starter Archives - Infinitybox

Picture of keyed ignition & starter switch

Wiring an Ignition Switch

January 24, 2019/2 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

We’ve been helping guys wire their cars for over 10 years. Sometimes we find ourselves skipping over the basics of how our Infinitybox system works and the advantages that it has over traditional wiring harnesses. A customer called us today with questions about wiring an ignition switch to his MASTERCELL. We were surprised to see that we didn’t have a good wiring diagram nor blog post talking about this. This post will correct that.

The MASTERCELL inputs on an Infinitybox system work by getting connected to ground instead of connecting to battery voltage. This has a bunch of advantages over a traditional wiring harness.

First, the MASTERCELL inputs are just triggers to the system. All of the current is carried by the POWERCELLs. Very little current is required at the MASTERCELL. This means that you can use practically any switch to turn on an input to the MASTERCELL.

Second, since practically no current is required at the switch, the MASTERCELL input wires can be very thin. Our standard input harnesses use 22-AWG wire. This keeps the bulk of the harnessing behind your dash to a minimum.

Lastly, you can easily combine MASTERCELL inputs to a single switch to get more advanced functions without having to change anything in the software.

Click on this link to learn more about how the MASTERCELL inputs work.

The ignition switch on your car is probably the most important thing. It lets you start and stop the engine. Most ignition switches work the same way. They all have terminals for power, ignition and starter. Some have an additional terminal for powering accessories. This wiring diagram shows how to connect your MASTERCELL inputs to a typical ignition switch.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to wire an ignition switch with the Infinitybox system.

As mentioned above, the MASTERCELL inputs work by getting connected to ground. To do this, you are going essentially wire the switch backwards. Instead of connecting the switch to power, you are going to connect it to ground. The first thing to do is connect the battery terminal on the switch to ground. Most switches label this terminal as BAT. Others will label this terminal as B+ or +12V. Look closely at the labels near the terminals to identify the battery terminal. You can either ground this terminal directly to the chassis or you can use one of the black ground wires that is included in the MASTERCELL inputs harness. This ground connection is critical. See our previous posts about how to get good ground connections.

Next, you need to connect the MASTERCELL inputs to the terminals for Ignition and Starter. When the key is in the Ignition position, you need to have power for all of things that run your engine. These include your engine management system, your coils, your gauges and your dash. These are all powered from the Ignition output on your POWERCELL. There is a corresponding MASTERCELL input that turns on this output. Check your configuration sheet to identify these wire colors. Once you know the MASTERCELL input for your Ignition, connect that to the Ignition terminal on the switch. This terminal may be marked as IGN. It could also be marked as RUN. There is an easy way to identify the correct terminal for the Ignition. Turn the key to the Ignition or Run position and measure continuity between the BAT terminal and the IGN terminal. You should have continuity in the run position. It should be open circuit when the key is off.

For the starter input, check your configuration sheet to identify the wire color for the starter. Connect this wire to the ST terminal on your switch.

Lastly, some switches may have an Accessory position on them. This terminal lets you control outputs independently from the ignition. For example, some customers want to be able to power their stereo separately from the ignition so they may listen to music without running their EFI system. The Accessory wires the same way as the ignition and starter. Simply choose an OPEN auxiliary output from your configuration sheet ans connect the corresponding MASTERCELL input to the ACC terminal on the switch. Note that most accessory positions on ignition switches are on in the ACC and IGN positions but off in the START position.

You can download a PDF version of our wiring diagram showing how to wire an ignition switch by clicking this link.

Click this link to contact our technical support team with any additional questions about wiring your car or truck with our Infinitybox system.

S2000

September 28, 2016/1 Comment/in Wiring /by admin

One of the greatest parts of our Infinitybox system is the flexibility of the MASTERCELL inputs. You can use practically any switch in your car. If you want to keep the original OEM switches that came in your car, you can do that. If you want to add new billet switches, you can do that. A lot of our customers like to take switches out of new cars and put them in their classic cars. One of the most popular is taking the Engine Start button from a Honda S2000 and using that to start their engine in their resto-mod, kit car or Pro-Touring build.

Our MASTERCELL inputs trigger POWERCELL outputs when they are connected to ground. This makes wiring switches very easy. Also, it takes very little current to turn on a MASTERCELL input. That means that you can use practically any switch to trigger an input. Click on this link to go to an earlier blog post that talks in more detail about how our MASTERCELL inputs work.

A lot of our customers use the Engine Start button from the Honda S2000. This is a slick looking, big red button with a nice chrome bezel around it. It easily fits in any dash panel. Some of our customers use this as their starter button. They have a separate key switch that turns on their ignition. To start the car, they press and hold the Engine Start button to crank the starter. In other cases, our customers are using this same button with our 1-button start feature. From one button, you press and hold it to turn on the ignition then crank the starter. Click on this link to see an older blog post that talks about hour one one-button start works.

When you pair our 1-button start with our inLINK security features, you can do something pretty cool in the car. Most of our customers who are building Factory Five Roadsters and Hot Rods are using our one button start with a single button on the dash. When they enable security from their inLINK key fob, this completely blocks the ability to start the engine, which is important with an open-top car. As they approach the car, they disable security from inLINK, hop in and press the button on the dash to start the engine.

Wiring the S2000 switch is pretty easy. This picture shows you how to connect the MASTERCELL inputs and ground to the terminals on the back of the switch. You can either use the starter input or the 1-button start input.

Image of wiring details for Honda S2000 Engine Start Button to work with the Infinitybox wiring system.

The Honda S2000 switch also has a light bulb in it. With a simple modification, you can use this to light the switch. Some of our customers will wire it so that the switch lights up when the dash lights are on. Others will wire it so that it is lit when the ignition is on. This picture shows how to modify the printed circuit board inside the switch so that you can use the built-in illumination.

Image of modifications to Honda S2000 Engine Start button for Illumination

This is just an example of how flexible our Infinitybox system can be. You can download a PDF of the S2000 switch wiring by clicking on this link. You can download a PDF showing how to modify the switch to use the illumination by clicking this link.

Please feel free to contact our technical support team with questions on wiring your vehicle with our Infinitybox system.

Ignition and Starter

June 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Here’s the next step in wiring this 1967 Mustang. In previous posts, we described wiring the ignition and starter outputs from the front POWERCELL. You can get the Ignition output post at this link. This link will take you to the starter output post. In this post, we are going to describe the process of wiring the ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL inputs.

Our customer is using a steering column from IDIDIT for this Mustang. They chose the option to have the keyed ignition and starter switch built into the column. When you order this option from IDIDIT, you get a separate harness to connect from the column. This link will take you to the instructions for this switch from IDIDIT. Essentially, there are 4 wires in this harness. These will connect to the MASTERCELL input wires.

Remember how our MASTERCELL inputs work. You connect the input wire to one side of your switch. The other side of the switch connects to ground. When you turn the switch on, the MASTERCELL input gets connected to ground. The MASTERCELL sees the input go to ground and sends a command to one of the POWERCELLs to do something. In most cases when you are wiring OEM switches to a MASTERCELL, you will ground the battery feed and connect the input wires correspondingly. This IDIDIT switch is no exception.

Here’s what you are going to do with the 4 wires in the switch harness.

First, you are going to connect the red wire to ground. You can use any of the black wires in the MASTERCELL input harness or you can connect this directly to the chassis. We’ve said this over and over, make sure that you have a good metal-to-metal connection between the ground wire and the chassis. No paint, powder coating, rust, oil, grease, etc. You want a good clean connection.

Next, you are going to connect the purple wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the starter. Check your configuration sheet. Different configurations may have different wire colors for the starter. In our configuration, the starter input wire is the white wire with the yellow tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness. This is input number 4. You can crimp, splice, solder or use connectors to make this connection. See our earlier blog posts about connection techniques.

Next, connect the pink wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the Ignition. Same warning as above. Check your configuration sheet for the exact wire color. In our configuration, this is the white wire with the blue tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness. That is input 3.

You will notice that this ignition and starter switch has an accessory position. Some customers will use the accessory position on their switch to control an output that is different from their ignition output. They may want to have their stereo on without having their ignition on. In most configurations, there is an OPEN output on the front POWERCELL designed for this accessory function. In our configuration, this is output 8. It is controlled by input 8 on the MASTERCELL A connector. That is the blue wire with the light-blue tracer. We’re going to connect this wire to the brown wire in the IDIDIT harness.

Here’s how the different positions on the switch work. When the key is in the accessory position, your accessory output on your POWERCELL will be on. In the ignition or ON position, the ignition output will turn on. So will the accessory output. When you turn the key to the start position, the accessory will turn off. The ignition will remain on and the starter output will turn on.

That’s all that it takes to connect the IDIDIT ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL in this 1967 Mustang. We have a large collection of different ignition and starter switch wiring diagrams in our reference library on our website. Click this link to get there.

Contact us if you have questions about wiring your ignition and starter switch to your 20-Circuit Kit. Click on this link to contact one of our technical support engineers.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to wire the MSD 6A with the Infinitybox system.

Ignition

June 22, 2016/1 Comment/in Wiring /by admin

In our last post, we talked about wiring the starter solenoid to the POWERCELL in your 20-Circuit Kit. Now it is time to wire the ignition. There is a dedicated output on your POWERCELL that supplies battery voltage for your ignition. This is your “key-on” power. In this post, we are going to talk about wiring the POWERCELL output. We’ll discuss wiring the MASTERCELL input to the ignition switch in later posts.

Our Infinitybox system can power any type of ignition system. It can be a basic set of points or a highly sophisticated EFI system. In either case, we are going to power the ignition system when the key is on. In the case of this 1967 Mustang, the customer is using the Ford Coyote Crate Motor with the Ford ECU.

Check the configuration sheet that came with your kit. It will define which output is for the ignition. In most cases, it is the light-green wire on the front POWERCELL. This is output 3 on the B connector.

You need to carefully read the instructions for your ignition system. In most cases, there will be a wire that needs to connect directly to the battery to give it constant 12-volt power. There will also be a key-on or ignition power feed. That will come from the light-green wire on your POWERCELL. Over the years, we have accumulated many different wiring diagrams for different ignition systems. They can be found in posts on our blog or in our reference library. We’ll highlight some of the most popular in this post.

The most common ignition system that we see customers using is a ignition box from MSD. The MSD 6A or 6AL are some of the most popular. There is a heavy red and heavy black wire in their harness. These wires need to connect directly to the battery and to chassis ground, respectively. Then there is a lighter gauge red wire that is for the key-on power. This will connect to the ignition output on your POWERCELL. See the picture below for more details.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to wire the MSD 6A with the Infinitybox system.

This link will take you to a blog post talking in more detail about wiring an MSD ignition box to our POWERCELL.

We also have many different posts that talk about how to wire the ignition outputs to EFI systems. This picture shows wiring our ignition outputs to the FAST EZ-EFI system.

Picture of wiring diagram showing how to wire the FAST EZ-EFI fuel injection system with the Infinitybox system.

Our ignition output from the POWERCELL connects to the pink wire in the EZ-EFI harness. You can read the entire blog post on the FAST wiring at this link.

Another popular option for our customers is the Holley Dominator EFI system. This link shows you a picture of how to wire that into our system.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to wire the Holley Dominator EFI System with the Infinitybox System.

In the case of our customer’s 1967 Mustang, they are using the Ford Coyote crate engine for this car. We have a complete schematic that shows you how to connect the ignition output from the POWERCELL to the ECU. You can see that schematic at this link.

Once you have your ignition system or EFI system wired to the ignition output, you also have to think about the other things that you want to come on with your ignition switch. Remember that each POWERCELL output has the capacity of 25-amps. You can use this single output to power many different functions. You are going to use this same ignition output to power your gauges, your transmission controller, your radio power or any other function that you need to power with ignition.

In earlier posts in this series, we talked about how to splice off of POWERCELL outputs for multiple taps. These examples included your headlights, high-beams and parking lights. For your ignition, we recommend creating a ignition bus that you can use to power the many different switched functions in your car. You can use a terminal strip to create a common point for your ignition functions.

You can purchase terminal strips like this from companies like Del City and Waytek Wire. Make sure that you pick a terminal strip that has an insulating cover on it. You want to make sure that you protect these wires from getting shorted to ground.

Another option is to use our Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit. This is a simple accessory that makes connecting a POWERCELL output to multiple wires robust and reliable. This picture shows you how you can use the Splice Saver Kit to create a sealed junction point for everything that needs to get powered off of your ignition.

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

Please contact us with questions about wiring the ignition output on your Infinitybox system. Click this link to reach out to a member of our team.

Starter Motor

June 22, 2016/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Next in our wiring series, it is time to wire the starter motor. There are a few important things that need to be considered when you do this. In this post, we are just talking about connecting the POWERCELL output to the starter solenoid. In later posts, we will go through the details for wiring the ignition and starter switch.

There is a dedicated output on the front POWERCELL for the starter solenoid. In most kits it is the light-blue wire, which is output 4 on the B connector. When you turn on the MASTERCELL input for the starter, you get power on this starter wire. This energizes the starter solenoid coil.

There are two main types of starter motors. Some have the starter solenoid built into them. Others rely on an external starter solenoid. It takes hundreds of amperes to crank an engine. Your battery is the source of this current. It takes a special solenoid to repeatedly switch this high current. A normal relay can’t carry this amount of current. You need a solenoid. This picture shows you the details of a typical starter motor with a built-in solenoid.

Drawing of the anatomy of a starter motor

The starter solenoid gets a direct connection from the battery. This will supply the starting current when you turn on the starter. There is also a contact on the starter solenoid that connects to the starter output on the POWERCELL. When you turn the key to the start position, battery voltage is applied to this start terminal. This voltage does two things. The solenoid pulls in which pushes the Bendix out to engage with the engine flywheel. It also closes a large set of high-current contacts within the solenoid that lets current flow from the battery to the starter motor. This current spins the motor, which turns the flywheel.

When you release the key from the start position, the battery voltage is removed from the start terminal on the solenoid. This opens the contacts providing current to the motor, so the motor stops spinning. Also, the Bendix retracts from the flywheel.

This picture shows a typical wiring diagram for a starter motor with a built-in solenoid.

Starter motor drawing showing different electrical connections

The B terminal connects directly to the battery. We’ll discuss this in more detail below. The M terminal is internally connected to the windings on the starter motor. The S terminal is what connects to the starter output on the POWERCELL. When there is battery voltage from the POWERCELL on the S terminal, the solenoid engages. The Bendix extends into the flywheel and the B terminal gets connected to the M terminal. This provides the current to turn the starter motor. The starter motor gets grounded to the chassis through its mounting plate to the engine block.

There are other starter motors that do not have the built-in solenoid. They use a different mechanism to extend the pinion into the flywheel. They rely on an external solenoid to switch the current to the starter motor. This picture shows an example of an external solenoid.

Cole Hersee Solenoid

This external solenoid is what switches the high-current for the starter motor. One of the large terminals connects to the starter motor. The other large terminal connects directly to the battery. Again, we’re going to talk about this battery connection below. One of the small terminals needs to get connected to ground. The other small terminal needs to get connected to the starter output on the POWERCELL. When the POWERCELL applies battery voltage to to the starter terminal, the solenoid closes and lets current flow to the starter motor, which turns the flywheel.

Now it is time to talk about the battery cable. This is what supplies current from the battery to the starter motor. At the instant you close the starter solenoid, the current flowing to the starter motor can be between 1,500 to 2,000 Amps. Once the engine starts to turn, that current will drop down to 200 to 400-Amps. You must make sure that you size this cable appropriately. A lot of guys get cheap with their battery cables and go with smaller gauges. This is a case where the bigger, the better.

We recommend using a 1/0 or 2/0 welding cable to connect the battery to the starter. Smaller cables will result in voltage drop to the starter. Voltage drop will lead to problems starting the engine. Welding cable is much more flexible and easier to work with than typical battery cables. It is easier to route through the car. Please note that we do not include the battery cable or the required ring terminals in our kit. You need to source these separately.

You also need to consider the grounds between the engine block and the chassis. Whatever current flows to the starter has to return to the chassis. You need to have good and large ground straps between the engine block. The size of the ground cables must be equal or greater than the size of the cable you have feeding the starter.

Please click on this link to contact our team with questions about wiring the starter output on the POWERCELL in your 20-Circuit Kit.

Example of a General Motors Ignition Switch

GM Ignition Switch

November 19, 2015/0 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

Wiring any switch into the Infinitybox system is really easy. You just have to remember that the MASTERCELL input wire needs to get connected to ground to turn something on. In most cases, you can simply connect the MASTERCELL input to one side of the switch and ground the other. When you close the switch, the MASTERCELL input gets connected to ground and the output turns on. This blog post is going to cover wiring the GM Ignition Switch with our Infinitybox system.

With most OEM switches and the original switches that are in your car, you can connect the battery feed from the switch to ground. Then you connect the MASTERCELL input wire to the terminal on the switch that powered the original function. Here’s a good example for a GM Ignition Switch. This GM Ignition Switch was used in most Chevrolet and Pontiac cars from 1969 through 1994.

Picture of a wiring diagram showing how to connect Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs to the GM Ignition Switch

You connect the original battery feeds for the GM ignition switch to ground. You then connect the MASTERCELL input wires for the ignition and starter to their respective terminals on the switch. When you turn the key to the ignition position, the switch connects the MASTERCELL input wire for the ignition to the ground through the battery terminal. This sends a signal to the POWERCELL to turn on the ignition output. The same thing happens when you turn the key to the starter position. We created a simple wiring diagram showing you how to wire this GM ignition switch.

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

You can contact our technical support team with more questions at this link.

One-Button Start

May 17, 2015/5 Comments/in Wiring /by admin

A lot of our customers use our One-Button Start function. This is standard in our 10 and 20-Circuit Harness Kits.

To start your engine, you have a few options when you wire your car with the Infinitybox. You can use a traditional keyed ignition switch. You pick our standard input wires for the ignition and starter and wire those to the switch.

Or you can use our One-Button Start function. This involves taking one MASTERCELL input wire and connecting it to a momentary button. That is all you need to manage your ignition and starter outputs.

When you press and release the button, the ignition output turns on. When you press and release the button again, the ignition output turns off. Pretty simple. To start the engine, you simply press and hold the button. The POWERCELL turns on the ignition, waits one second for the fuel pump to prime, then cranks the starter solenoid. The starter will crank as long as you are pressing the button. When the engine starts, you simply release the button and the starter will stop cranking. The POWERCELL turns off the starter output but leaves the ignition output live so the engine will run. To shut down the engine, you simply press and release the button again.

A lot of our customers use the Honda S2000 Start button. This is a really popular button. This link will take you to a wiring diagram showing how to use the Honda S2000 button with our one-button start.

You will note one thing about the way the Infinitybox One-Button Start works. If you press and release the button to turn on the ignition, you have to press and release the button to turn the ignition off before you can press and hold it to crank the engine. The personality that manages this function does this for a very important reason. We don’t know if the engine is already running when you press the button. Pressing and releasing the starter button forces the system to shut off the ignition output so that you cannot accidentally crank the starter with the engine running.

This function is another great example of how Infinitybox can help you to simplify the electrical system in your car. You can certainly get a starter function similar to ours but it requires a separate box to manage the function. With Infinitybox, you can eliminate the need for extra control modules to have to connect into your wiring harness.

Click this link to contact our team with any questions about using our one-button start feature.

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