Time to serious up my light system

Question : How big, amperage wise should I use for the fuse block ? I found 3 amp but believe I could use 1 or 1.5. Thoughts ? And yes I know LED's don't draw much power. I was just curious. BTW. The headlight has 9 leds, 27 watts
 
Question : How big, amperage wise should I use for the fuse block ? I found 3 amp but believe I could use 1 or 1.5. Thoughts ? And yes I know LED's don't draw much power. I was just curious. BTW. The headlight has 9 leds, 27 watts
Whatever will prevent your wiring from frying if it shorts, that's actually what a fuse is used for, if the component is already overdrawing then it's probably toast anyway, but having several feet of wire go up in smoke is by far much worse and much better at setting other things on fire. I would go with 10% above whatever the connected component is expected to draw, if you can't get it that small then use the smallest you can find, and test (yes that means destroy) a (too big) fuse by connecting a length of wire to it and then that directly to the battery, if the fuse doesn't pop and the wire just gets all hot and super-bendy or smokes then just drop the fuse all together because it's not going to save you in the event of a short.

27w at 12v is 2.25amps, so a 1.5 should blow out under that lamp, if you can get a 2.5 that would be a hair bigger than the 110% of expected draw from that lamp. Use this site to calculate your amp/watt/volt values easily, get your amperage and multiply by 1.1 to get a good fuse rating. If you let your battery get kinda low before charging then maybe up that to 120% or multiply by 1.2 since as the voltage lowers the amperage goes up to keep the same wattage, so a 12v led using 27 watts will draw 2.25 amps, but if the same lamp operates at 11v then it must draw 2.45 amps to meet the 27w requirement. At 10 volts the lamp would exceed the 2.5amp fuse and blow it out, that's if it even ran at that voltage, but still something that needs to be considered when picking fuses that operate on any voltage that is dynamic (like a battery, as voltage does not remain static throughout the discharge unlike static ac voltages or batteries hooked to a regulator that will only output a single voltage regardless of the battery's input.)
 
Thank you Frankenstein. I knew there was a formula for calculation of amps but couldn't remember. Age ya know. Found a 10 ah lifepo batt 12 volt half the weight of sla 99 bucks plus 15 shipping. 10 ah is better than what I was planning to use. Dakota Lithium is the name of the company. 19 bucks for a charger. So 10 ah batt 2.25 draw equals just shy of 5 hours. Correct?
 
Just ordered 2 12 v 10 ah lifepo4 from Dakota Lithium. Along with the charger. At half the weight, the enclosure can deal with and last a little longer.

Thinking about building a trailer anyway and will locate both batteries there along with the charger and tool box.
 
Just ordered 2 12 v 10 ah lifepo4 from Dakota Lithium. Along with the charger. At half the weight, the enclosure can deal with and last a little longer.

Thinking about building a trailer anyway and will locate both batteries there along with the charger and tool box.
While I don't know this beyond a doubt, and told differently by an employee of advanced auto, but I am pretty f***ing sure you can use a standard car battery charger on a li-ion battery meant to be installed in a bike or atv for starting purposes. My thought is that the vehicle doesn't know crap about what battery is installed and many are very likely manufactured before a li-ion battery was even a thing. So by default the manufacturer MUST AND I MEAN MUST install a protection circuit on-board to protect their battery. Especially when it says it works in everything and doesn't require crap to adapt it.

This goes with any and every possible drop-in replacement battery you will find online. If a listing at all hints it needs a protection board or some odd thing to "charge safely" then drop them like a mother f***ing melon. Either they haven't got a clue what they are selling (which means stay away from them since they'll sell you anything even if it isn't appropriate for you) or are selling something that literally needs a special charge circuit, in which case it's the farthest thing from a drop-in unit.

So if I see a battery like that at autozone or advance, or anywhere for that matter, and it's advertised as being capable of just replacing a lead-acid with no additional components then it should be fine to charge on a regular car battery charger because that's exactly what's in the f***ing car already, a car battery charger!!

That's how it charges it without blowing up, so if that part or the car charges a li-ion battery without the battery blowing up, then why shouldn't the the charger work without the rest of the car attached? You get what I'm saying?

When I asked the clerk why a motorcycle can charge the battery without problems but the same basic thing plugged into a wall can't he told me he "didn't know but the battery still needed a special charger to be charged outside the bike."

I set the battery down and said "no thanks because you don't seem to know what you are talking about." I probably would have bought it but I remember how turned off I get from talking to people who bring up questionable answers, it's like you either do know or don't, if you seem to be swaying with some popular opinion or idea I get really sick because I can't trust anything they are producing at that point.

I haven't asked this question before or after that point, but if anyone has an idea about what I'm asking there please chime in. I really can't wrap my head around a li-ion starter battery that can be safely used in ANY vehicle but somehow needs a magic charger once outside of said vehicle..
 
While I don't know this beyond a doubt, and told differently by an employee of advanced auto, but I am pretty f***ing sure you can use a standard car battery charger on a li-ion battery meant to be installed in a bike or atv for starting purposes. My thought is that the vehicle doesn't know crap about what battery is installed and many are very likely manufactured before a li-ion battery was even a thing. So by default the manufacturer MUST AND I MEAN MUST install a protection circuit on-board to protect their battery. Especially when it says it works in everything and doesn't require crap to adapt it.

This goes with any and every possible drop-in replacement battery you will find online. If a listing at all hints it needs a protection board or some odd thing to "charge safely" then drop them like a mother f***ing melon. Either they haven't got a clue what they are selling (which means stay away from them since they'll sell you anything even if it isn't appropriate for you) or are selling something that literally needs a special charge circuit, in which case it's the farthest thing from a drop-in unit.

So if I see a battery like that at autozone or advance, or anywhere for that matter, and it's advertised as being capable of just replacing a lead-acid with no additional components then it should be fine to charge on a regular car battery charger because that's exactly what's in the f***ing car already, a car battery charger!!

That's how it charges it without blowing up, so if that part or the car charges a li-ion battery without the battery blowing up, then why shouldn't the the charger work without the rest of the car attached? You get what I'm saying?

When I asked the clerk why a motorcycle can charge the battery without problems but the same basic thing plugged into a wall can't he told me he "didn't know but the battery still needed a special charger to be charged outside the bike."

I set the battery down and said "no thanks because you don't seem to know what you are talking about." I probably would have bought it but I remember how turned off I get from talking to people who bring up questionable answers, it's like you either do know or don't, if you seem to be swaying with some popular opinion or idea I get really sick because I can't trust anything they are producing at that point.

I haven't asked this question before or after that point, but if anyone has an idea about what I'm asking there please chime in. I really can't wrap my head around a li-ion starter battery that can be safely used in ANY vehicle but somehow needs a magic charger once outside of said vehicle..
Yeah Frankenstein. It's split down the middle with what you can and can't use to charge a type of battery. My thought is this. " If this is what the manufacturer recommends then this is what I am going to use.". Less of a chance of warranty issues in my opinion.
 
Yeah Frankenstein. It's split down the middle with what you can and can't use to charge a type of battery. My thought is this. " If this is what the manufacturer recommends then this is what I am going to use.". Less of a chance of warranty issues in my opinion.
If the manufacturer sells it as a drop in but also recommends a much more expensive (or any 'special' charger for that matter, regardless of price) then they deserve to be shot.
 
And I ordered direct off sleaze bay
I looked at the listing of what you bought, funny enough it's printed right on top of the battery that it has an on-board protection circuit. To top it off it says it's compatible with most sla chargers in the listing.

That's exactly what I'm getting at, they even out and say it's compatible, that seller is exactly the place I'd go to for a battery like that, they confirmed every notion I had about a drop in replacement as far as how it should function goes.
s-l400 (1).jpg
 
Yup those are the ones 20 amp hours should be more than enough to run headlight running and turn lights along with a radio XM preferably but don't know if that is gonna fly past the finance committee.
 
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