Ignition Coil a Good source for the power to generator?

[AVP]

All you electrically minded folks, I need to locate a good source to hook my generator to. I am trying to do this with as little evasive work and so my connection can be easily obtained. The windshield wiper motor is out of the question - sealed and buried within a self contained unit. I don't really want to try and take apart my steering column to do it with the ignition itself. I do, however see what appears to be a great source on the ignition coil, which actually has a red wire leading to it and could easily be piggybacked on the post.

I don't know if the ignition coil could support an HHO generator, but of course I would have a relay between it and where I do eventually hook up my power source. Is anyone out there who can say yea or nea to hooking my power directly to the ignition coil?

Thanks in advance for any help. I've read this forum for months, and this is my first post because I've learned so much from other threads, I've rarely had to ask a question, but I'm sure not good with electrical stuff, so again, thanks in advance.
AVP

[John79]

You want power directly from the battery to go to the generator, use a relay in between and tap into the fuse box to power the relay. The relay takes very little power to operate so you could even use the radio fuse. You want something that is only hot when the ignition is on.

[H2OPWR]

All you electrically minded folks, I need to locate a good source to hook my generator to. I am trying to do this with as little evasive work and so my connection can be easily obtained. The windshield wiper motor is out of the question - sealed and buried within a self contained unit. I don't really want to try and take apart my steering column to do it with the ignition itself. I do, however see what appears to be a great source on the ignition coil, which actually has a red wire leading to it and could easily be piggybacked on the post.

I don't know if the ignition coil could support an HHO generator, but of course I would have a relay between it and where I do eventually hook up my power source. Is anyone out there who can say yea or nea to hooking my power directly to the ignition coil?

Thanks in advance for any help. I've read this forum for months, and this is my first post because I've learned so much from other threads, I've rarely had to ask a question, but I'm sure not good with electrical stuff, so again, thanks in advance.
AVP

Find the wire that powers your fuel pump. That is the best. Your fuel pump omlu works when your car is actually running. This prevents your HHO Cell from running with your ignition on and your engine not running. Use that wire to power a relay that will power your HHO Gen.

[AVP]

Thanks for the replies.

I've tried the fuse box method - I'm not sure that is the safe way to go (in fact I burned out the fuse source for my cigarette lighter when I had too many amps, even with an in-line amp in place!), but I'll give that another thought. On the fuel pump, in my car (1993 Volvo 850 sedan) it is very tricky to expose and work with, and as I've said I was hoping for a less evasive process. I'll will give it a look-see though.

My thought on the ignition coil was it is one of the only obviously exposed wiring sources and it would be a one minute hook up. If any one has ever used an ignition coil as the source, let me know!
AVP

[Painless]

As H2OPWR said, use the fuel pump to drive a relay. Take power directly from the battery to a seperate fuse or breaker and use the relay to switch that power on/off with the running of the engine.

The switching side of the relay can be powered by the fuel pump fuse in the fuse box, a clean and easy way to do this is to buy an 'add a circuit' or 'add a line' from an auto electrics store, NAPA stocks them.

You remove the fuse, plug in the add a line in its place then put the original fuse in the add a line. The add a line has a second slot for another fuse which provides power to a cable coming from the add a line to your relay.

[AVP]

Painless,

Good advice and thanks for that. I've managed to hook my power to one of the fuses that has power when the ignition is turned on (heated seats fuse).

I'll go ahead and ask another question - it is still electrical. I am using a relay and I've double, triple checked the wiring, the connections, everthing, and I am blowing 25 and 30 amp fuses the instant I start my car. I'm using 10 gauge on all connections, except the wire from the relay to the fuse box is 14. I'm not even getting the power past the in-line fuse I have connected to my battery (positive post on battery to in-line fuse, to #30 on the relay) - the fuse in the in-line fuse blows the instant I turn on the ignition. I am at a complete loss to see why and don't know how to diagnose the problem. It isn't as if my cell is causing the problem - the power is blowing up before it even gets there. Any suggestions?
AVP

[hg2]

Painless,

Good advice and thanks for that. I've managed to hook my power to one of the fuses that has power when the ignition is turned on (heated seats fuse).

I'll go ahead and ask another question - it is still electrical. I am using a relay and I've double, triple checked the wiring, the connections, everthing, and I am blowing 25 and 30 amp fuses the instant I start my car. I'm using 10 gauge on all connections, except the wire from the relay to the fuse box is 14. I'm not even getting the power past the in-line fuse I have connected to my battery (positive post on battery to in-line fuse, to #30 on the relay) - the fuse in the in-line fuse blows the instant I turn on the ignition. I am at a complete loss to see why and don't know how to diagnose the problem. It isn't as if my cell is causing the problem - the power is blowing up before it even gets there. Any suggestions?
AVP

Check to see if there's a wiring legend on stamped on the relay,if so use the n/c(normally closed) installation.Did the relay come pre-wired or with a pre-wired plug?

[Painless]

Just because the fuse is blowing doesn't mean that the problem is before the fuse.

Quite simply, your entire circuit is pulling more amps than the fuse is rated for. Either your electrolyte is too strong or you have a short somewhere. Take a good detailed look at you wiring and connections and make sure that the current isn't returning to ground before the generator. Also check your generator for plates or connections that are touching which shouldn't.

[Realtyroy]

Why don't you start with unhooking the generator and then turning on the key to see if the fuse still blows. If it still blows than you know its not your generator. If that is the case I would go over again how you wired your relay, the way you explained it sounded a little suspect to me.
You can do a search on youtube for hooking up a relay and get all kinds of video's to watch on the subject.

Good Luck!
Roy

[AVP]

Painless and Realtyroy,

Thanks for the reponses. The idea of unhooking the generator to see if the fuse blows first is a great idea - if it still blows, the problem is my wiring. If it doesn't blow, it has to be the generator. I'm pretty certain the plates and the hookups are good - I wrapped the plates, but don't see that they touch at all, but again, taking the generator off-line while starting the ignition can hopefully point me in the right direction. I'll report any results and thanks again for both of your inputs!
AVP

[AVP]

Well, as a follow up, the wiring was fine when not connected to my HHO cell, and blew immediately when I hooked up the cell, so it must be a configuration problem with the plates. That configuration is as follows: the positive strap to the positive lead is connected to one outside plate with metal nuts on the outside of that plate. I then have 2 neutral plates, all with plastic washers between, then the negative strap is connected to the 4th plate, again on one side with metal nuts, then the remaining plates (5 through 7) are all neutral (plastic washers between all plates). I do have a stainless steel bowed metal strip on the bottom of the first plate (the positive plate) attached to the last plate on the bottom (plate #7). Is that the problem? Any additional help here would be great. Thanks again.
AVP

[Spookious]

You're listing plate #7 as both being a neutral and a positive?? (Which means it's a positive, really.) Because of your strap, it sounds like... +NN-NN+, is this correct? You may not have enough neutrals (or maybe one more negative)?

(just a guess though; I'm still learning)

[AVP]

Spookius,

Thanks for your input. I guess I didn't state in my original post that was what I was shooting for - +NN-NN+. I sure don't see how that setup would be causing too much draw with those neutral plates positioned like that. Could be wrong, though. I have read a lot on these forums, and I think my spacing between plates is correct too, so I'm still looking for an explanation as to why this arrangement blows right through my 30 amp fuse so quickly. If the plate configuration is faulty and someone can help me on that, I'll surely change it, but I can only think of one other potential cause. If the wire coming from the relay was not correctly fused, that might be a problem. The relay wire is a smaller gauge (looks like a 14) and I've connected it to a 10 gauge to the generator, so if that connection were poor, would that create a short-out situation? Anybody on the plate design or that wiring question?
AVP

[crb]

Maybe your electrolite soloution is to strong.

[AVP]

crb,

I don't think so - I'm using NaOH in a pretty measured amount that I've tested as not drawing too many amps. The reason I don't believe it is the electrolyte is that no chemical reaction is even happening - the fuse blows the minute the contact is hooked to the generator, so I doubt the electrolyte could have an instantaneous reaction. Still think it has to be wiring or the plate set-up.
AVP