bikerglen

I built my own relay box for controlling my LED off-highway lights and rock lights. Total capacity is limited by the connectors I chose and the 1oz copper weight board to 20A total, 10A per circuit. Not enough for big loads, but enough for LED lights (including my Vision X Reflex 20" bar). It's about 3.5 x 3 x 1.5 inches. I'm going to mount it under the driver's dash near the door connector.

First the board:



The fat connector in the bottom left is the power input. The four to its right are the power outlets. The switch connectors are at the top. Each switch connector has +12V, GND, switch, and LED pins. This way I can run one cable to each switch and not have to do any splicing behind the dash at the switches. It's also modular so if something fails, I can move switches and loads between circuits very quickly.

Then the start of the enclosure:



The front and rear of the enclosure arrive on Monday from the machine shop. I'll post pics of the completed assembly (provided I didn't screw up any of the math!) next week. Until then, the rubber bands hold the two side extrutions and the top and bottom of the enclosure together. I should have time to mount it in the Jeep next weekend.

sburggsx

Wow, very nice looking. Did you do the circuit board yourself or is it available somewhere?

BlackNorthernJK

Well Done ! Looks very profesional. How did you make the circuit board?

bikerglen

I designed the board using Eagle PCB then had batchpcb.com out of Boulder fabricate it (in China ).

I've never done a high-current PCB design before. I'm a little worried about the integrity of the solder connections through thermal expansion / contraction cycles. I turned off thermals on the high-current holes. My logic was that I wanted the greatest amount of copper making contact with the high-current pins even though it would be harder to solder. I'm not sure if that was the right decision. Time to go night wheeling and do some field tests!

If things work well, I may move to a 93 mil FR4 and 2oz copper weight but these boards would have significant NRE and minimums compared to what batchpcb charges.

bikerglen

Panels came in. They fit! Here's the assembled box with a beer bottle as a reference for size. The weekend's project is to mount the relay box in the Jeep. Tonight's project is to finish another beer.

BIGJ

very nice looking design, keep us posted,

JK-ADD77

Wow! Nice Work!!!! Very Clean!

Let's see pics with it hooked up!

JPSquad

Cool project. Let us know how it worked out.

bikerglen

Mounted the box to the Jeep today and connected it to the lights and battery. Next up is the switches. Here's a picture of it mounted. I used zip ties. It's going to be tough to change fuses in this thing without cutting it down. Maybe if I do another rev, I'll use standard automotive fuses and have them poke through the lid so they are easy to change.



This was a really awkward photograph to get. Had to use a fisheye and two flashes then crop it out of the larger picture.

4whelin

Good job on the photography, what slave flash you used?