Alpine CVA-1000 without Brain Unit

Hey all. First post, and a bit of background first. I managed to get my hands on one of the CVA-1000 units ages ago - I'd assumed it was damaged, since it didn't work. Upon ordering schematics and doing some checking around, I discovered this unit will not function without the brain unit. It got shelved until now - two years later, almost. I decided to take on a project of very interesting proportions - and with a budget of $0. I decided to get in and hack the device - to make it work without the brain/control unit, since I never got one, and I'm cheap. Now, before you go thinking, "Yeah right, that's not possible" - I assure you: It is. First and foremost: This WILL NOT gain complete function. No tuner, no volume control. ALL the unit will do, after this set of modifications, is open and close intelligently (Yes, the tilt adjustments work) and display NTSC Composite, NTSC S-Video, or RGB video. The circuitry is also present to wire a PAL input, but I don't do PAL - no hardware to work with. I did this hack over the weekend. You'll need, obviously, your CVA-1000. You'll need good soldering skills for the basic NTSC Composite or RGB job, and superb skills for NTSC S-Video hack. You'll need a foot or so of wire - I used an old IDE 40-pin cable because it was nearby when I was doing the work. You'll need two resistors, values will be discussed later. You'll need your source signal jacks - a female RCA cable for composite, female S-Video cable for S-Video, or three female RCA cables for RGB. The unit also has capability for three separate Composite inputs, despite only one being linked internally (the other two were never intended to be activated, I'll describe why later), and that would require an external switch hack that really wouldn't be so hard. ALSO - after this mod, you only need five wires - Battery, Accessory, Ground, Video, Video Ground. The rest can be pulled or used for RGB/S-Vid/3-Vid mods. Again, I have completed this hack. It works - I'm installing it in my vehicle tomorrow, after much testing. This post is to serve one purpose: To guage interest. I haven't written up a document on how to do this yet. If nobody cares, I'm not going to bother, so if you want to see it, you'd better let me know.

seems more work than what the screen is worth now, but great job.There are 10 types of people in the world, ones that understand binary and ones that dont.

When you don't have any money, or you're on a low budget, but you do have a CVA-1000, it's not really more work than it's worth. Besides, for a tech with good soldering skills, this mod would take less than an hour.