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accesory wires


tmeshleman
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(I hope this is in the right forum)

ok, I have an autometer boost guage with memory and a warning light and a bunch of other fancy stuff ... don't worry it was free. :lol:

 

Anyway, it has 1 power line and 1 ground line. It also calibrates itself it recieves power (to adjust for elivation etc etc).

 

Here's my problem: I'm not sure where to get power for it. Currently I have it hooked to an accesory line so that when the ignition is turned on, it comes on. Seemed to work great, until I started the car. When you turn the key to the 'start' position the flow to accesory wires is momentarily interupted. Well, it may be a quick moment(car starts on 1st or second crank when cold, 3rd or 4th when warm), but its enough to make the guage recalibrate itself ... while the engine is spinning. Anyway, the calibration is all off and the guage is undependable.

 

I really don't want to have a switch to turn it on before I start the car. Where could I get an accesory line that isn't interupted when the car is started ? Or, what wire would you recomend in stead ? Or should I sell the guage to someone else and buy a mechanical guage ?(>_<)

 

-Tim Eshleman

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  • 3 months later...
If power is momentarily cut off than it should be cut off to everything including your lights and your stereo. I dont think there would be another wire that you could hook it up to that will not be getting cut off other than your starter and you dont want to hook it to that. I would just run a line with a switch directly to the battery and switch it on.
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How much power does this thing need? One option would be to stick a diode (one of those 50volt, 1amp (or more) style plastic "barrel" diodes, not a dinky glass one) in the power feed wire and then hook a large electrolytic capacitor in parallel with the guage. The capacitor will act like a battery, holding power to the guage for a few seconds (bigger cap = longer time) while the diode will prevent the capacitor from trying to back-feed into the rest of the accessories - don't need/want them sucking the capacitor dry.

 

Or you can use 2 diodes to "bridge" the ACC and ON positions of the ignition switch. Hook one end of a diode to ACC, one end of the other diode to ON, and tie the remaining diode ends together and into the guage's power supply input. This way, power will come from either (or both) diodes but they'll isolate the rest of the ACC and ON circuits from each other.

 

mike c.

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