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Mikef5000
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 05:32 pm: |
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Your right! I could you the capacitor on the magnet side of the relay instead of the power side! Then a much smaller capacitor could be used, because the magnet doesn't require hardly ANY amperage to hold on. That way the power surge from starting the HID won't be an issue as well. And I don't need it to power for any longer than a second. How about that train of thought Reepi? |
Reepicheep
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 05:41 pm: |
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Jim, I have a schematic with a minimum number of parts. What do you want the trigger voltages to be? And do you have a particular zeener voltage that is easy for you to get? |
Lost_in_ohio
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 05:48 pm: |
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Mike sounds like the timer circuit would be better for you......... I am going to build one, I could build two with no extra effort. |
Oldog
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 06:53 pm: |
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The network guy that gave me the fiberoptic cable pointed out another great use of it. If you have some on the bike, and ever get lost in a remote area (like Antartica) it can be a lifesaver. 1) remove it from the bike. 2) Bury it about a foot deep. 3) ***Quickly*** step away. 4) Within 30 seconds or so, a backhoe operator will appear out of nowhere, and quickly break the cable into two pieces. 5) You can then ask the backhoe operator for directions. Reepi 10 volts should do nicely for the good / no goood system voltage, it will need to withstand higher voltages like when trying to keep up with Ferris } |
Ferris_von_bueller
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 07:07 pm: |
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I wanted to do a light pipe up to the dash for daylight ops so I can see if the lamp is lit or not I'm disappointed to hear this wont work with a generic fiber optic cable. I ordered one off eBay last week for the above mentioned reason. Yer probably going to burn up your harness. The harness shouldnt fry before the fuse blows. That is the whole point of a fuse to protect the wiring. |
Midknyte
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 08:40 pm: |
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That is the whole point of a fuse to protect the wiring. I thought the same thing, especially since the headlight fuse is only 15 amp. Talked it up with an engineer/mechanic buddy. Automotive fuses are slow blow. They'll pop right away on a short, but allow for systems in the car that have short bursts of high current upon startup that level out. |
Corporatemonkey
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 08:58 pm: |
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If I were to do a capacitor, I would only put one on the supply side. The reason for a capacitor would be to make up for a sag in power. As for the actual part, I would look no further than the car audio world. Granted it is not the cheapest solution, but the capacitors for 12v audio amps are quite powerful, and in a nice pre-made package. http://www.crutchfield.com/g_725/Capacitors.html?t p=739 (here is an idea) Mikef, if you have a single headlight, are you using the high beam circuit? Or are you only running the low beam? The reason I ask is if you have not used the high beam, you could cut and splice your HID harness to be controlled only when the high beams are on. By doing this you could actually shut off the HID when you don't want it (start up, parade traffic, etc...) |
Reepicheep
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 09:52 pm: |
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If the power dropped out enough to drop the relay (probably takes about 6 volts to hold), then I don't think the ballast will still be holding, so it kind of defeats the purpose. The timer on the relay wired directly to the battery works really well, and I've never had mine drop out in 15k+ miles, FWIW. |
Reepicheep
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 09:57 pm: |
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quote:I'm disappointed to hear this wont work with a generic fiber optic cable. I ordered one off eBay last week for the above mentioned reason.
No no, it'll work fine. The backhoe operator will be there in less then a minute, I promise. Maybe you will have better luck then I did. I actually messed with this tonight, I cut up a discrete chunk of some sort of barbie flying castle thingy of my daughters (she didn't catch me this time, avoiding an ugly repeat of the green tinker toy accident). It was plastic, and first melted at the same temperature as the hot melt glue, which made things awkward. Then after I did get it set up, it worked lousy. Not sure why, I abandoned the effort. Getting the bundle of fibers (I was using 10) to stay on top of the LED in a useful way is the hard part. |
Oldog
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 12:54 pm: |
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The light pipe was to be placed onfront of the headlight to reflect the light up to me to show that the HID was lit. I have never seen any thing glued to an LED Hey Reeip can you e-mail me the parts list and a diagram? (Message edited by oldog on August 26, 2008) |
Reepicheep
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 04:28 pm: |
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I gotta calculate parts first... and I can't easily scan it here at work. I'll try and shoot you something tonight... |
Ferris_von_bueller
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 04:53 pm: |
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My eBay cable arrived today and it works great. I shined a flashlight into the one end and light came out the other end... It is a 6' DIGITAL AUDIO OPTICAL FIBER OPTIC TOSLINK CABLE. Now, all I need to do is attach it somehow |
Azxb9r
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 05:27 pm: |
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As for the actual part, I would look no further than the car audio world. That was what I had in mind for the capacitor, but the more I think about it, the less I like it. Finding a place to put that giant capacitor would be more trouble than it is worth. I like the system in the OP, but with a second relay added. Power from the first relay would supply power to the coil windings of the second relay, which supplied power to the HID via a direct battery feed. Or the system with a timer. That pretty much solves any problems. |
Mikef5000
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 05:48 pm: |
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Yeah. Timer I think is better. The more I think about having to blip the high beams to turn on the headlights, the more I think I'll completely forget 80% of the time. LOST! PM SENT! |
Midknyte
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 05:49 pm: |
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My eBay cable arrived today a link to the auction page so I can see's what you gots? |
Ferris_von_bueller
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 06:02 pm: |
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http://cgi.ebay.com/2-pk-6-DIGITAL-AUDIO-OPTICAL-F IBER-OPTIC-TOSLINK-CABLE_W0QQitemZ230285093688QQih Z013QQcategoryZ14965QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trk sidZp1742.m153.l1262 |
Midknyte
| Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 10:11 am: |
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Thank. Please post up a thread & pics of how it turns out. |
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