Using a Car Battery to Power a Sim.

Ok I decided I better clean up my sim a bit yesterday, had power cables all over the place and I wanted to be able to turn each power to the jrks off separately and same with the fans, plus make sure my E Stop switch was wired in correctly.

I purchased a cheap battery box that enables me to house all the wiring and switches in the box.
Wired it all up as per this diagram and it works a treat.

1. Plug in battery charger , turn on the charging power switch, to maintain a good charge.
2. Make sure the E Stop is open.
3. Turn power on to each jrk.
4. Turn power on to the fan.

Ready to roll.
On Shutdown I can either any time in the game press the E Stop and kill the power to the Jrks and do what I need to do and just open the E Stop and the sim comes back to life. or I can in turn switch off one of the Jrks separately, handy.
Now after a long run, I like to leave my fans on for 10 mins or so to cool the Jrks down properly, so I turn both the Jrks powers off and leave the fan power on plus the battery charger too.
Once cool I then turn my fan power off and leave the charger power running until the charger says its full again, and then finally turn my charging power off and unplug.
This has become my routine, easier to do this with a proper psu but this works well too, and cheap too.

Looks good buddy, so I take it that the negative being still connected all the time doesnt hurt anything then?
I have 2 pin molex plugs on my car battery - psu setup that completely disconnect positive and negative. Or am I being paranoid?

But from the charger there is only positive connected on the battery? How does it charge? Or have I overlooked something on the diagram..

No Gnd still connected should not mater I feel. Maybe good practice would be to remove it too, but pain I'm on daily.

Well battery charger is topping it up all the time, I have done a 6hr stint on the sim and with no power loss to be noticed, once finished battery charger ran for about 1/2hr till it was full again ready for the next day. Now if I forget to plug in the charger its about 3 hrs of use before I notice the lack of power, Battery is giving 13.8v at 50amp/hr , a gel marine would be way stronger but this was a cheapee.

Yes correct @RaceRay ran out of room to show it clearly , maybe I need to break each circuit down , it contains three, Charging Control, Fan Power Control and Jrk or HBridge power control.
By the way anyone not using a cut out switch is crazy a must in my books save my machine from destruction on many occasions.

YES!

Edit: At least when it comes to DC current. It may not be wise with AC though!

@eaorobbie , I am crazy as I dont have a cut out switch on my sim. Ride till destruction I say!

No sorry still cleaning it up and mounting the 32" screen, needs a lick of paint then yes its a ready for a show and tell, its features in my vids but its not shown that clearly, lol, Sim Tools keeping me too busy to finish it. Might end up like my last one, got it finished about ready to doc and photo it and somebody came around and bought it, oh well build another one.

Thanks Earobbie I never thought of cooling down JRKS , after use, always learn something on this web site thanks Domenic

After use? Mine cool down a bit when the game stops, but thats it. Then is natural cooling I suppose.

Ok thanks David have you ever had any issues just turning Jrks off straight away.
Thanks Domenic

nope. On the sim you have, I shut down the game, stop all simtools related programs, disconnect power including fans and shut down the 'puter. So it had maybe a minute or 2 extra cool down. Never a problem. JRK have thermal cutout if they get too hot. Never had that problem with heatsink and fan cooling. And Ihave had the jrks on the "all in one" sim you looked at run a hell of a lot harder than your sim.
Cheers, David.

I personally like to leave the fan running for a little longer to cool the jrks off properly, but yes they will naturally air cool by themselfs, The above diagram allows you to kill the power but still keep the fan running to cool them off to be safe.

Ok thanks guys

hi eaorobbie, thanks for posting this. What should be the spec of the battery? I've been looking at Amazon and I'm seeing so many types and specs of 12v batteries. Its confusing haha

go to an auto spares shop or car scrapping yard and find CHEAP. Generally a 300 CCA 12v will do the job as long as its charged regular

thank you sir!