Cathode tubes/ LED strips

[02AleroEco]

So i have three tubes, and a strip of leds... The color is blue, now all of those come with the Cigarette lighter adapter.. but i cut that off, and i want to wire to a power source and run that to a switch i have, so that i can turn them on and off, when the car is on, or off. besides going right to the battery, whats the easiest way to wire it?



.NOTE.

I will have power and Negative wires for the Switch.. and then the Power and neg for the LEDs/ tubes, will splice into 1 power and 1 negative, and those will go to the switch with the switchs power/neg

[[ion] C2]

ya that's what i did, i have two sound sensitive cathodes where your feet go and they're wired to the cigarette lighter wires and a switch

[meadus101]

You could tap a Fuse quite easily.

[cherrington17]

you can bring all the wires into one small distro block, put jumpers on one side, and power/ground them all in one shot.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search
and
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

[02AleroEco]

k thanks..
I just tried going straight to the battery, the Power wire got fried, and smoked effing crzy.. so yea, im gonna try a safer route

[[ion] C2]

uhh.. i think you did something wrong lol

[02AleroEco]

Originally Posted by [ion] C2

uhh.. i think you did something wrong lol

yea lol.. i know i hooked everything up right. but i dnt know.. it was only the the pos. wire that went to the switch from the battery.. so im not sure.. but yea, ill prolly just do the Cigarette lighter way.

[cherrington17]

if you smoked the power wire, you shorted something, somewhere....

the only way you can "smoke" a wire is:
1) short positive to ground
2) throw a TON of voltage through it
3) pull alot more current through then the wire can handle.

and you can't possibly do the last 2. if i used a 20g wire as a power wire to my amp, then i could do the 3rd. And if you power your stove, with the same sized wire, you'd succeed at the 2nd. but you can't do either with your setup.

[02AleroEco]

ok..

but the only reason i didnt think it was a short, is because the entire wire is fried.. the casing is all melted, and its down to copper, if it was shorted, i didnt think it would melt the entire thing

[cherrington17]

depends on how long its on there.... if its shorted down the line, and left, thats going to pull a TON of current through the wire (similar to the amp effect i talked about) which would melt the wire.

[02AleroEco]

Originally Posted by cherrington17

depends on how long its on there.... if its shorted down the line, and left, thats going to pull a TON of current through the wire (similar to the amp effect i talked about) which would melt the wire.

yeeaa... ok i gotcha.. im just pissed i lost all that wire.

[cherrington17]

meh. its worth the lesson of, double or triple check your connections, before you make that last ground or power wire connection.

[Cyber Knight]

I tapped into the cubby hole light for all of my interior glow, that way it only came on when the auto headlights came on. Then I had an switch to turn them off if I didn't have them on at night.

[02AleroEco]

Originally Posted by cherrington17

meh. its worth the lesson of, double or triple check your connections, before you make that last ground or power wire connection.

hahaha shut up.. . im just glad nothing else got effed up

[02AleroEco]

so i have 16g wire from the battery, and an 8amp inline fuse.. and its working great so far

[cherrington17]

8 amp is probably WAY overkill.

each led is only .02A... and cathodes are rather low too. all you need is slightly higher then max power.

at 8A, a big spike could go through, fry everything, and still not reach that 8A limit.