ISIS Power Booth Setup at SEMA 2011

Okay Folks,

Bring on the 2011 SEMA Show!  Our booth is set up and ready to go.  We're really pleased with how it turned out.  We have changed the way that we're showing off the benefits of wiring your car with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System. 

The show piece is our 1955 Ford F100 panel truck.  In previous SEMA shows, we have highlighted some of our customers' best cars.  From Porsches to Ferraris and high-end resto-mods, we have shown some of the extremes of what ISIS can do. 

This year, we wanted to take it back to basics.  That is what our truck is, basic.  It is a driver, it needs work and it is simple.  Once you see how little wire is in the truck, you get to appreciate the simplicity of wiring your vehicle with ISIS. 

Once you get the simplicity of the system, you can see where you can take your car with ISIS.  We're showing off our new alarm and security functions with inLINK on the kiosk, some of the new features on our inTOUCH MAX screen and changes to our inTOUCH Mobile App. 

We also have QR codes sprinkled across the booth.  You can use your smart phone to scan these to get instant access to material on our website, our blog or our YouTube account.  You can get more information, watch a video or send yourself a link so that you can learn more later. 

We're also showing off the wiring savings that one of our customers gained by installing ISIS into one of his race cars.  He's prepping a 2000 Porsche 911 for the track.  Every pound counts, so he gutted the car's electrical system and replaced it with our 3-Cell Kit.  He gets all of the OEM functionality and more.  At the same time, his net weight loss in the car is over 30 pounds.  That is a huge deal. 

Lastly, we're showing off three new products.  We'll leave the details of these for a post tomorrow but here are a few teaser pictures. 

Come meet the ISIS Power team and check out all of the action at the 2011 SEMA Show.  You can find us in booth 25164 in the Central Hall. 

Keep watching for more updates. 

ISIS in Vegas...

Well, after months of planning, organizing and packing, SEMA 2011 is here. 

This is our largest tradeshow for the aftermarket side of our business.  We introduce new products here, meet old and new customers plus spend a lot of time building our brand. 

We have a lot going on this week.  First, as I mentioned before, we have three new products debuting this week.  Watch for posts talking about these tomorrow morning. 

Also, tomorrow morning is the debut of the Classic Industries 1972 Duster that was built for Chop Cut Rebuild.  The team over at Classic and CCR have been pretty hush-hush with the final product but I had a chance to take a peak at the car.  It is awesome.  Watch for coverage tomorrow morning. 

Keep watching out blog, the Facebook page and the Twitter feed for information from ISIS Power at the 2011 SEMA Show. 

New Products...

Hello Folks,

SEMA 2011 is very close and this is our chance to debut all of the new cool things that we've had in the lab since last November.  We've been busy over the past year listening to customers and bring them the new features and functions that they want.  Our overall goal is to simplify the way that you wire your car or truck and to get more features. 

We have three new products that we are debuting this year at SEMA.  One is a cool new lighting product that we're bringing over from the commercial side of our business.  Another will dramatically reduce the wiring behind your dash.  The last will revolutionize the way that you control the environment in your car.  We're very proud of all three of these and we know that they will make a splash at SEMA this year.  We came in a runner up for the best new engineered product out of 2,500 new products submitted at SEMA 2010.  We'll see how we do this year. 

If you are going to be in Las Vegas November 1st through the 4th and happen to find youself in the Convention Center, you can see all of this live at our booth, 25164 in the Central Hall. 

Stay tuned for more details on these new products. 

New Video from Herr Display Vans...

Okay Guys,

We've blogged about these guys before.  Herr Display Vans builds a pretty broad range of first-responder, emergency and tool trucks. 

They just posted a great video showing off what they can do with the Freightliner M2 truck.  They typically use this as the foundation for their tool trucks.  It is a great, cost effective platform that performs. 

They use our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System with our inTOUCH MAX touch screen to wire all of their trucks. 

Check out their new video. 

You can learn more about Herr Display Vans at their website by clicking here. 

Get Ready for Season 8 of Chop Cut Rebuilt on SPEED...

Hello Folks,

As we've blogged about before, we teamed up with the guys at Classic Industries and the crew from Chop Cut Rebuild to breathe some electrical life into their 1972 Duster.  Under the leadership of Dan Woods, the whole team has created a MOPAR masterpiece with this car. 

Dan wanted to take this Duster to a new level so he reached out to us for help on wiring the car.  We used our standard 3-Cell Kit with inLINK and inMOTION in the car.  We wired everything from the headlights to turn-signals to starter solenoid to ECU to brake lights, windows and trunk popper.  inLINKG gives the car security and the ability to pop the trunk off of the key fob. 

The first episode of season 8 airs this weekend on SPEED TV.  Later in the season, you can catch the episode where I help wire the car with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System.  We'll send out information when that eposide debuts. 

Here is the teaser video for this new season. 

Chop Cut Rebuild: Season 8 First Look
You can catch the first eposide on SPEED at 8:30 AM Eastern time on Saturday, October 15th.  Check with your local cable provider for more details. 

Starting Joe M's GTM with ISIS...

Another one of our customers just put up a great video showing how he wired his Factory Five GTM with ISIS.  He replaced the stock wire harness with our 3-Cell Kit.  He also added our inMOTION motor controller for his windows and for the tilt & telescope mechanism on the column.  He added inLINK for wireless control and security plus he added inRESERVE to protect his battery. 

Check out the video below.  Joe walks you through the ISIS wiring in his GTM, shows where he mounted the components and lights up his LS1 using the ISIS one-button start. 

The car looks great.  As soon as he gets his Mendiola transaxle, he'll be out there go-karting with the chassis. 

Thanks for the video Joe!

ISIS Power Case Study- Herr Display Vans

We've added a new customer case study to the commercial side of our website.  These are intended to teach what other customers are doing with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System and to highlight the benefits that they are seeing in their vehicles. 

This case study looks at Tim Herr and his team at Herr Display Vans out of Steger, Illinois.  Herr builds a broad range of vehicles including rapid-response trucks and command vehicles but their main business is building tool trucks.  Their customers are distributors of tools for companies like Matco, Cornwell and Mac Tools.  These trucks are rolling stores and offices.  Their customers demand a lot from them. 

The Herr team installs one MASTERCELL, two POWERCELLs, inLINK and the ISIS inTOUCH MAX touch screen in all of their trucks. They purchase their system with harnesses manufactured to specific lengths for their trucks.


The inTOUCH MAX touch screen is the heart of the vehicle. The owner and operator of the truck uses this to control everything from the interior lighting, display lighting, scene lights, overhead fans, the hot water heater, and door locks. The screen also displays the voltage on the batteries so the customer knows when he needs to start the truck’s engine to charge them up again. The screens are also customized with the Herr logo to help promote their brand.

The inTOUCH MAX screen eliminates almost all of the switches in the truck that Herr has to add. This dramatically reduces the time that it takes to wire the truck plus it saves a significant amount of space.

Depending on the truck body that the customer specifies, they mount the front and rear POWERCELL in locations that reduce the length of wire running to the functions.

By adding the inLINK wireless module to their system, Herr gets all of the security, immobilizer and alarm functions that they were getting from their old supplier. The big difference is that all of this is integrated into ISIS and this requires no additional wiring. When the customer locks the truck from the ISIS inLINK keyfob, the front POWERCELL engages a solenoid that disables the start circuit on the truck. At the same time, the MASTERCELL monitors inputs tied to switches on the doors and hood plus a motion sensor. If any of these inputs are tripped while security is activated on the ISIS system, an output on the front POWERCELL energizes the siren to alert the owner that someone may be trying to break into the truck. Considering the value of the tools in the back of these trucks, these features help to protect their customers’ investments in inventory.

The ISIS inLINK upgrade also gives Herr’s customers the ability to lock and unlock the doors plus control the lighting remotely from the key fob. This is a feature that they couldn’t implement before with their existing alarm system.

What they save in each truck:


• Individually wired switch panels
• Remote fuse and relay panels
• Aftermarket security & immobilizer systems
• External voltage displays
• Reduction in wiring time

What they gain with ISIS in their trucks:

• A universal wiring system that works on any of the truck bodies that a customer may order
• A unique touch screen interface that sets their trucks apart from their competition
• More robust security, immobilizer and alarm functions
• Wireless control of truck functions
• Diagnostic capabilities for troubleshooting
• The flexibility to add other functions easily and quickly

You can learn more about Herr Display Vans at their website by visiting www.herrdisplayvans.com.  Or you can contact them at:

800-758-4377
708-755-7926
708-755-7948 fax
3328 Louis Sherman Dr.
Steger, IL 60475

You can download the complete application note at the ISIS Power website by clicking here. 

Plastikote in Action...

Okay Guys,

The rear-end of our 1955 F100 Ford F100 panel truck is ready to get assembled to the chassis.  The last thing that we needed to do was paint it.  As I've mentioned before, we're using Plastikote's Chassis & Grille Guard Epoxy Paint for all of our chassis components.  We picked the matte black finish. 

We want a durable, maintenance free finish under the ISIS Power truck.  This is a working truck for us and we it as reliable as possible.  The Plastikote line of products work great for our application.  They go on easily with no specialized equipment.  Our paint booth and spray capabilities are pretty limited so the fact that these finishes come in a spray can makes this brainless for us. 

We took one last swing at the rear-end with the wire wheel and some Scotch Brite to clean up any surface rust that popped up.  We hit it with a tack cloth and went to town with the paint.  Check out the action. 

Stay tuned for more.  We have a little more paint work to do on the chassis then we start assembling the Heidts Superide II IFS and their Classic Truck 4-Link Rear.  We also need to get the engine and transmission mounted plus set up the drive shaft. 

You can catch our entire video series of us wiring our truck with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System at this blog or at our website by clicking here.  You can also catch the videos for the Heidts hardware and more about Plastikote. 

Keith Bentzel's GTM in Vette Magazine & Kit Car Magazine...

Yes, you have seen this car before.  It was the centerpiece of the episode of Two Guys Garage that featured our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System in early 2009.  This is a beautiful Factory Five GTM that was built by Keith Bentzel.  He was one of our earliest ISIS customers and he did a great install in this car. 

I was flipping through the latest issue of Kit Car Magazine and caught this car out of the corner of my eye.  It really stands out so it is hard to miss.  After a little digging, I figured out that this was a reprint of an article that originally appeared in the July 2010 issue of Vette Magazine.  There are a ton of great pictures of the car and Christopher Phillip wrote a great article documenting Keith's baby. 

Keith wired the GTM with our standard 3-Cell Kit with inLINK.  He is using the stock GTM configuration with the one-button start function. 

You can check out the full article on the Vette Magazine website by clicking this link. 

ISIS Power F100 Paint Time...

We're done with the suspension & chassis work on our 1955 F100 panel truck.  The Heidts Superide II IFS and their 4-link are installed.  All of the metal surfaces have been wire-wheeled and cleaned.  Now it is time to paint the chassis and the transmission.  We want this to be as durable as possible and we don't want to have to worry about the finish once the truck is assembled. 

Not knowing a lot about paint, I reached out to my pal Tony D' at Valspar for some help.  We told him that we wanted paint for the chassis and for the transmission.  We don't have a really advanced paint booth so we need to be able to apply it with simple tools.  We also want something that will handle daily driving for our truck.

For the transmission, he recommended the Plastikote Engine Enamel.   It is designed for high temperature applications up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and will not be damaged by gasoline, oil or any other chemical exposure.  It applies easily from a can.  We picked the aluminum finish to match the look of our engine.  Check out this video talking about painting the transmission. 

For the chassis and all of the other parts on the chassis, Tony D' recommended Plastikote's Chassis & Grille Guard Epoxy Paint.  This is a super-durable epoxy paint that resists cracking, chips and peeling.  It is sprayed from a can and it creates a professional look.  We went with the matte black finish.  Check out this video for more. 

You can learn more about the Plastikote line of professional automotive finishes at their website by clicking here.  Stray tuned for more posts on paint and videos showing off applying the paint and showing off the finished product. 

ISIS & PWM...

Okay Folks,

Our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System is far different from a traditional fuse & relay based wire harness.  There are things that ISIS can do that you couldn't even begin to imagine with a good-old bundle of wire.  One of our biggest goals when we educate people about our ISIS Power products is to de-mystify some of the potentially scary terms that we use.  One that we use a lot is Pulse Width Modulation or PWM.  This is a fancy term for turning something on and off very fast to control power. 

We don't use relays in our ISIS POWERCELLs.  Instead, we use MOSFETs.  Yes, I know that is another scary term that we'll talk about later.  For now, all you need to know is that MOSFETs are solid state stitches.  Unlike relays, there are no mechanical parts in them.  You can turn a MOSFET on and off literally millions of times per second.  You can do that with a relay 2 to 3 times per second before you have to worry about burning up the contacts. 

The ability to turn a MOSFET on and off very quickly allows us to control the amount of power coming out of a POWERCELL output.  We do this by using something called Pulse Width Modulation.  PWM is the process of turning an output on and off quickly.  The effective power coming out of the output is proportional to the amount of on time as compared to the off time.  The ratio of the on time versus the off time is called the duty cycle.  So for example, if we turn the output on for half of the cycle time and off for the other half, your duty cycle is 50%.  The effective voltage of your output is approximately 50%.  This picture shows you what we mean. 

The three different graphs are 10%, 50% and 90% duty cycle. 

Check out this video showing you more about PWM.  If you haven't seen Colin's Lab on You Tube before, it is a worthwhile watch.  He is a geek's geek but who isn't.  As part of Make Magazine, his stuff is filled with tons of useful electronics projects, tips and tricks. 

So you're asking yourself, "what does this mean to me"?  "I'm wiring a car, not building circuits."  Pulse Width Modulation is a very effective and efficient way to control the brightness of lights and the speed of motors.  There is very little heat lost with PWM as compared to using resistors or rheostats. 

ISIS has PWM capability built into the POWERCELL outputs.  We can effortlessly dim lights, create daytime running lights, theatre dim interior lights and control motor speeds.  For those who need that advanced control, it is built right into your system.  No external modules or hardware are required. 

Stay tuned for more on the benefits of wiring your car or truck with our ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System. 

ISIS Power in Hot Rod Magazine

Marlan Davis wrote up an awesome article in the January 2010 issue of Hot Rod Magazine.  To help get an idea of how installing ISIS compares to a traditional fuse and relay harness, he turned to Kevin McMillan at McMillan Speed & Fab.  Kevin and his crew wired a no-holds bared 1957 Chevy 210 hardtop.  

The last paragraph in that article is really good.  Marlan makes the point that at first blush, ISIS looks to be twice the price of a typical harness in the aftermarket.  But when you start to consider that ISIS gives you, that it replaces and what you need to add to a traditional harness, ISIS is actually cheaper than the traditional harness. 

You can check out the article on the Hot Rod Magazine website by clicking this link.   There are also some great pictures of the wiring job that Kevin did as part of the article. 

You can also check out Kevin McMillan's website and look at some of his other projects by clicking this link.