jnabird333

I decided to make my own sPOD like box(s) and post a write-up on it. I would like to start off with saying that this is NOT a cost savings over the sPOD product. I believe they make a quality product and at a fair price. It may seem a bit steep, but by the time you buy wire, relays, fuses, fuse blocks, switches, and fabricate something to mount it all, you will likely have just as much in it. I made mine because the sPOD does not do exactly what I wanted, and I thought it would be a fun project for me. I am a multi-skilled guy. I have lived a lot of lives for my age and it has left me with a pretty diverse range of skills. I don’t pretend to know everything and I learn everyday. This project required some metal fabricating as well as a great deal of wiring (of course). If you are not comfortable with these skills, you might have to pull some IOU cards from your buddies that are. (If you are close to me, I would be more than happy to help.)

So, as I previously stated the sPOD is great but doesn’t do exactly what I wanted. (What doesn’t it do? You ask.) Well for starters, I wanted to integrate the Rubicon Locker Bypass Mod into the switches. This modification involves the switching of a ground and not supplying power. I also wanted my switches to be illuminated when the bypass is activated. Additionally, I wanted to trigger a few of my circuits from conditions other than a switch. For instance, I want to activate some aftermarket spot lights on the windshield pillars when my high-beams are on without having to hit the switch. As you may or may not know, the JKs do not use a regular 12V “hot” on the lighting circuits, but rather a square-wave signal that has an RMS voltage of around 12V. This signal will create relay chatter on many relays and needs to be corrected. This is also the culprit to the flickering LED headlights. There are many threads about this and several ways to correct the issue. I chose to use a capacitor and diode to hold my relay’s voltage high and eliminate the chatter. I wanted the diodes and capacitors to also be integrated into my system. Lastly, I wasn’t real thrilled about the mounting location of the sPOD’s switch module. It seems to block access to the top clamp just a touch too much. I wanted my box to mount under the header and above the rear-view mirror.

The first thing I did was draw up a schematic to rough in my concept. This also allowed me to put together a bill-of-material and order some parts. I wanted all my parts in-hand before I worried about the actual mechanical mounting of anything. My parts-list is below along with the schematic.


I know this is very tough to read. PM me if you want me to email you a better copy. I wasn't able to attach the .pdf because it was too big. I also have it in 2004 CAD.

My Bill-of-Material:
• (2) Oracle Lighting Amber Switches (LSGQ16FO) ordered from Amazon.com
• (5) Oracle Lighting Green Switches (LSGQ16FG) ordered from Amazon.com
• (1) 50A Bussmann Circuit Breaker (CBC50HB) ordered from Amazon.com
• (1) Ancor Fuse Panel 6-Gang (607122) ordered from Amazon.com
• (7) Absolute 30/40A Automotive Relay (RLS125) ordered from Amazon.com
• (2) IDEAL 12 circuit terminal block (89-610) bought at Lowe’s
• (2) 100uF 35V Electrolytic Capacitor w/ Axial Leads, I bought from RadioShack
• (2) 1N5400 Diode, I bought from RadioShack
• (1) Turck FK10-0.5 receptacle, and (1) RS10-4 cable. (I work for an automation supply company so these parts were ordered there. You could use a 9-wire multi-conductor cable with at least 22AWG wires as a replacement to these parts. You will need at least 12 feet)

Other parts that I consider consumables that you will need:
• (Several) IDEAL Blue 16-14AWG Insulated Spade Connector (770311) bought at Lowe’s
• (Several) IDEAL Red 22-16AWG Insulated Spade Connector (770310) bought at Lowe’s
• (~15’) 14 AWG stranded wire (I had this) Originally bought from McMaster-Carr
• (~10’) 20 AWG stranded wire (I had this) ) Originally bought from McMaster-Carr
• (~10’) 6AWG stranded wire for man supply and ground.
• Ring terminals for main power lead connections.
• Hardware to mount everything to the plate. For me, this was several 10-24 x 0.5 pan-head screws. Some 10-24 x 1.5 pan-head screws, and some 4-40 x 1 screws. I used all Stainless hardware but I’m sure you wouldn’t have to. I would’ve liked to have found finer thread bolts/screws but couldn’t at my local hardware stores.
• You will also need some rubber grommets (size is up to you)

I also fabricated my own switch and electrical boxes. If you are doing the same you will need some metal for that. I didn’t provide a lot of detail about the boxes for a few reasons. One, I made them on the fly and was too grungy to handle my phone or camera. The other is they will be different for each system; (unless you use the exact same list of components). Even then you might find that you need a little more or less room in one of your boxes. Never-the-less the metal that I used is listed below.
• (1) 8”x9” .120” thick plate. This is the bottom of my electrical box. I wanted it this thick so I could drill and tap my mounting holes for the components. I also welded one of the mounting brackets from the bottom of this plate. I wasn’t able to find this local, so I ordered it from mcmaster.com. It was a 12”x12” plate that I cut down.
• (~3’) 1.5” 14ga flat stock. This is the sides of my electrical box. It probably could’ve been thinner, but two of the front brackets weld to this so I wanted to be sure it was thick enough… It also holds the threads for the lid.
• (~1’) 0.75” 14ga flat stock. Used to make the mounting brackets.
• (1) 8”x24” 20ga sheet. This is what I bent up to make the switch box. (I ended up making the sides out of some cellular PVC that I had. I was going to bend up sides and/or weld them but my welder doesn’t run well really low and I was worried about blowing through it.)
• (1) 9” x 10” 22ga sheet. This is what I bent to make the lid of the electrical box.

Okay, so if you’re still with me through all that, here are some pictures for show and tell

This is the switch box all fabricated up. It is roughly 8 inches wide and 1 ľ inches tall. The depth is 2 Ľ inches. This is about the maximum you can go before you would have to account for the radius at the front of the head post cover. I hadn’t drilled the through hole for the cable in the cover. (My cable was 6.2mm in diameter). The hole was just over this. The cable has a pretty tough jacket, and I couldn’t find a grommet that worked well. I used a zip tie as an internal cord-grip/stop. As I mentioned earlier I ended up making the sides out of cellular PVC. I have predrilled both the sides and metal for screws later, but bot now the sides are held in place with Super-Glue to get through the painting phase.


This is the electrical box fully fabricated. Sorry for the lack of detail on the making, but it was done on the fly and I was too dirty to snag pictures along the way. I had just sprayed the first coat of primer. I always use the rusty-metal primer even when the work is new. It helps convert any rust that might have been there, (my opinion). You can see the mounting brackets pretty well from this picture.


Here is everything painted and ready to have stuff installed into it and wired up. The receptacle and wires at the bottom of the picture are what I will be using to wire in the signals to/from the switch box. The cable will plug into it once routed.


This is the electrical box with all the components mounted but before I wired anything. You will notice that rather than drilling several holes and using several grommets I used slots and bigger grommets smushed into slots. It worked out pretty well. Also you can see the receptacle mounted. Note that I cut the blank spot out of the fuse/distribution block to allow for some more real-estate. You may also notice that two of the relays are different. This is because I was going to use two lighter relays for the “locker-bypass-mod” but latter decided that it would be easier to simply use two more automotive type relays. Since I didn’t want to wait for matching ones from Amazon I went to my local auto supply store and scored these. (The only reason I need the relays to do the switching of the locker-bypass is because I wanted my switch lights to work when activated.)


Now I have everything wired and mounted into the Jeep. (Minus the actual loads, like lights.) I actually ordered some sockets for the relays to mount into but didn’t use them. They actually took up more space and many of the wires it came with were not long enough to be routed the way I wanted.
I know this looks like a spaghetti mess… but it really isn’t that bad. Remember, now that it is done, it will never need to be touched. I simply need to add the appropriate size fuse and wire both the positive and negative of my aux 12v accessory to the terminal strip.


This is the switch box all mounted and wired. (Yes, I drilled two holes in the plastic head tube cover. I know this wouldn’t have to be done with an actual sPOD but it was the best way to mount the box in the location I wanted it.) The switch box is mounted ľ” off of the back and just in front of the preexisting slot for the mirror cable. I will be using it the run the cable for this box too.


This is a close up of the cable that I wired into the switches. This plug end is what will hook-up to the receptacle on the electrical box.

Here she is all buttoned up!



Here is the in-cab finished product. Everything is turned on here. The two amber switches represent the two circuits that can be triggered by the JK’s PWM signal wires (like the high-beam). The right two switched are my locker bypasses.
My original plan was to have some custom vinyl labels made, but I kinda like the sleek look. (I know what they run and quite frankly I don’t care if no one else does) So time will tell if end up labeling them or not.

Now that this is done… The only think it does is the locker-bypass! I don’t have anything to turn on yet. I have verified my wiring and everything works so it will be ready when my wallet is to add some 12v accessories to my rig!

Thanks for checkin’ this out! See ya' on the trail!

Atlacatl

Wow... Kind of impressive. Looks really clean, nicely done.

sm_rubi

Now that's a great write up! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us!

PatrickESJK

Very impressive. You should make an overlay for it or you can hit up EDN. They make aircraft overlays. They will also do back lite ones like you see in the cockpits! Good job!!

Mgimelli

Nice will PM you for a better PDF

Redman333

now i have a question. I plan on ordering an sPod for my 2012 but there are a few things I would want separate from the sPod switches. I would like to build a second "sPod" of my own like yours and place the switches on the a-pillar. Anyway I can do what you've done here and probably will but is there a way to add an automatic disconnect on battery voltage like the sPod. I don't like watching my battery voltage so i like that the factory and the sPod has a voltage monitor and disconnect. is ther a way to use something like that on your setup. Maybe I missed it but I don't think you have one.

rocklikethat

Wow nicely done.

jnabird333

I'm thinking of something like that... But I need to have some accessories to label first As of right now the only thing it does is the locker-bypass. I know I want spot pillar lights and some floods on the bumper. I also plan to get floods for the rear and rock lights. But I want to have them before I commit to any labels. I have 5 circuits to add "stuff" even once/if I get all that is listed I will have a spare. What do I do about labeling that?

I will look into EDN, Thanks.

jnabird333

You are correct the run-down protection is something that I didn't work into my unit. I did consider it as it is a really nice feature they offer. In the end I wasn't really worried about it. There are some units out there that monitor the difference of alternator voltage vs battery voltage (14.6v vs 12v). They are meant to be used to activate aftermarket Daytime-Running-Lamps. Here is a link to one: LED Daytime Running Light (DRL) Automatic Control On/Off Switch Relay Harness | Xenon Gas H.I.D Conversion Kit | Auto Lamp Lighting I see no reason you couldn't use this to activate a master relay instead...

Of course this method isn't really a low-voltage detection but is rather a "running" detection. So the accessories would be off when-ever the Jeep was.

jnabird333

Thanks for the Thumbs-UP Guys