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Jeep Install Series-inRESERVECopyright Infinitybox, LLC 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Jeep CJ7 Wiring Series- inRESERVE Location

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Over the next few videos, we’re going to continue our theme on good planning.  Specifically, we’re going to talk about picking the best locations for the major components that come with your Infinitybox system.  We’re installing our 20-Circuit Kit with inLINK and inRESERVE in our 1979 CJ7.  To get the most out of our install, we want to pick the best locations for the MASTERCELL, the front & rear POWERCELLs, the MEGA fuse holder and the inRESERVE solenoid.  We’ve broken this up into multiple, talking about what you need to consider for each part.  This video covers picking the best location for the main parts in the inRESERVE Active Battery Management System.

inRESERVE is our Active Battery Management System.  It is an accessory to our 20-Circuit Kit.  inRESERVE works with your MASTERCELL and POWERCELL to monitor your battery voltage and actively disconnect the battery if it gets too lot.  You can click here to get to another video that goes through inRESERVE in more detail.  There are two main parts of the inRESERVE Kit that need to be planned for in your install.  The first is the inRESERVE latching solenoid.  The second is the manual reset button.

The heart of the inRESERVE kit is a special latching solenoid.  It takes a pulse from a POWERCELL output to latch open, disconnecting all power from the battery to minimize battery drain.  The inRESERVE solenoid needs to be located between the positive terminal of your battery and the block of 4 MEGA fuses that distribute power to your POWERCELLs.  The best location that we found in our Jeep is right in front of the battery, under the hood.  We’ll mount this solenoid on the same plate as the MEGA fuses.

The location of the inRESERVE reset button is really important.  When inRESERVE does its job, it completely shuts down the Infinitybox system.  You need to be able to get to your reset button from outside of your car of truck.  If you have it inside and you have electric poppers, you won’t be able to access it to reset your system.  We’re going to mount our reset button next to the battery and the solenoid under the hood.  Check out the details in the video below.

This picture will show you schematically how the inRESERVE solenoid gets wired to the primary block of Mega fuses that comes with your 20-Circuit Kit.  You can download a PDF of this schematic by clicking this link.

This diagram will show you the overall relationship between the inRESERVE battery disconnect solenoid, the battery, the Mega fuse block and the 8-gauge power feeds that go to each of the POWERCELLs.  You can download a PDF copy of this diagram by clicking this link.

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- Cell Locations and Primary Power Routing

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- Cell Locations and Primary Power Routing

Keep watching for more in our 1979 Jeep CJ7 Install Series.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the bell icon so you get notified when we post new videos in the series.

Click on this link to get to the main page for the 1979 Jeep CJ7 wiring project.  You can find all of the videos on one place there.  

You can also click here to contact our technical support team with any questions about your car or truck wiring project.  

Infinitybox Video-inRESERVECopyright Infinitybox, LLC 2021. All Rights Reserved.

inRESERVE Video

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inRESERVE

Our inRESERVE Active Battery Management System is a great accessory for your 20-Circuit Kit.  As you add more and more electrical requirements to your car, the demand on the battery increases when the car is sitting idle.  inRESERVE continuously watches your battery voltage and safely disconnects the battery if it gets too low with your car is not being driven.  This keeps your battery from being deep cycled and always leaves enough charge in the battery so you can get started again.  Learn more about inRESERVE in this video.

You can add inRESERVE to your Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit by clicking this link.

Click this link to get in touch with our technical team with any questions. 

inRESERVE Copyright Infinitybox, LLC 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Battery Disconnect

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Here’s another good question we got from a customer.

“I normally install in a battery disconnect switch when I wire a car.  When I install inRESERVE, do I need to wire in a separate battery disconnect switch?”

The answer is “no”.  Just like all of our other products, our products are versatile and serve multiple functions.  inRESERVE is our active battery management system.  It works in conjunction with our 10 or 20-Circuit Harness Kits to actively protect your battery from drain.  There are lots of things in your car that are pulling current from the battery when the car sits idle.  The ECU pulls power, the audio system pulls power and our Infinitybox hardware pulls power while the car is sitting.

Before we get into the details of inRESERVE, there are a few things that you can do to maintain the health of your battery and to make sure that you always have a good charge.

First, we always recommend leaving the battery on a maintenance or trickle charger.  Good ones are made by CTEK, Optima or Battery Tender.

From there, we always recommend adding a disconnect switch between the battery and the electrical loads in your car.  That way you can manually kill all of the power demand from your battery when the car is sitting idle.  This is a thing where there are lots of good products out there and lots of bad ones.  The disconnect switches that we recommend are made by Littelfuse or Pollak.  This is one of our favorites.

There are a few important warnings about wiring in disconnect switches.  First, you do not want to run your starter motor through the disconnect.  With the exception of a few switches, most are not designed to handle the current surge from when you crank the engine.  You want to leave the main feed from the battery to the starter motor uninterrupted.  Second, you never want to interrupt the feed from the alternator to the battery.  This can lead to a situation called a load dump and it can cause significant damage to the electrical systems in your car.  This link will get you more information.

Our inRESERVE Active Battery Management System combines a disconnect switch with the intelligence of our Infinitybox system.  Click on this video to learn more about the specifics.

The Infinitybox system is always monitoring the battery voltage in your car.  If the voltage gets too low, a POWERCELL output pulses the special solenoid included in the inRESERVE kit and disconnects all of the draw from the battery.  To do this a few conditions need to be met.  First, the ignition must be off.  We don’t want inRESERVE shutting down power with the ignition on.  Second, the battery voltage must drop below 12.2 volts.  For most battery chemistries, this is less that 10% stored energy.  Lastly, the voltage needs to stay below 12.2 volts for more than 15 minutes.  We do this so that momentary sags in battery voltage will not trigger inRESERVE.

inRESERVE does two very important things by actively disconnecting the battery when the voltage gets low.  First, it always leaves enough of a charge in the battery so that you can crank the engine and get it started again.  Second, it never lets the battery voltage get too low.  Deep cycling of a battery will damage it and will shorten its life.

This link will take you to the wiring diagram for the inRESERVE system.

You will note that there is a manual reset button that is included with the inRESERVE kit.  inRESERVE actively kills power to the system by sending a signal to a special solenoid.  After it does its job, the Infinitybox system is asleep.  You need to manually reset the system by pressing a reset button.  This button must be placed in a location that can be accessed when the battery is disconnected, which means somewhere on the outside of the car if you have power locks or poppers.  We usually recommend installing the button under a fender for easy access.

This same manual reset button can be used to manually disconnect the battery, which is the answer to the question asked at the beginning of this post.  You can press this button to manually disconnect the battery and press it again to reengage the battery, just like a typical battery disconnect switch.  Adding inRESERVE to your system eliminates the need for a manual battery disconnect switch.

There are a few last things to consider when wiring in inRESERVE.

  1. You must not run the starter motor current through this solenoid.  That must run directly between the battery and the starter motor.
  2. You must not run the alternator feed through the inRESERVE solenoid.  The electrical path from the alternator to the battery must not be interrupted.
  3. The solenoid included with the inRESERVE kit is a special solenoid.  It is not like a typical starter solenoid.  It has a special latching mechanism in it.  A momentary pulse to the coil will latch it open.  Another momentary pulse will latch it closed.  Follow the wiring diagram carefully when wiring it.  Also, you may not substitute other solenoids.  They will not work correctly.

Please give our technical support guys a call if you have any questions about wiring a Battery Disconnect into your car.