DC CONTROL PANEL HELP

Alshymer

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Hello
I have purchased a control panel from Amazon to tidy up my wiring internally.
There is one USB socket and 1x12 volt socket and 5 switches to wire in various circuits.
All circuits are connected in series with one positive and one negative to join to the leisure battery connections.
What confuses me is that a note says ‘all fused lines connect to load positive pole.
I assume that this means that they connect to the initial positive feed from the battery?
Could someone kindly just confirm this rather than telling me I shouldn’t be messing with it!!!😂😂
IMG_5612.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think all the circuits will be in parallel,
If they are in series then you only have one circuit and all switches have to on for the circuit to be made,

spok.jpg
 
Alshymer said:
Ok so if they are in parallel, what then?
Thanks for replying.
Click to expand...
a) Connect the negative terminal of a 12v dc device to earth (chassis), then connect the device's positive terminal to a "+VE (load)" red wire (having checked the device) draws less power than the fuse limit).
b) Repeat upto five times
c) Blank off any unused "+VE (load)" red wires and remove the fuse
d) Connect the "-VE (battery) Black wire to a suitable chassis earth point
e) Connect the "+VE (battery) red wire to the +VE terminal on the battery with a suitable sized in line fuse near the battery.

The device will only get power if the switch is on. It will get power irresptive of the ignition switch position.
If you only want stuff powered when the ignition is on use a suitable alternative to the battery in step "e".

I have to say this is very very basic stuff and asking the question together with stating series instead of parallel means that maybe you should get someone else to do it.
 
Alshymer said:
Hello
I have purchased a control panel from Amazon to tidy up my wiring internally.
There is one USB socket and 1x12 volt socket and 5 switches to wire in various circuits.
All circuits are connected in series with one positive and one negative to join to the leisure battery connections.
What confuses me is that a note says ‘all fused lines connect to load positive pole.
I assume that this means that they connect to the initial positive feed from the battery?
Could someone kindly just confirm this rather than telling me I shouldn’t be messing with it!!!😂😂View attachment 207082
Click to expand...
You appear to have grasped the way to connect the panel up but you must be careful of the total load.
That single red cable going to the battery positive is going to carry the total current for everything including the usb, whatever you choose to plug into the 12v socket and everything else connected to those 5 other switched circuits. Obviously I can't see the unit in the flesh but that main red positive cable looks mighty thin and only good for a few amps and should have it's own separate fuse directing at the battery.
Is the red cable actually thicker than in the image? If not I'd be sceptical about using it. Ultimately be very very careful not to overload that red supply cable.
 
As I said previously, is the main red feed cable thicker than in the image?
For 15A you need 3mm square minimum and the cable in the image looks like 1mm max, maybe even 0.75.
 
Alshymer said:
Hi. Thanks it says it is 15amps.
Kaolali bought on Amazon
Click to expand...

Kaolia is a brand and they have several control panels on Amazon.

I think I have found the one that matches the OP's description and the wires do look thicken that those on the OPs photo.
They do quote a 15 amp max.
I would have presumed this was the total for all 12v outlets (including the cigar lighter socket. ) but they should a 15amp fuse for each switch on the wiring diagram.

alwire.jpg


 
The core is soldered over so a little difficult to tell but I would say 1-11/2 mm. So I shall be using a 12v plug for the tv, a USB for Firestick and two leads charging iPhones.
So maybe I need to send it back?
Do you have a control panel that you could recommend?
Thanks as ever for your help.
 
As suspected it sounds like the cable is somewhere between 0.75 and 1mm. Good for 4-5A . Total.
Going back to basics.
The cabling including the output cables appear to be good for 5A only, that's about 60W. Everything on your list looks within limits but check the consumption of the TV.
The cable daisy chains from one switch to the next (this is the design flaw) so you could reconfigure the main supply to everything on the board and remove the daisy chain feed system and take a separate feed to each switch, this will simply entail a short length of suitable cable with a crimp terminal. Take all of these new feeds and join them to the main supply cable.
There should be a fuse in this main supply cable close to the battery appropriate for the cable size.
Swap all those individual fuses to 5A.
The max current for any one switch is now 5A with no danger of overloading anything.
The supply cables to the usb and cigarette socket need to be treated in the same way with a separate feed with a 5A fuse in each.
 
Thanks so much for that. Much appreciated.
I have noticed though that the original Rapido wiring is only around the same size!
Originally this powered one cigarette socket.
This is the power lead that I shall be connecting the positive from the control panel to. Is that a problem?
Best wishes
 
Alshymer said:
Thanks so much for that. Much appreciated.
I have noticed though that the original Rapido wiring is only around the same size!
Originally this powered one cigarette socket.
This is the power lead that I shall be connecting the positive from the control panel to. Is that a problem?
Best wishes
Click to expand...
Yes, it'll be a problem.
It's almost certain that the original rapido panel didn't directly switch anything of any power consumption but did it's switching indirectly via remote relays. You'll need to pull a new supply cable to the panel from a higher current source, possibly the battery but there may be a heavier cable at the 12v fuse box if that's more convenient.
This new cable ideally needs to be big enough to carry enough current to everything supplied by the new panel IF everything was to be switched on at the same time. BUT we use a system called 'divergence' whereby we assume that not everything will all get used at once and undersize the main supply cable accordingly. If you used a 2.5 mm cable for the main supply and fused it at 10A to protect the cable in case lots of stuff got switched on together you'd probably be fine 99.9% of the time, go over and you'll still be covered because the main fuse will protect the cable. If you wanted to increase the margin for nuisance fusing then use a 4mm cable and use a 20A fuse at the source.
 
Thanks again but why do I wish I had never started!!
It’s a long way to the battery/ fuse board from the control panel.
 
There's nothing stopping you from wiring up as you originally thought but ultimately the total amount of power available to share between all of those items will be limited by the supply cable. The supply cable MUST be fused at source appropriately. If that supply cable is say 1mm or 0.75mm as we think then it should be fused at 3A or 5A accordingly to make sure it doesn't overheat and set your van on fire. Total power will thus be limited to 3/5A and you'll probably be replacing the supply fuse on a regular basis before you learn what you can get away with switching on/ plugging in. If you're willing to accept that then that's fine BUT please confirm the supply cable size and appropriate fusing because that's extremely important.
 
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