Input wanted on wiring for upcoming install

[sglass]

victim 92 blazer

oh so my idea is to have a 2 buses

one constant power (right off the battery)

one ignition switched

I'll just ground each radio to the body at the closest point to where I mount it.

Radios

110 watt low band maratrac
kenwood dual band ham rig
mt1000 convertacom
220 mobile
and now I am on a slight remote mount spectra kick (this may fade with time)


any foreseeable problems with having a block up from for power and ignition with the same in the rear?

[gws]

Power should come directly off the battery, not from the chassie. I know 2 batteries in my 92 blazer was a pain. NO place for the second battery unless you use the optima for odd angle mounting.

[sglass]

oh yeah, definetly for the positive


I have always used a body ground though, why wouldn't I?

[vcaruso]

gws,

I was toying with the idea of installing a second battery in my van (I have the room under the hood) how exactly would I set it up?

would I need an isolator between the main and auxilary battery?

[jim]

A chassis ground will work just fine. Don't fall for the old wives' tale about having to run a ground to the battery. Just ensure the battery-to-chassis cable is large enough.

Go to a good auto parts store and pick up a Borg-Warner solonoid # S55. Run a FUSED (at battery) #8 cable (or larger, if needed) from the fuseholder to the equipment location and mount the solonoid here. The battery lead goes to one large lug of the solonoid. Connect the small sol. lead to a switched key-on power source via 5A fuse. You now have continuous AND switched hi-current feed at the equipment location. One large terminal is hot and the other is switched- at one location.

There usually isn't a need for a second battery, unless you will be Xmitting with the engine off for extended periods of time. I leave 2 CDMs and a scanner on for 3 days and my Cherokee starts just fine.

If you are worried about battery drainage, use a ChargeGard unit.

[nmfire10]

I guess putting the solenoid INSIDE the vehicles would save the hassle of pulling two hot wires into the vehicle. Though, this is assuming you have a nice open area to put this, like in a console or something.

That Borg relay... Is the continuous duty high amp relay? How many amps is it rated for?

[007]

Is that Borg unit a silver canister with 2 big terminals and 2 little terminals?

If so, our state fleet has something similar, with a diode across the "switch" leads.....any reason for that?

[N2ZPY]

Check out http://www.allelectronics.com . They have a continuous duty relay rated 80 Amps for $7.50. They also carry all kinds of other interesting stuff.

Kevin

[perthcom]

The diode across the switched lead is to bypass the inductive kick when the power to the soleniod coil is cut off. Otherwise this surge voltage could be quite high and damage some electronics. If you look across most relay coils in electronic circuits you will see a diode for this purpose.

[jim]

The S55 is a continuous duty solenoid.

I looked at the piece from allelectronics.com and don't know how good of quality this is. It looks the same, however. for $7.50, I'd try it. Yes- you can install the diode for protection. I use a 5A fuse on all installations for the field terminal.