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Haltech ECU Wiring Diagram

Here’s the answer to a question that we get asked a lot.  Will the Infinitybox system work with my ECU or EFI system?  The answer is always, YES.  We play nicely with everyone’s fuel injection system.  We recently received this question related to the Haltech Elite 950 ECU.  This blog post is going to show you how easy it is to wire this EFI set up with our Infinitybox system.

Just like anything else, please start by reading the instructions.  This blog post is going to cover the details of wiring the Haltech Elite 950 ECU with the Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit.  We’re going to assume that you’re running our Front-Engine configuration.  If you’re running our Rear-Engine configuration, check your configuration sheet for the specific locations of the inputs and outputs referenced in this blog post.  The Haltech part number for this ECU is HT-150700 and you can get to its details at this link.    Read and understand their instructions before you get into wiring.

This blog post is going to show you how to get ignition power to their ECU.  It will also show you how to take the cooling fan and fuel pump triggers from the ECU into the MASTERCELL.  Lastly, this blog post will show you how wire in the power to the injectors and coils so you can eliminate the need for external relays.

This diagram will show you the connections that you will make between your Infinitybox system and the Haltech ECU harness.

Haltech ECU Wiring Diagram with Infinitybox Control

Haltech ECU Wiring Diagram with Infinitybox Control

To start, the ECU needs to be grounded.  You need to take the black wire going to terminal 10 on the 34-pin connector and ground that.  This should be through a metal-to-metal connection to the chassis.  There should be no dirt, grease, oil, paint, rust, powder coating or anything else in this connection.

Next, the ECU needs key-on-power.  This power should be on when the key is in the run and start position.  You are going to get this power from the Ignition output on your POWERCELL.  In most kits, this is output 3, the green wire, on the front POWERCELL.  Check your configuration sheet for the wire colors for your specific kit.  Since your POWERCELLs manage all of the high-current switching in your electrical system, you do not need external relays to control your fuel injection system.  Connect your Ignition output from your POWERCELL to the “12V ECU” wire going to terminal 26 on the ECU harness.  This is the red wire with the blue tracer.

You can bring ignition power to the coils and the injectors from the Ignition output on your POWERCELL.  You can splice these wire together, use a terminal block or use our Splice Saver kit to make a reliable and sealed connection.  This diagram will show you how to connect the Splice Saver kit to your ignition output, the coils and the injector.

Infinitybox wiring diagram showing Haltech Key-On Power Wiring Details

Infinitybox wiring diagram showing Haltech Key-On Power Wiring Details

Next you are going to connect the outputs on the Haltech ECU for the fuel pump and the cooling fan to their inputs on the MASTERCELL.  Haltech dedicates DPO 5 for the fuel pump.  You can connect that to your MASTERCELL Input for your fuel pump.  We strongly recommend isolating the MASTERCELL from the ECU with a 1N4001 diode.  The orientation of this diode is very important.  Refer to the diagram above to show proper orientation of the anode and cathode of this diode.

You can use any of the other digital outputs on the Haltech ECU to trigger the MASTERCELL input for the cooling fan.  You must isolate the ECU from the MASTERCELL using a 1N4001 diode like the fuel pump.  We chose DPO 2 in our diagram.  You can use any of the available digital outputs however you must set them up correctly in their programming application.

Please note that you cannot pulse the DPO signal from the ECU that goes into the MASTERCELL for the fuel pump or the cooling fan.  These should be on and off signals to turn the pump and fan on and off.

You can download a PDF version of our wiring diagram for the Haltech Elite 950 ECU by clicking this link.

You can contact our technical support team with any questions by clicking this link.

Splice Saver Kit

There are lots of different places in your car’s harness where you need to take a single POWERCELL output and splice it to go to different outputs.  Our new Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit gives you a very easy way to create a robust and reliable junction point in your wiring harness. The Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit gives you an easy way to connect multiple accessories to a single POWERCELL output.  Examples include powering your ECU, gauge power, stereo power and A/C power from a single ignition output.  Other examples include lighting, locks and stereo power.  You can power 5 separate wires from a single input wire.  The internal buss bar can be split to create two separate circuits, each with a single input and two outputs.  We also include 3 cavity plugs to seal any unused outputs.

The Splice Saver uses the same sealed 280 Metripack terminals and cable seals that are used in the POWERCELL and inMOTION output harnesses.  The kit includes all the components needed to build a sealed junction point for your wiring harness.  It also includes a mounting clip for a clean install in your harness.

Here’s what you get with the Splice Saver Kit:

(1) 6-Position Splice Saver Connector

(1) Splice Saver Sealed Cover

(1) 6-Position Terminal Position Assurance (TPA) Clip

(1) 6-Position Buss Bar

(1) Mounting Clip

(6) 280 Metripack Terminals

(6) 280 Metripack Cable Seals

(3) 280 Metripack Cavity Plugs

You can download the instructions for the Splice Saver Kit by clicking this link.

Just like any other job on your car, you need the right tool for the job.  We recommend using the correct crimp tool to properly install the terminals on the end of the wires that are going into your Splice Saver Kit.

This tool can be purchased from Waytek wire by clicking this link. 

We put together a few good examples of how the Splice Saver Kit can help you simplify the splices that you need to make in your cars wiring harness.

The first example is wiring your Ignition power.  The Ignition output on your POWERCELL is going to power everything that needs key-on power in your car.  Primarily, this is going to power your coil, ignition box or ECU.  You may also need key-on power for things like your radio, heating & air-conditioning system, gauges and transmission controller.  The splice saver will take in your Ignition output and distribute it to these multiple electrical systems.  Check out this picture to see how you can use the Splice Saver to simplify your Ignition wiring.  You can down load this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring door locks is another great example of where the Splice Saver Kit can help clean up your wiring.  You have one set of outputs on your inMOTION cell that need to go to the door lock actuators on the driver and passenger side of your car.  You can split the buss bar of your Splice Saver Kit in half, which gives you two separate circuits for the lock and unlock outputs on inMOTION.  This picture shows the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring door lock actuators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring door lock actuators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring the front parking lights in your car is another great place to use a Splice Saver Kit.  You first need to take the POWERCELL output for the parking lights and split that to go to the lights on the left & right side of the car.  You also need to tap into this parking light output to get power for your gauge illumination and for any other accent or trim lights you may have in your car.  This picture shows how you can easily do this.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

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

You can do something similar for your high beam wiring.  You need to first get the output from your front POWERCELL split to go to the left and right high beam bulbs.  You also need to tap into this circuit to power the high beam indicator on your dash.  A Splice Saver Kit can make this very easy.  Wiring the high beam bulbs and the indicator on the dash doesn’t use all of the outputs on the Splice Saver Kit.  We include cavity plugs that you can use to seal the open circuits to keep water, dust and dirt out.  Check out this picture for more details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring diagram showing how to wire high-beams and dash indicator with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring diagram showing how to wire high-beams and dash indicator with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

The wiring for your turn signals in the front of the car is another great place for a Splice Saver Kit.  Just like the door locks, you can split the buss bar on the Splice Saver to get two separate circuits.  These two circuits can be used to easily get you access to the connections you need to get your turn signal indicators on your dash.  This picture shows you the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Your rear parking lights and brake lights wiring are another good example.  You can split the buss bar to get two separate circuits.  Then you can use the Splice Saver Kit to connect the POWERCELL outputs for the rear parking lights and brake lights to the bulbs on the left and right side of the car.  This picture shows the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

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

You can order the Splice Saver Kit by clicking this link.

Click here to get in touch with our technical support team with any questions.

 

 

Ignition and Starter

Here’s the next step in wiring this 1967 Mustang.  In previous posts, we described wiring the ignition and starter outputs from the front POWERCELL.  You can get the Ignition output post at this link.  This link will take you to the starter output post.  In this post, we are going to describe the process of wiring the ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL inputs.

Our customer is using a steering column from IDIDIT for this Mustang.  They chose the option to have the keyed ignition and starter switch built into the column.  When you order this option from IDIDIT, you get a separate harness to connect from the column.  This link will take you to the instructions for this switch from IDIDIT.  Essentially, there are 4 wires in this harness.  These will connect to the MASTERCELL input wires.

Remember how our MASTERCELL inputs work.  You connect the input wire to one side of your switch.  The other side of the switch connects to ground.  When you turn the switch on, the MASTERCELL input gets connected to ground.  The MASTERCELL sees the input go to ground and sends a command to one of the POWERCELLs to do something.  In most cases when you are wiring OEM switches to a MASTERCELL, you will ground the battery feed and connect the input wires correspondingly.  This IDIDIT switch is no exception.

Here’s what you are going to do with the 4 wires in the switch harness.

First, you are going to connect the red wire to ground.  You can use any of the black wires in the MASTERCELL input harness or you can connect this directly to the chassis.  We’ve said this over and over, make sure that you have a good metal-to-metal connection between the ground wire and the chassis.  No paint, powder coating, rust, oil, grease, etc.  You want a good clean connection.

Next, you are going to connect the purple wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the starter.  Check your configuration sheet.  Different configurations may have different wire colors for the starter.  In our configuration, the starter input wire is the white wire with the yellow tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness.  This is input number 4.  You can crimp, splice, solder or use connectors to make this connection.  See our earlier blog posts about connection techniques.

Next, connect the pink wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the Ignition.  Same warning as above.  Check your configuration sheet for the exact wire color.  In our configuration, this is the white wire with the blue tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness.  That is input 3.

You will notice that this ignition and starter switch has an accessory position.  Some customers will use the accessory position on their switch to control an output that is different from their ignition output.  They may want to have their stereo on without having their ignition on.  In most configurations, there is an OPEN output on the front POWERCELL designed for this accessory function.  In our configuration, this is output 8.  It is controlled by input 8 on the MASTERCELL A connector.  That is the blue wire with the light-blue tracer.  We’re going to connect this wire to the brown wire in the IDIDIT harness.

Here’s how the different positions on the switch work.  When the key is in the accessory position, your accessory output on your POWERCELL will be on.  In the ignition or ON position, the ignition output will turn on.  So will the accessory output.  When you turn the key to the start position, the accessory will turn off.  The ignition will remain on and the starter output will turn on.

That’s all that it takes to connect the IDIDIT ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL in this 1967 Mustang.  We have a large collection of different ignition and starter switch wiring diagrams in our reference library on our website.  Click this link to get there.

Contact us if you have questions about wiring your ignition and starter switch to your 20-Circuit Kit.  Click on this link to contact one of our technical support engineers.

Wiring Switches

It is time to get into the next phase of wiring this 1967 Mustang with our Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit.  We got the cells mounted, mounted the Mega fuses, wired primary power from the battery, ran the CAN cable and wired the outputs to the POWERCELLs.  It’s time to start wiring switches to the MASTERCELL inputs.

Here’s a quick refresher.  Our Infinitybox system is different than any other wiring harness on the market.  Instead of having one central box full of fuses and relays with wire running everywhere in the car, our system is broken into smaller modules.  Our POWERCELLs are mounted in the front and rear of the car.  They contain the fuses and relays to turn your accessories on and off.  The MASTERCELL connects to the switches.  You mount the MASTERCELL under the dash and wire your switches to it.  The MASTERCELL sends commands to the remote POWERCELLs through our CAN cable to control your lights, fans, fuel pump, horns, ignition, starter solenoids and other switched functions.  This is going to be the first in a series of posts talking about wiring switches.

Remember that all of your switches will connect to your MASTERCELL.  This includes switches for your ignition, starter, turn signals, brake lights, headlights, parking lights, high-beams, cooling fans, fuel pump, horn and anything else that you need to turn on and off in the car.  There is no direct connection between your switch and the output.  The MASTERCELL watches all of the switches.  When it sees a switch turn on or off, it sends a packet of data through the CAN cable to the remote cells in the car.  These cells could be POWERCELLs or inMOTION cells.  The remote output cells are what control the current flowing to your switched loads.

The MASTERCELL needs a simple trigger signal from each switch.  These triggers are a connection to ground.  Each trigger takes a very small amount of current to send the signal to the MASTERCELL, less than 0.001-Amp.  This picture shows a very simple switch wired to a MASTERCELL input.

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

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

In this diagram, the MASTERCELL input wire connects to one terminal of the switch.  The other side of the terminal needs to connect to ground.  When the switch is on (closed) there is a path through the switch to ground.  This is what triggers the input on the MASTERCELL.  This picture shows using one of the ground wires that is included in the MASTERCELL input harness.

There are lots of advantages to using this kind of input when you are wiring a car.  Ground switching the inputs means that you do not need to run a positive wire to each switch.  The MASTERCELL input harnesses have ground wires that you can use for your switches.  You can also use the chassis in the car as the ground reference for your switches.  You just need a good metal-to-metal connection to ground.

Another advantage is that it takes a very small amount of current to turn on an input.  This means that we can use a much smaller gauge of wire in the input harness.  We use 22-AWG TXL wire on the inputs.  This will reduce the bulk of harness behind your dash.  It also means that there is no high-current behind your dash.  All of the high-current control is at the POWERCELL.  It is always the small signal current through the MASTERCELL input wire regardless of what is being switched at the POWERCELL.  This means that you can use practically any switch to turn things on and off in your car.  You can use the original switches that came with the car.  You can use any aftermarket switch.  There is very little current flowing through the switch.

Just a quick warning:  The MASTERCELL inputs are designed to be switched to ground.  You must not wire your switches so that battery voltage can be applied to a MASTERCELL input.  Doing this may damage the circuitry inside the MASTERCELL and this will void the warranty.  Contact us with questions if you are uncertain about how to properly connect something to a MASTERCELL input.

Remember that your configuration sheet is your road map to wiring your car with our Infinitybox system.  Your configuration sheet will identify the wires by color for each of the switches in your car.  You can click on this post to get a refresher on your configuration sheet.

Every kit comes with a MASTERCELL A input harness.  This picture shows this harness.

MASTERCELL A Input Harness

MASTERCELL A Input Harness

All of your switches will connect to the wires on this harness.  The B connector socket at the bottom of the MASTERCELL must have the input dummy plug installed to keep the cell sealed.  This picture shows the MASTERCELL input dummy plug.

Sealing plug for MASTERCELL B Port

Sealing plug for MASTERCELL B Port

If you have a third POWERCELL as part of your system or if you have added inMOTION to your kit, you will get the MASTERCELL B harness.  This picture shows this harness.

MASTERCELL B Input Harness

MASTERCELL B Input Harness

Your configuration sheet will show which harnesses have the inputs for your different switches.  This picture shows which is the A & B input connector socket on your MASTERCELL.

Illustration of Infinitybox MASTERCELL labeling output connectors

Illustration of Infinitybox MASTERCELL labeling output connectors

In the case of this 1967 Mustang project, the MASTERCELL is mounted under the dash, to the left of the pedals.  The input wires will run from the MASTERCELL to all of the switches.  This is a great location for this because all of the wire runs will be short.

We will be going through wiring switches in much more detail over upcoming blog posts.  Please keep watching our blog for updates.  You can click on this link to contact a member of our team with any questions.

 

 

Turn Signals & Brake Lights

We’re making good progress on wiring the outputs on our 1967 Mustang.  We’ve made it though headlights, high-beams and parking lights.  Now, let’s wire the turn signals and the brake lights.  Just like the parking lights, there are turn-signals in the front of the car and the rear.  Your 20-Circuit Kit is set up with dedicated outputs on the front & rear POWERCELLs to make wiring these easy.  We’re going to talk about wiring the POWERCELL outputs in this post.  We’ll get to wiring the inputs in a later post.

Our Infinitybox system has a few advantages over traditional wiring harnesses when it comes to turn-signals and brake lights.

  1. The flashing is done inside the POWERCELL.  You don’t need a separate flasher module to actually blink the turn signals.
  2. The wiring to the turn signals is much shorter than a traditional wiring harness because you’re connecting the bulbs to the POWERCELL located in the front and rear of the car.
  3. It doesn’t matter if you are using incandescent bulbs of LEDs.  Since the POWERCELL is doing the flashing, you don’t need a load-resistor for LED’s.
  4. We can manage any different type of turn signal configuration.  That is done by picking different MASTERCELL input wires.

For the brake lights, there are two different options.  We’ll be the first to admit that this can be a little confusing.

In some cars, you have a separate bulb or filament on a light bulb that is for the brake lights.  When you step on the brake light pedal, that switch controls its own light.  We call this a multi-filament configuration.  There are multiple bulb filaments that handle the turn signals and the brake lights.  In this configuration, there is a separate POWERCELL output for the brake lights.  This picture shows you the wiring for the multi-filament configuration.

Diagram showing how to wire turn signals and brake lights with the Infinitybox system.

Diagram showing how to wire turn signals and brake lights with the Infinitybox system.

In other cars, the rear turn-signals also work as the brake lights.  In this case, you have a single filament that works as both the turn-signal and the brake light.  This function was usually managed within the steering column mechanism.  We call this a 1-filament configuration or a single-filament configuration.  That means there is one bulb filament on the left side and one on the right side of the rear of the car that works as the turn-signal and brake light.  If you use our 1-filament configuration, the rear left and right turn-signals will flash when you turn on the left or right turn signal.  If you step on the brake pedal, both the left & right turn-signal outputs will turn on together for the brake lights.  If you have a turn-signal on and you step on the brake lights, the turn signal will over ride the brake light on that side of the car.  This picture shows you the wiring for the 1-filament configuration.

Wiring diagram for 1-filament brake lights and turn signals for the Infinitybox system.

Wiring diagram for 1-filament brake lights and turn signals for the Infinitybox system.

Here’s a good rule of thumb to figure out which brake light configuration you have in your car.  If your turn signals are amber, you probably have the multi-filament configuration.  There are separate red lights for the brake lights.  If your turn-signals are red, you probably have the 1-filament configuration.  Those red lights in the corner of the car are both the turn-signals and the brake lights.

Once you figure out the brake light configuration that you have in your car, go to your configuration sheet and pick the POWERCELL output wire colors. In most configurations, the left turn-signal is the brown wire on the front & rear POWERCELL.  The right turn-signal is the violet wire on the front & rear POWERCELL.  Connect these wires to the left & right turn signals in the front & rear of the car.  The POWERCELL output wire goes to one wire on the turn signal bulb.  The other wire on the turn signal bulb goes to ground on the chassis.  If you are using LED’s make sure that you have the polarity of the bulbs correct.  The bulbs will not light if the wires are backwards.

If you are using the multi-filament configuration, you need to splice the brake light output to the brake light bulb on the left & right side of the car.  Follow the instructions that we gave in the headlight post for making these splices.  If you have a third-brake light or a CHMSL in the car, you can splice off of this same brake light output to power the extra light.

In our customer’s 1967 Mustang, they are using a sequential tail light assembly made by Mustang Projects.  You can see the details on that at this link.  Their system comes with a very simple manual that shows how to connect the wires for the left turn, right turn and brake lights.  This one was wired using the multi-filament configuration which meant that there was a separate output for a brake light.  It was very easy.  This picture shows the tail light assemblies mounted in the car.

Rear LED tail lights on a 1967 Mustang Restomod wired with the Infinitybox system

Rear LED tail lights on a 1967 Mustang Restomod wired with the Infinitybox system

The last step in wiring the turn-signals and the brake lights is to wire the indicators on the dash.  You simply splice off the POWERCELL outputs in the front of the car and run 22-AWG wires to the dash indicators.  This customer tied into the outputs for the left & right turn-signals, ran these wires to the indicators and grounded the other side of the indicator.  They were using LEDs for the indicators so they had to make sure that they had the polarity of the bulbs correct.

Our Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit is a really simple accessory that can be used to make splicing your turn signals indicators into their respective outputs easy.  This picture shows how you can create a sealed junction point with the Splice Saver for your turn signals and their indicators.

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

That is it for turn-signals and brake lights.  Stay tuned for the next posts talking about wiring this 1967 Mustang with our Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit.  If you have questions or comments, please contact us at this link.

 

Power Input Cables

Here’s the next step in wiring the 1967 Mustang with our Infinitybox system.  You need to run the power input cables from the Mega fuse holder and connect them to the POWERCELLs.  There are 4 power input cables included in your kit.  They look like this.

POWERCELL Battery Input Harness

POWERCELL Battery Input Harness

These cables have the mating connector that plugs into the circular 8-mm sockets on the POWERCELL.  These cables are 8-AWG and are jacketed in high-durability TXL insulation.  Each POWERCELL gets two of these cables.  This lets you supply a total of 120-Amps to the POWERCELL.

Remember how the POWERCELLs work.  They are mounted locally in the car.  Your functions like lights, fans, pumps, ignition and starter connect to the POWERCELL.  The MASTERCELL sends commands to this POWERCELL through the CAN cable to turn these function on and off.  In addition to the CAN cable that sends commands, the POWERCELL needs to get power from the battery for your switched functions.  These primary input cables supply the power to the POWERCELL.

For this process, make sure that you have disconnected the positive cable from the battery.  Plug the round connector on the end of each of the primary input cable into the POWERCELL and run the cable through the car.  All three of the round connector ports on the POWERCELL are the same.  You can pick any two of these to plug the cables into.

The other end of this cable needs to connect to the terminals on the Mega fuse holders installed earlier in this process.  Cut the cable to length, strip it and crimp on the 8-AWG 5/16″ ring terminals that are included with your 10 or 20-Circuit kit.  Make sure that you are using the right tool to make these crimps.  Poor crimps cause many problems down the road.  This link will take you to a simple tool sold by Del City that can be used for all of your primary power cables and battery cables.

We also strongly recommend covering the exposed area of the ring terminals with heat-shrink tubing.  This will minimize exposed metal areas that can lead to short circuits in the car.  Del City or Waytek are great sources for heat-shrink tubing.

If you need to, you can lengthen the primary power cables.  You can use an 8-AWG crimped butt connector to splice in another length of cable or you can solder the strands together.  Done correctly, either are a acceptable way to lengthen these cables.

This picture shows plugging the primary power cables into the rear POWERCELL in our Mustang project.

Plugging in POWERCELL battery input harness in Infinitybox system installed in 1967 Mustang

Plugging in POWERCELL battery input harness in Infinitybox system installed in 1967 Mustang

This picture shows the two primary power cables plugged into the front POWERCELL.

Front POWERCELL Mounted in 1967 Mustang

Front POWERCELL Mounted in 1967 Mustang

This picture shows the primary power cables connected to the Mega fuse holder block in near the battery in the rear of the car.

Assembled Mega Fuse block in 1967 Mustang wired with our Infinitybox system

Assembled Mega Fuse block in 1967 Mustang wired with our Infinitybox system

Each POWERCELL has three power input ports on it.  You are going to use two of these.  To keep the cell sealed, you must plug the power input dummy plug into the unused port.  This is included in your kit.

Sealing plug for POWERCELL battery input port.

Sealing plug for POWERCELL battery input port.

You can also use one of our POWERPLUGs in the open port.

Power Plug

Power Plug

The POWERPLUG is a very easy way to get fused constant battery power from the POWERCELL.  You can use this to power accessories like engine controllers, transmission controllers, audio and LED tail light controllers.

Now that you have the primary power cables properly connected to the primary fuses and the POWERCELLs, you can move on to the next step.  Stay tuned for the next post.  If you have questions in the meantime, you can contacts us by clicking this link.

Picture of the Littelfuse Minifuse

Fuse Sizes

Here’s the answer to another popular question that we get from customers when they’re wiring their cars with our Infinitybox wiring system.

What size fuse should they use for the different outputs on the POWERCELL?

Remember why the fuse is there…  it is there to protect the wire not the end load.  There is no need to protect the headlamp with a fuse but you do need to protect the wire going to the headlamp.  A fuse is a thermally operating device that is intended to be the weakest point in an electrical system.  If the system is drawing too much current, you want the fuse to open intentionally, protecting the rest of the system.  You never want your wire to be the weakest point in your electrical system.

Fuses are designed to protect against two kinds of faults.  The most common is a short circuit.  Let’s say that the wire to your headlights gets pinched against the chassis and breaks the insulation.  You now have a very low resistance path to ground which will carry a lot of current.  You want the fuse to open before the insulation on the wire gets hot enough to cause damage.  The other scenario is a low-overload.  These are usually resistive connections to ground that will still carry enough current to damage the wire.

To properly select the size of the fuse that you need to consider two things.

First, what is the minimum gauge of wire that the fuse needs to protect?  All of the output harnesses on the Infinitybox POWERCELLs use 14-AWG wire.  But, if you spice our output wire to a wire with a smaller gauge, you need to size the fuse to protect the smaller wire.

Second, you must understand the current draw for your load connected to the output wire.  The fuse must be large enough to handle the steady-state current of the load plus any inrush that the load may have.  Anything inductive (motors, coils, solenoids, etc) have inductive inrushes that could be up to 10 times the steady-state current draw.  Incandescent bulbs also have inrushes.  Remember that the resistance of the filament in the bulb is a function of its temperature.  When the bulb is cold, the resistance is low so it can carry more current.  As the filament heats up, the resistance increases as does the current flowing through the bulb.  The inrush through a light bulb can be 5 to 10 times its steady state current.

For those who want to learn more, this link will take you to a good document from Littelfuse that talks about how to properly size a fuse for a specific application.

LED lights draw far less current than their incandescent brothers and have practically no inrush.  You can use a much smaller fuse.

Here is a simple chart to use as a reference for sizing your fuses.

Headlights- 20-amp
Starter solenoid- 20-amp
Ignition- 25-amp
Fuel pump- 25-amp
High-Beams- 20-amp
Turn-signals- 15-amp
Cooling fan- 25-amp
Power window regulator- 20-amp
Lock actuator- 15-amp
Parking lights- 15-amp
Horn- 10-amp

Use this chart as a guideline to pick your fuse sizes.  You may need to adjust depending on the gauge of wire connected to your load and the specifics of your load.  Remember, these are guidelines.  If you change the gauge of wire that is included in the kit, you have to reevaluate the size of fuse required.

Contact our technical support group at (847) 232-1991 for more details.

CAN Cable

The CAN cable is the main backbone of the Infinitybox Multiplex System.  It takes the commands from the MASTERCELL and routes them to the peripheral cells, like POWERCELLs and inMOTION cells, in a system.  We get a lot of questions about this cable and how to work with it so we put this post together to answer these questions.

One of the first questions that we get is what does CAN mean?  CAN stands for Controller Area Network.  This is an automotive standard created to let different electronic systems talk together.  It was originally developed by Bosch in 1983 so it’s been around for a while.  You can read more about CAN at this link.

There area many different CAN protocols.  When a company says they communicate on CAN, that is the equivalent of saying you speak English.  English spoken in the Bronx sounds like someone speaking with a South-Side Chicago accent.  Both use the same basic works but one may not completely understand the other because of inflections and local slang.  The Infinitybox system uses a proprietary version of CAN 2.0b.  We take this standard protocol and all extra data to get more functionality out of the system.  We also have versions of our hardware that communicate on J1939, which is the commercial vehicle CAN standard.

Inside our CAN cable, there are two main wire: CAN High and CAN Low.  These send the commands between the different cells in an Infinitybox system. Additionally, we run a power and ground wire to provide voltage to the MASTERCELL.  The POWERCELLs have the ability to put out voltage through the CAN connector.  There is a very important addendum that we include with our 20-Circuit Harness kits that talks about power and ground in the CAN cables.  Please check out this link when you’re installing your kit.

A lot of guys ask where they can put their different cells on the 3-way cable that comes with the 20-Circuit Kit.  On very long CAN cables, over 30 feet, you need to have the MASTERCELL on one of the cable and the POWERCELL with the terminator resistor on the other end.  This has to do with proper impedance matching of the CAN High and CAN Low lines in the cable.  For most aftermarket installs, where the CAN cable length is under 30 feet, you can put the MASTERCELL anywhere on the CAN cable.

A lot of guys also ask about the length of the CAN cable.  We include a standard CAN cable length in the 10-Circuit and 20-Circuit Harness Kits.  This length was derived from a few years of learning from our customers and how they place cells in their cars and trucks.  We also have options when you order your kits to build custom CAN cable lengths.  You can call our sales team about this.  At the same time, there is nothing keeping you from extending or shortening your CAN cable in the system.  You can do this a few ways.

The first option is to cut the cable and splice in a new length of wire or cut out a length of wire.  There is nothing wrong with this and this is a completely acceptable way to do it.  The wire that we use is 22-AWG TXL wire.  You can buy this wire from a few sources.  We get ours from Waytek Wire and you can buy it in reasonable lengths.  This link will take you to the 22-AWG TXL section of their website.  The colors that we use in our standard CAN cables are black, green, blue and red.

It is very important that you do not cross the wires in the CAN cable.  When you’re reconnecting the connector, make sure that the wires go back where they came from.

If you’re going to splice the cables, we recommend a good butt splice connector and heat shrink.  This link will take you to a good 22-AWG butt splice from Waytek.  An 1/8″ piece of heat shrink over this will keep it protected and insulated.  Here’s a link to heat shrink.  The key to a good splice is a good crimp on the butt splice connector.  The right tool will guarantee a good job and isn’t very expensive.  Here’s a good tool for the crimp.

While a splice is completely acceptable, some guys don’t wan them in their wiring harness.  We get that.  You can create your own custom cable lengths and crimp the terminal right on the end of your wire to connect into the connector.  The connector system used for our CAN cables is very easy to work with and requires no special tools.  This picture shows you all of the parts that go into the CAN connector.

Imaging showing the different components of the Infinitybox CAN connector

Imaging showing the different components of the Infinitybox CAN connector

The yellow part is called the strain relief.  It helps to route the wires out of the connector.  The green part is the seal.  Please note that in some newer systems, the cable seals are black.  It makes the connection between the connector and the mating port on the MASTERCELL or POWERCELL water tight.  The grey part is called the connector.  It holds the terminals from the harness.  The last part is the retainer.  This is the clear clip on the front end of the connector.

The terminals that are used in this harness are made by Aptiv.  Their part number for the terminal is 15435885 and it can be sourced easily from Mouser.  This link will take you there.  This link will take you to a good quality crimp tool for these terminals.

You can cut your CAN cable to length and crimp the terminals onto the wires.  These instructions will show you how to dissemble the connector to plug these terminals into the connector.

First, get a small screw driver and gently pry up on the strain relief clips on the strain relief.  This part opens up like a clam shell.  Next, remove the Retainer from the connector.  Use a small screw driver or your fingernail to pry up on the short sides of the strain relief where it clips on to the grey connector.  Once that is done, you can gently pry up on the terminal retention tabs on the grey connector.  These hold the terminals into the connector.  When you lift them, you can pull the wire with the terminal out through the strain relief.

Reassembly of the connector is just as easy.  Crimp the terminals onto the wires and get ready to put it back together.  Just make sure that you put the right wires back into the right cavities in the connector.  The cavities area marked with an identification number on the inside of the strain relief.  Here’s how the wires should go back in.

5- Black

6- Green

7- Blue

8- Red

Make sure that the terminals are pushed to the front edge of the grey connector.  Once you have all of them in, you can snap the clear retainer back onto the grey connector.  Then close the strain relief using the strain relief clips to hold it closed.

Give our team a call if you have additional questions about working with our CAN cable or the connector components.  You can contact us directly by clicking this link.  

10-Circuit vs. 20-Circuit Kits

A lot of people ask: “Do I need a 10 or a 20-Circuit Harness Kit for my car?”  The answer is, it depends. Both the 10 and 20-Circuit Harness Kits use our rock-solid multiplexing technology.  The only difference between the kits is the number of POWERCELLs that you get.  The 10-Circuit Kit gets you one MASTERCELL and one POWERCELL.  The 20-Circuit Kit gets you one MASTERCELL and two POWERCELLs. Each POWERCELL has 10 outputs.  When you sit down and look at the number of things that you have to control in a basic car, you can handle most all of them with the 10 outputs on a 10-Circuit Kit.  This includes things like the starter solenoid, ECU power, headlights, turn signals, parking lights, etc.  Wiring your car with a 10-Circuit Kit can be a lower cost option to get more advanced features in your car.  You have the option to add practically any of our Infinitybox accessories to the 10-Circuit Kit including inLINK for security functions, inTOUCH NET for touch screen control and inMOTION to control windows and power locks. Going up to the 20-Circuit Harness Kit gets you some significant advantages over the 10-Circuit Kit.

  1. The extra POWERCELL gets you 10 more outputs.  This gives you more flexibility to control more things through the Infinitybox system.
  2. Having two POWERCELLs lets you put them where you need them in the car.  With two POWERCELLs, you can place one in the front of the car and one in the rear.  This means that you’re running less wire because you can wire things to the local POWERCELL.  Examples here include the turn signals, which are on the front & rear of the car.  The parking lights are another example since they are in the front and rear of the car.  With the single POWERCELL in the 2-Cell Kit, you have to run all of the wire back to a central location.  With multiple POWERCELLs you have more flexibility and can run less wire.
  3. The extra POWERCELL in the 20-Circuit Kit gets you more flexibility to control your tail lights and turn signals.  A lot of late 1960’s cars use a single filament of one bulb on each side of the car for both the brake lights and the turn signals.  We call this a single-filament configuration.  The filament on each side of the car flashes independently as a turn signal or both sides turn on together when you step on the brake lights.  The 20-Circuit Kit is set up to manage this turn-signal and brake light function within Infinitybox.  You can’t do this directly with the 10-Circuit Kit because you only have one set of outputs for the turn-signals spliced to the front and rear of the car.  If you did this with the 10-Circuit Kit, your front turn signals would turn on when you stepped on the brake pedal.  There is a fix for the 10-Circuit Kit in a car that needs a single-filament configuration that involves a trailer converter.  Give our tech guys a call if you want to go this way.

The other thing to consider is that the 10-Circuit Kit may not get you all of the outputs that you need to make your car street legal.  Talk to our team to verify.

We have a configuration sheet specific for the 10-Circuit Kit.  Click on this link to see it.  This link will take you to an example of one of our 20-Circuit Harness Kit configurations.  This one is for our front-engine set up. At the end of the day, you can wire a basic car easily with our 10-Circuit Kit.  You get all of the benefits and add-on capability of the entire Infinitybox system.  However, adding the extra POWERCELL expands the flexibility of the system significantly. Click here to contact our team with any additional questions.