In-Cab Winch Controller

[Joel]

So I decided I need an in-cab winch controller and rather than buying one I was going to piece one together for the sake of my own education. So I gathered up all the parts I needed, found what I felt were some good resources and began to go to work on it. I got as far as pulling the cover off the solenoid pack when I got an amazing case of cold feet. The thought of possibly frying my Warn X8000i made me re-evaluate what I was about to do and instead assemble what I know and seek some reassurance/confirmation or correction as the case may be. So here is what I was going to do:

I picked up two rocker switches from 4x4 Mods . One is a typical on/off rocker switch and is the red one which will be used to arm the winch. The other is momentary on/off/momentary on switch and is yellow which will be used to power in and power out the winch. I found some excellent writeups on 3 wire controllers, unfortunately mine is a 5 wire and that was a little more difficult to find but I did find a few and for the sake of this post I will reference this one.

I was going to run power from the fuseblock behind my Heep's glovebox to the arm switch which is a DPST. So if the back of my switch looked like (letters used to show spades):
A B
C D

I would want to run power from my fuseblock to B.
D would connect to my switch to power in/out the winch.
And C would go to ground.

With the power in/out switch the spades on the back look like:
A B
C D
E F

Power from my Arm switch would connect to D.
Power in winch would connect to F.
Power out winch would connect to B.
A would connect to the brown winch ground.
C and E would both go to ground.

Is this correct or am I way off?

Thanks!

 

[Rich]

I've always just copied the wiring that runs out of the back of your wired winch control... easy easy.

I can't recall off the top of my head how the DPDT switch needs to be wired, but the DPST switch doesn't need to be DPST - SPST would be fine, since other 2 poles are not needed, and therefore don't need to be run to ground.

Just pull the switch out of your wired winch control and go off that...

 

[Joel]

I've always just copied the wiring that runs out of the back of your wired winch control... easy easy.

I can't recall off the top of my head how the DPDT switch needs to be wired, but the DPST switch doesn't need to be DPST - SPST would be fine, since other 2 poles are not needed, and therefore don't need to be run to ground.

Just pull the switch out of your wired winch control and go off that...

Thanks for the help Rich! That was exactly what I did and it worked like a charm. The "Arm" switch is DPST because that is all they sold at the place I got the switches from. I only had one mishap. When I was unbolting the negative battery cable the nut was seized and I ended up shearing the bolt inside the terminal connector. I decided to replace all my stock batter cables with 2/0 welding cable and finish up the winch controller this weekend. A few pics if anyone is interested:

 

[Rich]

Man, I dig those switches! The legends are really trick, I guess that's why they cost so much... limited production item and all...

 

[Joel]

And they light up. I had to try em out at night just so I could feel the gentle red and yellow glow. The ground was needed for the LED to light up on the "Arm" switch.

 

[got4-lo]

looks good!!!! looks like u goin to have to test it out. ahram...........this weekend, did someone say they at goin to tellico???

 

[Joel]

looks good!!!! looks like u goin to have to test it out. ahram...........this weekend, did someone say they at goin to tellico???

Nope. I believe someone said it was going to be too crowded for their tastes and will sit this one out. Have fun sitting around waiting though.

 

[Rich]

Were there any schematics on how the pins on the switches need to be for illumination? I just bought a bunch of ARb-style switches, and am having a bugger of a time finding how the pins for illumination need to be hooked up.

 

[Joel]

Were there any schematics on how the pins on the switches need to be for illumination? I just bought a bunch of ARb-style switches, and am having a bugger of a time finding how the pins for illumination need to be hooked up.

No, there wasn't which was why I originally posted since this is somewhat new to me. Here is the way mine are wired using letters as the spade terminals (poles?) on the back of the switch as you would look at the back of the switch. I dunno if it will help you out any but...:

DPST
A B
C D
N/A N/A

A - To accessory (or power to the other switch as is my case)
B - Not used
C - Power (from fuse block in my case)
D - To Ground

DPDT
A B
C D
E F

A - Ground (Winch)
B - To accessory (winch cable out)
C - To Ground
D - Power (from DPST switch)
E - Ground ( jumpered from A (winch ground))
F - To accessory (winch cable in)

My pics turned out a bit blurry but as an example (and before I connected the ground to the DPST swtich)

All of my LED's light up as they are supposed to and the winch powers in and out as it should and the DPST does cut power to the DPDT switch so I am pretty certain it is all as it should be. I hope my inarticulate, non-technical explanation is helpful to you.

 

[Rich]

That's cool.. the switches I got have 10 spots for pins.. I can figure out the middle 6, being just like a normal switch.. it's the other 4 that are a bugger. Gonna have to experiment...