How is every one grounding their radios to the battery?
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junkyarddog
How is every one grounding their radios to the battery?
I've been looking around on the site and seen some posts that said they had their radio grounded to the battery, I did that to a Uniden PC68XL and smoke rolled out of the back of it. Can anyone tell me about this, I'm confused.
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Working Cowboy
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Working Cowboy
Hmmmm you dont need a fuse on the neg side the only thing I can think of with that fuse fact is that maybe you had a short of some kind in the (+) I have hooked up a bunch of radios in my life I have only burnt one I crossed my lines and hooked the (+) to the (-) and vice-versa. Short of that I have never seen a problem like that.
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Guest
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Working Cowboy
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Phaze91460
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Bozo
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Bozo Verified
- Site Admin
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Phaze91460
I couldnt help it, one too many drinks ...........
But realy, there is a funny story that goes with letting the smoke out. I was in an advanced auto computer class many years ago and the teacher told us that there was smoke in those wires. that evening when the class got back to the hotel I moved my stick shift pickup and the starter jamed the bendix into the case and stayed engauged. By the time I opened the hood the pos wire insulation was 3 times its normal size and it took that moment to shoot smoke out the side. The entire class saw it and laughed their a** off. the next day we comfirmed with our teacher that he was right, there really is smoke runnin in those wires.
But realy, there is a funny story that goes with letting the smoke out. I was in an advanced auto computer class many years ago and the teacher told us that there was smoke in those wires. that evening when the class got back to the hotel I moved my stick shift pickup and the starter jamed the bendix into the case and stayed engauged. By the time I opened the hood the pos wire insulation was 3 times its normal size and it took that moment to shoot smoke out the side. The entire class saw it and laughed their a** off. the next day we comfirmed with our teacher that he was right, there really is smoke runnin in those wires.
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HI-TECH
yup there a small protection diode that when the polerity is reversed it will pop just like a fuze to keep the current from damageing the rest of the radio, 99% of all radio it has happend to can varry easly be fixed, most people just chuck the radio not knowing that a .10 cent part is all thay need to fix itHeavy Duty wrote:I have never heard of smoking a radio by hooking it up to the battery either like WorkingCowboy said if you crassed the wires something like that would happen but I dont think any other way it could
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SmallTruckBigRadio
Re: How is every one grounding their radios to the battery?
Back to what junkyarddog was asking...whew...you guys...junkyarddog wrote:I've been looking around on the site and seen some posts that said they had their radio grounded to the battery, I did that to a Uniden PC68XL and smoke rolled out of the back of it. Can anyone tell me about this, I'm confused.
Good info there Hi-Tech, I didn't know that one...
junkyarddog, please excuse the ruckous above, I'm wondering if more than one, had one too many.
Whether you blame the Uniden smoke on crossed wires, 15 years of age, or bad radio; running power to the battery is a good idea, but I have also had good luck running the small chassis radios, like Cobra 25 stuff straight out of the cigarette lighter. I might get smacked by the other guys for mentioning that, but it works.
You will lose a little power, and there may be an increased chance of noise but it works. Running to the fuse box, and battery are both steps up, and like WorkingCowboy mentioned, fusing near the power source connection is very important for safety reasons. (ex: vehicle fire)
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231
Ditto. It's the only way that can happen. Often people will buy a so called replacement plug for the back of the radio, and come to find out the polarity on the radio is actually backwards from the replacement plug. When in doubt about of which is which, fuse both. That way the worse that is likely to happen is you'll pop a fuse.THUMPER wrote:IF IT WENT UP IN SMOKE IT IS BECAUSE YOU CROSS THE NEG AND POS
WIRES
Many Hams will fuse both power and ground points at the battery. But keeping things in perspective here, more often than not they are running $1000 Kenwood, Yaesu, or Icom radios. A $50 CB is a far cry from that. I have heard of power spikes in mobile systems from 1 maybe 2 Hams that took out a radio. But in all honesty have never once experienced that, nor know any of my friends over the years who've had that happen. As the result, I have never fused both...never needed to.
I always run both +/- connections directly to the battery. The battery itself acts as somewhat of an insulator against electrical noise from under the hood. Often though, even that isn't enough to keep the unwanted noise out.
But I say when in doubt...in other words if you aren't 100% sure of which is which, fuse both links. If it's dark when wiring the radios, wait until light or fuse both terminals. Crossing the connections is the only way that can happen (assuming of course the radio itself is in good condition).
Just my thoughts on it.
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