Difference between revisions of "Solving wiring diagrams -- a technique"

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(Created page with 'David Bierl: In understanding Vanagon (or any other) wiring diagrams there is a not-so-little trick that will make it vastly easier to figure out what's really going on in a cir…')
 
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David Bierl:
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In understanding Vanagon (or any other) wiring diagrams there is a
 
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not-so-little trick that will make it vastly easier to figure out
 
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what's really going on in a circuit.  Before you can do this of
 
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course you have to be familiar with Bentley 97.3-97.6. so the
 
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diagrams make any sense at all.
 
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The trick is this:  First copy the page in question so you won't
 
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wreck the original if you mess up somewhere.  Get yourself an
 
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assortment of colored pencils, at least five or six including brown
 
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and red.  Then take a look at
 
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http://picasaweb.google.com/dbeierl/FiguringOutVanagonWiringDiagrams#
 
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for a working example of how it's done.  You may want to keep it open
 
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to refer to or make a color print of it to use the first time or two
 
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you do this.
 
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Start by locating the grounds.  Since this is a physical schematic
 
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some of them may originate far away from where you're looking even if
 
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it would be easier to understand if they simply drew all of them
 
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straight down to line at the bottom line of the page, which is
 
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chassis ground.  Every terminal labeled as 31 is a ground.  Every
 
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ground you find, draw  a brown line next to the wiring for its whole
 
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length. For switched grounds I recommend a dashed line instead of
 
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solid upstream of the switch.
 
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Then look for the +12 supply wires and color them red.  You may well
 
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want to use different colors for unswitched (terminal 30), switched
 
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by ignition (terminal 15),  and switched by the load reduction relay
 
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(X-terminal on ignition switch operates it; power upstream is 30 at
 
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the relay, downstream (switched) is 87 like all relay
 
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outputs.  Again, power that's switched downstream should use a dashed
 
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line downstream of the switch.
 
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Now pick a wire and figure out what it does.  Follow it off the page
 
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if necessary and label where it goes on your drawing.  If you can't
 
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figure it out, pick another wire.  As soon as you know what it does,
 
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label it as such then pick a color for it and draw solid or dashed
 
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line as appropriate.  If a single wire does multiple things, as in
 
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the circuit from 53e at the motor up to the switch, down to the relay
 
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and thence to the motor 53 terminal, use multiple solid or dashed
 
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lines as appropriate (Note: the pink wire should be dotted for its
 
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entire length and there should also be a brown dotted line for the
 
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whole length of that circuit.  Can you discover why?  Answers on
 
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request.  Hint: I missed one of the functions of the auto-park switch).
 
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Keep on doing this for wire after wire until you understand them all
 
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(or are certain you understand enough of them, which may or may not
 
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be true).  Each wire you figure out makes the rest easier, and the
 
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colored lines take away the visual anonymity of Joe Random
 
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Black-line-on-the-page.  Now you can follow the circuit around and
 
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find out where a particular problem might (or must) lie as well as
 
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where it cannot.
 
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This is the second time I figured out this particular wiper
 
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circuit.  The first time I forgot this trick I learned thirty years
 
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ago, and it took me over an hour.  This time I remembered, and it
 
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took about ten minutes after I found the colored pencils and
 
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photographed the page.  And I was easily (but not in ten minutes)
 
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able to establish that the relay cannot possibly be correct as drawn
 
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(since at some point it would hook +12 directly to ground) and how it
 
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would actually have to be (which happens to coincide with the diagram
 
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molded into the side of the actual 19 relay, but I didn't know that
 
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at the time.  I definitely did *not* figure that part out the other time.
 
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Yours,
 
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David
 
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Robert Keezer adds:
 
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This is an idea I had 15 years ago when I was installing Digifant 2 and later Motronic fuel injection wiring in my 82 Westfalia ,with one additional trick-
 
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make the copies larger than the Bentley, making them easier to read.
 
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The circuit tracks are very close on top of the page, and I mixed up the 1 wire with the 15 wire and fried the computer before I ever got it started.
 
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Colored marking pens also work well. Once you learn these diagrams, you can troubleshoot any circuit easily, or do a conversion. Many of the color codes for Vanagon are the same for Jetta , Golf etc.
 
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[[Category:diagnostic_tips]][[category:understanding_bentley]]
 

Revision as of 15:45, 7 May 2010

(deleted the content until I can get permission from the original posters)