Seth coughed up:
> "Thomas G. Marshall"
> . com> wrote in
> message news:kiAed.679$PZ4.148@trndny07...
>> Seth coughed up:
>>> "Thomas G. Marshall"
>>> . com> wrote in
>>> message news:g4Aed.677$PZ4.660@trndny07...
>>>> Thomas G. Marshall coughed up:
>>>>> Thomas G. Marshall coughed up:
>>>>>> I've been ready to make my changes to my cig. lighter from
>>>>>> ignition to "always on", and I discovered something semi
>>>>>> disturbing before I made the changes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Between the positive and negative terminals of the cigarette
>>>>>> lighter (pos is center, and ground/neg is shell) I'm expecting 0
>>>>>> resistance.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> In my haste, I goofed that up of course. I'm expecting infinite
>>>> resistance,
>>>> and instead and receiving 8. (?), which indicates /some/ sort of
>>>> connection
>>>> between the two.
>>>
>>> What reading do you get with the ignition in the on/run position?
>>>
>>> Some circuits rather than going open when off, go to ground when
>>> off. Very important distinction to know to look for when in the
>>> business of installing alarms and such.
>>
>> Well, ...... The fuse is /pulled/.
>
> Yes, I understand the fuse is pulled, but what I don't know is if the
> fuse is before or after the control relay. The fuse could be before
> the control relay, and if the control relay goes to ground when off,
> you would still get a "shorted" reading with the fuse in or out.
>
>> A friend of mine said that cars "in the old days but perhaps still"
>> used to
>> put capacitors in between the pos and neg of various places in the
>> car to act as voltage regulators, to smooth out the spikes and
>> valleys.
>
> I think that went away a while ago as everything went to more modern
> electronics which have that built in per device.
>
>> He's saying that might be supplying the resistance. He also said
>> something
>> I already knew, that 8 Ohms is suspicious, because it's the
>> resistance of most speakers.
>
> Possibly just an RF reading. What do you get if you do your same
> test, but instead of using the casing of the cig lighter as ground,
> get your ground elsewhere? Maybe read your pos at the cig lighter,
> and ground at the fuse panel or battery (provided your leads are long
> enough).
>
> Also, maybe be an obvious question, you are "zeroing out" your ohm
> meter before taking readings?
>
>> Any clue here?
>
> Really, all I would do in a case like what you are trying to achieve
> is take a 12ga wire, put a 15amp fuse on it (within 6" of source
> end), a female spade plug and plug it into one of the BATT connectors
> at the fuse panel and run the other end to the pos connector of the
> cig lighter, capping off the current pos wire at the cig lighter.
> Wire tie the new wire out of the way under the dash and be done with.
>
> When it is time to restore the car to stock, just cut the wire ties,
> remove the wire and plug the original plug back into the back of the
> cig lighter.


Well thanks for your considerate replies. I will try some of your
suggestions, but I proceeded with my installation anyway. Hopefully my car
won't burn to the ground overnight. At least my garage is a detached
one.....

What I've done for my changes are to remove the 10A fuse from the cig. slot,
connect the always on options blade with a wire with an inline fuse (the
same 10A) to a mini-blade (I concocted from a real blade) that I inserted
directly into the cig fuse slot at the side that goes directly to the cig
lighter.

The idea being that I'm reusing the same wiring as before, just powering it
differently at the fuse box.

Interesting, perhaps this sheds some light, and TELL ME IF IT MEANS I SHOULD
UNDO THIS, but a relay clicks on the moment I connected the always on. New
questions:

1. Could the presence of this relay be part of the reason there was a
measurable 8 ohms?
2. Is it ok for a car relay to be "on" all the time?

You have been exceedingly helpful. I'll let you know if this works long
term, or if disaster occurs {shudder}, or if the battery dies.



--
Forgetthesong,I'dratherhavethefrontallobotomy...