Wiring power invterter to only power up when car is on?

[mokedaddy 5,000+ posts]

Autozone should have them in stock. You take the relay and wire pin 85 to the remote wire of your head unit. Pin 86 goes to ground. Either 30 or 87 go to the battery. (it doesnt really matter but I usually wire 87 to the battery) and then I wire 30 to the power of the inverter. (or 87 if you used 30 for the battery).

Fuse the wire on the battery according to the size of the wire. 12 ga should be sufficient.

Also should note that I was generalizing that you have an older vehicle. If you have a newer or higher end car you should always wire anything aftermarket this way as to avoid problems with the on-board electronics.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

Radio shack sells relays too - i just bought one today to run a cooling fan in my trunk. Decided to run all my remote wires through it too while i was at it, so now my remote wire to the HU is only pulling 160ma (the relay's draw) and the 12v input is providing the current for the 2 amps remotes and the fan. Weee.

 

[AltarCrystal 10+ year member]

Autozone should have them in stock. You take the relay and wire pin 85 to the remote wire of your head unit. Pin 86 goes to ground. Either 30 or 87 go to the battery. (it doesnt really matter but I usually wire 87 to the battery) and then I wire 30 to the power of the inverter. (or 87 if you used 30 for the battery).
Fuse the wire on the battery according to the size of the wire. 12 ga should be sufficient.

Also should note that I was generalizing that you have an older vehicle. If you have a newer or higher end car you should always wire anything aftermarket this way as to avoid problems with the on-board electronics.

Well, this is in an '04, so yeah, I see what you're getting at.

Alright, should be simple enough. Thanks!

 

[NeverEnuffBass 10+ year member]

Use a Bosch relay, sick of seeing the crap cheap ones break.

 

[AltarCrystal 10+ year member]

Ok, wired in the relay, lemme make sure I have this right. I works, but I wanna make sure it's working RIGHT. I kept it wired in line with my cig ligter, but if I"m thinking it right, that shouldn't matter, shoud it?

85 pin -> Acc Remote wire on HU

86 -> Neg wire for cig ligter

87 -> Pos wire for cig lighter

30 -> Pos for inverter

Then I run the nagative from the intervert back to, say the negative for the cig lighter?