Page 13 – Infinitybox

Split Second Corvette

April 18, 2017/in Cars /by admin

There were a lot of great Corvettes at this year’s Autorama in Detroit. A good number of them were wired with our Infinitybox system. The Split Second built by Eddie’s Rod & Custom is a great example. They built a stunning 1963 Corvette into a powerful Pro-Touring Machine.

The team at Eddie’s took an unconventional approach to the engine for this car. This highly modified C2 is powered by a well-dressed 327 small-block. This unique touch hearkens back to the car’s past but gives it the power needed to perform.

They wired the car with our 20-Circuit Kit, inMOTION, inLINK and inRESERVE. They added inVIRONMENT for control of their Vintage Air. An iPad mounted in their dash is the command center for the car. All of the features are controlled from the iPad using our inTOUCH NET.

Corvette Online did a great article on this car and three of the other Corvettes that stood out at the 2016 Autorama in Detroit.

You can learn more about Eddie’s Rod & Custom at their website. It is www.eddiesrodandcustom.com.

Congratulations to Eddie and his team for building a great car. We’re proud to be a part of it.

Click here to contact our team to learn more about how you can get the most modern electrical features in your resto-mod, hot rod or Pro-Touring car.

Picture of the Gen-IV Heating & A/C Unit from Vintage Air

Vintage Air Wiring

April 17, 2017/in Wiring /by admin

Here’s a quick follow up blog post to the one that we just did on trinary switches for air-condition systems. A lot of guys want to know how they wire power to their Gen-IV heating & air-conditioning system from Vintage Air. This post is going to his the basics about Vintage Air wiring with our Infinitybox system.

As with any electronic system that you’re going to install in your car, carefully read and thoroughly understand the instructions before you start. Most of our customers are using the GEN-IV system from Vintage Air. You can download a quick electrical diagram for this system by clicking this link.

There are two power connections that you need to make for the GEN-IV. The first is a connection directly to the battery for constant +12-volts. This is the large-gauge red wire in their harness. It has a circuit breaker in-line to protect the wire from overloads. Per their instructions, they recommend that this red power feed gets connected directly to the battery to minimize any voltage drop.

The second connection is for the ignition power for the system. On most of their systems, this is a violet wire in their harness. This ignition feed wire gets connected to the ignition output on your POWERCELL. When the ignition is on, this wire has to have battery voltage on it to turn on the Vintage Air GEN-IV. The majority of the current required to operate the GEN-IV is coming from the direct connection to the battery. This ignition trigger wire requires very little current and can be spliced into the ignition output on the POWERCELL directly. You do not need to add a relay for this.

You can splice this violet wire directly into the POWERCELL output wire. You can also create a terminal block for your switched ignition feeds. The best option it to use our Splice Saver Kit to create a secure and sealed ignition bus.

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Lastly, you need to make sure that you have the grounds properly connected for the Vintage Air harness. In their wiring diagrams, these are the white wires.

These instructions are applicable for any version of the Infinitybox system, whether or not you’re using inTOUCH NET or inVIRONMENT.

Click here to contact our technical support team with any questions.

Trinary Switch

April 10, 2017/in Wiring /by admin

Okay guys, we get asked this question a lot. How do you wire a trinary switch on a Vintage Air Gen-IV with the Infinitybox system? It is a good question. We’re packing a lot into this blog post so hang on. This post is only going to cover wiring the cooling fan part of the trinary switch. The rest of the wiring is going to follow the directions given to you with the Vintage Air Kit. That being said, you must carefully read and understand all of the installation instructions that came with your heating & air-conditioning kit.

Before we get too far, it is important to understand what a trinary switch does. It is a safety switch for air-conditioning systems. It is a three-function switch (tri-nary). It automatically shuts off the power to the air-conditioning clutch if the refrigerant pressure gets too high or too low. It will also automatically turn on the engine cooling fan when the compressor is running. The Vintage Air guys have a great video featuring Rick Love talking specifics about Trinary Switches. You can see that here.

You can see a more detailed picture of the Vintage Air wiring diagram in the picture below.

Your Infinitybox system is going to control your cooling fan. There is a MASTERCELL input that connects to a thermostatic switch on your engine. When the coolant temperature exceeds a set point (usually around 180 F), this temperature switch closes and grounds the MASTERCELL input for the cooling fan. When this happens, the MASTERCELL sends a command to the front POWERCELL to turn on the cooling fan. We’ve blogged about controlling fans before. This link will take you to this blog post.

When you’re installing air-conditioning in a car, you want the cooling fan to turn on under two conditions. First, when the coolant temperature exceeds the set point of the thermostatic switch. Second, you want the cooling fan to turn on when the A/C clutch is running. Running the air-conditioning compressor increases the load on the engine. Also, you have to make sure that you have good air flow through the condenser to make sure that the refrigerant system is working efficiently and safely.

Take a close look at the wiring diagram from Vintage Air. The part of the diagram that we’re going to focus on only relates to the cooling fan wiring. You are going to wire the A/C thermostat through one set of contacts on the trinary switch to the A/C clutch. The Infinitybox system won’t get in the middle of this part of the circuit. If the refrigerant pressure gets too high or too low, it will disconnect power to the A/C clutch for safety.

The fan part of the circuit is what we are discussing. There are a pair of blue wires on the trinary switch. These are the contacts for the cooling fan. One of the blue wires connects to ground. Either of the blue wires will work for this ground connection. In the Vintage Air diagram, you will see that the blue wire on the trinary switch is used to ground switch the coil of the cooling fan relay. When the pressure of the refrigerant in the system exceeds the set point of the trinary switch it will close its contacts and connect the fan trigger to ground.

With your Infinitybox system, there are no relays. The MASTERCELL is your trigger and the POWERCELL turns on the power to the fan. The following diagram will show you how to wire the fan contacts of the trinary switch to the MASTERCELL input for the cooling fan.

Picture of wiring diagram showing how to wire a trinary switch into the cooling fan circuit with the Infinitybox system

You will note that the trinary switch is wired in parallel with the thermostatic switch installed on the engine. That way the cooling fan will turn on if either the coolant temperature is high or if the A/C compressor is running. You can splice the trinary wire anywhere into the MASTERCELL cooling fan input wire. You can splice these wires together at the MASTERCELL connector. You can splice the two wires together in the connector going onto the thermostatic switch. Electrically, they just need to be wired in parallel.

You can download a PDF copy of this wiring diagram by clicking this link. Please contact our technical support team if you have any questions about wiring your cooling fan trigger into your trinary switch.

Updated 818 Manual

April 6, 2017/in Wiring /by admin

Guys have been wiring their Factory Five cars since we started this business over 8 years ago. Hundreds of our kits have been used in the MK4 Roadster, the ’33 Hot Rod, the Type 65 Coupe and the GTM Supercar. When Factory Five developed their new 818 a few years ago, we worked with their beta builders to create a configuration of our 20-Circuit Kit to help guys wire this car too. In addition to a configuration specific to this car, we created a detailed set of instructions showing you how to wire all of the Subaru switches directly to our MASTERCELL inputs. We just released an updated 818 manual based on recent customer feedback.

The original configuration for the 818 was set up exclusively for 1-filament brake lights. This means that the turn signal bulbs in the rear of the car worked together as the brake lights. When you flipped on the left turn signal, the output for the left turn signal would flash. Same for the right. If you stepped on the brake pedal, both the left and right turn signals on the rear POWERCELL would come on together for the brake lights. If you have a turn signal on when you stepped on the brake pedal, that turn signal would override the brake lights on that side of the car. The configuration was set up to match the tail lights that customers got in their kits from Factory Five.

Guys have wanted more flexibility with the tail lights that they were using on the back of the 818. In some cases, they were using clusters that had separate bulbs for the brake lights. We call this multi-filament turn signals. With this update, there is a dedicated brake light output on the rear POWERCELL that can be used for these light clusters. You simply pick a different input to the MASTERCELL for the brake pedal switch. All of this is detailed in the updated 818 manual.

If you want to learn more about the differences between single and multi-filament turn signals, you can read this blog post.

You can download the updated 818 manual by clicking this link.

We also update the configuration sheets for the 818 kit. There are two versions: you can download the standard version by clicking here or you can download the version set up for the optional inRESERVE solenoid by clicking here.

If you have any questions about the updated 818 manual or any parts of our Infinitybox system, click here to contact our technical support team.

Lucas Switch

March 24, 2017/in Wiring /by admin

There are very few companies in the car world that get the ribbing of Lucas Industries. They are the butt of many an old car guy’s jokes about reliably, safety and burning. The company was founded in the 1860’s in the UK and produced electrical components for over 100 years for all of the popular British brands. These include MG, Austin, Cooper, Jaguar and even the ubiquitous Cobras built by Shelby. It is not uncommon to hear of them referred to as “Lucifer” because of their alleged history of causing vehicle fires. One of the benefits of our Infinitybox system is that you can use practically any switch to control things in your car. This includes a period correct Lucas switch in your restoration of a MG or a Cobra replica build. Read below how to connect the Lucas 31788 headlight switch into the inputs on your Infinitybox MASTERCELL.

Our Infinitybox system has been used to wire some of the most advanced resto-mods and Pro-Touring builds. At the same time, our customers use our system in a lot of classic restorations and component car builds. The most popular component car that we see from our customers is the MK4 Roadster from Factory Five. This is a great replica of the Cobra made famous by Carroll Shelby. A lot of guys want to build this car and customize it to make it unique to them. Other guys want to build it period correct to look like the original Cobras but with all modern systems under the skin.

We got a question this week from one of our customers building a Factory Five Cobra. He wants to use the original headlight switch from Lucas in the car and wanted to know how to wire it to the MASTERCELL inputs. He’s using the Lucas 31788 switch. That’s an easy thing to do.

One of the advantages of our system is that it takes very little current to turn on a MASTERCELL input. The actual amount is less than 1 milli-amp. (0.001 Amperes). This means that you don’t have to use high-current switches to turn your lights, fans, ignition or starter solenoid on or off. The high-current part of the circuit is managed in the POWERCELL. A lot of the alleged issues that Lucas had over the years came from too much current being pushed through their switches. Our MASTERCELL completely eliminates that.

This diagram shows you the specifics on how to wire the MASTERCELL inputs for parking lights and head lights to the Lucas switch.

Picture of Infinitybox wiring diagram showing how to control headlights and parking lights from a Lucas Switch

Terminal 4 on the switch needs to get connected to ground. If you understand how the switch works, this may seem counter-intuitive, just trust us. You can either connect this terminal directly to the chassis or use one of the black ground wires that is included in the MASTERCELL inputs harness. Using one of the dedicated ground wires is our preferred way of wiring these kinds of switches.

From there, connect the MASTERCELL input for the parking lights to terminal 7 and the input for the head lights to terminal 8. The switch is set up internally so that the parking lights will stay connected when the switch is in the headlight position.

Check the specific configuration sheet that came with your kit for the exact wire colors and connector locations for these inputs. Different configurations may have different wire colors and connector locations.

You can read these blog posts to get more details about wiring the head lights and parking lights to the POWERCELL outputs.

That’s all you need to do to wire your headlights and parking lights to this Lucas switch. When you turn on the parking lights or the headlights, the MASTERCELL will see the switch turn on and send the appropriate commands to the front & rear POWERCELLs to manage the lights.

You can download a PDF copy of this wiring diagram by clicking this link. If you have any other specific technical questions, you can contact one of our technical support engineers by clicking this link.

Digital Guard Dawg iKEY

March 6, 2017/1 Comment/in Wiring /by admin

We always say that our Infinitybox system plays nicely with any other piece of automotive electronics. We have our own remote keyless entry system with inLINK and our one-button start feature is built into all of our 10 and 20-Circuit Kits. Some of our customers like to use push-button start feature and Passive Key Less Entry (PKE) system manufactured by other companies. This post will go through the details of connecting the Digital Guard Dawg iKEY system to the Infinitybox system.

Before we go any further, you must thoroughly read and completely understand the manuals that come with your Digital Guard Dawg iKEY system. In the case of this system, there are two manuals. One for the push-button start module and one for the PKE module. This blog post is only going to describe how to connect the wires that are relevant to the Infinitybox system. Carefully follow the instructions for all of the other connections to their harnesses including power and ground.

By connecting the Digital Guard Dawg iKEY to the Infinitybox system, you get all of the advantages of Infinitybox plus the PKE features of the iKEY system. The iKEY system has several outputs that are +12 volts and ground switched. The Infinitybox MASTERCELLs work on ground signals. You will need to use our inVERT Mini‘s to connect the +12 volt outputs to the MASTERCELL inputs. Failure to do so will damage the inputs on the MASTERCELL and will void your warranty. Also, you must use a diode to isolate the ground outputs on the Digital Guard Dawg iKEY from the MASTERCELL inputs. Failure to do this could result in damage to the inputs and will void your warranty. You can use a 1N4001 diode easily sourced from any electronics store. Also note that the orientation of the diode is critical. Please pay attention to this in the wiring diagrams.

Please note that the wire colors and connector locations shown in the following diagrams may not match your system exactly. We have several different configurations. Please reference the configuration sheet that came with your kit for the exact wire colors and connector locations.

The following diagram shows you how to connect the Push-Button Start module to the MASTERCELL inputs and POWERCELL outputs of your Infinitybox system.

Picture of the wiring diagram showing the Digital Guard Dawg Push Button Start Wiring with the Infinitybox System

Here are the details:

Digital Guard Dawg has a dedicated harness with Negative Ignition Outputs designed to work with our Infinitybox system. You can use this harness to connect directly to the MASTERCELL inputs for the Ignition, Starter and Accessory. The yellow wire in their harness connects to your starter input. The green wire connects to your ignition input and their white wire connects to your accessory input.
Connect the Black wire from the accessory harness to the neutral safety or clutch interlock switch. This is the same switch used for the neutral safety input going to the MASTERCELL. Be sure to wire in the diode to isolate the MASTERCELL input from the Push-Button Start module.
Tap off of the brake light output on your rear POWERCELL and connect that to the Brown wire on your accessory harness.

This diagram will show you how to wire the PKE module to the Infinitybox system.

Picture of the wiring diagram showing the Digital Guard Dawg PKE Wiring with the Infinitybox System

Here are the details.

Connect the Brown wire on the power harness through a diode to an optional input for a trunk popper. Not all of our systems may be set up for this feature. Your system may need to be updated to add this.
Connect one of the Grey wires from the power harness to an inVERT Mini. Tap into the MASTERCELL input for the parking light and connect that to the MASTERCELL side of the inVERT Mini.
Connect the Green and Blue wires from the power harness to the optional inputs for door lock and unlock. You need to have inMOTION for this option to work. The MASTERCELL inputs must be isolated from the PKE module by diodes as shown in the drawing.
Connect the Purple wire from the power harness to your MASTERCELL input for the horn through a diode.
Connect the Green wire from the accessory harness to the pin switches on your doors. This is the same switch used for the interior lights input going to the MASTERCELL. Be sure to wire in the diode to isolate the MASTERCELL input from the Push-Button Start module.
Tap off of the brake light output on your rear POWERCELL and connect that to the Brown wire on your accessory harness.

You can download a PDF version of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

If you follow these instructions, you can get the full functions of the Digital Guard Dawg iKEY system. You can pop your trunk and control your door locks from their system. You get PKE functionality from their remotes. You get their one-button start feature.

Click on this link to contact our technical support team with additional questions about connecting your Digital Guard Dawg iKEY system to our Infinitybox system.

Split Ray

March 2, 2017/in Cars /by admin

Infinitybox is proud to announce that Scott Roth and his team at The Auto Shoppe VT made it to the Great 8 with their Split Ray 1966 Corvette at the 2017 Detroit Autorama. Our system has wired some amazing cars but the craftsmanship, quality and attention to detail in this car make it one of a kind.

Engine compartment of the Split Ray Corvette wired with Infinitybox

The Don Ridler Memorial Award is given to the builder who shows creativity, engineering and quality workmanship. Any car that makes it to the Great 8 of the Ridler is the best of the best. Scott and his team have accomplished something remarkable in their first attempt at the Ridler. You can see a great video interview with Scott going through the details of the car below.

The car has many unique features. Most significantly, the car was widened by 6 3/8 inches. This was done to make it more comfortable and accessible. The Auto Shoppe was able to accomplish this and keep all of the proportions of the car just right. The finished product has a tougher and meaner stance.

1966 Corvette Split Ray Wired with Infinitybox System

Cutting and widening the car lead to the name of Split Ray. They created a custom logo for this and it shows everywhere in the car. Even the Corvette badges were modified to show the name and the logo.

1966 Corvette Split Ray Rear Logo

The paint is flawless. The interior rivals that of any Italian super car. You feel it when the engine roars to life. No words can adequately describe what they did with this car.

Interior of 1966 Split Ray Corvette wired with Infinitybox

Scott and his team wired the car with our Infinitybox system. He knew that he wanted to make the car stand out in every way. Our system helped him do this electrically. The foundation is a 20-Circuit Kit. He added two inMOTION cells to control the windows and both power seats. He has inLINK for control from a key fob and inRESERVE to monitor and protect his batteries. He added inVIRONMENT to control his Vintage Air Gen-IV heating and air-conditioning system. He runs everything through our inTOUCH NET. Everything in the car can be controlled through his iPhone or the Kenwood DNN992 in the dash.

Congratulations to Scott Roth and his team. We are proud to be a part of this build!

Picture of the Infinitybox 20-Circuit Kit

Download the New Diagnostic & Troubleshooting Document

February 3, 2017/in Wiring /by admin

One of the most powerful features of our Infinitybox system is the diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities that it has. You can point to exactly where problems are in your electrical system with a few presses of buttons on your MASTERCELL and a glance at the LED indicators on the POWERCELL. No scanners, tools or laptops are necessary. We just published a new diagnostic and troubleshooting document in the Resources section of our website.

This new diagnostic and troubleshooting document covers all these built-in tools. Each is shown with pictures and examples to show you what to look for on your MASTERCELL inSIGHT screen and the POWERCELL output indicator lights.

This new diagnostic and troubleshooting document shows covers these topics:

The basics of Infinitybox diagnostics
How to check the CAN cables
How to check your switches
How to check your outputs
How to read the built-in Error Log
How to use the POWERCELL over ride headers

You can get to this new Diagnostics and Troubleshooting guider under “Installation Instruction & Documentation” in the Reference section of our website. You can also download the document by clicking this link.

Our technical support team is always available via email or the phone to walk you through getting your car wired with our Infinitybox system. Click on this link to contact us for support or with questions.

Examples of three different PWM duty cycles

Pulse Width Modulation

October 13, 2016/3 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Our Infinitybox System is far different from a traditional fuse & relay based wire harness. There are things that Infinitybox can do that you couldn’t even begin to imagine with a good-old bundle of wire. One of our biggest goals when we educate people about our products is to de-mystify some of the potentially scary terms that we use. One that we use a lot is Pulse Width Modulation or PWM. This is a fancy term for turning something on and off very fast to control power.

We don’t use relays in our POWERCELLs. Instead, we use MOSFETs. Yes, I know that is another scary term that we’ll talk about later. For now, all you need to know is that MOSFETs are solid state stitches. Unlike relays, there are no mechanical parts in them. You can turn a MOSFET on and off literally millions of times per second. You can do that with a relay 2 to 3 times per second before you have to worry about burning up the contacts.

The ability to turn a MOSFET on and off very quickly allows us to control the amount of power coming out of a POWERCELL output. We do this by using something called Pulse Width Modulation. PWM is the process of turning an output on and off quickly. The effective power coming out of the output is proportional to the amount of on time as compared to the off time. The ratio of the on time versus the off time is called the duty cycle. So for example, if we turn the output on for half of the cycle time and off for the other half, your duty cycle is 50%. The effective voltage of your output is approximately 50%. This picture shows you what we mean.

Examples of three different PWM duty cycles

The three different graphs are 10%, 50% and 90% duty cycle.

Check out this video showing you more about PWM. If you haven’t seen Colin’s Lab on You Tube before, it is a worthwhile watch. He is a geek’s geek but makes great videos explaining the basics of electronics. As part of Make Magazine, his stuff is filled with tons of useful electronics projects, tips and tricks.

So you’re asking yourself, “What does this mean to me”? “I’m wiring a car, not building circuits.” Pulse Width Modulation is a very effective and efficient way to control the brightness of lights and the speed of motors. There is very little heat lost with PWM as compared to using resistors or rheostats.

The Infinitybox system has PWM capability built into the POWERCELL outputs. We can effortlessly dim lights, create daytime running lights, theater dim interior lights, control fan speeds, and fuel pump speeds. For those who need that advanced control, it is built right into your system. No external modules or hardware are required.

Click on this link to contact one of our technical support guys to talk about your specific requirements using Pulse Width Modulation.

Updating inMOTION

October 11, 2016/in Software /by admin

One of the advantages of our Infinitybox system is that it can always be updated. We have added a lot of new features and functions over the years. The earliest systems that we sold can be updated to use these new features. In some cases, these updates require a simple hardware change that we need to do here. In the majority of these changes, it is a simple software update that can be done in your shop, garage or in the vehicle in the field. Most of the changes are done to the MASTERCELL but in some cases, the POWERCELLs and inMOTION cells need to be updated. This post is going to talk about updating inMOTION.

Before you get too far, 99.99% of our customers will never need to update inMOTION in the field. This blog post is intended to have this documented for the 0.01% of them that will. The only reason why you’d need to update inMOTION would be if we have created something custom for you in terms of the current levels for the express functions. In the overwhelming majority of cases, you can stop reading here. You need to do nothing with the code on your inMOTION unless explicitly directed by one of our technical support engineers.

inMOTION is different from a POWERCELL in a few ways. inMOTION uses special polarity reversing relays instead of MOSFETs. Also, inMOTION monitors the current flowing to the loads that it is powering. inMOTION is always comparing the actual current to a learned value. If the actual current exceeds the learned value, it shuts the output off. One of the last steps of setting up inMOTION is to train it. This is detailed in the instruction manual for inMOTION. When you update inMOTION, there are a few extra steps that you need to follow because of the current monitoring and the way inMOTION learns its current draw.

Our technical support team will let you know what cells in your system will need to be updated if we are changing the way your system operates. If you are told to update inMOTION, we will email you a new file. Please follow these steps when updating inMOTION.

Power down the entire system.
Disconnect CAN cable and output harnesses from the inMOTION cell (just leave the power connectors)
Unlike the other cells, the inMOTION cell needs power to program it, so power up the 12V feed to the cell.
Connect the programmer to the inMOTION cell and browse for the inMOTION file
Click program and wait for programmer to finish.
Once the programming is complete, remove the programmer and the blue LED on the inMOTION cell should be blinking quickly. Stop here if the Blue LED is not flashing quickly.
Remove power from the system and re-connect the CAN cable to the inMOTION (do not reconnect any motor loads yet)
Power up the entire system, wait about 10 seconds
Press and hold the train button (S11) on the inMOTION cell until the blue LED is on steady and then release. This process nulls out the current sensors in the system.
Wait for the inMOTION to cycle all of the relays.
Leaving the power on, reconnect the motor loads to the cell. The blue LED should be doing a double flash heartbeat.
Position the motors to the middle of their travel using the manual buttons on the inMOTION cell.
Press and hold the train button (S11) until the blue LED is on steady and then release. The inMOTION will cycle all of the motors and learn the current profiles.
The blue LED should have the regular heartbeat now and everything should be ready to go.

Click on this link to contact our technical support team with any questions about updating inMOTION.