Permanent AC power invertor install
 

Power invertors have been around now about 15 years mass market and basically upscale 12v DC into 240V AC. This is quite handy to have in your car as you can power a laptop whilst parked up, or run a mobile phone charger, or vac your car our without running an extension... :p

They come in all sorts of sizes, from the fag lighter variety at 150 - 250 w to the hardwired ones from 300w upto 3000w which would power fridges, microwaves and god knows what else....

I have a modest 700w invertor that I've had for many years and is very reliable and well built. It will easily provide me with the power for my laptop (which I see as the primary use) without requiring cables so thick I need to remove the boot lid just to hook them up to the battery..

So, first of all I had to decide where my mains feed was going to come out, and that for me was definitely going to be the cubby hole under the armrests. nothing else useful goes in there, in fact, things get lost in there and it is arguably accessible from both the front and rear so thats the place for me. With this in mind, before the carpet went back in, I ran a 3 core 13 amp flex from the boot by the battery through the cabin to the center console region. In this case, I took a non-audi route across the corner of the floor space on the rear drivers side so as not to cause interference with anything else...



http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292687

Then, my 'health and safety' concious kicked in.... 'what if I spill a drink in the center console', how do I turn it off quickly? I cant just turn the ignition off at 70mph (ish) on the motorway, so an on/off override switch was needed....

The invertor is going in the boot as close to the battery as possible to save on cable runs and DC current loss over distance, so any on/off switching from the drivers seat requires a cable running the full length of the car... :rolleyes: So, here we have a 5m run of 3 core automotive cable salvaged from a different car loom, then fabric wrapped (im getting good at that by now) for safety and ready to go in...

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292687


After running eveything I need to the boot space, including multimedia stuff for the RSE this is the spaghetti i'm facing:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292687

Slightly tidied up, and here is the power invertor, cunningly the same size as the space on top of the RSE kit where the playstation used to sit.... +++

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292687

And to attach it, I use these wonderful, wonderful self tapping steel screws. They are tipped with a drill-bit type end and will drill through plate steel, and then screw anything steel together in one hit... It was easier than a nut/bolt combination that will need me to dismantle the RSE to get to both sides of the top plate. Fab. (do make sure you have clearance underneath before you start drilling though - I do... but it would make a mess of the DVD changer if I didnt!)

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292687

but before we drill, hook up the cables... 2 big fat supply cables, and 1 tiny little supply cable that will turn the invertor on. This cable was originally just going to go to the ignition, but now its going to be switched too, so the ignition feed in the boot is now wired to go down the cable loom I just made to the front of the car, and the cable that comes back from the switch is connected to here, so I can say when its on or off.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292780

And here it is all secured in place......

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292780


Here we have the fuse protecting the whole thing - rated at 60amps which is a fair whack. note the additional fabric tape giving an extra layer of protection to the unfused section that is connected directly to the battery under the trim....

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292780


and here is where my switch is going - in the drivers door I'm already running cables through into there at the moment, so running an extra few doesnt make any difference, plus its a nice discrete place for the switch to live out of sight, but easy to reach :D

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269040048

and finally, the flex in the center console is terminated with a socket. I was going to go all posh and go a surface mounted flush socket in some sort of fancy carrier, but time is against me right now.... There is about 2 ft of flex spare here to reach where I want right now, and can easily be modified later without disturbing anything else..... +++

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1269292780

Well Ian, I’m more and more amazed at your creativity (and sheer lunacy), but I suppose if you have the car in bits why not go the whole hog and get it exactly how you would like it.

One question though - does the car hum now with all that electrical trickery on board :ROFL:

Seriously though, that is one unique motor now. And before Amar asks :D, if and when you are offloading can I be considered?

Niall