fury

I wanted to put an 8ga power wire to the interior, from the battery, where I was going to hook up all of my extra accessories (under dash lighting, under ground effects lighting, gps, vent angel lights, ...). For obvious reasons, I wouldn't want my accessories connected all the time (even when I'm not in the car). So I have 2 questions for you guys:

1. is there a way that I can somehow make this 8ga wire live ONLY when the dash lights go on (use of a relay, etc)?
2. did you guys add an extra power line for your accessories, or did you use the existing power in your tib?

Ericy321

Look for like a battery isolation relay or something similar. Stinger makes a nice one. You can hook the 8ga up and use the ingnition wire or a switch to make it close. The one I have for dual batteries is an 80A relay.

StrikeEagle

Let me answer your second question first... I have all my 'accessories' (vent angel eyes, speaker LEDs, underseat/dash cold cathodes, headlight angel eyes, gauge cluster backlight, gps, switch for my remote door locks, and a switch for my HHO generator) all hooked up to my power outlet (cigarette lighter) with no problems. It's a lot of power, and as of yet, no fuse blows (except for the infrequent miswiring), so I think with the things you've mentioned, your power outlet would be enough. However, if you do want to add more, hook up a 30a relay with a 30a fuse right next to the battery to your 8ga wire (max power transmission for an 8ga power wire is around 30a, however, chassis ground for an 8ga wire is 70ish). Then take a small wire from somewhere that's already connected to your key (like the cigarette lighter) and hook it up to the relay. This is your 'signal' wire. When it is hot, the relay will turn on, making your 8ga wire hot too. Then hook up anything you want to your new 8ga power wire. This wire all the way up to the relay will be hot all the time, but nothing will be connected to it until you turn on your car, thereby activating the relay. So you won't lose juice all the time, only when your car is on. I also highly recommend getting a terminal block for all the stuff you are planning on hooking up. It makes it a much cleaner install, easier to see, and a much cleaner install (did I already mention that?) Unlike mine, which looks like a spaghetti factory after a tornado...

I'm sure half of what I said didn't make any sense, so ask again, and we'll try to keep helping out.

REDZMAN

If you give me a day, or 2, (PM me to remind me), I'll show you my solution for an interior power block.

You will LOVE it.

Clean, easy, good price, and perfect for all your interior accessories. I've got 2 of them, one for constant power and one for switched, and I have one mocked up at home to take pics of. I posted a link for them before in my xm/radar detector hardwire thread.

fury

Ericy, I'll look at that battery isolation relay. Never heard of it. Thanks for sharing.

StrikeEagle, you made perfect sense!! You were very clear fing02.gif Ok, I was thinking of hooking up a relay for this, but... you mention that I can hook up a small wire from the key or the cig lighter and use that as my 'signal' for signalling the relay. I'm just not sure if this will work. I mean, what's the maximum current that you can pass to signal a relay? I thought 500mA was the max. If so, then the 'signal' wire from the key/cig lighter might draw more than 1/2A. So, I guess I need to ask you: what is the max current you can use to drive a relay, and what happens to the relay when you exceed this 'signal' current?

Oh, and about the distribution block, I installed 3 weeks ago as I was doing my stereo install. It's a Tsunami, 2 4ga inputs, and 3 8ga outputs + 1 4ga output. It displays the voltage coming from the battery, and lights up my trunk, blue, very nicely smile.gif I will take pics when I'm done with the electrical.

Redz, I'm looking forward to seeing how you did yours. Ok, if I don't see anything from you, I'll PM you. I remember your xm/radar detector thread; VERY useful. I ordered the 5A supply (to directly connect my gps into) from the link you posted. I still remember you had said something like, "I googled, and in 5 minutes I came up with this" [and you refered to the link] laugh.gif That was a GREAT find!!



An idea just occurred: to use my remote turn-on wire from my head unit to power the relay.