Easiest 'wire to battery' solution?

**dogah** · 11-25-2004, 10:54 PM

Currently i've been using the cigarette lighter with limited success and i'm looking for a more permanent solution, wiring straight to the battery, im using a morex80w piece of **** PSU that will be replaced by a 150w opus when i have the $$$.

What is the easiest way to wire direct to the battery? Are there spare battery wires around in my car already? (bmw 96 e36) do i go to the fuse box? i see heaps of people 'wired to battery' on this forum so how did u all do it?

**john1701** · 11-25-2004, 11:11 PM

like some ppl here i could also flame how ppl do not search before posting.
for now, opus has three wires, red, black, and either white or yellow.

goto your local wiring store and pick up some 8 or 10 guage wire (2 lengths about 10 feet since you have a tiny car. one wire you will need a fuse on it about 30 40 amp fuse.
find a rubber grommet somewhere on your firewall to run the wires through from the engine compartment to where you will put the opus.

connect the black wire from the opus to one wire not fused and connect the other end to the negative (-) side of the battery.
connect the red wire from the opus to the wire that is fused and connect the other end to the positve (+) side of the battery.
connect the white or yellow wire from the opus to a fuse from the tiny little cars fuse box that has power when cranking. (usually the radio fuse will work).

thats it.
ppl reading this be nice, he is a newbie. only thing sucks for him is the car he has.

**dogah** · 11-25-2004, 11:15 PM

thanks for the reply,

although not exactly what i was after, i understand how to wire an opus and HAVE searched, what im after is how to get power from the car independant of PSU, eg when u say 'negative side of battery' i am assuming you do not mean the actual battery, so then where do i find power/battery wires do i have to take up a fusebox slow and do it that way ?

**john1701** · 11-25-2004, 11:19 PM

yes i do mean the actual battery...

you could connect the opus to your fusebox. just need to find one that has power when the car is on AND off.

as independant of the psu, search for building a ps

finding the correct fuses from the fusebox will be in the manual that came with the car.

**hussein** · 11-26-2004, 12:05 AM

Your battery should be in the trunk anyway, so whats so difficult?

**Nic** · 11-26-2004, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by john1701

connect the black wire from the opus to one wire not fused and connect the other end to the negative (-) side of the battery.

you dont have to run a negative wire all the way to the battery, it is sufficient to connect the negative wire to a part of the cars chassis, since the negative terminal is connected directly to the cars chassis also

**john1701** · 11-26-2004, 12:43 AM

true but i did that and had some power problems, ran ground straight to the battery and all my power problems went away.

**dogah** · 11-26-2004, 02:35 AM

wow didn't actually think thats what everyone meant heh crazy.
yeah you can just ground the negative side i got that.

**Nic** · 11-26-2004, 03:24 AM

Originally Posted by john1701

true but i did that and had some power problems, ran ground straight to the battery and all my power problems went away.

you must have grounded to a bad spot then

**Grayscale** · 11-26-2004, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Nic

you must have grounded to a bad spot then

He may not have scrapped all of the paint off. But yes it is generally a better idea to have a negative wire also, because it helps keep the risk of ground loop down if you are positive you're actually grounding to the batterys negative terminal and not going through bad weld spots, etc, causing a change of resistance!