Interior lighting HELP!!!!

Post by **PrecisionBoost** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 4:16 am

I hate to be the bad news guy but the negative terminal for the light inside the switch is almost always on one of the two outside terminals.

Typically the center terminal of the switch will be the main power coming in from your source ( positive 12Vdc power spliced from cigarette lighter) and the other outside terminal should have your neons attached to it.

I think you took Cliff's diagram a little to litterally.... there should have been markings on the switch or the package the switch came in for you to follow....there is no way for him to know which terminal is which on your particular switch.

If your diagram is exactly how you hooked it up you may have accidentally put positive onto both terminals of your neons which is not a good thing....you might be ok if there was reverse polarity diodes in the circuitry.

If the switch does not light up you probably have it hooked up wrong but you must make sure to figure out which terminal is which before turning anything on.

Switches usually take any punisment you can dish out (especially toggle switches) so I doubt that you hurt it unless you dropped it on cement from about 20 feet.

If your switch has a part number writen on it I can find the schematics and send you the correct hookup diagram.

In case you don't trust me... I'm an Electronics Eng Tech who manufactures electronics for a living ( Geiger counters and various radiation detection devices)

Plus I have about 6 year of experience in high end competition sound under my belt ( I build sub boxes, design crossovers, custom fiberglass work, do all my own installs, have built over 20 systems for myself and customers )

If you have a digital camera I would suggest taking a close up of the rear side of your switch and either Cliff or I can help you out.

Here is an example of your average illuminated rocker switch

http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Cherry/ ... SERIES.pdf

If you look at the wiring diagram for the TRG22F2FBBNN you will see that it shows:

PIN1 as the output power (you would connect your neon power to this terminal)
PIN2 as the input power (positive spliced power from cigarette lighter)
PIN3 ground for the light bulb inside the switch

This diagram is for this particular switch so remember your switch hookup may be slightly different.

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:41 am

I agree 100%.
The diagram I made was only an example, as I did not know what switch you have, and do not know what the posts are marked as.
As I had mentioned before, make sure to connect the switch properly.

Cliff

daewooluvr · Post by **daewooluvr** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:02 pm

Switches from different manufacturers are set up differently. I've seen switches set up like:

+|+|-
-|+|+
+|-|+

before, depending on which switch you bought. Be sure to read the instructions with the switch to be sure.

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 4:14 pm

im going to get some pics up asap!!!!! the switch never did light up!
and it had a lil yellow sticker on the side of it that had an arrow pointing to each prong that 1 said power 1 said accy 1 said ground

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 5:29 pm

i got some pics of the toggle switch but its a lil blury because my camera sucks ass www.geocities.com/mattdaddy702/t1.tif this 1 its power , acc , ground ,
www.geocities.com/mattdaddy702/t2.tif there is a number on the side of the switch and i dont know if you will be able to see it but the number is 12V20A www.geocities.com/mattdaddy702/t3.tif this 1 is the box . the switch is made by calterm the number in the top right hand corner of the box is 41210 thanks for youre help guys ill try to get better pics up with a diff camera asap!! copy and paste it! and after you copy and paste it if it dosent work delete the http:// ! the ciggarette adaptor has a glass fuse in it should i figure that in to the wiring schme some how maybe thats why its not workin??? the lighter fuse is still good i checked it yesterday

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:34 am

I figured out the problem !!!!!! ok first i thought well mayby its the switch because it never did light up. so i went to go get a new toggle switch at auto zone and it hit me what if its not getting enough power so i took the 20 fuse out of the ciggerette lighter and put in a 30 lowlanbehold the toggle switch worked but the lights diddnt so i took the light off the mount and hooked the toggle right up to the battery and the light up to the toggle and it still didnt work . the toggle worked just not the lights. i did it to bothlights !! and i only tested 1 light befor i mounted them so my guess is that 1 light was bad and 1 was good and when i hooked the 2 up the bad 1 blew the good 1 some how! so i put the cigarette adaptor back on the end and im taking them back tomorrw !! now i know why the 15inch light was only 13 dollars ! Damn walmart!!!!

Post by **PrecisionBoost** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:57 pm

You should be glad it's Walmart....they usually replace stuff no questions asked.

I once had a BBQ I bought there and the valves didn't work so I went in to ask about it and they pulled the entire valve/hose/regulator out of a new box and gave it to me.... and I didn't even have the bill or the damaged parts.

They have cheap stuff but I love their return policy.

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:31 pm

Erfinder - you were right!!!!! i returned the lights no questions asked !!!! they got me in and out! she barley looked at the recept ! lol but anyways where can i get a good set on neon lights that wont blow out during instalition>? i want 15 inch!!!! thanks guys for all youre help!!!! and it turned out i was wiring the switch right!!!

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:42 pm

That's GREAT that you figured everything out.

I like Wal Mart's return policy, too ... I bought a REALLY cheap portable CD player, had it for about 6 months. One afternoon it was on the seat of my car and it started smoking and the plastic case MELTED! I happened to be near Wal Mart at the time, so I went to the Customer Service desk.

Without a receipt, they got an identical CD player, opened it, put my old melted one into the box and gave me the new one, along with the adapter cables and cassette adapter.

No questions, no problems.

Lowes is another place that does not ask questions about returns.

You can walk into the store, pick something up off the shelf, walk up to the return desk and they will give you in-store credit for the value of the item.
LOL
Go get a $400 circuit breaker box, take it to the return desk and get in-store credit for that amount. Plus, Lowes does not press charges with the police, even in cases of theft. At least, that is their policy here in Virginia. I found this out because my old roommate was a manager at the Lowes near my house. They do not press charges or call the police for theft, even if they have you on the security camera tape! LOL
They write everything off as a loss.

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:27 am

that sucks about youre cd player but thats hella cool the exchanged it!!! lol how long was it sitting in youre car??? lol any ways where can i get good neon lights ???? besides wallmart!! lol again i just want to say thanks to all of you for helpen me even Erfinder (AKA- The Bad News Guy) lol im just kiddin lol but this is the coolest and only forum i belong to !!!!! and my car is going to be posted on this site soon and ill post the link as soon as he gets the pics up !!!

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:23 am

I got my neons at a local computer show.

12" neons for $5 each. I grabbed 4 of them, although they do not have music activation, only on or off.

But I DID get 2 cold cathode tubes for $7 each that will either flash to the music or just be on or off.

I had to make a 12 volt to 5 volt step-down circuit with a heatsink to disipate the heat so that they could be used in a car.
Whats cool about these is they are as thin as a pencil and 12" long. They are even brighter than the $5 neons that I have installed allready.

I have not yet installed the cold cathode tubes, but when I do, I'll post pics of them.

Cliff

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:33 am

wow ! i have no clue what yo just said! lol was making the 12v to a 5 v circut stepdown hard?and would you recomend any1 doing it ? is the cathode tubes the 1 withe like 3 diff colors??

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:52 am

You could just use one of the radio shack car power adapters to get the 5 volts, and I wouldn't recomend anyone trying to make one unless they had some electronics building knowledge.

Those cathodes do come in multi color, but the ones I got are just blue. I didnt want multi color in the car. Why would I want a flashing rainbow?? LOL

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:36 pm

lol !!!! im going to go to checker and get to new 15 inch blue neons! there on sale for only 17.99 and there really cool guys that work there i will get some pics posted when im done!!!

mattman702 · Post by **mattman702** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:44 am

hey guys i went to checker and i bought new lights ! i tested them they both work!!! lol and the toggle lights up and i got it all hooked up and the neons dont turn on! but the toggle gets power! i dont understand this shit!!!!! i dont think the ciggarette lighter gets enough power to run both lights because i unhooked the toggle and i unpluged the neons and i just slid the pos and neg wires onto both positive and negative splices andthe light turned on and i did the same with the other one and it worked then i tried them both at the same time and i didnt work! so im thinkin i need to run it strait from the battery with a inline fuse so if some1 can post some directions and what i need that would really help thanks ! or im not sure if im wiring the neon to the toggle correctly am i supposed to send both of the neons pos to the toggle or am i supposed to splice the neon pos with direct power then the toggle somewhere on the neon pos wire? ill make a diagram ig what i am thinking of!!
some1 please help!!!!!
matt