GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I know i've seen it on here somewhere, but i cant find it.What im looking for is a little thing that you replace one of the fuses with to get an extra fused wire from the fusebox.thanks,magnus

Never mind.. found it.. STFI...I guess i should have just googled a little longer before posting http://www.sportys.com/acb/sho...e=yesedit: unfortunately it only handles 10A :/

What're you trying to power up that needs more than 10A, out of curiousity?

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »What're you trying to power up that needs more than 10A, out of curiousity?A ham radio. (Kenwood TM-D700AG). It lists 11.5 A max. I guess i could put a 10A fuse in there and if it keeps blowing i have to figure out something else. It shouldnt hurt it, should it?

If you're referring to the littlefuse add-a-circuit, I don't see why you couldn't stick a 15A fuse in there...I wonder if 1.5A would be enough to overheat something designed for 12A...

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »If you're referring to the littlefuse add-a-circuit, I don't see why you couldn't stick a 15A fuse in there...I wonder if 1.5A would be enough to overheat something designed for 12A...Well its a matter of wether 1.5A would be enough to overheat the littlefuse circuit, not the radio..Since the littlefuse is only rated at 10A they probably use a lower awg wire, etc. than if they were to rate it at 15A.I know it'd suck to have the vibe burn up..

My bad. I meant to say I wonder if 11.5A would be enough to overheat something designed for 10A.I wonder if the product is upgradeable...I'll see what I can't find out...

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »My bad. I meant to say I wonder if 11.5A would be enough to overheat something designed for 10A.I wonder if the product is upgradeable...I'll see what I can't find out...ahh, i see

Probably the 11.5A is the TX draw? Id be amazed if it draws that in RX only...Id watch for voltage drop at the higher amperages with the add-a-fuse circuit. The ones I have seen have a bit smaller conductors and if ya dont melt them, you might start getting into a problem with voltage drop when you TX. I have seen that with commercial type (Motorola) units back when I was a comm tech. If you want the best way to go, Id find a better way and tap that.

I'd say the only reason it comes with a 10A fuse is to protect the circuits you're adding it to. Afterall, you might get people putting 30A stuff on wires only rated to take maybe 15A. I'd say, depending on which circuit you add the add-a-fuse to, you can probably just put a 15A fuse in there. I don't think it'll cause any harm, especially if you power it off the radio or room fuses..

Quote, originally posted by cdFxer »Probably the 11.5A is the TX draw? Id be amazed if it draws that in RX only...Id watch for voltage drop at the higher amperages with the add-a-fuse circuit. The ones I have seen have a bit smaller conductors and if ya dont melt them, you might start getting into a problem with voltage drop when you TX. I have seen that with commercial type (Motorola) units back when I was a comm tech. If you want the best way to go, Id find a better way and tap that.Yes, it draws less than 2A in RX.Any suggestions on how to make it ignition controlled if i dont tap a fuse like this?thanks,magnus

Best method would be to tap into the ignition harness itself. You could tap into the wiring to the cigarette lighters, as well..but you might need to upgrade an existing fuse. like cdFxer said, you might run into issues.If you can't run a line directly to the battery (arguably the best method), the ignition wires are probably your best bet.

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »Best method would be to tap into the ignition harness itself. You could tap into the wiring to the cigarette lighters, as well..but you might need to upgrade an existing fuse. like cdFxer said, you might run into issues.If you can't run a line directly to the battery (arguably the best method), the ignition wires are probably your best bet.I'll probably end up running the wires straight to the battery, since the radio turns itself off after 3 hours of inactivity i wont accientally drain the battery.. the only problem is that i was hoping to have it come on when i start the car. oh well. cant have everything

Run the power source to the battery, but tie a relay inlnie that's triggered by the ignition. That way, it cuts off power when the ignition is off, and turns it on when the car goes on.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Run the power source to the battery, but tie a relay inlnie that's triggered by the ignition. That way, it cuts off power when the ignition is off, and turns it on when the car goes on.doh, thats simple enough.. should have figured that one out.. thanks

Yah..I agree.. just remember to put a fuse in no more than 18 inches from the battery.. don't wanna blow anything up!

Zzzzzzzzzzzttttt!hehe, jussst kiddin' Im sure you will do ok! Sounds like with all your gear you might want to look into a nice beefy line from the battery, then through a fuse at the battery, then into a relay (you can get 30A automotive relays with sockets from Jameco CHEAP), then on into your cars cabin area, then a few more fuses to split out to the various electronics goodies you have. This will give everything the "cleanest" power, free up your interior outlets, be a better looking installation, etc. I do not know about the ham freq's, but nice clean power is sometimes helpful in marginal signal conditions in the biz bands due to less of the cars onboard electronics desensing the RX front end.

Quote, originally posted by cdFxer »Zzzzzzzzzzzttttt!hehe, jussst kiddin' Im sure you will do ok! Sounds like with all your gear you might want to look into a nice beefy line from the battery, then through a fuse at the battery, then into a relay (you can get 30A automotive relays with sockets from Jameco CHEAP), then on into your cars cabin area, then a few more fuses to split out to the various electronics goodies you have. This will give everything the "cleanest" power, free up your interior outlets, be a better looking installation, etc. I do not know about the ham freq's, but nice clean power is sometimes helpful in marginal signal conditions in the biz bands due to less of the cars onboard electronics desensing the RX front end. Clean power is definately a good thing for ham radios.. i'm planning on using a noice filter but even so, running straight to the battery would probably be better.

Just got done adding LED's under the dash... I used one of the nifty add-a-circuit things for power - connected to the CIG fuse. Does the 10A limit apply to both fuses? Since they don't recommend adding anything over 10A, and the fact that the CIG fuse is 15A, I figured i'd check into that... I am guessing the 10 amp limitation is only for what you're actually adding (top fuse) while the bottom fuse remains at what amperage was originally in the fuse block... At least that's how I hope it works, otherwise I'll need to find a different circuit that is 10A to plug into....And, I don't really think I am in danger of overloading the circuit with what I've added.

The only thing you'd need to worry about is the current going through the 1/4" of metal actually plugged into the fusebox. That short a distance you probably wouldn't need to worry about...

does the ham radio not have a main power feed and a separate "ignition" trigger? if you cut main power with a relay everytime, won't you loose settings and such? The only advice I could give is to run the power wire to the battery...with 11.5 amps of draw, I can't believe you'd consider an "add a circuit" or any other quick method....thats a shortcut to disaster imho...bmoney