TeamD Adventures

So now I have my car and all these things to wire up. What are the challenges?

• Bring power direct from the battery into the car
• Split said power between the radio and the Timewise
• Run power back to the radio in the trunk
• Protect everything with adequate fuses
• Try not to catch anything on fire

For the power leads, I chose 12 gauge paired stranded wire. It’s heavy enough to carry the radio load, light enough to run around without too much hassle, and since the red and black are paired together, it’s easy to manage. I struggled with how to split the power between the two devices. I could run two separate lines from the battery but that seemed silly. I could do some sort of splicing/crimping/soldering joint. I could rely on my old friend the wire nut. None of these, however, seemed over-engineered enough for me. After careful and random searching I stumbled upon the beautiful and amazing Blue Sea 5025. Blue Sea make marine electrical products and I have come to believe that your local marine supply shop should be your primary source for automotive electrical parts. The 5025 fits all my needs. It distributes power to up to 6 different points, each one independently fused. Also, the fuse block itself has a plastic cover that protects all the connections and should cut down and in-car fires. While I will only be using 2/6 of it’s connectors, I don’t think I have overshot the mark. Who knows what else I may want to connect to it in future. While at my local marine supply shop, I picked up some amazing little ring terminals to connect the wire to both the battery and to the fuse block. I grabbed a bit more 12 gauge wire and some power poles and ran the power lines down behind the a-pillar cover and to the now-unused aux power cable that used to power Marvin’s radio. This way the light shuts off when the car shuts off so I don’t have to worry about the map light killing the battery. What about the computer and radio killing the battery? The computer draws almost nothing and the radio has a programmable shutoff timer so they’re no problem. This little hard-switched map light could cause problems on a non-switched circuit but using the aux line kills two birds with one stone. Elegance in action.