Car electrical equipment

Almost always, a constant voltage is used to power on-board electrical receivers. 6 V was used on early cars, now 12 V prevails on cars and light trucks and 24 V on heavy trucks and buses with diesel engines .

The wiring is usually single-wire - the mass is used as the second wire - a metal body and a car frame. This simplifies and reduces the cost of wiring, but reduces its reliability with respect to short circuits. As a rule, the negative terminals of the electric power source are connected to the body (“mass”) of the car, this reduces the corrosion of the metal elements of the body.

The voltage of the onboard network is relatively arbitrary. If it is indicated that the network is 12-volt, then the voltage at the generator terminals will be approximately 13.7 - 14 volts, depending on the vehicle model and the voltage regulator settings.

In the vast majority of modern cars, the power source is a three-phase alternating current synchronous generator driven by the main engine; three-phase alternating current from the generator is supplied to the built - in three - phase rectifier and the voltage regulator circuit - in modern cars, the voltage regulator is built into the generator housing. A car battery is used to constantly and continuously power part of consumers when the engine is idle, such as lighting, a car radio, brake lights, anti-theft alarm, as well as to completely power all vehicle systems when the engine is started. After starting the engine, the battery is recharged from the generator, and then it works in a buffer with the generator, smoothing out the voltage drops when connecting powerful consumers. The generator capacity of a modern middle-class passenger car lies in the range of about 900–1300 watts.

On older cars, DC generators were used , which had larger dimensions and mass in comparison with three-phase generators; To maintain a constant voltage, a relay controller was used, consisting of three devices - a voltage regulator , a current limiter and a reverse current relay .

In some cases, on special purpose vehicles, as well as on armored vehicles, an additional generator is installed with a drive from a separate internal combustion engine (the so-called auxiliary power unit), which allows consumers to be supplied with electricity regardless of the operation of the main engine.

These include: switches and switches, relays , fuses , connector blocks, distribution and junction boxes, as well as power units.

Vehicle systems, depending on model and configuration:

• ABS - anti-lock braking system (anti-union automatic braking system)
• SRS - safety system (airbags, belt tensioners, etc.)
• EFI, ECM - electronic engine management systems
• Electronically controlled automatic gearbox
• Trip computer
• and other

Lighting devices

Automotive lighting devices are divided into external and internal.

• The exterior includes headlights (with dipped and main beam), side lights, direction indicators (combined with an alarm), brake lights, reverse lights, license plate lights, fog lights, contour lights, spotlights, in some cases decorative lamps.
• Interior lamps include interior lighting, an engine compartment lamp, a trunk lighting lamp, a glove box lighting lamp, a dashboard backlight, etc.

Other consumers

• Starter
• Ignition system
• On-board computer
• Electric power steering
• Motors for fans, wiper drives, power windows, etc.
• Heated glass
• Parking sensors (parking sensors)
• Rear View Camcorders
• Servo Seats
• Cigarette lighter
• Radio (radio), TV, multimedia entertainment system
• Sound signal
• Anti-theft alarm
• GPS, built-in or separate,
• Seat heaters,
• as well as other auxiliary and information systems and devices.

Some types of household appliances, adapted also for work in the car, can receive power from the car mains (connection is made either through a special socket or through the cigarette lighter socket). For this purpose, various adapters are used - from the simplest voltage dividers to switching power supplies with double current conversion. But the cigarette lighter socket was not originally designed to connect other consumers, except for the “electric lighter” heating element, so fuses and thermal damage to the socket are often blown (it is necessary to calculate the allowable current consumption from the cigarette lighter fuses).

On some machines with powerful generators, an inverter with an output of ≈ 220 Volts can be installed to power ordinary household appliances. Powerful special-purpose machines may have other networks with different supply voltages.

• Car electrical equipment - useful information