Been in and out of town, finally had some time between flights to wire up the PDM60 I bought from Rocket Moto months ago. The primary reason I wanted this was to do away with fuses and to confidently power my DDM xenon kit, which of course is throwing a LAMPF. My secondary reasons for installing this unit is because in the past, with my cars, I've run far too many relays. The idea of a single wire and no relays sounded great to me! Ultimately, I plan on adding a set of xenon fogs, a 12V powered USB hub, and some other misc electronics. From the time the 12v source is activated, i.e. key turned on, the PDM has a 6 second delay before activating all of its circuits. It appears this version allows you to aggregate two circuits for a larger capacity, so two 5 amp circuits can run in parallel as a 10 amp circuit. Even though a single DDM ballast hits 6A on startup, I am able to run it off a 5 amp circuit without any issues. Sorry for the crappy photos, I snapped the off my iPhone. Tapped the blue/green wire off the diagnostic port for my switched 12v+ I have the PDM60 sitting above my battery right now; when I have some more time I'm going to relocate it below the OEM toolkit. Everything working!
You could run one 30amp relay controlled off the CanBus to power the lights and that box and never worry about enough power to the headlamp ballasts. Let the CanBus control the relay and you'll have the delayed timeout too. Would it be possible to hook a relay to the light circuit for control and use a 30 amp relay to the HID ballasts ? I hate using an under rated control device. Time will tell when your feed wire melts :eek1
I could do that, but why would I? With the PDM, I run a single switched source instead of a bunch of relays. It's essentially a solid state fuse box that has programmable power on/off delays. The PDM provides 6 circuits, up to 60A so I'm not sure where you're getting the the idea that it's under rated. The DDM xenon peaks as 6A and tapers off to ~3.4A once it's running. I only run one ballast, in the event it fails, I can still turn my halogen high beam on.
Okay! I was under the impression it only had 5 amp circuits because you said you can run it on one, even though the ballasts start and peak @ 6. You also mentioned being able to join 2, 5 amp circuits to get a 10 amp capacity. I like the Bus delay and use it to control my accessories. It activates a 30 amp relay to control a 12V buss that will carry 30 amps if needed. One relay only, so it's a clean setup. I have my gerbing plug wired to the battery direct. I looked at that controller. I see what you're saying. It's not cheap, that's for sure. Looks like a nice setup, but kinda over priced IMO.
The whole thing is kind of confusing, there was a V1 and V2 PDM, each with different features. After a few emails back and forth, what it came down to was you have 60A and the controller can be programmed to deliver power however you want, with whatever startup and/or shutdown delays. From the factory, it comes with its circuits preset with a 15A and 5A circuit on a 180S shutdown delay and 15A, 5A, 5A, and 15A without any shutdown delay. All have a 6s startup delay. It was a little pricey, but for the convenience to only have to wire one thing made it worth it for me. I also like to support people who are willing to innovate. I believe the inventor is actually on this forum. Digital is also a huge plus for me. How it stands up in the real world? I guess we'll find out!
My 2-cents: remember that you can only add circuits of equal value arithmetically. A 5 amp paired with another 5 amp gives you 10 amps. A 5 amp paired with a 15 amp gives you 10 amps. Two 15-amps together gives you 30 amps. Their website had this wrong initially (e.g. a 5-amp + 15-amp = 20-amp), but they claim to have fixed this. Going on 2 years with my PDM60 - no problems.
Some of the HID kits out there draw a momentary 15 amps at cold strike. I would use a relay with at least 15 amp rated contacts, 30 amps is better.
