Connecting a computer to the ICC (Wiring Info)

Wanting to do this without forking out a few hundred on a converter or adaptor specially made for the BA, I set out to find a way of doing it on the cheap.

Without all the info I found at fordmods and fordforums, I would never have figured this out, so my thanks go out to both sites.

The ICC Plug

First things first, was creating the cable to actually connect to the input connector on the BA ICC.
You can look at this document from fordmods (where I found the bulk of the info for this) to see how to do it. I’ll also explain it here.
The connector itself you can get from the older E-Series falcons (EF and EL to be more specific). Their window demister and antenna height switch both use the same connector. Whilst this is really how the quintessential cheapskate would do it, I got lazy and ended up buying the AerPro harness that had the same connector. The one you’ll want is the Toyota/Diahatsu OEM Harness, Product code: 71-1761. You can get it online from here, otherwise you can get it from any auto shop and costs about $15-25.

Now we have the 10 pin connector needed for the ICC, we also needed to make up a cable. Originally, I had it wired directly to VGA (As shown in the document), but after no luck trying to use PowerStrip to change the horizontal scan rate manually, and without wanting to fork out $100+ on a PCI-E graphics card that I couldn’t fit into a small case anyway, I ended up using a CGA to VGA adaptor.
These are traditionally used for connecting a computer up to an old arcade monitor, which also uses this annoying 15KHz horizontal rate. I bought mine from eBay, as I could not

VGA to CGA Converter

find anywhere else to purchase one. It cost me $42 after postage. But it is needed to connect your computer up. And still going to be cheaper than buying a ready-made adaptor/converter.
You will also need a 5v supply to power this. You can do this however you want (even going from USB from the computer itself) but I ended up just using a DC-DC power converter, which I again bought from eBay. It only cost me $3, but you have to wait for postage from China.

Now, as for the cabling itself, I used a 6-core shielded/screened data cable from Jaycar Electronics (WB-1575), which was $1.65 per metre. You can also use the same stuff from Altronics (W 2710)
I should also warn you now that you’ll need the right tools and skills to solder the wiring together. I won’t explain how to solder as there’s an abundance of information on the net.

RGBS Plug

What you want to do is wire the ICC connector to the RGBS out of the VGA converter. So, get the RGBS cable that came with the converter, and chop it off at the end.

You will have to wire the RGBS connector to the shielded cable, and the ICC connector to the other end of shielded cable. This is so the cable is shielded from any interference from any other electrical equipment in the car.
Below I’ve drawn a wiring diagram to help. The ICC Connector is from the rear view, i.e. if you were looking at the connector from the rear side where the wires are coming out.

Once it’s all wired up, you can test it by making sure you have a 5v source (I chucked some spade terminals on my DC-DC converter and connected it to the cigarette lighter plug behind the tissue box) and powering the converter. Then plug a VGA cable from any computer into the input on the VGA converter, and plugging the RGBS to ICC cable in.
Everything should be plug and play, but if there is an issue, try changing the switches on the bottom left of the board. There’s is a lack of info on the VGA converter, but from what I’ve gathered, the switches will 1. Switch between PAL/NTSC, 2. Switch between CGA or S-Video output, 3. Swap output size/zoom.

EDIT: I should note, where the ICC connector is for the video input. It is pictured to the right, and you have to plug it in towards the front. It makes sense if you feel for the plug as  indicated. Read through the first few steps here to see how to get to the connector itself. You only need to read up to removing the tissue box holder.

And that’s it so far! This was more a proof that it could be done for me, making sure I could actually connect a computer up before I invest all the time/money into doing it. Next up I’ll install a touch screen overlay onto the ICC screen.

Here’s a video with a laptop running on mine (Note I was bad and didn’t use shielded cable. I will be once I install the computer)

BA XR6 Falcon Car PC

So after wanting to do so since I bought my car, I’ve decided to install a computer into my car.

I bought a citric acid 2003 BA XR6 Turbo a year or so ago now, and it had the premium sound on it. This meant that the ICC had the colour screen as well, and ever since I’ve always been seeking to connect something to it, be it a DVD player, or a carputer.

Quite a few months ago, I had decided to build a Mini-ITX PC as a HTPC/Gaming computer, and was going to wait for Intel’s Haswell CPU’s to come. Then a friend from work showed me the Bitfenix Prodigy case and I was in love. I bought an orange one, and couldn’t let it sit there doing nothing, so I decided to build something I could use in the interim whilst waiting for the new processors. I ended up purchasing a Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini-ITX motherboard with an Intel i3-3220. Had a couple of 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 sticks lying around, a spare 750GB Hard drive, and ended up buying a Samsung 120GB 840 SSD and Corsair CX430 PSU to finish it all up. This is what I’m currently using as my HTPC, as I wait for Asus to release the z87 motherboard I’m after. This is also the guts I plan on using for the carputer to go into the BA.

So, first things first, I had to find a way to connect a VGA out to the colour screen on the BA’s premium ICC. There’s a lot of info out there, if you check places such as fordmods.com or fordforums.com.au. After searching for hours, even days through lots of forums and posts, I found there to be a few options, but I won’t go into each here. Essentially, Ford had made a video input connector for the BA-BF’s on the bottom of the ICC. It’s easy enough to access, by removing the shifter surround, the two plastic side ‘wings’ and the tissue box. Also, thanks to this technical document (and the guys who created it) over at fordmods.com, I was able to create a cable that went from VGA to this connection. The connector itself I had to source from AerPro. It was a wiring harness for a Toyota haha. The problem with this setup was that the ICC’s screen had to have a horizontal refresh rate of about 15KHz.

My first attempt was using EnTech’s application called PowerStrip.
Basically what I was trying to do was use software to change the output of the computer’s VGA so that it would display the 15KHz horizontal refresh rate needed. After much frustration, whilst I was able to get an image, it was being displayed three times across the screen…. Not exactly what I had in mind.

The next step was purchasing a VGA to CGA adaptor. Harder than you think. When I was searching for one, I came across an abundance of CGA to VGA adaptors, but that’s not what I was after.
Finally, I found this on eBay. It required 5 volts, so I also purchased a 12v to 5v power converter.
This ended up being the solution to my problems, and was literally plug and play once I had it wired up and powered.

If you want more info on how to connect from VGA to Ford’s BA Falcon premium ICC, just check out this post.

So, this is now where I’m at. Now that I’m 100% I can connect my computer up, I’ve started this blog, and will start logging how I’ve gone about each step. Hopefully it may help someone, but it’s mainly here so I can have it permanently stored somewhere for future reference.