Posts

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

Brake Switch

In previous posts, we talked about how to wire the brake lights to the rear POWERCELL in our customer’s 1967 Mustang.  We’re going to talk about wiring the brake switch in this post.  This is a very easy MASTERCELL switch input to wire.  There are lots of different brake pedal switches out there.  Here are a few examples from the Summit Racing website.

 

Hydraulic pressure brake switch

Hydraulic pressure brake switch

MOPAR-style brake switch

MOPAR-style brake switch

Automotive brake pedal switch

Automotive brake pedal switch

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

This last brake switch is what our customer is using in the 1967 Mustang.  All of these switches have 2 terminals on them.  One will connect to the MASTERCELL input wire.  The other will connect to ground.  When the pedal is pressed, there is continuity between the MASTERCELL input wire and ground.  Refer back to this illustration again.

Simple diagram showing how to wire a switch to the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

Simple diagram showing how to wire a switch to the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The brake pedal switch simply connects between the MASTERCELL input and ground.

Start by checking the configuration sheet that came with your kit.  This link will take you to an earlier post in this series about the importance of your configuration sheet.  This car is wired with separate brake light and turn signal outputs on the rear POWERCELL so we’re going to use the MASTERCELL input for Brake Lights with Multi-Filament Bulbs.  This post will get you more information on the different turn-signal and brake light options.

We checked our configuration sheet.  The MASTERCELL input for the brake switch for the configuration that we want is the Yellow-Green wire.  This is input 15 on the MASTERCELL A connector.  Remember that the MASTERCELL input wire needs to connect to one side of the switch.  The other side of the switch needs to connect to ground.  In the case of the brake switch, there is no polarity.  You can connect the MASTERCELL input to either of the terminals on the switch.

In the case of the Mustang switch, you can purchase the mating connector and harness that plugs onto the back of the switch.  This has the two wires that connect to the MASTERCELL input and ground.  You can splice or solder these wires in any way as described in previous posts in this series.

For the ground connection, you have two options.  You can make the ground connection directly to the chassis at the brake pedal.  Make sure that this connection is made on the body, not on the brake pedal mechanism.  You will not get good continuity to ground through the pedal linkage.  Put a ring terminal on the ground wire to connect to the chassis.  Make sure that you have a metal-to-metal connection for this ground.  The junction should be free of dirt, grease, oil, rust, paint, powder coating or any other contaminant.

You also have the option to use any of the black wires in the MASTERCELL harness as your ground connection.  There are 8 black, ground wires in the MASTERCELL A harness.  All 8 of these wires are electrically the same.  You can use any of them to be the ground connection for your brake switch.

Here’s how your brake light circuit will work when it is connected.  When you step on the brake pedal, the contacts in the brake switch close.  This connection takes the MASTERCELL brake input and connects it to ground.  The MASTERCELL detects that the input has been grounded and sends a command to the POWERCELL in the rear of the car.  The POWERCELL receives this signal and turns on the output for the brake lights.  When you take your foot off of the brake pedal, the contacts in the brake switch open.  This disconnects the MASTERCELL input from ground.  The MASTERCELL sees this input turn off and sends a command to the rear POWERCELL.  The rear POWERCELL gets this command and turns off the brake lights.  It seems complicated, but it isn’t.  All of this is automatically managed from within the Infinitybox system.

If you have questions about connecting your brake switch, you can click on this link to contact a member of our team.  Keep watching our blog for more updates on wiring switches in our customer’s 1967 Mustang.

Parking Lights

In our last post, we talked about wiring the headlights and high-beams to the front POWERCELL in your Infinitybox system.  Now it is time for you to wire the parking lights.  What we call parking lights can be called a few different things.  Some guys call them marker lights, some call them running lights or driving lights.  We call them parking lights.  These are the amber lights on the front of your car and the amber or red lights on the rear of your car.  Essentially, you are going to wire them the exact same way that you did for your headlights and high-beams with a few important exceptions.

There are parking lights on the front of your car and on the rear of your car.  Instead of running wire from the front to back of your car to power these lights together, we have dedicated outputs on the front and rear POWERCELLs for these lights.  In the case of our 1967 Mustang project, we power the front parking lights from the POWERCELL in the driver’s fender.  The rear parking lights come from the rear POWERCELL mounted in the trunk.  In both cases, the runs of wire are very short.

Remember that the switch does not connect to the lights.  The switch connects to the MASTERCELL.  We’re going to get into wiring the switches in upcoming blog posts.

In configuration that we are using for this 1967 Mustang, the parking lights are on outputs 6 on the front and 6 on the rear POWERCELL.  These are the yellow wires.  Click here to read the blog post that talks about the configuration sheet.  Run your parking light output wire to the the closest parking light on that side of the car, then splice off of that to go to the second parking light on that side of the car.  The parking light output is going to connect to both the left and right parking light bulbs.  These are wired in parallel.  The other wire in the parking light harness needs to get connected to ground.  Check the documentation that came with your lights for the proper wires for power and ground.  If you are using LED parking lights, the polarity is very important.  LED lights will not work if they are wired backwards.  You can see the headlight blog post to talk about ways to tap between the left and right lights on the car by clicking here.

You are going to use the parking light outputs from the front & rear POWERCELLs to power the lights.  You are also going to tap off of these POWERCELL outputs to power other illumination in the car.  Each POWERCELL output has capacity for 25-amps.  Most parking lights draw about one amp so you have lots of room to spare.

In the front of the car, you are going to tap off of your parking light output to power the gauge illumination and your dash illumination.  That way, you have lights on your gauges and dash when your parking lights are on.  In the rear of the car, you are going to tap off of the parking light output to light your license plate light and any other running lights on the back of the car.

This illustration shows you how the front & rear parking light outputs connect from the two POWERCELLs in the car.

Diagram showing how to power your parking lights from the Infinitybox system.

Diagram showing how to power your parking lights from the Infinitybox system.

We wanted to add a few comments about splicing and tapping off wires in your harness.  We do not recommend products that pierce the wire insulation for making taps.  This is a decent way to make splices in low current applications in sealed enclosures for telecom systems.  We do not recommend these types of taps or splices for the automotive environment.  Vibration, temperature, oil, dirt and grease will cause these taps to fail over time.  We recommend that you use crimp connectors or solder these splices.  If you used either of these methods, the joints should be protected and covered with heat-shrink tubing.

Another great option for creating a sealed junction point is to use our Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit.  This is a simple way to join multiple wires together in a sealed connector.  This pictures shows you an example of how to splice multiple lights to your single parking light output on your front POWERCELL using the Splice Saver Kit.

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

This picture shows you how you can use the Splice Saver Kit to wire your rear parking lights.

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

Click on this link to contact our team with questions or comments about wiring your parking lights with our Infinitybox system.