Okay Folks,
We've been slacking on our blog posts. Things have been busy, as you can imagine. Outside of our normal daily operations, we are scrambling to get ready for the 2010 SEMA show in Las Vegas, November 2nd through the 5th. For those who don't know about it, this is the aftermarket industry event. SEMA is a very important event for us. We actually won Best New Product of the Year in the Mobile Electronics category at SEMA 2008.
There are dozens of little details that need to get squared away to make this work. All 890 pounds of the booth materials, demos, kiosks and tools were loaded up on a skid and trucked away last Friday. The rest of the pieces will go out this week. The electrical is set up, carpeting, flights and hotel rooms.
If you are going to be out there, stop by booth 28300 and check things out. We will have two tremendous customer cars on display demonstrating the ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System. Additionally, we will have hands-on demonstration kiosks to let you push buttons to try things out.
The first car comes to us from Special Editions. Their Beck Spyder is a beautiful car, elegant and simple. It is wired with our 3-Cell Kit using our rear-engine configuration. Plus it has a few special tricks that you will have to check out when you get to the booth.
I have sung the praises of our second car several times in this blog. Joe Mischik and his son Trevor built a tremendous tribute to the 1967 Ferrari 330 P4. This is a long, lean thoroughbred that draws a crowd from miles. Again, it was wired with our 3-Cell Kit.
With both cars, we want to show our customers the benefits of wiring with ISIS. These are both very simple cars, without tons of electrical functions. Even though they are simple, the wiring was a very easy job with ISIS plus they got added functions that you couldn't get with a traditional wiring harness. Once you see how easy the install is in basic cars like these, you can imagine how ISIS will work for you with a more complicated build.
We are debuting 4 new products at the show for 2010. Two were launched earlier in the year: inRESERVE and inMOTION. There are two more that we are keeping as a surprise until the New Products Awards Breakfast on November 2nd. All I have to say is that these will completely change the way that you interact with your car and there is no one else out there that can do this the way that ISIS can.
Keep watching the blog. I'll leak a little more out as we get closer to the show.
See you in Vegas in a few weeks.
Jay
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
How to wire a 3-Wire Alternator
Okay Guys,
Someone just asked a question about how you connect a three wire alternator into a car and interface it with ISIS. This is very simple and straight forward. The following diagram shows you how to do this.
Simply, terminal 2 gets jumpered to the battery stud. The battery stud gets connected to the positive terminal on the battery. It is important to size the gauge of wire connecting the alternator to the battery to the full rated current of the alternator.
Terminal 1 gets its reference voltage off of the ignition output on the POWERCELL. You just splice into output number 3 which connects to your ignition system. Between terminal 1 and the POWERCELL, you splice in an incandescent light bulb which acts as the charge indicator. This light will go out when the alternator is generating current correctly and will light if there are any issues.
You can download this app note here. There are many other similar notes in our Reference Library that will help you wire your car with the ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System.
If you are looking for information on wiring a 1-wire alternator, there is a good video on YouTube that will show you how to do this. Check it out here.
Someone just asked a question about how you connect a three wire alternator into a car and interface it with ISIS. This is very simple and straight forward. The following diagram shows you how to do this.
Simply, terminal 2 gets jumpered to the battery stud. The battery stud gets connected to the positive terminal on the battery. It is important to size the gauge of wire connecting the alternator to the battery to the full rated current of the alternator.
Terminal 1 gets its reference voltage off of the ignition output on the POWERCELL. You just splice into output number 3 which connects to your ignition system. Between terminal 1 and the POWERCELL, you splice in an incandescent light bulb which acts as the charge indicator. This light will go out when the alternator is generating current correctly and will light if there are any issues.
You can download this app note here. There are many other similar notes in our Reference Library that will help you wire your car with the ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System.
If you are looking for information on wiring a 1-wire alternator, there is a good video on YouTube that will show you how to do this. Check it out here.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Turn-Signal Options...
As a follow up to the post yesterday about turn-signals, there are two more options in our standard front-engine configuration: Mechanical Multi-Filament and Mechanical Single-Filament. This is where there is sometimes some confusion. In both cases, this is where you use a traditional steering column with the canceling mechanism built in. This can be an OEM column or one from an aftermarket company like IDIDIT or Flaming River. In both cases, the mechanism in the column turns off the turn-signal action when the steering wheel returns to the center position.
The mechanical column, multi-filament configuration should be used when you have separate filaments in the rear of the car for the turn-signals and the brake lights. These could be completely separate bulbs or different filaments in a multi-filament bulb. The inputs to the MASTERCELL control separate outputs for left & right turn-signals plus the brake light. In the standard front-engine configuration, these inputs are 29, 30, 31 and 32. There is a good rule of thumb for multi-filament turn-signals: if your turn-signals are amber, you should probably be using the multi-filament configuration.
The mechanical column, single-filament configuration should be used when the brake lights share a common filament with the turn-signals in the back of the car. Remember that you need to look at the filaments, not the bulbs. In this case, the MASTERCELL inputs will activate the left and right turn-signals as directionals. You only wire the left and right turn-signal wires to the bulbs. No brake light output is required. For the brake light, the left and right turn-signal filaments light together. These are inputs 25, 26, 27 and 28.
You can check out page 30 of the manual for more details.
Once you figure out what you need in the car, you just pick the inputs that you need and wire them to the column. This schematic will show you how to wire the MASTERCELL inputs to the GM, IDIDIT and Flaming River columns.
Off of one ISIS Power system, you have complete flexibility in how you wire your turn signals on your car.
The mechanical column, multi-filament configuration should be used when you have separate filaments in the rear of the car for the turn-signals and the brake lights. These could be completely separate bulbs or different filaments in a multi-filament bulb. The inputs to the MASTERCELL control separate outputs for left & right turn-signals plus the brake light. In the standard front-engine configuration, these inputs are 29, 30, 31 and 32. There is a good rule of thumb for multi-filament turn-signals: if your turn-signals are amber, you should probably be using the multi-filament configuration.
The mechanical column, single-filament configuration should be used when the brake lights share a common filament with the turn-signals in the back of the car. Remember that you need to look at the filaments, not the bulbs. In this case, the MASTERCELL inputs will activate the left and right turn-signals as directionals. You only wire the left and right turn-signal wires to the bulbs. No brake light output is required. For the brake light, the left and right turn-signal filaments light together. These are inputs 25, 26, 27 and 28.
You can check out page 30 of the manual for more details.
Once you figure out what you need in the car, you just pick the inputs that you need and wire them to the column. This schematic will show you how to wire the MASTERCELL inputs to the GM, IDIDIT and Flaming River columns.
Off of one ISIS Power system, you have complete flexibility in how you wire your turn signals on your car.
Enough Wire for 2 Round Trips to Munich...
We get tons of calls from customers telling us how complicated their existing wiring is in their cars: tangles of wire, dozens of relays, mystery splices and tons of unknowns. A big chunk of our customers are starting with a clean slate when they install ISIS into their cars. Another group is using ISIS to replace the existing harness in their car.
Over here at ISIS Power, we all came from the automotive world: engineering, manufacturing and selling products for the tier 1's, ultimately serving the OEMs. I have seen manufacturing plants for practically all of the OEM's and they are amazing things. One plant that stands out is the original BMW assembly plant in Munich. The building where they originally assembled airplane engines is now their center for the 3-Series. I recently found this video highlighting their assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It is amazing to watch but there are some startling statistics on the wiring harnesses for their cars. Check it out here.
Passenger cars are a complex web of electrical systems. Everything from engine management, safety systems, lighting, climate control and infotainment has to be interconnected. The harnesses for most passenger cars come into the process in large duffel bags. These can weigh several hundred pounds. You can see how they do this in the car in the BMW video.
There were two starting facts that I learned when I watched this. First, they actually heat up the harness assembly to make it easier to route through the chassis. This makes a lot of sense but I don't recommend this to the folks at home. The second fact is that there is 16,000 miles (yes, miles) of wire in the X5, roughly enough wire to stretch from our offices in Chicago to BMW's headquarters in Munich and back, twice. That is a staggering amount of wire.
Now, most of our customers' cars are far simpler than the X5, but with a traditional wiring harness it can feel like there is 16,000 miles of wire in the car. Click here to learn more about how the ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System can make wiring your car a simple process.
Over here at ISIS Power, we all came from the automotive world: engineering, manufacturing and selling products for the tier 1's, ultimately serving the OEMs. I have seen manufacturing plants for practically all of the OEM's and they are amazing things. One plant that stands out is the original BMW assembly plant in Munich. The building where they originally assembled airplane engines is now their center for the 3-Series. I recently found this video highlighting their assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It is amazing to watch but there are some startling statistics on the wiring harnesses for their cars. Check it out here.
Passenger cars are a complex web of electrical systems. Everything from engine management, safety systems, lighting, climate control and infotainment has to be interconnected. The harnesses for most passenger cars come into the process in large duffel bags. These can weigh several hundred pounds. You can see how they do this in the car in the BMW video.
There were two starting facts that I learned when I watched this. First, they actually heat up the harness assembly to make it easier to route through the chassis. This makes a lot of sense but I don't recommend this to the folks at home. The second fact is that there is 16,000 miles (yes, miles) of wire in the X5, roughly enough wire to stretch from our offices in Chicago to BMW's headquarters in Munich and back, twice. That is a staggering amount of wire.
Now, most of our customers' cars are far simpler than the X5, but with a traditional wiring harness it can feel like there is 16,000 miles of wire in the car. Click here to learn more about how the ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System can make wiring your car a simple process.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Self-Canceling Turn-Signals...
We build a lot of functionality into ISIS. One system can work for a broad range of cars and other vehicles. We make our standard front-engine configuration for our 3-Cell Kit as inclusive as possible. With no changes, you can use it to wire a kit car, a muscle car, a hot rod or a race car.
One example is turn-signals. Built right into our standard front-engine configuration is the ability to operate your directional indicators with complete flexibility.
Self canceling turn signals are used where the car doesn’t have a steering column with a mechanical canceling mechanism. This is common in most Cobra kit cars and late 1960’s British cars. These cars usually have a toggle switch on the dash with a position for left and right. After you complete the turn, you needed to manually turn off the directional switch.
With our self-canceling turn signals, you have a momentary switch for left and right. When you push the switch in one direction, the outputs on the front and rear POWERCELLs will flash for that direction. They will continue to flash for approximately 15 seconds, then turn off. We build some intelligence into this part of the system. The turn-signal bulbs will not self-cancel while your foot is on the brake pedal. Imagine you are waiting at a traffic light waiting to make a right turn. You press the switch for the right turn-signal. Those lights will flash for as long as your foot is pressing on the brake plus 15 seconds. The light turns green, you take you foot off of the brake pedal and roll into your turn. When you make the turn, the right turn signal lights turn themselves off. This is build directly into ISIS and requires no external modules to make it happen.
One example is turn-signals. Built right into our standard front-engine configuration is the ability to operate your directional indicators with complete flexibility.
Self canceling turn signals are used where the car doesn’t have a steering column with a mechanical canceling mechanism. This is common in most Cobra kit cars and late 1960’s British cars. These cars usually have a toggle switch on the dash with a position for left and right. After you complete the turn, you needed to manually turn off the directional switch.
With our self-canceling turn signals, you have a momentary switch for left and right. When you push the switch in one direction, the outputs on the front and rear POWERCELLs will flash for that direction. They will continue to flash for approximately 15 seconds, then turn off. We build some intelligence into this part of the system. The turn-signal bulbs will not self-cancel while your foot is on the brake pedal. Imagine you are waiting at a traffic light waiting to make a right turn. You press the switch for the right turn-signal. Those lights will flash for as long as your foot is pressing on the brake plus 15 seconds. The light turns green, you take you foot off of the brake pedal and roll into your turn. When you make the turn, the right turn signal lights turn themselves off. This is build directly into ISIS and requires no external modules to make it happen.
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