I was looking for a "please help me, I've never messed with electronics before and have zero clue on what I'm doing" section, but this was the closest I could find.
I'm working on a new circuit for my car. I'm hardwiring my gps and radar detector, as well as my fog and racing lights. I bought a project enclose from radio shack and went for it. I drive a mini, so my battery is in the back. I have 10guage leads going up to the front. The positive goes into a 35 amp toggle switch. Then to a distribution block to the four switches. The negative is the same, just skipping the switch. When I have one of those jumpers that has a battery so you can jump you car without another car. On my work bench I hook the system up to it, and using my multimeter I get 12.71v from all the outputs. Next, I hooked up my fog lights, gps, and radar, they all worked perfectly without any issues.
This evening I went to install the box. Before I connected anything I measure the main power leads. I got 12.41, which is lower than the jumper, but still above the 12 volts everything needs to work. So after installing it and hooking it up, my radar comes on fine, yet the navigation and lights won't. I have a 1 1/2a inline fuse for the radar, and a 15 for the lights. For the gps I just bought an auxiliary 12v outlet, then hooked the normal cigarette lighter power cord into, and secured it with heats shrink.
I really don't understand it, I haven't messed with electronics like this before, and I can't figure out why everything works on the bench, then I carry it 5 feet to the car, and nothing. Thank you soo much for the help in advance
I'm working on a new circuit for my car. I'm hardwiring my gps and radar detector, as well as my fog and racing lights. I bought a project enclose from radio shack and went for it. I drive a mini, so my battery is in the back. I have 10guage leads going up to the front. The positive goes into a 35 amp toggle switch. Then to a distribution block to the four switches. The negative is the same, just skipping the switch. When I have one of those jumpers that has a battery so you can jump you car without another car. On my work bench I hook the system up to it, and using my multimeter I get 12.71v from all the outputs. Next, I hooked up my fog lights, gps, and radar, they all worked perfectly without any issues.
This evening I went to install the box. Before I connected anything I measure the main power leads. I got 12.41, which is lower than the jumper, but still above the 12 volts everything needs to work. So after installing it and hooking it up, my radar comes on fine, yet the navigation and lights won't. I have a 1 1/2a inline fuse for the radar, and a 15 for the lights. For the gps I just bought an auxiliary 12v outlet, then hooked the normal cigarette lighter power cord into, and secured it with heats shrink.
I really don't understand it, I haven't messed with electronics like this before, and I can't figure out why everything works on the bench, then I carry it 5 feet to the car, and nothing. Thank you soo much for the help in advance