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

+12 Volt Brake Light Signals

Our MASTERCELL uses ground switching to control all of the electrical functions in your car. There are many advantages to ground switching. You need less wire, you are only triggering a signal so the there is less current flowing through the switch and you can get the ability for combinational logic easily. This link will take you to a good description of how the MASTERCELL inputs work and how you should wire the switches connected to your Infinitybox system.  Your brake pedal switch is no different.  You run your MASTERCELL input for your brake lights to the switch on the pedal.  You connect your brake lights to the outputs on your rear POWERCELL.  When you step on the pedal, the MASTERCELL tells the rear POWERCELL to turn on the brake lights.  It’s pretty simple.  This blog post will get you more details on wiring your brake lights.  Normally, you’re going to use ground switching between your brake pedal switch and your MASTERCELL.  There are some times when you need a positive 12-volt signal from your brake pedal to interface with other electrical systems.  This blog post is going to show you a few easy options to get this +12 volt brake light signal.

There are several external electrical systems that need a positive signal from the brake pedal.  Examples of these systems include transmission controllers to manage the torque converter lock up.  Other examples include cruise control systems to disengage the system when you step on the brakes.  Another example is an external PKE system with one button start.  You must step on the brake pedal to safely start the car.  In a typical Infinitybox wiring set up, there is no battery voltage at the brake pedal switch.  An option to get this +12-volt signal would be to tap off the brake light on the rear POWERCELL.  This requires that you run a wire from the back of the car up to the front.  This may also be an issue if you’re using out 1-filament brake light set up.  We’re going to give you a few simple options to get this +12 volt brake light signal from the pedal to keep the wiring in your car short.

Before we get too far, you need to carefully read and understand the instructions for the electrical system that you’re interfacing with your Infinitybox system.  Make sure you know exactly what signal you need from your brake pedal switch.  Some systems need a +12-volt signal when you step on the brakes and a ground signal when your foot is off the pedal.  Other systems need a 12-volt signal when you’re foot is off the pedal and ground when you step on the pedal.  Make sure you understand what you need.  The following examples will show you how to accommodate any of these options.

The next thing that we need to review is the difference between Normally Open and Normally Closed switches.  These designations describe what the contacts in the switches are doing when the switch is in its normal state.  A Normally Open (NO) switch is off when you are not pushing it.  You have to push the switch to turn the switch on.  A Normally Closed (NC) switch is on when you are not pushing it and off when you push it.  The majority of the switches in your car are Normally Open (NO) but there are a few exceptions.

There are a few different types of brake pedal switches.  Two terminal switches are the most common.  There are also 4-terminal switches.  Within the 4-terminal switches, most of these have a set of Normally Open (NO) contacts and a set of Normally Closed (NC) contacts.

Let’s start with the 2-terminal switches.  These have a set of Normally Open contacts.  The switch is off when you are not pressing the brake pedal.  When you step on the pedal, you close the contacts.  This makes an electrical connection between the two terminals on the switch.  In a normal Infinitybox set up, you ground one of the terminals on the switch and connect the second terminal to the MASTERCELL input for your brake lights.  When you step on the brake pedal, you make an electrical connection between the MASTERCELL input and ground.  This is a very simple set up, however you don’t have +12 volts at the switch.

This diagram shows you how to wire your 2-terminal brake pedal switch to get a +12 volt signal and a ground signal for the MASTERCELL.  It uses an Infinitybox inVERT Mini to flip the 12-volt signal from the switch to ground the MASTERCELL input.

Instead of grounding one terminal on the brake pedal switch, connect it to the ignition output on your front POWERCELL.  When the ignition is on in the car, you will have voltage on this terminal on the switch.  You can splice into the ignition output wire on the POWERCELL or you can use one of our Infinitybox Splice Saver kits to make this connection.  You will then connect the second terminal on the brake pedal switch to your controller that needs the +12-volt signal when you step on the pedal.  On this second terminal, you will also connect the input wire for the inVERT Mini.  The black wire on the inVERT Mini gets connected to ground and the output wire connects to the MASTERCELL input for your brake lights.  It’s pretty simple.  You can download a PDF copy of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

Another option is if you have a 4-terminal brake pedal switch.  These have two pairs of terminals.  Usually, the pair of terminals closest to the switch plunger are the Normally Open contacts.  They close when you step on the brake pedal.  The set of terminals furthest from the plunger is Normally Closed.  These contacts open when you step on the brake lights.  These diagrams assume that your switch has a Normally Open and a Normally Closed set of contacts.  Please confirm the type of switch that you have by checking resistance between the terminals with a multimeter.  You are going to use the Normally Open terminals to ground your MASTERCELL input for the brake lights.  Ground one of these terminals and connect the second terminal to the MASTERCELL input.

On the Normally Closed set of terminals, you are going to connect one of these to ground.  You then connect one end of a 10K (10,000 ohm) resistor to the second Normally Closed terminal.  The other end of the resistor should get connected to the ignition output on your front POWERCELL.  This resistor should be rated for at least 1/4 (0.25) Watts.  You can buy these easily from Amazon.  Just search for “1/4 watt 10k resistor”.  This picture will show you the connections that you need to make to your brake pedal switch.

When you are not stepping on the brake pedal, the brake signal wire terminal is pulled to ground by the fact that the terminals are closed.  The 10K resistor limits the amount of current flowing through the switch to less than 2 mA (0.002 amps).  When you step on the brake pedal, these contacts open and the brake signal wire is pulled up to the battery voltage through the 10K resistor.  You can download a PDF copy of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

There are some scenarios where you need +12 volts when you foot is not on the brake pedal and ground when you step on the pedal.  This picture will show you how to wire the switch.

You are going to wire the MASTERCELL input and its ground the same way that you did for the other example.  Then connect one of the NC terminals on the switch to the ignition output on your POWERCELL.  Connect the second NC terminal on the switch to your brake signal connection.  Lastly, connect a 10K resistor (just like in the previous example) between the brake signal wire and ground.  When you foot is off the pedal, you’ll have 12-volts on the brake signal wire.  When you step on the pedal, the contacts in the switch open and disconnect the brake signal wire from ignition power.  The 10K resistor pulls the brake signal wire to ground.  You can download a PDF copy of this diagram by clicking this link.

Click on this link to contact our technical support team if you have any questions about getting a 12-volt brake pedal signal for your transmission controller, cruise control module or PKE system.

Side shot of RCR SL-C wired with the Infinitybox System

Race Car Replicas SL-C Steering Column Wiring

This blog post is going to give you the details for wiring the steering column connector on your Race Car Replicas Superlite Coupe.  Fran and his team at RCR have been engineering and manufacturing one of the highest performance and most complete kits to build super cars.  Their chassis are engineered to perfection, the body styling is top notch and they give you everything that you need to build you own masterpiece.

They include a General Motors steering column with each kit.  This post and wiring diagram are specific to the Oldsmobile column.  If you have the older Cadillac steering column with power tilt & telescoping, give our team a call for specifics on the wiring

There is a connector on the Oldsmobile column that interfaces with the multi-function turn signal stalk.  This has the signals for the parking lights, head lights, high-beams and turn signals.  The connections between the steering column connector and the inputs on your MASTERCELL are simple.  Here are the details.

First, you need to have a good way to make the connection between our MASTERCELL inputs and the wires going to the steering column.  You could cut off the connector on the column and splice these wires together.  We recommend a much easier way.  You can purchase the mating connector and terminals to make this connection.  You can purchase these components from Mouser.  These parts are made by Aptiv, formerly Delphi.  The part number for the connector is 12092248 and the terminals is 12092345.  You will need 9 terminals.

You will need to splice the MASTERCELL input wires for your grounds, turn signals, parking lights, head lights and high beams to these terminals and insert them into the corresponding cavities on the mating connector.  The cavity letters are molded into the plastic on the side of the connector.  For your grounds, you can use the black ground wires in the MASTERCELL input harness.  This list shows you which wire colors correspond to the different mating connector cavities.

Grounds- Black Wire- Cavities D, Q, X & Z

Right Turn Signal- Yellow/Red Wire- Cavity F

Left Turn Signal- Yellow/Black Wire- Cavity G

High-Beam- Blue/Red Wire- Cavity K

Head Light- White/Green Wire- Cavity L

Parking Lights- Blue/Black- Cavity R

This picture shows the wires from the MASTERCELL and their different cavity locations.

Picture of wiring diagram showing how to connect Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs to steering column connector for Race Car Replicas SL-C

Picture of wiring diagram showing how to connect Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs to steering column connector for Race Car Replicas SL-C

It is also important that you install a diode between the inputs for the head lights and high-beams.  This should be a 1N4001 diode which can be purchased from Amazon or any other on-line electronics store.  The orientation of this diode is very important.  The cathode or the stripe on the diode must be connected to the high-beam input going to the MASTERCELL.  This is the blue/red wire going into cavity K.  You can crimp the leads of this diode to the terminals with the MASTERCELL wires to make this easier.

That is all you need to know to connect your MASTERCELL input wires to your steering column connector for your Race Car Replicas SL-C.  You can download a PDF version of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.  If you have any questions, you can call our team directly at (847) 232-1991 or click here to contact us directly.

Jeep CJ7 Wiring Series- MASTERCELL Location

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 5 different videos, talking about what you need to consider for each part.  This video covers picking the best location for your MASTERCELL.

The Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The MASTERCELL is the brain of your 20-Circuit Kit.  It connects to all of your switches.  These include your ignition switch, turn signal stalk, brake pedal switch, headlight switch, fuel pump & cooling fan trigger and any other accessory switches that you may have in your car or truck.  The MASTERCELL sends commands to the POWERCELLs when you turn a switch on or off.  You can learn more about the MASTERCELL and what it does by clicking this link.

There are two important things to consider when you’re picking the location for your MASTERCELL.  First, you want the MASTERCELL as close to your switches as possible.  This keeps the wiring short and makes it easy to install.  Second, you want to have easy access to the MASTERCELL for troubleshooting and diagnostics.  There are tons of diagnostic features built into the MASTERCELL.  You can learn about them at this link.  To access these features, you need to be able to get to the MASTERCELL, remove the protective cover, press the buttons and read the inSIGHT LCD screen.

In our 1979 Jeep CJ7, we’re going to mount the MASTERCELL in the glove compartment.  There is a convenient open pocket behind the door for the glove compartment.  This puts the MASTERCELL close to all of the switches on the dash.  That will make the dash wiring short and efficient.  With the door open, we can easily take off the MASTERCELL cover, press the buttons and read the inSIGHT screen.  When we close the door, the MASTERCELL disappears.

This picture will show the location of the MASTERCELL and POWERCELLs in the Jeep and how we routed the CAN cable between the cells.

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- CAN Cable Routing

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- CAN Cable Routing

Picking the best location for your MASTERCELL will make your switch wiring simple and efficient.  It will also make troubleshooting and diagnostics easier if you need them.  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.  

MASTERCELL Input Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

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.

Logo for the Illegal Garage

Illegal Garage’s Alumacobra Switch Install

We just received a great video from a local customer building a Factory Five Roadster.  Jose G. has been building this car for a few years and he’s wiring it with our Infinitybox system.  He is installing our 20-Circuit Kit with inLINK.

He has a very slick and elegant aluminum dash that has modular panels.  He can easily remove and install panels for his switches and gauges.  It would certainly make working on the dash very easy.  Jose was recently at the London Cobra show in Ohio and saw a new set of switches he wanted to integrate into his dash.  These are nice looking billet buttons and he wants to use them for his lights, fans, wipers, fuel pump and one-button start.  These buttons are from Billet Automotive Buttons in Australia.  Installing these buttons shows the simplicity and the ease of wiring your car with our Infinitybox system.

First, our MASTERCELL inputs are ground triggered.  This gives you a lot of flexibility of how you can wire your switches.  This simple diagram shows how you wire a MASTERCELL input to your switch.

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

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

You can click on this link to get a more detailed blog post talking about wiring switches.

Another significant advantage of wiring your switches with our Infinitybox system is the fact that it takes very little current to turn on an input.  It takes less than 1 milliamp (1/1000 of an amp) to trigger an input.  That gives you the flexibility of using any switch to control the functions in your car.  With a lot of billet buttons, you have to use them to trigger a relay because they cannot handle the full load current of things like lights, starter solenoids and fans.  This is very easy with our Infinitybox system.

Since it takes so little current to turn on a MASTERCELL input, you can use very light-gauge wires between your switches and the MASTERCELL.  Our standard harnesses use 22-AWG wire.  This helps keep behind your dash clean and easy to service.

Lastly, we give you the power of advanced electrical control functions.  In the case of Jose’s car, he’s using our One-Button Start feature.  A single MASTERCELL input connected to a momentary button lets him start his car with ease.  Check out this blog post for more details on our One-Button-Start feature.

Jose just posted a great video to his YouTube channel, The Illegal Garage, showing off how he installed these billed buttons into his Cobra.  You can check it out below.


You can check out additional videos of his Factory Five Cobra build at his YouTube channel by clicking this link.

Click this link to get in touch with our team to learn more about how you can wire your car or truck with our Infinitybox system.

Picture of a door pin switch

Wiring Door Pin Switches

This blog post is going to cover how to wire your interior and dome lights.  In most cases you want these lights to turn on when you open a door to your car.  We’ll show you the best way to wire your door pin switches and connect your POWERCELL outputs to your dome lights and interior lights.

Picture of a door pin switch

Picture of a door pin switch

Each door in your car has a pin switch.  Sometimes these are called door jamb switches.  They are very simple devices.  They have one terminal on them.  This terminal originally connected to the ground side of your dome light circuit.  The threaded metal part of the switch connected to your cars ground through the metal part of the door jamb.  These switches work backwards from most people would expect.  When the car door is open, the contact on the switch is closed to ground.  If you think about it, that is what you want.  You want the circuit completed when the door is open.  In the original wiring on most cars, you had battery power supplied to one side of your dome light.  The other side of the light was connected to ground through the door pin switch.  When you opened the door, the switch closed.  This completed the circuit to ground so the dome light came on.

The inputs to an Infinitybox MASTERCELL work the same way.  They get activated when they are connected to ground through a switch.  You can learn more about how the MASTERCELL inputs work by clicking this link.

We do not dedicate a POWERCELL output for dome lights or interior lights.  You can use any of the OPEN outputs that are listed on your configuration sheet to do this.  Simply choose an OPEN output on a POWERCELL and connect that to one side of your dome light circuit.  This link will get you more information on using OPEN outputs.  Connect the other side of your dome light circuit to ground.  Check your configuration sheet and get the MASTERCELL input that corresponds to the OPEN POWERCELL output that you picked.  That input is going to connect to your door pin switches.

In most cases, you will want to have your dome lights turn on if any of your car’s doors are opened.  This is the same if you have a 2 or 4-door car.  To do this, you are going to wire the pin switches in each of your doors in parallel.  You are going to take your MASTERCELL input and connect it to each of the terminals on your door pin switches.  You can splice off of the input wire at the MASTERCELL and run separate wires to each switch.  You can also daisy-chain from one switch to the next in the car.  This wiring diagram shows how to connect the MASTERCELL input for your dome lights to the door pin switches.

Picture of an Infinitybox wiring diagram showing how to wire door pin switches

Picture of an Infinitybox wiring diagram showing how to wire door pin switches

If you open one of your doors, the door pin switch will ground the MASTERCELL input.  The MASTERCELL will send a command to the POWERCELL to turn on the output for the dome lights.  If you open a second door, the input will still be grounded because the switches are wired in parallel.  The dome lights will not turn off until you close all of the open doors.

An added bonus of our Infinitybox system is the ability to theater dim your dome lights.  When the doors close, we can set your dome light to slowly fade away over 10 seconds.  Give our technical support team a call to get this feature on your system.

You can download a PDF copy of this wiring diagram at this link.

If you have questions on how to wire your door pin switches with our Infinitybox system, click on this link to get in touch with our technical support team.

Example of an IDIDIT steering column with turn signal stalk.

Steering Column

Let’s get to the steering column wiring.  This is the next installment the process of wiring our 20-Circuit Kit into a 1967 Mustang.  One of our customers sent us a great series of pictures showing their process of wiring their car.  It’s time to talk about turn-signal switches, horn switches and 4-way switches.

Our customer is using a steering column kit from IDIDIT.  The one they chose is for the 1967 to 1969 Mustang.  It is a tilt-style column designed for the shifter on the floor.  They choose the option to have the GM steering column connector on the harness.  This column also has the Tilt Lever Momentary Switch 510168 option.  We are going to use that to control the high-beams and will discuss that in the next blog post.  It also has the ignition key built into it.  We’ll talk about wiring that in future posts too.

The steering column in the car does a few obvious things.  It holds the steering wheel and lets you turn the car.  It also holds the switches for the turn-signals, the horn and the 4-way flasher.  All of those switches will wire to the inputs on your MASTERCELL.  The MASTERCELL will send commands to the different POWERCELLs in the car to turn lights on and off plus sound the horn.  Wiring the switches to the MASTERCELL is really easy.  There is a diagram on our website that shows how to do this.  You can see it here.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to connect MASTERCELL inputs to a GM-Style Steering Column Connector

Image of wiring diagram showing how to connect MASTERCELL inputs to a GM-Style Steering Column Connector

Note that most steering column manufacturers use the GM-style turn-signal switch.  These have been used in cars for years with very few changes.  Companies like IDIDIT and Flaming River use this exact same column switch.  The diagram above will work for any of these columns.

The wires colors for the steering column connector are shown on the left side of the wiring diagram above.  We also show the details of the connector.  Almost all of the wires in the column connector need to connect to MASTERCELL input wires.  The two that are unused are the yellow and green wires on the column connector.  Check the configuration sheet that came with your kit.  You want to match the wire function to the wires on the right of the diagram, not necessarily the wire color.  Wire colors may vary from different kits.  Always use your configuration sheet for the right wire colors.

The black wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL horn input wire.  In our configuration this is the blue wire with the yellow tracer on the A input harness.  This is input number 9.

The light blue wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the left turn signal.  We’re using the inputs for mechanical steering column.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the black tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 11.

The dark blue wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the right turn signal.  We’re using the inputs for mechanical steering column.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the red tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 12.

The brown wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the 4-way slashers.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the blue tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 13.

Lastly, the purple and white wires on the column connector needs to be connected to ground.  You can use the black wires in the MASTERCELL harness as a ground reference.  Otherwise, you can connect these wires to the chassis at the column.

One more comment, you need to properly ground the column to the chassis.  Otherwise, you will have problems with your horn switch.  In most cases, the column will ground to the frame of the car through its mounts but you will not get a good ground if you have the column shaft painted or powder coated.  The same is true if you have a fiberglass body.  Run a ground wire from a stationary point on the column to the frame of the car.  Make sure that you have a metal-to-metal connection between your ground wire and the points where they connect to the column and the chassis.

You can splice the MASTERCELL input wires directly to the wires on the steering column connector.  Alternately, IDIDIT sells a connector kit with the terminals included to crimp onto the MASTERCELL input wires.  Using this connector makes it very easy to maintain and service your column in the future.

That’s about it for wiring the turn-signal switches, the 4-way switch and the horn switch.  This connection to your MASTERCELL is simple and easy.  You can download a PDF copy of the MASTERCELL input wiring diagram by clicking this link.

You can contact a member of our team with questions by clicking this link and filling out our contact form.  Stay tuned for more updates on the wiring of this 1967 Mustang.

 

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.