Ignition wire

[Wear Sunscreen]

A little help please ,as a complete dumbo on vehicle wiring

need to wire a zig unit thingy up, but need a direct wire to the ignition, where is the best place to pick this connection up.

Many thanks

[Aidan]

what year van ?

[DiscoDave]

by ignition wire do you mean a wire which will become live when the engine is running? ie for a split charge?

[Wear Sunscreen]

Aiden/Dave, the van is 1984, and yes a wire that becomes live when the engine is running.

Thanks for your help (I hope)

[Wear Sunscreen]

Think I have sussed it! Maybe someone can just confirm it. All I have to do is take a wire from my fuse box that is only live when engine running ie. the horn, which will be fuse number 12.

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

just to add my two-penny-worth. If you want a live *only* when the engine is running then you need to do what Dave is suggesting and find the blue alternator wire which runs from the dash and is earthed through the alternator when the engine is not running. This way it will only be live when the alternator is charging. See this for example:

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ca ... it_charger

If you really want to do it with ignition live (perhaps you don't have a leisure battery?), then there are spade connections behind the fuse box which connect to the X-relay and battery live and ignition live. I have a later van, so I'm not sure about yours but if you unscrew the fuse box and look behind and get a multimeter out you can tell quickly which is which. Put a fuse inline from there to the zig unit.

I wouldn't hook it up to the horn anyway, as one day you'll forget, or sell the van, and won't know why the horn keeps blowing the fuse when in fact your zig unit is shorting!

Hope this helps a bit

Ewen

[ewenmaclean]

Hello again,

I just read on another post of yours that you're trying to install a PC100? Is this why you need to know where this wire comes from? If it's any help I had a look here:

http://www.marcleleisure.co.uk/store/pd ... rcuits.pdf

and had a look at the wiring diagram. I *think* but I'm not sure that if you're trying to find a key for the big that says "+ Starting" or "Engine Starting" in the text, that it means the engine is running. In which case you want the blue wire to the Alternator D+ as I mentioned before.

Seems like quite a sophisticated device you have there

Ewen

[Wear Sunscreen]

Ewan

Thanks for your reply, you may have solved another slight problem. Having connected the PC100 up it appears that the system is not charging my batteries. I have connected a wire from the fuse box (live when engine started) to the unit but have not connected anything to the D+ as I had no idea what it was! Is it possible for you to maybe explain a little further.

As a footnote, I will learn eventually

Dave

[ewenmaclean]

Hello Dave,


this is not the world's most clear manual if you ask me, so I wouldn't blame yourself for not completely understanding! From the wiring diagram on page 32 you can see that the key switch control various circuits differently. I am certain this is supposed to be the blue alternator wire, connected at pin 11 of the 14-pin connector to the dashboard - not an ignition feed, or from the horn or anything like that. This controls whether the leisure battery powers things, or whether both batteries are used in parallel - it has an inbuilt voltmeter too to cleverly control the charging via the alternator - it doesn't allow the main battery to be used for anything unless the engine is running and the alternator charging. If you look at the diagram, the points where the wires cross with a circle are where they are joined, and where they don't they are separate - hence the relay for the awning light, meaning that if the engine is running this goes off, and it if isn't it's control by the leisure battery.

What I *think* is going on is that the D+ (and its D+ fuse) are "simulated" D+ outputs - described on page 14. They apparently control an electric step, and retract and antenna and stuff like that (I don't know what an AES fridge is, but that too ) - in other words if there's other stuff you have that you only want to run when the engine is running, for example if it takes a lot of power like a fridge, then you can use this as your feed for those things. If you don't have any other things you want to power then I'd forget about this output.

Hope this helps a bit - I notice 20 pages are missing from the pdf I have - perhaps they clarified a bit more!

Ewen

[Wear Sunscreen]

Ewen

Many thanks for such a detailed reply, hopefully what you say is correct. As soon as I next get a chance I will use the blue alternator wire as you suggest. I agree that the manual is not particularly good, assume it is down to the translation from Italian to English, and no, there are no pages missing, got the manual in front of me and it is as you have seen it.

Once again many thanks for your help and I will keep you posted on the result.

[ewenmaclean]

Hello again Dave,

could you maybe describe the conditions under which it isn't charging? When the van is running it should be charging the main battery in any case - is it when it's running that the leisure battery isn't charging? Or is it when it's plugged into a mains feed? You can check the main battery charging by measuring the voltage across the battery terminals when it's running - should be about 14.4V.

Ewen

[Wear Sunscreen]

Ewen

I will check as you have said, the reason I feel it may not be charging is that as in the manual page 11, no. 8 should be showing that batteries are recharging, but it is not.

Dave

[ewenmaclean]

Hi Dave,

ok - I see what you mean. Well I somewhat suspect you might have 0V going to that module called "Electronic Battery Separator" - which would definitely give you the behaviour you are talking about.... Good idea to check the alternator anyway

I'm sure you've wired everything else up right but worth checking your earthing points too I suppose.....

I notice that the description of the electronic battery separator on page 16 says it turns on when the alternator is "under 13.3V", which has to be rubbish. It must mean it switches on when it's over 13.3V - so worth checking the voltage over the teminals is definitely over 13.3 when the engine's running (rev it up a bit in case the brushes are a bit worn )

Good luck with it - hope you crack it soon.

Ewen

(a wee bit jealous of the device - I've got one of those rubbish old Zig things that might as well be four switches and an led from maplin )

[Wear Sunscreen]

Ewen

Success, as you said, the blue wire from alternator was the one. As it stands at the moment everything now appears to be working.

Thanks for all your help

Dave