A coworker just started using a 200 watt power invertor and is having a strange issue. When the car igition is on & invertor is on, if he turns invertor off before turning ignition off, his radio will play for about 10 to 15sec. If he leaves invertor on & turns ignition off radio stops playing. If the invertor is not plugged in (connects to cig lighter) everything is normal.
Is it possible for that invertor to store that much voltage to keep the radio playing after power has been turned off? Cig lighter has no power when key is in off position.
He had origanlly got a 400 watt invertor but had to return it. As soon as the power switch was turned on it would blow the 15amp fuse for the cig lighter. I am thinking that there might have been something wrong with this invertor. Maybe this caused the issue that he is haveing?
I would certainly wire an inverter to the battery, fused at say 25 30 amps. Use a simple on off toggle to complete the ground, to turn it on.
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That's because the ACC wire on the radio is on the same ACC as the cig lighter and various other things. I wired my Autopage RS1000 in my '08 Scion xD to turn on the radio when I activate channel 4..and the 12v cigarette lighter outlet turns on as well.
I would wire a relay to turn on with ignition to turn on the inverter that would get power direct from battery source fused at 25 amps. That way you cant forget to turn off the inverter and it still will get ample power while vehicle is running and stop the weird radio thing.
relay wired as follows
pin 85 to ground
pin 86 to 12v ignition
pin 30 to 12v constant source fused
pin 87 to inverter positive wire
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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya
What's happening with the inverter plugged in is that the capacitors inside it are storing a charge, and that charge is drained off by the radio's switched power circuit after the power is removed by the ignition switch.
Since that radio doesn't draw much current on the switched power line, it's able to stay on for the noticeable amount of time that it does.
If the inverter was left on, it would drain that charge itself at that time.
I'm not sure if the inverter ratings you cite are RMS or max wattage, but 400W RMS or even 200W RMS is too much for that cigarette lighter outlet. Divided by 12 volts you're drawing 33.33A or 16.66A respectively with the key off. He should wire it to the battery like others are advising.
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C Renner's Auto Electronix
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