A REALLY Different Headlight Relay Upgrade -- 0 Relays

[Mike W]

When I completed the restore of my car, I spent a lot of time removing brackets, clips, and other miscellaneous parts within the engine bay in order to give it a cleaner and better organized look.  Actually, this was my son's idea, so I can't take credit for it, but it really did clean up the look of the engine bay nicely.

 

However, as I was contemplating all of the upgrades for the electrical system, I realized I was going to need a slew of new relays for headlights, cooling fans, etc and I just didn't like the idea of cluttering up the engine bay that I just got done cleaning up.  On top of that relays are mechanical in nature and as such can fail over time, so I really wanted something a little more elegant as well as reliable.

 

Well I did find something and I'm probably the only Z person in our universe who has done this.  I purchased a system from a company called Isis Power.  They produce a product that is essentially an integrated power control system that uses solid state FET transistors to switch power to the desired loads.  Zero relays and totally programmable.  They are apparently pretty popular with the hot rod crowd as well as folks doing a lot of ground up restorations.   In addition, they also provide a remote key fob and receiver that allows you to completely disable the ignition of the car (assuming you have your ignition wired into the Isis system) making it difficult if not impossible to jump start the car.  I will add that it is also expensive, especially as compared to the relay alternative, so I thought long and hard before deciding to do this.

 

Well it was an adventure to get it all working and took quite some time, but in the end I have an extremely reliable modern day system that not only provides power control but a slew of other features only available in more modern cars. 

 

Having said that, it really took some time for me to fully understand the way in which the system operates and all of the capabilities it has, but the fundamental premise of operation is that the system needs to see a switch closure to ground which serves as a signal to activate a specific load attached to the system.  As a result of that, I had to do a lot of rewiring as pretty much all of the switched circuits in our Z, switch power, not ground. 

 

The system comes as 2 units, a Master Cell and a Power Cell.  The master cell is the intelligence of the system and is the termination point for all of the switched circuits that you want to control.  The power cell actually provides the power to the desired load.  The master cell "talks" to the power cell over a 5 wire CAN (car area network) bus and will basically tell it when to turn on / off any specific load. 

 

I mounted the master cell on the passenger side kick panel where my old transistor ignition module used to be.  The power cell is mounted in the engine bay on the passenger side tucked away down by the frame rail. 

 

I also decided to only use the Isis system for the highest power devices in the car or ones that I wanted better control of.  So the system controls headlights (including Hi / Low beam), ignition, fuel pump, wipers, cooling fans, stereo, stereo amp and subwoofers.  The other circuits remain as they were although my original fuse box is highly depopulated now. 

 

For the install, I also added circuits gradually so I could better understand the way in which the system operated and ensure that each circuit behaved as expected.

 

I've included a few pictures of the install.  I've also left out a lot of details on the ins and outs of the install but happy to answer any questions.

 

 

 

[grannyknot]

Mike,

You know one of these days you are going to run out of things do to improve your Z, then what are you going to do? ::

Sounds like a great system.  So there would be no choke point for the power to flow to the headlights in all that tiny circuitry ?

[S30Driver]

Wow, that's one impressive, sophisticated control system.  Nicely done!

I'll have to read up on it on their web site.

 

i can't help but wonder what the final cost was, I'll guess near $1k ...

[Captain Obvious]

Wow, that's fancy!!
 

I too wonder how much $$. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know!

 

[Patcon]

I have seen this system in other hotrod type magazines. It's a neat system and if I remember correctly you can add more than one power distribution box. So one could handle the front of the car and one could handle the rear or however you wanted to break it up.

 

Found this:

Isis Power At the heart of the Isis Power system is a completely new paradigm for automotive wiring, so for the moment at least, try to set aside your current understanding of what's involved when wiring any car.

The brain of the Isis Power automotive wiring system is a completely solid-state unit known as the Mastercell. It accepts the actual On and Off switching of each electrical function and is fully programmable. It can receive input from as many as 50 different switches, sensors, and the like. The Mastercell in turn signals up to five Powercells that control the actual distribution of power.

Each Powercell is a localized hub that can be placed in the car as needed. One in the front, somewhere in the engine compartment, and another hidden in the trunk will be adequate for most applications. Each Powercell is wired with two eight-gauge, 60-amp, fused leads from the battery and can supply power for up to 10 different functions. The obvious benefit of this arrangement is that the taillights, fuel pump, trunk popper, stereo amp, or whatever don't have to be wired all the way from the dash but only to the local Powercell in the trunk. There are no battery voltage leads connected to any of the switches. Mastercell current to each switch is less than 1 milliamp. With that little bit of power you couldn't start a fire under the dash if you tried.

 

PARTS
DESCRIPTION PN PRICE
3-cell starter kit ISIS3BOXZ- Isis $999.00
inLink RF control module ISISRDFMZ- Isis 179.00
inMotion motor controller ISISMRSCZ- Isis 369.00

Read more: http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/interior-electrical/ccrp-1105-isis-power-system-automotive-wiring-systems/#ixzz3bXtc6g9B
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[LeonV]

Nice! Looks like a similar but much cheaper alternative to the Motec keypad/PDM we set up in a Civic Type R touring car.

[newtonhubcap]

Hi Mike, job well done. I am touch with Jay Harris in regards to Isis system which is now Infinity Wire Solutions. I have 2 1971 240's I am in the process of restoring and planning to use the his system. I was wondering if you could provide me any of the bumbs you encounter when installiing the system? Look forward to getting the system and getting them on the cars. Feel free to pm me or even contact me via private email (newtonhubcap@gmail.com)

Thanks,

Newtonhubcap