Hi Stephen,
Here is a simple thing you can make to test with, which comes in handy
for all
kinds of troubleshooting.
Get a bi colored LED. One that glows red when the polarity is one way and
glows green when it is the otherway. Get a resistor to go with it. The value
will depend on two things. The voltage you are working with 6,12, or 24 and
the maximum current allowed to pass thru the diode. You can get this value
from the person you buy the diode from. They will probably help you calculate
the resistor value for you if you tell them what voltage you are working
with.
The calculation is simple though, Resistance = voltage / current.
Solder these two items together with a couple of ars length pieces of wire
to each end so you can get to anything in your engine compartment. Then
carefully mark each end with a Red and a Black tag, such that when you
contact the red tag to the positive terminal of the battery and the black tag
end to the negative terminal the led glows green.
[Tag]---------wire-------x------v^v^v^v^-----|<|-------x----------wire-------[Tag]
solder resistor LED solder
It's a good idea to wrap some tape around any of the exposed parts of the
wire so
you don't acidently short out your system while you are testing.
Bruce
Stephen L Dussetschleger wrote:
> OK, just because I dunno. A mid-70's GAZ COmmand car, appears stock.
> Would it have a "normal" electrical system ie: negative ground,
> poitive power, OR, some evil Russian copy of the "other" system ala
> LUCAS, wiht the positive side being the ground.
> Anyone know ? Dowanna burn the whole electical system out over a silly
> mistake.
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 08 2001 - 10:58:56 PDT