the spacers too, so now we have all components in-house.

For those who are interested, here are the "big" physical components:
components_small.jpg
In the upper left we have the backing plate. The three screw holes are countersunk (from the underside in this view). The tab extending into the middle rectangle is where the strain relief for the wires is attached by a #4 machine screw.

In the upper right is the spacer. We will include two of these so you have flexibility to accommodate variations in bezel molding, elastomer stiffness, etc.

The bottom two items are PCB's, with the bottom exposed on the left and the top exposed on the right (pretty obvious given the snapdome footprints).

PCBbackplate_small.jpg
When you overlay the backing plate onto the PCB, you can see how the rectangular cutout exposes the surface mount components. The strain relief tab projects into an empty space between the components which was left there specifically for that purpose. The surface you see here is what will be up against the dash in your boat... the two mounting holes left and right will have #8 machine screws extending out of them, matching the size and placement of the originals.

PCBgasket_small.jpg
Turning things over, this is how the spacer interacts with the PCB and snapdomes. The elastomer has a thicker rib that is mimicked by this spacer; you can use zero, one, or two spacers to get the desired "feel" of the elastomer.

stackup_small.jpg
Finally, here's an edge view showing how all of these components stack up together. We will include longer Phillips screws to pass through the added thickness here; you will just drop out the existing electronics module, insert this stackup, use our longer screws in place of the originals, and you'll be good to go.

Pre-production model assembly is underway... should have everything to the assembly house by tomorrow. We'll keep you posted!

[IDBoating]

Pre-production sample is assembled and bench tested:
preprod_small.jpg
You can see how the backing plate fits neatly around the components. The strain relief is also installed, though it's not screwed down to the backing plate like it will be in production. The wires are all the same color because for testing purposes we don't care about insulation color , but the production units will have different colors for each of the seven wires.

Electrical testing went fine, no surprises, no rework. It's dark-ish now with thunderstorms so final on-boat testing will happen in the morning. Then everything goes to the assembly house.

[jhonarnold]

My pad is so well as compare to you
Lending Group | lenders group | mortgage lending group

[IDBoating]

Field testing complete. Everything works, as expected. All SpeedSet, Medallion menu navigation, backlighting LED's, etc. work just great. Here is the rear view of the finished preprod:
preprod2_small.jpg
Compared to the last photo, you can see the #8-32 mounting screws coming out of the backing plate. We will ship them with the nuts as shown, since all of the dashboards we've seen have holes more than large enough to accommodate them and it provides a more solid mounting. However, if your dash holes are too small and you don't want to drill them out a bit, you will be able to install without the nuts.

Also, the strain relief hardware is in place here. It's a #4 screw with a lockwasher and nut. The backing plate is made of 0.125 FR-4 fiberglass laminate - very stiff and tough - so that strain relief is VERY strong.

For on-boat testing we installed the connector body too. When the PCB's are built up the connector body won't be installed because it is too large to pass through the opening in the backing plate. We're stuck using that connector because of the one that is on the wiring harness, and the size of the rectangular cutout is defined by the plastic "box" protrusion on the original factory panel, so this is just another thing we've had to accommodate in this retrofit design. Obviously the shipped units will have the connector body installed and ready to go.

In this unit only a single spacer was required to achieve proper snapdome operation. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier we will include two so you have three different options and can dial things in for your particular mixture of bezel, elastomer, etc.

Everything is headed off to the assembly house now. We hope to get an updated (earlier?) finish date.

[jmhatchett]

IDBoating, do you have any idea on a date for completion? Only wondering for July 4th plans. I know everything is out of your hands just curious if you had any news from the assembly house.

[IDBoating]

They are supposed to be done the 21st... in other words, TOMORROW! We'll need a day or two for testing and packaging and then they'll be on their way to the people from whom we've received the order forms and payment. We will email each person the tracking number for their unit so you can keep an eye on it.

The last specific thing we had from the assembly house was a question about the connector pins. The pins in the connector are normally crimped onto the wires. But on the preproduction model we provided to them as a sample, we also soldered them after crimping because (based on painful experience) we have learned you should not rely on crimped connections in a high vibration environment like a boat. We know the boat manufacturers do it all over the boat, but we think it's a bad idea. We've seen crimped connections become intermittent or fall apart after a few years, leading to all sorts of debugging and time waste and expense. Soldering each pin yields a rock-solid connection. The assembly house noticed we had done this and asked if we expected them to do likewise. We said "YES, PLEASE!" and that's what they're doing.

We'll post here as soon as we have them, or any further news at all. Thanks!

[IDBoating]

The 21st was yesterday, so we contacted the assembly house today (the 22nd) for an update. Seems they were short a couple of components. They expect to deliver tomorrow.

We didn't dig into the details (yet!), but my guess is it was some standard value resistor or capacitor. I know they had already received all of the more unique components, but they maintain an in-house stock of common parts. I bet they thought they'd have some regular old part on hand, like they always do, and then discovered "Oops!".

We'll keep this thread updated. Hopefully the next thing will be a photo of the finished boards ready for final assembly, test, and shipment!

[IDBoating]

Just spoke with the assembly house. We can pick up the boards tomorrow morning. We will do that, test, package, and hopefully start shipping before the day is over.

We'll post photos once we have the boards.

[patbro947]

Sweet. Looking at a 2007 that I think will need one.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[IDBoating]

THEY'RE HERE!
35Finished.jpg
Here's the box from the assembly house, with one unit out of its antistatic bag to be visible.

We've already got the shipping materials, and the Post Office knows we're coming with a bunch of boxes. Final assembly, testing, and packaging has already started. More soon!

[IDBoating]

Electrical testing and final assembly is looking good!

Here is serial number 0001, completely assembled with backplate, connector, hardware, etc.:
Serial0001.jpg

All hardware is stainless steel, and the strain relief is nylon, for corrosion resistance.

Cranking away hard here....

[Timmy!]

Congrats! I wish I would have kept my boat long enough to purchase and use one! Even though I don't need one anymore I would just like to say THANK YOU again for investing all of this time and energy into bettering the boating days of those who are purchasing one! YOU ROCK!

[Bryan]

^^^ I want to second Timmy!

My boat is too old to need one of these, but for those that do, your AMAZING for doing this

[IDBoating]

Whew! It's been a busy afternoon here. Every board was electrically hand-tested to confirm proper operation, serialized, and then put into its antistatic bag for safe transport. I'm delighted to report that we have shipped all of the orders that have arrived so far. The only exceptions are the international orders and a domestic one that had an address the Post Office literally refused to believe was accurate. All of those will go out tomorrow; for the latter one, we have a printed page from the address itself proving it is accurate.

As promised, everyone whose panel(s) shipped today has been sent an email with the tracking number. All of them were shipped via USPS in whatever manner was necessary for them to have a scheduled arrival date of Monday, 27 June (three days from now).

For each panel you ordered, your box contains 1) an assembled PCB, backplate, and connector in an antistatic bag as shown in the photo above, and 2) a separate ziploc bag containing two spacers and four screws. (Please search your packaging so you don't lose anything!) The spacers are optional, to be used to achieve proper operation of all seven snapdomes. The screws are longer versions of the OEM Phillips screws in case the full stackup of backplate, PCB, and both spacers prevents the original screws from engaging enough threads in the bezel.

We will craft up some instructions on how to install the panel and post those here in the next couple of days. We think it's pretty straightforward, but we'll do up a quick video or something just in case.

If you have not received an email with a tracking number, AND you are not either an international address or in US zipcode 11413, we have not yet received your paperwork. We know there still are some orders for this first production run "in the mail" but our insurance will not let us ship until we have the ink original on file. If you believe we should have received it by now, please email or PM us to figure out what's going on. We are trying really hard to get these panels to everyone by the July 4th weekend.

Thanks!