E.L.V. Colour Identification.

For USA and 110V far east black is a live colour - rather like red or brown here. White is a neutral colour rather as blue here.

So it is a sort of re-use of the mains colours.

Mike

Thanks Mike.

Z.

Zoomup said:

P.S. Edit. Add. I have just found this..........

The colour coding is out of date.

EU harmonized standard BS EN IEC 60445 (and also the one in IEC 60445) has the following preferred colours (requirement in BS 7671:2018+A2:2022 for the installations in the scope of the standard):

2-wire DC

2-wire positive earth DC

2-wire negative earth DC

3-wire DC

The list colours might be out of date but are still actuality found in real life. There are just too many changes and reasons for confusion. Consistency is sadly lacking. For vehicle wiring to a 12 Volt battery I still prefer the age old established colours as found on car batteries, RED = + and BLACK = -.

Hi Zoomup , even this has changed now ... Brown L+

www.gomog.com/.../LucasColours.html

Hello Graham, I have just been helping a neighbour with his new camper van and connecting up a solar panel and 12V T.V. and aerial amplifier. I do not really follow any colour coding any more, and test for polarity with a continuity tester with a bleep mode. Most stuff is centre pin positive with the 12 Volt plugs and cigar sockets and plugs. I can not afford to get things wrong.

But with anything in a camper van, I alwas ensure adequate local fusing to prevent overloading or fire in the case of a short circuit or faulty appliance.

Z.

aah - the old mini metro was wired more or less to that Lucas code. But only more or less.
There is no truly safe assumption about colour codes in vehicles, and anyone who expects there to be is going to be disappointed.
Mike

As mentioned in the linked text, a pairing of one 'marked' core and one plain core is normally arranged with the marked core positive, overriding any significance of the colours of the insulation and marking. My experience of figure-8 cables on DC power bricks, wall warts etc is that about 80% of manufacturers adhere to this. I have been caught out by one manufacturer that switched the marked core from negative to positive during a production run with no visible indication externally. Both versions were correctly connected to the attached coaxial DC jack so they presumably didn't see any need to warn the odd user who might need to connect directly to the cables.

On a related note, I found one example with a really mean trick. It had a single-core screened cable (as many power bricks do) terminating in a coaxial (barrel) DC jack with centre positive. All unremarkable, until I discovered that the centre conductor of the cable was negative and connected to the outer of the jack, and the screen positive and connected to the centre contact.

Long story short, I ran a cigar lighter extension lead from the cab to the under-vehicle leisure battery.

Hopefully with a suitable fuse - not too close to the battery itself and the pre-fuse wiring reinforced against faults (A721.55.3.6).

  - Andy.

The fig. 8 cable is protected by a 15 Amp blade fuse at the battery position contained in a closed weatherproof fuse holder. Where necessary the fig. 8 cable is oversleeved with P.V.C. sleeving to afford additional mechanical protection. Its run is high up next to the chassis to be out of the way of road debris that might be thrown up,  The cable will only carry a trickle charge from a dashnboard mounted 50 Watt solar panel via its control box. The battery is a leisure battery only, not the main engine starting battery. The prices have gone up frighteningly for these of late.

Z.