[aprssig] Anyone running APRS on a LCD in a car ?

[Dave Baxter]

Hi Tim...

I think a company over there "PowerStream" (http://www.powerstream.com/)
may be able to help you.  They do (among other things) DC input
"Chargers", so you can fully charge a-n-other battery, from a regular
12V vehicle supply (24V versions too)

They also have a lot of info on battery chemistry, and all sorts of
how's and why's.  Well worth a good poke about.

I have to say, I often cringe seeing what some people do with "Low
Voltage" electrics in cars, trucks and boats.  Just because it's low
voltage, many people don't seem to realise the danger of instant fire,
from the high fault currents that can occur when things go wrong.

About the only place where it's always done right, is in aircraft AFIK.
Something about car's, trucks, boats etc "already being on the surface"
perhaps!!


I've had my scare, when a vehicle wiring loom "went up" in my face one
afternoon when I turned the lights on.  The vehicle at that time, was
made with no fuses at all in the obligatory lighting circuit.
Everything else was fused, and a spare fuse too, but not the lights...

50MPH on a bendy road, at dusk, & suddenly not able to see or breathe
etc.  A real "brown trouser" moment.  I did manage to stop without
killing myself or anyone else, but only by luck.  I couldn't turn them
off, as the switch had welded internaly, and melted externaly.  Nice....

That vehicle was a "Series 3" 109 inch Land Rover (Leaf Springs).  If
you know anyone with one of those, get them to check the condition of
the wiring where it goes through the toolbox in the back to one set of
lights.  (And add a fuse to the main light switch feed!)

On mine, and several others I've looked at since, also with unfused
lights, that was the one unprotected "P" clip, and it chafed through the
insulation over the years.

I hope that the "Export" spec versions had better fusing, but I somehow
doubt it.

I now have since totally re-built the thing, and have more fuses in
there than you can "shake a stick at", including seperate fuses for each
side of the external lighting.  I'd rather something stop working for an
odd reason, rather than a sudden smoke filled vehicle again.

Take care.

Dave G0WBX.

PS:	It took me a couple of hours, working with a small "flashlight"
as you'd call it, to isolate the damage while still allowing the front
"side" lights to work.  Started it with a wrench across the starter
solenoid, and then a slow drive home round minor roads.  I couldn't
afford the recovery charges, and if I'd left it where it stopped, it
would have been stripped overnight for scrap....