Protection for Elelctronic equipment in cars.

Take this link to my articles "Reading the World" and "Writing the World".

Not automotive specifically but definitely harsh environments. Once you have read those articles, which give a brief overview, then you should have an idea what else you need to do.

Hi All,

To run micro's and other electronic equipment in cars - What protection would you suggest.

Where can I find information on how to protect sensitive electronic equipment from surges and spikes etc.

Eg Transient Voltage surpressors etc

Thanks in advance.

Joseph

Teccor has a few app-notes on the subject of protection. I like the Sidactor devices they make as a way to clamp spikes. Just remember that in a car, you have a car battery that can give you nearly infinite current so you must always make the protection limit the current.

In general PTC overcurrent devices such as Bourns and Tyco/Raychem sell, work well to protect things like motors against long term overloads. They open the circuit long after any semiconductors they may be protecting are smoked. They are none the less useful when combined with a clamping and other current limiting method. They can prevent the protection circuit from overheating.

Another method is to design your circuit using truely huge semiconductors so that it will happily continue working with 60V applied. Reverse protection diodes on the power connections are needed too.

Murata has some devices called "posistors". They are much too whimpy to protect your power connections but could be useful as part of an I/O line protection.