Help 3hids 1 works 2 won't

See bold responses in quote...

 

Thanks man that makes way more sense now! One more question, does or should the ground wire that grounds the relay be same size as battery to relay? I would now assume yes cuz of the "water hose" example but I'm barely starting to get this

 

U beat me to it thanks man! Gonna tackle this after glamis, I'll report back!

 

No. Remember that 85 and 86 (which is relay-gound and relay-switch) are independent of your other wiring on pins 87 and 30. The "coil" or "magnet" in the relay which is energized when 85 and 86 are powered up only require a very very small amount of current to work. So they can be small 16g wire thats fine. As long as whatever wires connect to 85 and 86 are the same size, then your fine.

Pin 30 is what is the major input from your battery which powers up all your lights. This is the big daddy wire that needs to be beefed up in order to compensate for being split into 3 other wires.

Get it?

 

Got it!! U da man much appreciated! Seriously! +1million for ya

 

Anthony to the rescue!

 

Oh and if this power wire upgrade does not work, then let me know and Ill gladly tell you what is the next step to trouble shooting this setup. There is only 1 other possibility which may be causing your failure, but if that were happening, your relay would be fired already. So since the relay works, im sure upgrading the wire will solve your problem though. Good Luck, and glad I could help!

 

I freaking love this electrical stuff and not to sound cocky but Im pretty freaking good at it. I enjoy helping others. You know those people who seem to learn easily and understand something that is very confusing to others, its because they enjoy doing it, so what they learn is retained well. This is why school is stupid. I am 2 classes form graduating college and I dont remember a dam thing from any class other than the ones for my major. Its because I dont give a crap about rocks, the earth, the stars and ocean, math, the government and political structure, history, and all that crap, but I do care about becoming a cop, so all my criminal justice classes stick like glue!

Same with the electrical stuff. It all started when I got a job at best buy during high school as an installer. I enjoyed it, but didnt understand it yet. Had work buy me a $50 book (MECP). I took it home and read it front to back about 3 times, took a test, passed, got certified, put my new found knowledge to ahnds on practice which I loved, learned alot, moved up to a n actual legit stereo shop instead a retail chain, learned more advanced work, and I pretty much taught my self everything I know about 12v electrical. Its amazing what you learn and can retain when you are passionate about something.

If I didnt want to be a cop so bad and hadnt dedicated the past 6 years of my life to becoming an officer, I would get into electrical and/or sound design. Something like the people who designed all the lights, wiring, programming, and sound system for that "World of Color" show at Disneyland... DAM! I would freain love to do that stuff!! Or design a system for a stadium like staples center or a concert stage. Amazing stuff. BTW, if you have ever seen world of color in person, you would understand how incredibly intense and advanced work has to go into that.

Anyways, RANT OVER

ENJOY GLAMIS!!!!! And your lights lol Time for bed

 

Uhhhh do I have to put a fuse on wire from battery to relay?

 

Yes absolutely!

 

Use a 20amp. That will easily cover the power from these. If it blows, it'll do it on initial startup when there is an amperage spike. If that happens try a 25, then 30. But do not exceed 40. Honestly I think 20 will be perfect though

 

I just ran and got a 30 in line fuse....thanks

 

Ok so I get same size, so don't laugh but if the 12g is "Y"ed from single to three will the 14g grounds be ok if each of the three lights has their own ground wire? Or "same size" no matter....

 

I would say the 14g will work since you have to consider that your splitting the 12 into 3 so now its considerably less current per wire. I'm sure it'll work fine now, but if you Start getting flickering or one or more lights doesn't always light, maybe upgrade grounds. Can't hurt.

 

I can't tell you how many issues I've seen due to bad grounds when it comes to electrical.

 

Very true. To clarify my previous post, I would recommend you upgrade the grounds to 12g at some point, but if they work fine after upgrading that power wire, then it won't necessarily hurt them to use it as is.

 

The 16ga is fine for the switch to relay and the relay to ground (pins 85 and 86), but it's nowhere near enough for the startup current on the HIDs.

It's really not even adequate for the continuous draw from three 55w lights.

Upgrade the battery-fuse-relay link to 10ga and you should see an improvement.

 

Yeah, I told him 12 since he already had 12g wire to just use that. I think 10 is a little excessive, no? This is IASCA's Recommended Wire Gauge Size Chart as per the MECP Handbook:



His lights are 55w each for a total of 165w running off a 12v system equals about 13.75 amps of current being drawn in total by the battery -> fuse -> relay wire. Assuming that wire is no more than 4' long, that would require only a 14g wire to run continuous current.

The problem is that during initial start-up of HID ballasts, the amperage will spike to about 10amps per ballast on average, which would create a total draw of around 30amps on that wire for the first 3-5 seconds. Up to 35amps for 4' shows 12g wire is recommended. 10g is a very large wire, and I think he would only need 10g if his battery to relay wire was either longer than 4 feet, or if his ballasts draw more than 35amps, but since this is a 40amp max relay, that is unlikely, otherwise the relay would fail first. Also, OP said he used a 30amp fuse, so he cant be drawing more than 30 max, which keeps him in the said 12g wire recommendation.

 

12 is okay for continuous, but like you mentioned earlier, the startup current can be much higher and it could be a problem, particularly with 55w ballasts.

And I was thinking in the 7ft range.
It's surprising how routing wire neatly through the engine compartment will burn up a 20ft roll faster than you can burn a c-note at Vatozone!