juiceman84
New Member
Hey Voltman,Hey juiceman,
I redrew your diagram as I would recommend. The circuit just goes from one side of the contactor to the other. No need to go all the way back to battery positive.
I just went to a local electronics store and bought what I needed. I recommend a momentary switch that is on when held down and off when let go. Mine is just a little black button. Seems best for something that only needs to be on for a few seconds.
I just connected the circuit up with wires between all parts; so the resistor and switch just join with a connecting wire. As in my other little picture I bent the resistor wires around the large ceramic resistor, used solder and heat shrink and then put a clear heat shrink over the whole thing. This ensured the resistor wires didn't bend back and forth but rather were rigid with the resistor itself.
My resistor is 270ohm 10w. The fellow at the store worked out that 10w should be adequate. I believe he used Ohms law to work it out, but if you're around 200ohm you should be good with around 10w.
I'd push the button for around 5 seconds before turning the switch.
I've removed all the black cover plastic from mine. I suppose you'd just need to remove the minimum to see the main contactor (relay) and underneath the control panel, assuming you'd like to put the switch there.
I think the main contactor has 8mm bolts, so 8mm ring terminals to suit your wire gauge would be good. The wire just needs to be bigger than the wires coming out of the resistor. I oversized mine to be on the safe side.
Hope that helps.
One last (I hope question). I got my resistors in but I'm having some difficulty with connecting them with 4AWG battery cable. What gauge wire did you use when connecting your resistor in series with your switch? Also, to confirm, did you use pure copper wire for this application (not any of this CCA stuff they sell on Amazon)?
My concern is that I want to make sure I have the proper sized wire to handle the 48v side, however as this is a momentary connection, it may not be required to use such thick wire to connect this part of the circuit together.
Please let me know your thoughts when you get a chance.
Thanks!