Thread: wire performance

hmm i dont know if you might need bigger wire. im using 12ga speaker wire myself, attached to my 3 1.2 farad capacitors in the trunk. but i only have an m1-atx to power in addition to the multiple amps and signal processors.

i threw a switch with a relay to cut the ignition power to my psu. this was a great idea because heck, sometimes you have to shutdown the PC to get something to work, or if someone is going to work on your car, you can make sure the pc stays off. i havent had any problems as of yet, ive only had one because i used a cheap relay that got stuck on off, but since then i switched to a bosch automotive relay, and it works like a charm.

yeah, reds a good person... she can be harsh & witty if she thinks your being resistant to accepting what she sees as obvious.... add to that her trying to be witty with her sarcasm & alot of people think she's harsh.... but she really is trying to help & goes way out of her way to do so some times.... when I first "met" her we actually butted heads a little, but now I consider her a friend... you guys are both very helpful on these boards & I'd hate to see first impressions cause hard feelings between you guys.... but if you don't like her then don't I guess

with your wiring, understand this...

electricity flows through wire like water through a hose... but in the context were talking about, the real difference is that electricitry can't leak like a hose when cut... by cutting a wire & just twisting it togeather, you have to realize that the only way the electricity can flow from the one wire to the next is through the actual contact points of the strands.... if the wire is just twisted there isn't much pressure compressing them togeather, & the actual "contact area" from the feed to the supply is not that great.... this restricts the flow..... in a water hose it would build up pressure at this point, but with electricity the resistance builds up heat..... I bet if you feel the contacts when the problem is happening, you can actually feel the heat in the bad conection(s)... this heat causes more resistance which degrades the connection even more.....

fires can & do very well start like this, a crimp will press the wires togeather much better than any twisting job can do, & is thought to be o.k. by some, but will almost always be a point of resistance to a certain extent, & if the current flow is high enough, a crimp can STILL overheat, causing more resistance.... vicious cycle was mentioned earlier & it's very true

the only "right" way to connect a wire without running the chance of it either initially or later becoming a point of resistance is to solder it..... I know you never done it & if you really don't want to now, I guess crimping is the next best thing.... but it's not hard to solder, & the key will be having the right iron for the job.... as far as heat shrinking, yeah, that's the cleanest way to do it, but I've been doing automotive electrical work for way to many years to even think about, & I can tell you that the streatchy stick to itself stuff your using is o.k. for connections inside the car, & even outside, although underhood stuff should be taped more

another thing that I do, which works wonders & should be done on any taped connection in a car, is tape it good with electrical tape, then use a lighter to heat up & burn/melt the tape... moving it fast enough to heat the whole thing up real good & eventually it may even start to burn.... you then roll it & compress it with you fingers & it will all melt togeather, & cause a sealed shell similar to heatshrink.... it may not be as clean, but about as effective if melted enough... cheap plastic electrical tape works well with this method, & it would unravel for sure without doing this

& yeah, 18 ga sounds too light for that long of a run.... is this just the ign trigger or the main supply.... if it's the main supply I'm surprised you haven't had more issues, that's to tiny & should be at least a 14, if not overkill with a 12...

hope this helps

at this point i could care less if shes a good person or not etc, ive been here for over 3 years and ive helped way more people than i can remember. Im the guy who answers the post when everyone else's reply is to search And not one time have i been rude to anyone just for the hell of it. Esp someone i dont know. Same thing in real life, you dont walk up to people you dont know with smart comments, else you might get knocked on your ***. Too many people hide behind the internet and talk a lot more **** than they ever would in real life.

on the other stuff:

thats some good info turbocad, i have a roll of 12guage wire in the trunk. I only used the 18 cuz the opus manual said to use 18 but nothings wrong with overkill. Im not against using a solder iron, ive seen it done plenty of times, its not rocket science, im just lazy and dont feel like buying one knowing ill never, ever use it again for anything.
I understand the wire heating up issues, ive seen this happen to plenty of car radios. Mine are pretty cool though, cant feel any extra heat etc. where its cut. Its been cut in this spot for 3yrs too, i was gonna install the switch when i did the original install but didnt think i would really need it if the opus did what it was supposed to do. Just getting around to it now (told u im lazy)
Im about to run to the store now and pick up a new switch and a relay, already have some 12guage wire so that should good. Im pretty confident after reading the helpful post that the switch is the problem. So along with a new switch, thicker wire, crimps and a relay all should be good.

thanks everybody for your helpfull and considerate comments.

heh - thing is liquid - I don't 'hide behind the internet' if you met me you would realize, I’m the same in person



one thing you don't see is how many people I have IM me off of the board and PM me in the background. Daily I have no fewer than 3 different people contact me asking for help and I gladly help them.

Hell, just at work I've not got no fewer than 4 people on these boards looking at how they can put a PC in their car, I'm working with TheLandYaght to redo his current install (he's coming up to Dallas for a week to do so), I've helped and will help Darque to rewire his current system. Just because of you reading through my past few posts and seeing a few sarcastic comments (about 90% of which were in this thread recently) does not give you the right to make a blanket statement. BTW, if you had read past the first few posts you would see how much I hate blanket statements.

Here's the deal, I can't stand it when someone is proven to be completely wrong, ESPECIALLY when it's obvious, and that someone to adamantly deny it as being wrong. It irks me to no end, and that's exactly what you were doing, thus my smart *** comments back towards you. Harsh? Sure. But IMO, if you're going to be hardheaded enough to adamantly deny that it's wrong, you should also be hard headed enough to put up with a bit of sarcasm.

You say I didn't have anything valuable to add, I find this to be wrong. I have told you that you have your system wired in a shoddy manner. Just because you can't handle someone telling you that doesn't mean it's not something valuable to add.

Many times when you have a hot spot (meaning a spot of high resistance - in this case the twisted and taped wire) you will have the EXACT same symptoms you have now. Just because it lasted 3 years doesn't mean it will be fine now, ESPECIALLY when you have just taped the joints. Tape is not perminant, these joints move and become looser. Crimp ends and solder are the only way to correctly connect wires, period end of story.

problem fixed:

solution:
The biggest thing seemed to be the guage of wire, 18 vs 12. Although 18guage seemed to be fine the past 3 years, adding the switch was prob the tipping point. It was prob just getting by on the 18. First i replaced the 18guage with 12 and instantly the problem was gone. Ran the car for a few hours while i was doing some other stuff and not once did the opus send a shutdown command. Normally if i just sat in the drive way for 20min it would shutdown (but never while driveing). So then i added the other stuff like the relay and crimps. Computer is much happier now.

Thanks to everyone who responded with usefull information.

Originally Posted by Red GTi VR6

heh - thing is liquid - I don't 'hide behind the internet' if you met me you would realize, I’m the same in person



one thing you don't see is how many people I have IM me off of the board and PM me in the background. Daily I have no fewer than 3 different people contact me asking for help and I gladly help them.

Hell, just at work I've not got no fewer than 4 people on these boards looking at how they can put a PC in their car, I'm working with TheLandYaght to redo his current install (he's coming up to Dallas for a week to do so), I've helped and will help Darque to rewire his current system. Just because of you reading through my past few posts and seeing a few sarcastic comments (about 90% of which were in this thread recently) does not give you the right to make a blanket statement. BTW, if you had read past the first few posts you would see how much I hate blanket statements.

Here's the deal, I can't stand it when someone is proven to be completely wrong, ESPECIALLY when it's obvious, and that someone to adamantly deny it as being wrong. It irks me to no end, and that's exactly what you were doing, thus my smart *** comments back towards you. Harsh? Sure. But IMO, if you're going to be hardheaded enough to adamantly deny that it's wrong, you should also be hard headed enough to put up with a bit of sarcasm.

You say I didn't have anything valuable to add, I find this to be wrong. I have told you that you have your system wired in a shoddy manner. Just because you can't handle someone telling you that doesn't mean it's not something valuable to add.

Many times when you have a hot spot (meaning a spot of high resistance - in this case the twisted and taped wire) you will have the EXACT same symptoms you have now. Just because it lasted 3 years doesn't mean it will be fine now, ESPECIALLY when you have just taped the joints. Tape is not perminant, these joints move and become looser. Crimp ends and solder are the only way to correctly connect wires, period end of story.

why are you still even posting in here, i really dont care about your opinions etc, just move along. I dont care how many people you help, or whos PMing you. My pm box stays full too, so what. There isnt a single person on this board that can deny how much i help people on the forum and off. But again, so what!, whats the point of even bringing that up.
You claim you dont like blanket statement, but you seem to make enough of them.
I never said hey u guys are completely wrong and dont know what ur talking about, i never argued that at all. I simply stated what the current situation was, and what i thought about it, the truth is the truth. Even though i twisted and used electrical tape, dosent mean absolutely there is going to be a problem there 100% of the time, maybe most of the time. And this was even stated by others in this thread who seemed to give a lot more information than you. But in this instance that was not the issue, and even more proved to me when i fixed things up last night. Sure twisting and electrical tape may not be the best way to do something, but trying to say its the only way and your sure to fail if you dont do it my way. Pst.
I said you didnt bring any value to the thread and you still havnt. The first few replies to the thread were very helpfull, then you feel as though you have to jump into the thread with smart comments and no value. To me it was just a waste of time. Esp if the first thing you have to say is smart comments and name calling. Why not try to explain why something is the way it is instead of expecting any and everyone to take whatever u say at face value.
"You say I didn't have anything valuable to add, I find this to be wrong. I have told you that you have your system wired in a shoddy manner."
Exactly what kind of value is this? Oh she said its wired shoddy, thats real valuable, i can take that to the bank. Exactly how is that adding value.
If your gonna say something is wrong and not say why its wrong and how to make it better, then it just ends up being your opinion and nothing more.
Other people were already in the process of explaining the reasons why, you didnt come and add any additional information, if i were going by just your posts id still be asking questions. Thus, no value.

Just because someone says, that what they are seeing isnt what you are saying dosnt mean they are saying you are wrong. I think everyone whos ever used tape for anything knows its not perminant, yes joints move and become looser, slide off, melt away etc. But in this instance , none of those things happened or were begining to happen. My wire isnt hot where it was cut, my tape wasnt slideing off or melting. And just because i state that its not doing that, dosent mean im saying hey you guys are wrong or trying to be whatever. Its simply the reality of the situation. Take it how you want it.
You try to jump to conclusions and figure someone is being hardheaded etc, and i dont like your smart comments. So what, life goes on. You go your way and i go mine. End

ls:
I'm glad the solution was a simple one and that you found the culprit.

And you must understand that these forums are public. Any registered member can reply to anyone's post. That's not going to change, and I don't think your request is going to change that.

hey smoke, I'm going to dance around the other issues because I may have butted in too much already there... but as far as your wiring goes...

I was thinking about the way you did this, & I just wanted to tell you, incase you don't realize this...

interupting the actual power wire with a switch is a really crude way of doing what your doing... it requires you to run the heavier gauge supply line all the way to your dash & back... it also means that you have to use a bigger uglier heavy duty switch, it has to handle all the amperage of the circuit.

the better way, & i'd even say the right way, would be to use a relay. a relay will go inline with the main power wire & it actually does the switching... the relay handles the amperage of the switching, & then you can use a tiny switch, because it will see almost no actual load, just the few hundred ma that it takes to activate the relay.

the wiring from the relay to the switch can be just about anything.... even a tiny 26ga would work, for durability you'd use something a little thicker than that, but you get the point. the relay could be in the front, the rear, or anywhere inbetween, like in a kick panel area

yeah, thats what i figured out when i was at the store getting the heavier guage wire and looking at all the switches they had, i would have to get a big ugly switch. I have a relay im using too, so i did replace the switch but its still a small one, just looks cooler than the one i already had. Im actully in the process now of trying to find a good/better place to put the relay. Have to make another trip to the store cuz i picked up a new inline fuse (different project) that was busted when i took it out the package. Looked like someone took a blowtorch to it, lol