MASTERCELL Archives - Page 2 of 3

MASTERCELL Error Log

March 25, 2020/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Our Infinitybox system is full of tools that help you wire your car or truck faster. There are troubleshooting and diagnostic features built in that tell you simply what is going on in your car. This link will take you to our Troubleshooting and Diagnostic manual. This blog post covers the most sophisticated of the troubleshooting and diagnostic tools in the Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit. The MASTERCELL is always watching the critical parameters for the POWERCELLs and inMOTION cells that are attached on the Infinitybox CAN network. The MASTERCELL Error Log holds any records of problems with these critical parameters and lets you easily access them for advanced troubleshooting. This may sound really complicated for a wiring system used in hot-rods and resto-mods, but this powerful tool lets our technicians help you when things aren’t working correctly.

Each of the cells in the Infinitybox system monitors their own health. Every second, they tell the MASTERCELL how they are doing and report if they’re having any problems. If there are problems, they are kept in the MASTERCELL Error Log. You can easily access the MASTERCELL Error Log by simply pressing the “HOME” and “SCROLL DOWN” buttons under the inSIGHT screen on the MASTERCELL. You press these two buttons at the same time, hold them down for one second then release them at the same time. After you do this, the MASTERCELL will display any errors that it recorded on the inSIGHT screen. The MASTERCELL can hold 8 errors in memory and displays them in order. This video will show you all of the details about the MASTERCELL Error Log.

There are three key values that are important to the Infinitybox system.

The first is battery voltage. The system needs a minimum voltage to operate safely. This is set at 7 volts. There is also a safe maximum operating voltage. That is 20 volts. If your MASTERCELL or POWERCELLs measure their input voltages outside of this acceptable range, they will record it in the error log.

The second critical parameter is temperature. Each Infinitybox cell has a temperature sensor built onto its printed circuit board. If the temperature of that board exceeds a safety limit, the cells report it to the MASTERCELL and it is stored in the error log.

The last critical value is for the POWERCELL. It is what we call the Charge Pump Voltage. Every POWERCELL board has a part of its circuit called a Charge Pump. It does what the name implies. It pumps up charge to safely turn on and turn off the MOSFETs that control the POWERCELL outputs. If the charge pump voltage falls below a set level, the POWERCELL sends a message to the MASTERCELL and this is recorded in the error log.

As we mentioned earlier, the MASTERCELL Error Log is an advanced diagnostic and troubleshooting feature built into the Infinitybox system. It is rare that errors occur. You are probably never going to need this feature. It will help our team get your system going if you do have problems with the Infinitybox system in your hot rod, street rod, kit car, resto-mod, race car or Pro-Touring build.

Click on this link to get in touch with our team if you have additional questions.

MASTERCELL Input Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

March 25, 2020/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Our Infinitybox system has powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting features built into it. The MASTERCELL in your 20-Circuit Kit includes our inSIGHT LCD Screen. This screen is your window into the Infinitybox system and it gives you access to the MASTERCELL Input Troubleshooting and Diagnostics. By pressing a few buttons on the MASTERCELL, you can put it into its Messaging Mode. This blog post and the attached video will show you how the Messaging Mode can help you wire your car faster and identify problems easily.

All of your switches connect to the MASTERCELL. These include your ignition and starter switches, your turn signal switches, your brake pedal switch, the switches for your lighting, your fuel pump and cooling fan triggers and any other switches that you have for your accessories. The MASTERCELL continuously watches the state of your switches. If it sees one of these inputs turn on or off, it sends commands to the POWERCELLs or inMOTION cells in your system and commands them to turn an output on or off.

The MASTERCELL can be put into its Messaging Mode. This mode opens up the MASTERCELL Input Troubleshooting and Diagnostics feature in your Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit. To put the MASTERCELL into Messaging Mode, you simply press and hold the “SCROLL UP” and “SELECT” buttons under the clear cover. These are the two buttons on the right, under the inSIGHT LCD screen. Press these buttons together, hold them for one second then let them go. You will get a message on the screen that says “inSIGHT WILL DISPLAY ALL INPUT CHANGES FROM ANY SOURCE”. You will also note that the back light of the inSIGHT LCD will turn on and stay on.

When you turn any MASTERCELL on or off, the inSIGHT screen will confirm that. It will tell you which input the MASTERCELL say turn on or off. It will also tell you which cell it is supposed to be controlling and which output.

The following video goes through this in detail. You can see which buttons to press to put the MASTERCELL into Messaging Mode. You will also see what the messages on the MASTERCELL screen look like when you turn inputs on and off. Check out the video here.

Messaging Mode is a very powerful tool. You can use it as you go through the process of wiring your car or truck with our Infinitybox system. You can wire each switch, step by step, then use Messaging Mode to confirm that you have the correct input wired to the switch by following the details of your Configuration Sheet. You can also use this to confirm that you switch is working correctly and that you have good grounds for each of your switches.

If you have problems on the road, you can easily put the MASTERCELL into its Messaging Mode and check for any issues with your switches or the wiring from the MASTERCELL. No tools are needed.

If you have any additional questions about the MASTERCELL Input Troubleshooting and Diagnostics features of the Infinitybox system, click here to contact our team.

MASTERCELL Polling Video

March 9, 2020/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

We pack a ton of powerful diagnostic tools into our Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit. With no tools, you can use the inSIGHT screen on the MASTERCELL to learn about everything that is going on in your car’s electrical system. There is no other wiring harness on the market that can get you that power.

We just published another video going through the specifics of the built-in troubleshooting and diagnostic tools in your Infinitybox system. This new video covers Polling the system from the MASTERCELL. When the MASTERCELL power up, it takes an inventory of all of the cells on the CAN network. This includes your POWERCELLs, inMOTION Cells, inVIRONMENT cells and inTOUCH NET. From the MASTERCELL screen, you can easily check to make sure that all of the cells are properly communicating on the CAN network.

You can also dig deeper into each cell by polling it from the MASTERCELL screen. By polling the POWERCELLs, you can get a measurement of the battery voltage measured locally at the POWERCELL. You can also get a reading of the temperature of the POWERCELL. You also get a measurement of the Charge Pump voltage on the POWERCELL. This is a safety system that we monitor to make sure that the POWERCELL is operating correctly. Lastly, you can get a picture of which outputs are on and off on the POWERCELL.

If you poll the MASTERCELL, you can get a real-time status of all of the switches that are connected. This is really helpful for troubleshooting and checking your switches as you wire them to the Infinitybox system.

You can watch the new video that goes through polling the system from the MASTERCELL in detail.

You can download our full Diagnostic and Troubleshooting Guide for the 20-Circuit Kit by clicking this link.

You can click on this link if you have any additional technical questions about wiring your car or truck with our Infinitybox system.

1955 Chevy Bel Air wired with the Infinitybox System

1955 Chevy Bel Air- Great 8 Winner

March 2, 2020/0 Comments/in Cars /by admin

Our Infinitybox team is thrilled to be a part of Bob Matranga’s 1955 Chevy Bel Air. This car was awarded as one of the Great 8 winners for the 2020 Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama. The car is appropriately named Brute Force.

1955 Chevy Bel Air wired with the Infinitybox System

Bob and his team built a stunning 1955 Chevy Bel Air. You could spend hours looking at all of the details in this car. From the engine, to the chassis, to the one-off lights, to the leather treatment to the emblems, this is an impressive car.

1955 Chevy Bel Air wired with the Infinitybox System

You can see an interview with Bob going through the details of the car here. Thanks to EClassic Autos for the video content.

1955 Chevy Bel Air: Great 8 Winner at 2020 Detroit Autorama from eclassicautos on Vimeo.

Bob’s team started with our Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit to wire the car. From there, they added inMOTION to control their power locks and power windows. They added inLINK for remote control from a key fob. inRESERVE for active battery management. inTOUCH NET so they can control the car from a tablet or smart phone. And inVIRONMENT so they can control their Vintage Air Gen-IV from their touch screen. They have the cells strategically located in the car to optimize the wiring harness and get them the most features.

We had a chance to talk to Chris Brown of Brown Auto Design at the Autorama. Chris is the mastermind behind the design of this car. He mentioned to us that he had very limited room to run wires in the car. Using the Infinitybox system made wiring the car much easier for him and his team.

1955 Chevy Bel Air wired with the Infinitybox System

We are very proud to be a part of this project. Congratulations to Bob and the entire team at Matranga Hot Rods for making it to the Great 8.

Click on this link to contact our team to learn more about wiring your car with our Infinitybox system.

1955 Chevy Bel Air wired with the Infinitybox System

Outline dimensions for the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

Infinitybox Cell Outline Drawings

February 17, 2020/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

This blog post has the outline drawings for our Infinitybox MASTERCELL, POWERCELL and inMOTION Cell. You can use these drawings to plan the layout of these cells in your car or truck project. All of the dimensions on these drawings are in inches.

The basic footprint for the MASTERCELL, POWERCELL and inMOTION cell is exactly the same. The mounting tabs for all three cells are identical. The holes in the mounting tabs are designed for a 1/4″ X 5/8″ shoulder bolt.

Outline dimensions for the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

Outline dimensions for the Infinitybox POWERCELL

Outline dimensions for the Infinitybox inMOTION Cell

You can download PDF versions of these drawings at these links.

MASTERCELL

POWERCELL

inMOTION Cell

Click on this link to contact our technical support team if you have any additional questions about our Infinitybox system.

MASTERCELL

November 20, 2019/3 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

The MASTERCELL is the brain of our Infinitybox system. It is the core of our universal 20-Circuit Kit. It connects to all of the switches in your car and decides what should be turning on and off in your electrical system. The MASTERCELL connects to the POWERCELLs, inMOTION cells and other Infinitybox accessories through our CAN network and sends commands to control everything in your car.

The Infinitybox MASTERCELL

All of your switches wire to the MASTERCELL. Examples include you headlight switch, ignition switch, brake pedal switch and turn signal stalk. You can even connect the MASTERCELL inputs to your ECU directly to take signals to control your cooling fans and fuel pump. The MASTERCELL inputs work by being grounded to turn the input on. There is no power at the switch. Instead of having to bring power to the switch, you simply connect the MASTERCELL input to one terminal of the switch and you ground the other side of the switch. When the switch is turned on, the MASTERCELL input gets connected to ground. The MASTERCELL sees this ground signal and sends the commands to turn things on and off on the POWERCELLs. Check out this blog post for a more detailed description of how the MASTERCELL inputs work.

The MASTERCELL also has the capability to include our optional inLINK radio. This accessory gets you remote control of your Infinitybox system through a key fob. You can control your lights, pop your trunk and access our power security and immobilizer features by pushing a button. The receiver for the inLINK radio gets installed inside the MASTERCELL so there is no separate box that you need to install, wire or conceal. This link will take you to more details on inLINK.

The MASTERCELL also has our inSIGHT display installed in it. This LCD screen is your window to the Infinitybox system. It lets you see what the system is doing and it lets you easily troubleshoot problems if you have them. This link will take you to our diagnostics and troubleshooting guide to learn more about what you can do with the MASTERCELL inSIGHT screen.

This video will walk you through the details of the MASTERCELL.

You can watch our entire video series on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to see new videos as they post.

We have the solid model for the MASTERCELL available to our customers to help with their planning and mocking up process.

Click on this link to contact our team with questions about buying our Infinitybox system to wire your street-rod, hot-rod, resto-mod, race car, kit car or Pro-Touring build.

Picture of a wiring diagram showing how to wire two Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs in parallel

Wiring Switches in Parallel

February 21, 2019/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Our Infinitybox system is the most powerful and flexible wiring harness available in the market. Our MASTERCELL inputs are flexible and adaptable for practically any application. A customer just asked this question and we thought that it was a great way to show off the flexibility of the MASTERCELL inputs. The customer is wiring the power window switches in his car. He wanted to know if there was a way to wire a parallel switch that would control all 4 windows at the same time. The answer is “yes” and this blog post will show you how to do it.

Our MASTERCELL inputs work by getting connected to ground. This link will take you to an older blog post that goes through the details of how the inputs work and how to connect a switch to them. Since the inputs work by a ground trigger, this gives you a lot of flexibility with your switches.

This picture shows you how to wire in a parallel switch to control multiple inputs simultaneously.

Picture of a wiring diagram showing how to wire two Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs in parallel

In this example, we’re showing two switches that control the driver’s and passenger’s windows. For the sake of clarity, we’re only showing the front windows and we’re only showing the down action. These switches are labeled Driver Down and Passenger Down in the wiring diagram. You are going to follow the wire colors from your configuration sheet to wire the switches and the power wires that go to the window regulator motors.

To wire in the parallel “master” switch, you are going to connect the MASTERCELL inputs for the Driver’s and Passenger’s switch together and bring them to the parallel switch. The important thing here is that you need to put a diode on each of the wires from the Driver’s and Passenger’s switch. These diodes are electrical check valves. They only let current flow in one direction. They block the flow of current in the other direction. Without these diodes, both the MASTERCELL inputs would be connected together at the parallel switch. They would both turn on with either switch. The diodes electrically isolate the two MASTERCELL inputs so they are operate independently from the individual switches but work together from the parallel switch.

You can source these diodes anywhere. We recommend a 1N4001 diode. These can be purchased easily from Amazon or other on-line retailers. The orientation of the diodes critical. This will not work correctly if they are installed backwards. Note the orientation of the diode symbol in the wiring diagram above. The line on the diode symbol corresponds to the silver line on the case of the diode. Look at the picture below.

Example of a simple diode

We only show the down action for the power windows in this diagram. We also only show 2 window switches. You can join all 4 inputs together through diodes if you want to control your front and rear windows from a single parallel switch. You can also repeat this for the up action of your power windows.

This same approach can be used for other switches like your lighting. We posted a wiring diagram a while ago showing you how to wire your head lights and parking lights from a single switch using a similar arrangement. You can view that blog post by clicking this link.

Click on this link to download a PDF version of this wiring diagram.

Click on this link to contact our technical support team with any additional questions about wiring your car or truck with our Infinitybox system.

Sample picture of the FAST XFI 2.0 Fuel Injection Controller

FAST XFI 2.0 Wiring

February 8, 2019/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Electronic Fuel Injection systems have completely changed the way guys control their engines in resto-mods, street rods, kit cars and Pro-Touring builds. All the new systems are simple to install, can control hundreds of horse power and automatically tune themselves. Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST) has been one of the most significant innovators in the area of EFI systems for the restoration and performance markets. Our Infinitybox plays nicely with any EFI system on the market including the full range from FAST. This blog post will show you how to integrate their FAST XFI 2.0 system with our Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit.

This blog post is going to walk you through the details of wiring your FAST XFI 2.0 EFI system with our Infinitybox system. Specifically, we’re going to talk about wiring primary power, wiring ignition power, wiring the fuel pump trigger and wiring the cooling fan trigger. All of the rest of the connections between the FAST XFI 2.0 and the engine are covered in their instructions. Please carefully read and thoroughly understand the manual for your EFI system before you go any further. The manual and wiring diagrams for the XFI 2.0 are built into their tuning software package. You can download that by clicking this link.

The following wiring diagram shows all of the connections between the FAST XFI 2.0 and the Infinitybox system.

Picture of a wiring diagram showing the connections between the FAST XFI 2.0 and the Infinitybox System.

Just like most other electrical systems in your car, the XFI 2.0 needs constant 12-volt power from the battery. This connection is the red wire going to cavity B18 in their harness. This wire must be connected directly to the positive terminal on your battery. It is also highly recommended that you have a fuse protecting this wire. The FAST manual recommends a 3-amp fuse in-line between the battery and the XFI 2.0 controller.

Next, you need to provide ignition power to the XFI controller. When your key is in the run position, the Infinitybox system will provide switched ignition power to the XFI controller so that it will control your engine. This ignition power will come from the ignition output from one of your POWERCELLs. Please check the configuration sheet that came with your specific kit to validate the POWERCELL output and wire color. Your POWERCELL output for ignition is going to connect to the Switched Ignition wire on the XFI harness. This is the pink wire going into cavity B17. There is no need to add a fuse to protect this wire since the fuse for it is built into the POWERCELL.

The FAST XFI 2.0 system is smart enough to signal for the cooling fan and fuel pump when it senses that it needs them. You can connect these signals to your Infinitybox MASTERCELL so that your POWERCELLs will control your cooling fans and fuel pump directly. Wiring it this way saves you in the amount of wire you need to run and also eliminates the need for extra relays. Our POWERCELLs have the solid-state relays built into them.

The FAST XFI 2.0 is set up to ground trigger relays for the cooling fan and fuel pump. This is ideal because the MASTERCELL inputs work on ground triggers. We still highly recommend installing diodes between the MASTERCELL and the XFI controller to buffer your Infinitybox system from any stray voltage that could be on the cooling fan and fuel pump triggers. We recommend a 1N4001 diode. These can be purchased from Amazon. The orientation of the diode is very important. If they are installed backwards, the triggers will not work. Please see the orientation in the wiring diagram above. The anode side of the diode should be connected to the MASTERCELL input. The cathode should be connected to the trigger wire on the XFI 2.0 controller.

Your MASTERCELL input wire for the cooling fan will connect to the Fan Control Output wire on the FAST harness. This is the black wire at cavity B10. The 1N4001 wire should be installed per our wiring diagram.

Your MASTERCELL input for the fuel pump trigger will connect to the Fuel Pump Control Output on the FAST harness. This is the black wire at cavity B5 on the FAST harness. Just like the cooling fan input, the diode should be wired per our wiring diagram.

Once you have made these connections to the FAST XFI 2.0 system, follow the manual that came with your 20-Circuit Kit to make the rest of the connections to your ignition switch, starter solenoid, cooling fan and fuel pump.

As you can see, our Infinitybox 20-Circuit is a versatile and power wiring harness system. We can easily interface with any electrical component in your car or truck build. You can download a PDF of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

Click on this link to get in touch with our technical support team to answer any additional questions about wiring your FAST XFI 2.0 electronic fuel injection system.

FiTech Go EFI

December 11, 2017/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

The revolution in electronically controlled fuel injection systems has dramatically changed the way that guys build cars. Not much more than 10 years ago, carbs still reigned supreme. EFI conversions were hard, required a lot of expertise and didn’t get you all of the performance that you really wanted. Over the years, we have shown how easily our Infinitybox system can power and interface with the most popular EFI systems on the market. We recently received an email from a customer asking how to wire the Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit to the FiTech Go EFI 8 1200 Power Adder Plus. Just like all the other EFI systems, this is easy.

There are blog posts and wiring diagrams on our website for many different EFI systems. The FiTech Go EFI wires to the Infinitybox in the same way as other fuel injection systems.

Before you start wiring the FiTech EFI, you must thoroughly read and understand the instructions that came with your kit. This link will take you to the Go EFI 8 1200 manual. Note that this blog post is just going to cover wiring ignition power from your Infinitybox system, wiring the fuel pump & cooling fan. Refer to the FiTech manual for the rest of the wiring details.

This diagram shows the connections between the FiTech Go EFI harness and the Infinitybox system.

Picture showing how to wire FiTech Go EFI Fuel Injection System with the Infinitybox System.

First things first, you need to get battery power and ground to the FiTech harness. The large red wire in their 6-pin connector must go directly to the positive terminal on your battery.

Next, you need to bring ignition power from your POWERCELL to the white wire in their 6-pin harness. In most Infinitybox systems, the ignition output is the light-green wire on your front POWERCELL but check your configuration to be sure. This POWERCELL output will supply battery power to the FiTech system whenever you have the ignition switch on.

Next, you need to connect your MASTERCELL input for your cooling fan to the yellow wire on the FiTech 6-pin harness. You must install a diode in series between the MASTERCELL input and the cooling fan trigger on their harness. We recommend a 1N4001 diode. Note that the orientation of this diode is critical. Check the diagram above for the correct orientation of the stripe on the diode.

There are several advantages to using the Infinitybox system to control the cooling fan directly off of the FiTech harness. First, you do not need to add a relay. That is built into the POWERCELL. Second, our cooling fan outputs are set to soft-start the motor. Click here to learn more about the benefits of soft-starting.

Next, it is time to wire the fuel pump. The orange wire on their 6-pin connector is the fuel pump trigger. This is a 12-volt signal so it cannot be directly connected to the MASTERCELL input for the fuel pump. You must use an inVERT Mini to flip this 12-volt signal to a ground signal for the MASTERCELL. This link will get you more details on the inVERT Mini. The diagram above will show you how to wire the inVERT Mini between the FiTech Go EFI harness and your MASTERCELL fuel pump input.

There are several advantages of using the Infinitybox system to control the fuel pump directly from the FiTech harness. First, we can disable the fuel pump as a security measure if you have our inLINK Radio upgrade. More importantly, having the Infinitybox system control the fuel pump means that you have to run less wire in the car. The MASTERCELL is located close to the EFI system. The rear POWERCELL is mounted near the fuel pump in the tank. There is no extra fuel pump wiring required to make it work.

Wiring your FiTech Go EFI system with Infinitybox is simple and it gets you a powerful electrical system. You can download a PDF version of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

Click this link to contact our team with any questions.

Picture showing how to use a multimeter to check continuity between terminals on a headlight switch

Switch Terminals

June 28, 2016/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

We’re progressing through the different switches that need to get wired to the MASTERCELL in our customer’s 1967 Mustang. They are wiring their car with our 20-Circuit Kit. The last post covered the brake pedal switch, which is one of the easiest. In this post, we’re going to talk about how you figure out which switch terminals you need to connect to your MASTERCELL inputs.

Some switches are really easy, the brake pedal switch is an example. Others, we have created wiring diagrams for you to use. Our Resources section of our website has a long list of turn signal switches, ignition switches and headlight switches from different makes of car. You can find these under the Installation Guides section at this link.

There are some switches that are unique to a model year or are unique to a specific car. We may not have a wiring diagram assembled for your specific switch. It is usually pretty simple to figure out how to connect these switches to your MASTERCELL inputs. We’ll talk about the basics in this blog post.

Remember how a MASTERCELL input works. The MASTERCELL input gets triggered by getting connected to ground through the switch. In the case of the brake switch from our last post, that one was easy. One of the switch terminals connected to the MASTERCELL input. The other of the switch terminals connected to ground.

There are a few simple steps to follow to figure out which switch terminals you need to connect to for a new switch.

The first step is to find out where power came into the switch originally. Let’s use this switch as an example. One of our customers is wiring a 1972 Chevy truck with our 20-Circuit Kit. He sent us this picture of his ignition switch.

Picture of a typical Chevy truck ignition switch.

He didn’t know how to connect his MASTERCELL inputs to the switch terminals on the switch. If you look at the terminals on the switch, there are two labeled BAT. These are in the lower right corner of the picture. In most cases, BAT is where the battery originally connected to the switch. Ignition switches usually have two separate battery feeds: a dedicated one for the starter solenoid and one for the ignition feed.

You will also see that there is a terminal labeled IGN and one for SOL. At a first glance, you can assume that these are for the ignition power and starter solenoid feeds.

You are looking for terminals that have continuity between them when the switch is on. In the case of this ignition switch, you need to find the terminals that have continuity when the switch is in the run position for the ignition input. You also have to find the pair that have continuity in the start position for the starter input.

If you can, search the internet to see if you can find wiring diagrams for that specific switch. We’re always surprised to find that there is a forum or chat group for practically any type of car out there. Someone has worked on that switch before you and they have posted some wiring diagrams.

Once you have identified the terminals on the switch, get a multi-meter and check continuity between the terminals. If you don’t already have one, a good multi-meter is a powerful tool to have in the shop. The two most critical things that you have to measure would be voltage and resistance. Here is a simple meter that you can source from Waytek Wire. Here is an example of a meter from Del City.

Picture showing how to use a multimeter to check continuity between terminals on a headlight switch

To figure out our switch terminals, we want to measure continuity or resistance. If a circuit has continuity, it should have low resistance between the terminals. Low should be less than 1 Ohm. Look for the resistance setting on your meter. On most meters, this is represented by the Greek letter Omega that looks like this: Ω.

Represents electrical resistance

Some meters have an auto-range function that will internally adjust to select the right range to measure resistance. Others have a dial to select the range. You want to set the range of your resistance measurement to the lowest range. To measure resistance, it really doesn’t matter if you have the red or black leads from the meter touching the different terminals.

Touch the test leads from your meter to the terminals with the switch in the off position. You should measure very high resistance or no change in resistance. In the case of this 1972 Chevy ignition switch, we were measuring between each of the BAT terminals and the IGN terminal with the switch off. We repeated this by measuring between each of the BAT terminals and the SOL terminal. We measured a resistance in the mega-ohm range. Some meters will show this as “OL” or “overload”.

We then turned the switch to the ON position and measured between the BAT terminals and the IGN terminal. We found that we had about 0.4 Ohms of resistance between the inner BAT terminal and the IGN terminal when the switch was in the ON position. In the case of this switch, we will connect the MASTERCELL ignition input wire to the IGN terminal and connect one of the ground wires from the MASTERCELL input harness to the inner BAT terminal. When the switch is in the ON position, there is continuity between IGN and the inner BAT terminal. This will ground the MASTERCELL input, which will turn on the Ignition output on the POWERCELL.

We repeated this for the SOL terminal. We measured between SOL and both of the BAT terminals when the switch was in the START position. We found that the outer BAT terminal was connected to the SOL terminal in the start position. We will connect the MASTERCELL input wire for the starter to the SOL terminal and connect one of the MASTERCELL ground wires to the outer BAT terminal. When the key is in the START position, there is continuity between the SOL terminal and the outer BAT terminal. This will ground the MASTERCELL input for the starter, which will turn on the starter output on the POWERCELL.

Just as a sanity check, we went back and measured resistance between the IGN terminal and the inner BAT terminal when the switch was in the START position. When the switch is in the START position, you must still have continuity between the IGN terminal and its ground connection so that the engine will start. The IGN terminal has continuity to its ground connection when the key is in the start position.

Figuring out how to wire your switch to your MASTERCELL inputs can be scary. We’ve built a large of list of different switches over the years but the steps above will help you to figure out any switch in your car. Click on this link to contact our team with questions.

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