testing electronics

[jake91]

how would i go about testing car electronic such as a dic, ub3, ect without wiring them into the car

[grandprixnyc]

I've been wondering this myself.

[Brian P]

Find your power and ground pinouts and give it some juice. What are you testing for?

 

 

Spare plugs with a few inches of wire makes this much easier. It's the only way I've ever done it.

[jake91]

just wanting to see if they work or not

[Brian P]

Okay, if you grabbed the harness plug and a few inches of wire, you can find the power sources (12V constant, 12V switched) and ground wires and power it up accordingly.

 

You can sometimes determine which wires are which by color, but that's not always accurate. You may be able to find the wire functions of a certain device on this site, or maybe someone knows or has access to literature that shows it. Post up the part, along with what it came out of, and I'll see what I can find.

[jake91]

cutlass

UB3

 

[Brian P]

http://www.w-body.com/upgrades/88-91cutlass-cluster/index.html

 

Look at the last two charts for wiring. Put power to C1, C16 and D16. Ground wires C14 and D1. Obviously verify your wire colors before testing.

[jake91]

okay thanks now for the dumb question what type of power supply would i use

[Brian P]

you could always get a universal car/cig lighter adapter, cut the wires and tie them to their respective locations. It wouldn't be a "bench test" but the cig lighter would supply enough power for it. If something were to short, it's a fused circuit anyway.

 

Otherwise you could look for a 12V wall adapter from places like radioshit.

[jake91]

okay thanks

[GnatGoSplat]

Junk PC power supplies (or one of your PC's power leads if you don't mind accidentally toasting your good PC) will work too. Those portable jumpstarters also work well.

 

For a PC power supply, you want wires black (ground) and yellow (+12V). You need to short the black and green wires together if this is an ATX PSU not hooked up to anything.