Custom 12v Breakout Box

[infamous_t]

Keri (he's a guy lol), did a lot of design and advertising type stuff before on top of sales, so I imagine he's either doing that or sales still.

Also "Gibbo" who was an Ashdown WA Rep (Think he is originally from QLD) before moving to my old work's wholesale arm.

[mr moo]

here.s mine i made up cost about $25(had most stuff hanging around)and about 4 hours(took a lot of time stuffinh around).

didn't make any constant terminals don't really need them this is more for gages etc, and will only be using 5amp fuses. and instead of running off acc wire i might put a switch in the constant wire then going to no.86 of the relay.

[turbo_brian]

wow, ingram's are still going...

I used to support their phone systems before they where purchased by Repco and merged with Ashdown...

Never did find out what happened to the $170,000 worth of Avaya phone systems nation wide.

B.

[gumflapper]

i just have 1 question to everyone who has done this (im not critising anyone about this and i think you's have done quite well in your designs and builds) but from an electrical point of view (myself being an electrician) WTF COULD YOU POSSIBLY NEED IN UR CARS THAT WOULD REQUIRE 12 x 12V 30A FUSED OUTLETS? lol the FLC of that board would be 360A.

my suggestion would be to determine what you actually need in your car. wether or not it be gauges, extra cd/dvd players, gps power, UHF radios, etc. and build accordingly. yes i know that you will never fully load the board up (if u did you would need a cable to handle 360A - from memory a 95mm2 cable should do the trick + a decent size relay capable of taking 180A with a 12VDC coil).

for example, if you know that your going to have lets say 3 gauges, 1 dvd player and some neons/leds you build/fuse the board accordingly. a 3A fuse would be suitable for all the gauges 2gether, a 10A-15A fuse for ur dvd player (depending on type) and depending on how many neons/leds u have, 3A-5A should be enough. if you were to use say a 30A fuse on an unfused dvd player, if anything for whatever reason caused the dvd player to draw more current then required (less voltage than the required 12VDC will do this (ohms law says that voltage is directly proportional to current - voltage does down, current goes up)) and the dvd player was rated @ 12VDC/10A then the 30A fuse would probably never blow.

basically what im saying is that yes, a 30A fuse would blow during a short circuit, but if your equipment cannot take 30A then dont use 30A fuses.

[33driver]

gumflapper: hehe this was mentioned a few posts up and is defiantely a good point, I've already changed my fuses to suit the accesories.

mr moo: looking good!

turbo_brian: yeah ingram is still going strong, they merged with ashdown when they got bought out, started to grow quite quickly. Just before I left we were hitting record budgets easily so they are going well.

infamous_t: I think I spoke to gibbo a few times, didn't hear a lot from the wa reps as they seems to know what they were doing as opposed to some 'other' reps around oz lol.

[gumflapper]

that must have been the 1 post i missed... lol

[Duncan]

quick (stupid) question. does a fuse have to be between the power source (like battery) and a short to work, or does the whole wire take the whole load when there is a short. ie...should i always put fuses right next to the battery.

[mr moo]

Duncan-

when connecting any + positive wire i always connect a fuse as close to the power source as possible. this way, if there is a short the fuse will blow at the source and leave that wire dead. if you connect it close to the equipment etc. and there is a short on the wire or a connection it won't be able to blow the fuse and will catch fire etc. hope this helps

this is how i installed it in my r33 (first right up be nice, if anything i missed feel free to add)

1. jack up the right hand side front to lift the wheel off the ground.

2. undo all screws etc on the back plastic cover, and pull back this should expose a gromit going inside the car and also one to the engine bay.

3. constant power. tape some electrical wire to some wire, and feed through the gromit towards the engine bay. wire should come up near the brake booster (i also feed other wires for sensors etc which i need to do later makes it easier and don't have to do this again)

4. run that wire to the fuse/relay box on the drivers side, drill a hole on the side or where ever(but make sure you don't drill through something you don't want to) and make sure you seal the hole after the wire is put through (i used silicone). solder inline fuse and connect (leave the fuse out) to the rear terminal( this one is the feed to the battery)

5. now do the same with the wire trick (number 3), but into the cabin. will need to remove drivers kick trim and trim under dash/above feet.

6. that's the constant power done. now the acc wire, i just cut into the cigarette lighter acc feed and run that under the dash to the fuse box. i did this because it was the easiest to do and i don't use it. i didn't put a fuse on this as comes standard from factory.

(no pics sorry)

7. the negative. find a screw/bolt going to the chassis and connect. solder/clip all wires to the fuse box and mount where you want and easy assessable.

8. put the fuse in for the constant wire. turn on ignition and test with a test light. if all is connected properly it should work. put every thing back together, and your done.

[gumflapper]

nice...

simple...

well done