Wolfbox fuse warning

[steven1955]

Hey folks...

Executive Summary: The fusetaps supplied with my Wolfbox sourced hardwire kit were 15A, way too big for the wire supplied with the hardwire kit. (Edit: I forgot to mention that the wires in question appear to be either 22awg or 24awg.) These fuses should be 2A or 3A. If you have the Wolfbox hardwire kit and use their supplied fusetaps check your fuses.

The story: I know I am just a lowly Gladiator owner, but I just installed a G930 along with the hardwire kit, and used the supplied fusetaps.

The problem I ran in to was that my fusetaps came with 15A fuses, which are way too large for the wire feeding the hardwire kit's electronics package.

Reading the G930 owners/installation manual gave no information on proper fuse size, Wolfbox's web site had nothing, and an internet search yielded nothing as well.

A pertinent piece of information: I used F52 (CIGAR LTR) for the yellow accessory lead and F98 (SW BANK - HD ELEC/OFF ROAD) for the red continuous power lead.

So I measured the current. When the JT was fully off the red full time power lead showed a power draw of 20-24 mA and the yellow accessory lead showed 0. (Obvious because the JT accessory was off.) When the JT was on, and the mirror was on, the yellow accessory power lead drew about 700 mA, and after a short while that dropped to closer to 400 mA. And the red continuous power lead dropped to near 0.

What I didn't measure was if, when the JT was fully off, the continuous power went up if the G sensor tripped and caused the G930 to record data.

The result of this is that I removed the supplied 15A fuses and replaced them with 5A I had on hand, and will likely replace those with 2A or 3A fuses in the near future.

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[Mark75H]

Fuses are sized to protect the wire they serve, not the equipment.

However, there is no reason not to down size when you can.

 

[steven1955]

Fuses are sized to protect the wire they serve, not the equipment.

In this case the wires that ran from the fusetaps to the hardwire kit's black box were only 24 or 22 gauge. From www.engineeringtoolbox.com
(https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wire-gauges-d_419.html)
24 awg wire is nominally rated for 3.5A and 22 awg wire is nominally rated for 5.0A.

So, I am sorry that my original post I neglected to mention the small wire size of 24 of 22 awg that fed power to the hardwire kit's electronics. But 15A fuses were way too big. Assuming 22 awg wire the 5A fuses I have in there now are OK.

I used to design industrial control panels in an earlier non retired life, so what I am about to say may have been updated code wise. We used to protect the load, and made sure the wire ampacity were rated equal to or greater than the load. The rule we used was that slow blow fuses were sized at 1.5 times the maximum running current, but if non slow blow fuses were used they were sized at 2.25 the maximum running current. For example, running current is much lower than the starting current of an electric motor, but starting current usually only lasts a second or two.

The maximum current I measured feeding the power leads to the hardwire kit was about 700 mA, or 0.70A. I believe the fuse type supplied in the Wolfbox fusetaps are not slow blow. As the max current was 0.70A, the required fuse value is:

0.70 x 2.25 = 1.575A.

As there are no 1.575A fuses you round up to the next larger size, in this case 2A.

 

[Nitehawk92]

Hey folks...

Executive Summary: The fusetaps supplied with my Wolfbox sourced hardwire kit were 15A, way too big for the wire supplied with the hardwire kit. (Edit: I forgot to mention that the wires in question appear to be either 22awg or 24awg.) These fuses should be 2A or 3A. If you have the Wolfbox hardwire kit and use their supplied fusetaps check your fuses.

The story: I know I am just a lowly Gladiator owner, but I just installed a G930 along with the hardwire kit, and used the supplied fusetaps.

The problem I ran in to was that my fusetaps came with 15A fuses, which are way too large for the wire feeding the hardwire kit's electronics package.

Reading the G930 owners/installation manual gave no information on proper fuse size, Wolfbox's web site had nothing, and an internet search yielded nothing as well.

A pertinent piece of information: I used F52 (CIGAR LTR) for the yellow accessory lead and F98 (SW BANK - HD ELEC/OFF ROAD) for the red continuous power lead.

So I measured the current. When the JT was fully off the red full time power lead showed a power draw of 20-24 mA and the yellow accessory lead showed 0. (Obvious because the JT accessory was off.) When the JT was on, and the mirror was on, the yellow accessory power lead drew about 700 mA, and after a short while that dropped to closer to 400 mA. And the red continuous power lead dropped to near 0.

What I didn't measure was if, when the JT was fully off, the continuous power went up if the G sensor tripped and caused the G930 to record data.

The result of this is that I removed the supplied 15A fuses and replaced them with 5A I had on hand, and will likely replace those with 2A or 3A fuses in the near future.

@WOLFBOX CAR LIFE...

 

[WOLFBOX CAR LIFE]

Hello Steve, thank you for choosing our dash cam to be your road companion. Here's a quick guide for choosing a suitable hardwire kit and link to purchasing one on our official website.
Quick guide: https://wolfbox.com/blogs/news/which-hardwire-kit-should-i-get-for-my-dash-cam
Hardwire kit: https://wolfbox.com/products/wolfbox-dashcam-multifunctional-hardwire-kit

 

[steven1955]

Hello Steve, thank you for choosing our dash cam to be your road companion. Here's a quick guide for choosing a suitable hardwire kit and link to purchasing one on our official website.
Quick guide: https://wolfbox.com/blogs/news/which-hardwire-kit-should-i-get-for-my-dash-cam
Hardwire kit: https://wolfbox.com/products/wolfbox-dashcam-multifunctional-hardwire-kit

Hello WOLFBOX CAR LIFE,

I was going to contact Wolfbox directly on this fusing issue. That being said, I am not complaining about your product, and I am actually quite pleased with my G930 so far.

So what is the issue? Unfortunately the issue was not addressed in either of the two links you sent me. There are actually two issues:

1). Wolfbox does not specify in any of the Wolfbox documentation or web site a recommended fuse size or type.

2). The fuses installed in the fusetaps supplied to me by Wolfbox in my Dashcam Hardwire Kit were 15A, far higher than appropriate for a piece of equipment that draws less than 1A.

Electrically powered items should have some form of protection against over current situations, and in automotive applications this is usually done with fuses. The fuses should be sized to protect the associated wiring as well as the electrical or electronic components.

What am I asking. Two things:

A). Wolfbox should add recommended fuse sizes to their dashcam mirror specifications. Some language like: The red continuous power lead should be fused at (2?) amperes, and the yellow accessory power lead should be fused at (2?) amperes. Your electrical designers may well recommend a different fuse rating than 2 amperes, but the 15 ampere fuses I received are clearly too big.

B). Wolfbox should make sure the hardwire kits, if they continue to supply fuses, come with the correct fuse as they specify in writing.

 

[WOLFBOX CAR LIFE]

Thanks again for your advice. We'll add those info later.

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