Thread: Hi, I need help. First time Building a Car PC

LHLXD,

I think I figured out your last question... The instructions won't answer this -- because it depends on your car. You need to find the ACC / IGN wire in your car and splice into that wire - then run the spliced wired to the ACC wire on the M2-atx. I don't know anything about your ride, so I would have to do some research to tell you were to look for that particular wire. Google around for a wire diagram for your car as a starting point for find the ACC wire.

Is it possible to splice the Acc/ign wire in the radio harness and solder it together? Will that work, or is it not recommended?

Yes,

That would work just fine.

Is there any specific gauge wire for the ACC/IGN, or any wire would do just fine? Thank you very much for helping me.

regarding the acc/ign line, i would recommend locating a suitable wire in the fusebox-- by using a volt meter, locate a fuse that only has +12 volts when the key is turned on, and then use a add-a-fuse to get the additional wire that can be run to the carpc to trigger it on/off.

personally, i am never very crazy about cutting into any factory wiring harnesses, because there is always a small chance that something could get cut too short, or you cut the wrong wire, don't tape it up enough, and it shorts out on the car, etc. so i always prefer methods that add a 'buffer' of something that is much easier to replace then something that might require a dealer-trained-technician to correct...


as far as wire gauge sizes:

for the acc/ign line, i typically run 18-16ga wire-- this wire doesn't carry much power, so it doesn't need to be very thick.

for the main power wires--just match up the length of the wire and power it carries(15Amps):


of note-- for the ground wire, it should always be at least the same diameter as the power wire, though it is better to run wire size larger(remember--wire gauges go backwards-- the smaller the number, the larger the wire) so that the equipment doesn't have to work so hard to get rid of 'old' power.

are you talking about the fuse box under the hood of the car or the fuse box near the drivers side? and which would you mostly tap the fuse line into the fuse box? I know each car have different fuse box settings, But I just want to get an idea what would most be a suitable and stable port to hook on to.

usually the fusebox near the drivers side-- because most 'ignition-dependent' accessories are in there(like cigarette lighter plugs, windows, etc). if your cig lighter plug turns on and off with the key, then that would be a good fuse to tap into(make sure it turns on and off-- some cars keep it on for a certain amount of time after the car turns off).

basically, you want to try to locate a non-critical accessory in the off-chance that something might happen that it overloads the wire and blows the other fuse... that something rarely does happen, but it is always something important to plan for--think about being on a long roadtrip, and youhappened to connect to the fuel pump wire-- fuse blows, and now your stranded 500 miles from home.. if the same thing were to happen to something like the cig lighter fuse, sure it stinks not to have it, but you can make it home without it..

I was reading the service manual for my Acura tsx 2004 and I noticed that my Power sockets are located on the drivers side. The problem is that it is rated at 15 amps. When you told me to do an add-a-fuse, I checked on amazon to see if they sell ones that are rated at 15 amps. All results came out to be either 3, 5, 7.5 and 10 amp fuses. Can it still handle a 15 amp fuse if I just replace the add-a-fuse fuse?