Hi all, maybe someone could help me with these problems i'm having.

Sorry for the novel, but I thought it best detail my problems.

1) I'm fitting a 12v-230V, 600W power inverter in the boot/trunk to power my `carputer`,the easiest 12 volt source that I could find was the factory fitted power cable to be used for the CD-Autochanger. I checked the pins on the 4 pin, white plastic plug, and the centre two wires were the 12 volt pos & neg (pos = blue wire, neg = red and black striped wire) could anyone tell me a) if this is suitable? (I only want to run a computer from it nothing else) and b) what are the remaining 2 wires?

2) Does the computer display on the dashboard have a backlight bulb? coz at night everything else dashboard wise is lit up except the computer display so I cant see my avrge sped, mpg, etc. Is this normal? If it does require a bulb is it easy to replace, and what sort of bulb is it?

Many thnx in advance guys :)

To answer your second question, yes the computer display does have a backlight. There are two bulbs for the backlight. There are three bulbs that light the rest of the instrument cluster. Check out Bay 13 at Volvospeed for detailed instructions on how to remove the instrument cluster. When removing the instrument cluster it is a good idea to replace all the bulbs while you have it out. Once you replace the bulbs, set your rheostat down at about 75% max. That gives you adequate night illumination and significantly increases bulb life.

Good Luck!

With regard to your power inverter:

I doubt the CD changer wires are capable of carrying the current you need to drive a 600W inverter. Your inverter is capable of drawing roughly 50A, and a 16 or 18 ga wire won't carry that much current reliably or safely for that matter.

I would advocate the installation of a cabling kit similar to what is used for stereo amplifiers, using cables more akin to those used for battery cables.

Hope that helps,

sperryrand
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'95 854GLT 165k miles

Amen. Even if a 18ga wire will pass a 50 amp draw, there will a fair chunk of power loss and the wire will get warm. Mebbe hot enough to smoke or melt insullation. 50 amps is a lotta current. Wonder if the alternator can stand this kinda load?

Thnx for your reply.

OK, so I cant run the inverter from a 12 volt source already in the interior of the car, I have to run it from the battery. Is there anyway that I could get the ignition to control the power to the inverter so that it would only be on when the ignition is on?

One way you could do it is this:

I presume you have a sedan because you mentioned installing the inverter in the boot/trunk.

You should use a relay to control the power flow. Email me directly at the adddress in my profile; I have a suggestion or two that I think would work and would rather not clutter up the board with the longwinded discussion.

sperryrand
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'95 854GLT 166k miles