Chaser Electronics hook up

Shawn Camp

EF2
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Messages
102
Location
DFW-Dallas/FortWorth
OK Chasers here's one that's been bugging me for some time

OK how on earth do alot of you guys who chase most of the or all of the season how do all of you hook up your laptop's gps, and other wires and cords to your vehicles because I'm doing something wrong because last season I had multiple problems with it shorting out my Cig lighter and I know I know before any of you say anything YES I was probably using toooo much power and I'm lucky that nothing else worse happend ????? so some serious thoughts and help on this please ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! so that I can get it right this coming season 2010 ?????? OK chasers please speak up so I can hear you all hehehe and speak up LOUD and CLEAR hehehehehehehe. Don't worry about Ham My ham radio hook up is working GREAT !!! it was hooked up right. Also one bit of info my Bearcat Scanner has a Cig plug on the end of it:):):)


Shawn C.

"MyFoxdfw.com" Fox 4-Warn StormTracker
 
How about running a heavy gauge wire directly off the battery instead of using your car's cigarette lighter. You'll want to check the specs on this so you don't set your car on fire, but I believe I used an 8 gauge wire with a 30 amp fuse. I connected that to a Radio Shack power strip that has three car outlets. You can drill through your firewall to run the wire, but I found an unused rubber grommet in the floor of my van and went through there. Remember to install the fuse as close to the battery as you can so that if you burn out the wire it only melts that little piece of wire instead of the entire length where it can catch the car on fire. I grounded to the vehicle's frame, but you might see better results running the ground back to the battery. Car audio forums are a good place to research this topic as they are very knowledgeable.
 
Keep in mind, a lot of the times I do things cheaply rather than "right", but here are some thoughts. I believe my cig lighter has a 15 to 20 amp fuse.... can't imagine drawing more amps than that. When you say "shorting out my Cig lighter".. do you mean blowing the fuse? I ran an inverter, gps, video camera, weather radio, and an amplifier... seems like there was something else... all off of the same power point last year with no fuse problems, used a power strip with three outlets then used a couple of splitters off of there.... yikes! Since then, I have connected my inverter directly to my battery to keep it from shutting down when I start my truck. I can now turn my truck off for 4 or 5 hours, leave everything running and still have plenty of battery to start up and nothing loses power during start up... I do have dual batteries however. I'd have to figure out why your drawing so many amps as to blow your cig lighter fuse... are you using the proper fuse? Of course the right way would be to do what the others said.
 
We don't run off a cig lighter, period. That's a no-no for anything but a single device.

Step one of chaser power adaption....jack into cig lighter
Step two of chaser power adaption....hardware to car battery
Step three of chaser power adaption...install 2nd battery and run off that.

Sooner or later you'll end up at step three. Trust me ;)
 
Tyler Allison said:
We don't run off a cig lighter, period. That's a no-no for anything but a single device.

Step one of chaser power adaption....jack into cig lighter
Step two of chaser power adaption....hardware to car battery
Step three of chaser power adaption...install 2nd battery and run off that.

Sooner or later you'll end up at step three. Trust me ;)
Click to expand...

I'm on Step two...thinking of step three...but Tyler...you forgot one....upgrading the alternator...I guess that is step 2.5...:)
 
The only thing I ever hook up to my cig lighter is my inverter for my laptop. I've never had a problem doing it that way.
 
Too much?

Jason Boggs said:
The only thing I ever hook up to my cig lighter is my inverter for my laptop. I've never had a problem doing it that way.
Click to expand...

This is true. I run a 2 meter radio directly to the battery. My laptop and camera battery charger thru my 400 watt Black & Decker power inverter in the ciggie lighter.

I run light; maybe more that a lot of others do. Stock battery and alternator. Sometimes I run my cell phone antenna amp as well. Never popped a fuse; never overloaded anything. Essentials are enough to chase with - IMO. I could easily carry two more people - but don't. Because they would want to bring too much!!!
:D;):)
 
I run everything directly off the battery.
I have installed 2 relays, one for my 400 watt power inverter, which powers my laptop, phone charger, video camera charger, and another for my Icom 2720 all using 12 gauge wire.
my new radio Motorola Syntor x9000, uses 8 gauge wire for the main unit directly to the battery, and 2-18 gauge wires from the control head to the accessory of the vehicle to turn the radio on and off when you start our shut off your engine. Saves you from finding your battery dead when you need to move. Oh yea, I have a 900 amp battery, and a 140 AMP alternator.
 
My laptop goes through the cig lighter or "Power point in modern terms". I purchased the DC car/plane adapter so I don't have to run an inverter for it. Much easier setup. My radio, inverter/cameras/chargers, etc. all run off of a fused wire run from the battery to the back of the vehicle.
 
I run 8 ga. main power leads (fused) from the battery in to the area behind the lower dash center console. There it is plugged into an Anderson Powerpole 3 port distribution box (fused). All power connections from there are also Anderson Powerpole for easy interoperability. Each lead has its own switched, fused relay on a main switch panel that feeds the laptop power supply, the in-car CCTV system and an aux. cig. lighter outlet. I use the aux. to power a small, goose neck map light that illuminates the area in the lower center dash panel where the switch panel and radio controls live.
Another lead bypasses the power dist. box and goes directly to a 400 watt power inverter that I occasionally use to power a dash cam and to charge phones, handheld radios, stinger flashlight, etc. The inverter also has a usb power port that I have yet to need.
Yet another fused inline branch powers a dual band ham rig w/ two aux power pole connects for future use. Three NMO perm. mounts terminate at the lower center console also. One for the ham rig, one for data and a capped, extra for future use.
The vehicle came with a cigarette lighter, a power plug and another power plug in the rear cargo area. I use none of them. So far this set up has worked well and hasn't given me any problems.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had a similar problem last year, running everything off the cigarette lighter and have finally invested in a second battery. I got a deep cycle marine battery that I'm going to mount in the trunk and then I'm going to run wire up to the front of the vehicle to provide power to my laptop, cell phone charger, inverter, cell phone booster, and ham radio. I've yet to complete the full install but I think it is going to be a tremendous help!
 
Let me see.....

Qaud band radio direct
CB direct
Stereo with GPS direct
Laptop front aux plug
Second laptop display rear auxiliary plug
Second GPS cigarette plug
Inverter direct
Camcorder inverter
Handheld scanner inverter

I have a high output alternator and secondary battery but really don't need it except for the fact that I have a lot of off-road equipment.
 
Skip Talbot said:
I grounded to the vehicle's frame, but you might see better results running the ground back to the battery.
Click to expand...

You sound like you have the same setup as me. I run 4 gauge from the battery to a fuse panel in the car. There is a 40amp fuse near the battery. The inside fuse panel has 6 spots available, but I only use a few of those. I put 10amp fuses for those.
I do ground to the frame, but I also run a 4 gauge ground from the battery to the frame as well, just for extra measure.
 
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