Electric Boogaloo
 

Well, seeing I'm still quite noobish with electronic shit, I figured I should ask you guys before I fuck something up. :eek5:

I've searched here, as well as m.net and it seems everyone has a different way to wire their gauges. My old Greddy boost gauge had the wires just pushed in with fuses, so this time I'd like to do a cleaner install. I see some steal power from the ign switch, and some go for the cig lighter.

I just want to make sure I'm not drawing too much power, going to blow fuses left and right, maybe damage the gauges? Like I said, electronics is my weakest subject and makes me punch babies.

I re-did my wiring lastnight, but I wanted to double check that I was on the right track. The way I did have it, the Defi boost gauge worked, but my DB gauge for the LC1 was on all the time. So I went out and got a test light, soldering iron, and some other small things.

As it stands right now, I only have a couple things soldered, but not everything (fucking night came at me quick again lastnight).

Wires:

LC1 power - cig lighter
DB1 gauge power, Defi gauge power, and blue wire from turbo timer - blk/red ign wire
Turbo timer red (12v) - white ign wire
Turbo timer green wire & orange wire from Defi - blue ign wire
Light dimmer wires from both gauges - blue and orange wire from the headlight stalk
LC1 yellow wire - ?Megasquirt? I dont have MS yet, so I just taped it out of the way for now.

That's what I have, and everything seems to work fine, with exception to the Greddy turbo timer. Everything comes on at ACC/ON, and the LC1's little red light for the calibrations lights up. But the turbo timer will only display voltage, nothing else. And I have no idea if I read the diagrams correctly on the wires for the headlight stalk. I guess the gauges should get brighter when the headlights come on? :dunno:

Sorry guys, this is probably a mess of a post.....but I just want to make sure I'm ok. I'm comfortable soldering now, so I want to finish them up and wrap everything today. I just didn't know if I needed to do anything extra, etc. If I did this right, it will only boost my confidence to want to get MSPNP and feel comfortable doing it myself. Thanks bro's :bigtu:

Vash-

just make sure everything is fused before it gets to its source of power. they can be on one fuse but they need a fuse. a small 10A fuse is fine since it's nothing power-hungry.

some gauges are not illuminated until lights come on. some dim when you turn the lights on (so they dont blind you).

and most importantly:

http://www.runjenrun.com/archives/breakin2.jpg

You mean give them another fuse? Or as long as they are hooked to something that is fused? The defi gauge has an in-line fuse on both of the power wires (red & orange). However the DB1 gauge and LC1 do not have in-line fuses.

Is it safe to say that having the LC1 connected to the cig lighter and the DB1 together with the Defi gauge is ok?

I understand now.....so they don't get brighter, they get dimmer. Seeing its night out and they could be distracting, blinding, etc. Got ya.

Electric boogaloo will teach you moves!

Vash-

Damn it, I came into this thread thinking it was about break dancing.

I just put the FM IC stuff back in and fired it up. Boost reads 20 vac and LC1 is all over the place....if its right I am in major need of a re-tune....:bang:

Turbo timer still doesn't work, only reads 14.1 - 14.2 volts. I can't get it to do a god damn thing but volts. I'm gonna play with the wires but if I cant get it to work....I'm gonna just sell it. I just like having it because if I'm burnt I'll forget to let it idle. Its a good baby safety.

I can now officially put on a FM intercooler setup in under 10 minutes....while break dancing between steps. Try that nucca :noob:

Vash-

You are not going to want to run that LC1 gauge power from the cigarette lighter. run it from the same power source as your controller. Same for the ground. The gauge reads a voltage from the controller. That means that if you have a slightly different voltage coming in, or a slightly different grounding scheme, it is going to misinterpret the voltage coming in and give you a reading thats slightly off.

Building a new circuit for all the add ons is generally better than just tapping into every available power source and is a cleaner install. Wiring in a miata is fun, half the time your upside down trying to grow another elbow.
I had alot of shit to wire up, So it was alot easier to just build a new harness for all the stuff than trying to run shit every which way and try to remember where it all went for future reference.

I re-wired the LC1 and DB1 gauge together. I have their grounds, as well as the Defi ground all going to the ECU ground on the engine.

I'm just trying to understand this I guess; is it ok to steal power from the cig lighter as is? Or do I need to go get some in-line fuses? My turbo timer was soldered into the ign harness and the Greddy boost gauge was simply pushed into the fuse spots. These both worked well for 4 years, never blew anything, etc.

I just want to try and finish up these wires today. Right now everything comes on when it should, I got the turbo timer working properly, everything seems fine. Pulling enough power for the turbo timer, LC1, DB1 gauge, and Defi gauge.....that's not that much right?

I fail at electronics by the way....but it is a cool learning experience. I'm waiting for my friend to get here so I can hook up her laptop and poke around with my Emanage.

Vash-

One tip based on my experience. Wire the LC-1 so it is connected to a source that is switched on with the key, but not on while cranking. Apparently the voltage drop can mess with the electronics so it is best to have it not connected during cranking.

My symptoms are that occasionally the AFR dash gauge (also connected to MS) will start reading 1-1.5 points high on the AFR without changing anything on the tuning. When it happens, if I switch the engine off, then switch it on again without cranking (like when coasting) it will go back to reading normally.

I talked to Innovate Motorsports about this today and am going to change the wiring tonight so that the LC-1 power is not on while cranking. Right now it is wired to a source that is hot during cranking, same source as the MS. obviously the MS power has to be hot during cranking.

At least when the AFR reads incorrectly, so far, it reads lean and not rich. Basing megalogviewer VE tuning off of a false rich signal could result in a very bad day.

I'm assuming holding a testlight to the wire I'm spliced to while cranking the engine over will give me my answer? Right now I am taking power from something on the ign harness.

Vash-

Yep. Either that or look at the wiring diagram and figure where to tap it off of the fuse panel. I use the add-a-circuit thingie, works great.

When I was getting more wire I bought some random things. Is the add-a-circuit like a blank fuse with a wire coming off of it? If so I got one of them. :)But I wasn't sure really what to do with it, so I went with the solder. lol

I assume you pop the blank in with a fuse right? I'm sure this is easy shit, I was always so scared of wires. Now I'm not, but I still don't know 100% what I'm doing.

Vash-

Yeah that is it. Plug it into one of the fuse spots on your panel. Pick one that is not on during cranking. The original fuse goes in one spot on the add a circuit, the fuse for your LC-1 goes in the other (the one by the wire). Done.

I just googled add-a-circuit, mine is outside amongst all my tools and crap. I didn't take a good look at it, but now I see what your talking about. It plugs into where the old fuse did, then has 2 spots for fuses, one for the one you just took out, and the other for what you are adding. lol....I'm an idiot. :bang:

So, would it be safe to say that I could do everything together, or is that pulling too much from one place? I don't understand what a gauge pulls powerwise, and what that = in amps for the fuse I should use.

Vash-

I doubt they pull enough extra to even worry about. Heck i've done so many hack jobs when i was young and didn't know anything that i'm amazed none of them catched on fire. Now i'm just too damn picky.

FWIW I changed the power source to the LC-1 this evening. I used an add a circuit to tap into the radio circuit on the fuse panel. The radio is not on during cranking. Since the error I saw was intermittent it will take a couple of weeks to see if this works and that it is gone completely.

I don't have power windows, so I used the power window plug under the console. I just used some blade connectors and plugged them in.

I fucked with all the wires today and finished everything.!! :) It was pretty relaxing though doing everything. LC1, DB1 gauge, Defi boost gauge, and turbo timer all in and working. I also drilled my holes for the LC1 calibration LED and button and put them in.

I ran the wire for the LC1 to the MS already. And I have the cable for the laptop back by the passenger seat. And took the time to wrap everything and zip tie it neatly under the dash. My feet always used to hit shit.....never again. :)

Vash-