Button relay battery cutoff?

Button relay battery cutoff?

Author
Discussion

unclefester

Original Poster:

82 posts

216 months

Wednesday 12th June
quotequote all
Due to lack of space on the dash I want to find a good source for a button triggered battery cutoff.

The old red handle thing will not work due to lack of space.....

DCL

1,225 posts

187 months

Wednesday 12th June
quotequote all
Armtech do a good remote isolator http://www.armtech.co.uk/page6.html . Of note is that it works slightly differently from a mechanical switch in that it isolates the earth side of the battery and alternator so there are no alternator overvoltage problems you get with isolating just the positive battery feed. I used one without problems for many years.

That said, the normal place for a battery isolator switch on a Caterham is usually outside of the driver's side scuttle as it only requires one switch (can be operated by from outside and inside the car)

Edited by DCL on Wednesday 12th June 21:07

BertBert

19,729 posts

219 months

Thursday 13th June
quotequote all
I thought that you got the alternator problem even if you cut off on the earth side the battery when the engine was running.

Then the solution was to have it on the positive side with the shunt to earth to gently earth the alternator.

But both only a problem if you wanted to cut the circuit with the motor running.

That may be wrong though.

DCL

1,225 posts

187 months

Saturday 15th June
quotequote all
BertBert said:
I thought that you got the alternator problem even if you cut off on the earth side the battery when the engine was running.

Then the solution was to have it on the positive side with the shunt to earth to gently earth the alternator.

But both only a problem if you wanted to cut the circuit with the motor running.

That may be wrong though.
Because it is a two pole switch, they isolate the alternator as well as the battery. In practice it is a much better system than adding a resistor to hold down the voltage. Chances of 'run-on' and 'over voltage' are zero. But it is a little bit more involved to install.

BertBert

19,729 posts

219 months

Sunday 16th June
quotequote all
I have just got an isolator in the earth side of 7, currently out of circuit as it died. I've got a Redline supplied FIA one to wire in to the positive side, but that's a bit of a pain to get the battery cables to it.

Thought the Armtech one looked nice, but not at £430! Also it takes 12w to run it. What is it doing with all that power?