Fuse popping, wire heating up!

**gumbi4u** · 04-21-2005, 12:55 AM

Well im new to this forum and i did ofcourse search the forums for all my car pc needa and you guys have kicked *** in giving me info but now after the car-pc is done, im running into a bit of a snag....let me lay out what i have and what i have it installed in............

2004 Lincoln navigator

two lcd screens in the headrest and a vga touchscreen 8" in the front. a car dvd player, car-pc with built in dc power supply for direct 12v carnage.....a video/controller box and a fm modulator.

First off the video controller featuers 4 a/v ins and outs and has 4 dedicated 12v protected power outs. first off the 3 lcds/ dvd player and fm modulator is hooked up to the power outs of the box. powers 1-3 have the screens and the last power out has the fm mod and the pyle dvd player.

now the wire that powers the control box is hooked up to a cigarette lighter plug i fabricated out of a old phone charger. the car-pc is also spliced into the cigi plug. th eplug it self has a fuse in it ofcourse and the socket is definitly fused at the trucks fuse box. well i powerd just the dvd and the screens and everything was cooking with crisco. At the time the little fuse in the cigi plug was a measly 3A. While it was all running, i decided to turn on the comp, and
the fuse pops.

SO i upped the ante and tried a 10a.......POPPED after the comp turned on. But yet the comp runs fine alone with the control box turned off.

****the control box is switched so it can be turned off...when tiurned off, the dvd and screens are powered off*****
The third screen was never turning off cause the pos/neg was cross wired, so i thought that might have been the problem, so i fix that problem and now im running all systems on a 10amp fuse....sweeet..........here comes the kicker....

now after about 5 mins with dvd running and comp is running fine all booted up, the control box shuts off and so does the comp, i check the cigi plug and the fuse is kinda melted and the plug is super hot.....mind you only the little fuse in the plug is the one which heats up or blows up, not the oem truck socket. i know when i spliced the car charger cigi plug, the wires were super thin?

What can be the remedy to this and do i need any additional components? Somethign to regulate voltage to the comp and what else?

let me diagram my stuff to better serve you

dvd======
lcd1=====
lcd2===== ALL GO INTO POWER OUT LET ON CONTROL BOX
lcd3======

CONTROLBOX======SWITCH======FUSED CAR CHARGER CIGI PLUG
*SPLICE*
CARPC=======================FUSED CAR CHARGER CIGI PLUG

THANKS AGAIN!
GUMBI

**mushin** · 04-21-2005, 01:07 AM

<sigh> Where to start...

Never replace a failing fuse with a larger one.

Fuses are there for a reason. One of those reasons is to keep your car from catching on fire. You say you searched, so you should know that wire is capable of safely passing so much current, and fuses make sure you never go beyond that point.

You were clearly drawing too much power from the cigarette lighter line, which was never designed for that much current (and fused accordingly). You need to install a real power wire back to your battery, and count yourself lucky that the melting severed your connection before insulation started to catch on fire.

edit: Don't double post! People will see your question just fine.

**gumbi4u** · 04-21-2005, 10:39 AM

Thanks again for the reply, sorry for the double post, yeah im definitly breathing a sigh of relief thatthe wire didnt catch fire. I have a lot of fused distribution blocks, so i will go grab one of those 8 gauge amp kits and call it a day, only problem will probably be routing the wire thorugh the firewall. I will post my findings and post pics. Also if possible please erase this post since its a duplicate. Sorry for the confusion. PLEASE DELETE POST.

**TheLlama** · 06-12-2006, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by gumbi4u

... only problem will probably be routing the wire thorugh the firewall. I will post my findings and post pics.

Yeah, every car is different but it is generally easiest to wire it near your fuse box. I.e: Where the factory has already run cables through the firewall. Sometimes you will get lucky and there is a plastic grommit you can just punch out.

**michael_16j** · 06-15-2006, 12:14 PM

What you want to do is wire the control box to the cig just like it is and then wire the Computer to the battery directly, so it can get the right power, use atleast 10gague wire