Instrumentation progress

For the last few days I've been putting the finishing touches to my instrumentation. I have the ammeter and voltmeter installed in the dash-box and the challenge was to wire it up efficiently.

I decided not to wire the instruments directly to the car, since this would cause problems if I needed to remove the dash-box (which I probably WILL at some stage). So that means I need to utilise some plugs.

I reviewed the entire range at Jaycar and Dick Smith Electronics and settled on some large auto-style plugs. I had considered using some square "pin & socket" ones that you make up yourself, but I've had a bad experience with them previously (not being able to match up the plug & socket inside the frame) so I went with pre-wired plugs.

The 4 pins are aligned in a 3-1 style, with 3 pins and a socket on one plug and 3 sockets and a pin on the other. To eliminate the potential of accidentally plugging voltmeter input into the ammeter, I used alternate plugs on the box. So the "A" style is for the voltmeter and the "B" style is for the ammeter and never the twain shall meet!

Now that the box is almost complete, I'm very happy with the results. I'm just waiting for the glue to dry before I get busy with the soldering iron, heatshrink and hair-dryer. I'll post up some pics when it's all done so you can see the results.