Since my haltech blew up yesturday I have been thinking about the likley cause. The only thing I can come up with is a voltage spike. The guys at haltech say they will call me by friday to let me know the actual cause once they have done there diagnosis.

Since I have the battery located in the under the hatch, I think maybe the ground is't good enough. I have a 2 gauge ground cable run from the battery to the chassis, that being the one that came from the relocation kit, and an additional 4 gauge cable run from the battery to the starter. I was thinking of upping that to 0 gauge, and running a ground cable from the starter to the alternator, and then running a few more from the engine to the chassis, There are currently 2 two gauge ground cables plus whatever mazda originaly had. going from the engine block to the chassis.

Anyways, In addition to this I was thinking of using a sterio capacitor in line with the haltech's power supply to filter power going to the haltech and its asscociated systems.

I think, sterio caps have ground loop isolators built in to filter ac, and capacitors block voltage spikes.

Is this correct?

Its been a while since my since I took basic electronics in the 10th grade.

Any thoughts or oppinions?



Is that correct

 

There are some posts about noise in the trigger that talk about using radio filters to see if this clears it up, but the answer to that is no it does not, and i am under the impression that those filters are only for power filtering radio power supply lines, so, i dont think its viable.

I would take it upon my self to properly ground your whole car, and i would also improve the positive leads, ie. battery to starter, to alternator, to mai fuse/relay, etc.).

 

How is a radio power supply line as you put it much different from the haltech power supply.

I will take steps to improve the grounding situation on my car. The cars power wire is a 2 gauge 16 foot battery cable that came with the battery relocation kit. I guess I could leave that and add an additional 0 gauge wire to the starter.

 

Well, the plain difference is that a radio is a radio, its not the delicate complicated piece of equipment that an Engine Management System is. The fact is that you can be pretty forgiving with a radio, not with the Haltech.

 

Car sterio's have much the same components that are in a haltech. Especially the curren crop of MP3 players. My sterio has an LCD television and a dvd player. One big reason sterio's are so reliable is that when you crank the engine the ignition shuts off power to the accessories. It isn't to conserve power so that the engine can start, its so that electronic components arent damaged. The haltech of course has to be on. If the radio is more forgiving it isn't because its significantly less complicated than the haltech, its because of either the reason I listed above or because the haltech is poorly designed.

Capacitors filter voltage spikes, if thats what killed my haltech, and it very well could be then a small cap designed for a car sterio should be perfect for a haltech.

 

Capacitors do not filter voltage spikes.

If you want to filter the supply leads to your Haltech, a few capacitors can help with voltage dropouts but caps are poor at absorbing spikes (especially in the long term). If you want to filter spikes, adding a large value inductor to the supply leads helps a LOT, and then connecting a MOV in parallel with that. You can also connect a diode forward biased between the +12V and ground connection to absorb any kickbacks from the ignition system, or even a zener diode as a clamp (but do not use a zener unless you understand the consequences).

 

Like I siad its been a long time since my 10th grade electronics class. So what I have is the internet, this is what I found on another site:


From: http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h12.pdf

Spike Suppression- A capacitor can absorb voltage spikes in a circuit. This application has been used in conventional ignition systems to prevent an arc from the breaker points when they are opened.

 

A capacitor is not going to solve your problem. It may(OR MAY NOT) filter the power supply, but it will not be the solution.

Proper chassis grounding is a good start. Other than that, this will not occur again.

In order for that resistor to blow, you have to receive a voltage spike, which could come from anywhere in the circuit. Not necessarily from any one source. Your car battery will have enough of a regulated electrical source, that a capacitor will not be necessary.

 

Since I have relocated my batter to the passenger comparment, I will ge adding an external kill switch. My understanding is that killing the engine while simultaniosly disconecting the batter will cause a voltage spike which can kill the ECU. There was another post not long ago where someone with an E6k had exactly this type of failure. Wether it be a cap or some other circutly I would like to add something to positivley prevent this from happening.

Also my grounding isn't that bad. I plan to improve it but its not terrible.

 

you already have a capacitor in there...a big one....its known as your battery !!!

The reason the rest of your electronics shut down under craning are exactly as you explained...for their protection. You cant do the same with an engine management system for obvious reasons (although GM actually do shut down their ECU undercranking - their ignition system will fire without an ECU attached at all).

As i posted just before - id say if you put a drop of solder over the resistor i told you to you will never have this problem again - i have done this to a couple of customer ECUs and never had the problem again.

 

Ok, I know your saying that I don't need it, but just for curiosity sake, how about something like this:
http://www.powerstream.com/dc2.htm

 

I don't understand what you're trying to do.
There are literally thousands of other vehicles with Haltechs fitted on them that do not have problems with electrical headaches.
Wouldn't you think that you might have a problem that's isolated to your car instead of trying to band-aid it with more electronics?

The Haltech ECU already has a regulated power supply.
Throwing an out-board voltage regulator is just moot.


-Ted

 

I am going to add better grounding, but I think my grounding isn't that bad. What 13bt210 said was the problem. Was the problem, so hopefully I will not have this problem again.

 

Different situation. That capacitor is absorbing a tiny high voltage spike that gets discharged when the points close. You would be looking at a high value low voltage capacitor to smooth out the supply. If you want to stop voltage spikes, an inductor is what you need. A MOV will handle the serious stuff...

But I agree with everyone else: There is a problem somewhere else in the system.