Blue LEDs behind the mirror project.

[cavaliers60]

So, I finally started this new project. I've been wanting to do it for a while and I've had the LED strips for a while now.... I finally had time to get started on it today. It's just too freakin' hot to finish it though right now.. Right now it's about 100 outside. the heat index is at 110-112.... So I got hot really quick. I did snap a photo of what all i've done so far... Not much... I really just need to figure out where to wire it. I was going for the lights that light up the switches on the doors.... but I'm not sure what wire that is... Anyone have any idea???


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cavaliers60/IMG_0132.jpg

[jayson_waltz]

You mean that you wanna run them so they light up when you open the doors? If so, run the wires into the car and down to the courtesy light by the passenger's feet. Both the wires going to that light should be positive. Find out whick on turns to negative when you open the doors and hook the neg. from your led's to that wire. Hook the pos. to the one that is pos. all the time. So now you will have both the wires going to your led's pos. when the doors are closed and when 1 switches to neg. when you open the doors, your led's will turn on.
I think thats what u wanted to do...
But if you want them on whenever its dark enough outside for the autolamps to turn the lights on, i'd run the wires to the parking lights. I think those are ground side switched also.

[adam337]

^ i think he wants to wire it up to the lights on the Switches on the doors.. like the unlock and window buttons so theyre on when the doors are closed?

[cavaliers60]

Really, it's when it's dark outside... The lights on the car turn on, I want those to turn on also... I know I can run them to the marker lights in the back, but I was hoping just to run them to like the window regulator switch on the doors... I just don't know what wire is for the light on the switch. I'll probably end up just wireing it up to the tail marker lights. It would be easier I guess....

[teflone]

you stole my idea.. and it looks like your using the identical led flexible led bar that I did..


I actually ended up putting them on the back of the mirror facing inwards, it makes a better effect I think.. I'll grab pics if ya want..

They do look great at night with them on..

[cavaliers60]

Yeah, I wasn't sure where to put them.... Do you think I need a longer strip or is that one big enough???

[clutch1]

I used to have a 4" cathode and a couple LEDs crammed into it. It looks great, but I think you'll need 2 strips per mirror the way you have it in there now.

[jayson_waltz]

ITEM
Parking Lights+
WIRE COLOR
brown
WIRE LOCATION
passenger kick or column

Thats what the official DEI wire diagram says for our cars. So just ground the LED's anywhere and hook the positive to that wire. Should be a lot eaisier than running to the marker lights. Man its nice to have a dad with all the tech-only web site passwords.

[Gr1m]

why dont you jsut put them on a switch so you can turn them off to stop cops from bitching, but if you wanted to do what you were trying to do, wouldnt you hook it up to the cubby hole light...that comes on with the headlights, and is where most people splice into for other things they want hooked up to their headlights, ex. aftermarket dash gauge

[pimpalero2003]

switch is a good idea chris cops in evansville are cracking down on

[jayson_waltz]

^switch is what i'd do since all my other led's are on a switch. But i was just helping with the original question.

[cherrington17]

how easy was it to get the mirror off... w/o breaking it?

i've been considering a project similar to this for a while... just didn't want to break my mirror trying.

[cavaliers60]

It's pretty easy to take the mirror off... Just grab it from the bottom of the mirror and gently pull out. Should pop right off. As far as the switch goes, I do have one somewhere... Just no where for the switch to go. I really don't want a bunch of switches just hanging around everywhere. But I'll look into it.

[pimpalero2003]

put them in the little change cubby ive still have never used it

[teflone]

I just used one strip at the tips ) <--- shaped like that.. they shine enough to light the entire rim behind the mirror..

[cavaliers60]

actually, since I have two of those power outlet things, I'm going to remove one of them and put the switch in it's spot. Eventually, I'm going to be getting a new cd player so I'll have that little extra room under the cd player.

[Satsuriku]

It's pretty easy to take the mirror off... Just grab it from the bottom of the mirror and gently pull out. Should pop right off. As far as the switch goes, I do have one somewhere... Just no where for the switch to go. I really don't want a bunch of switches just hanging around everywhere. But I'll look into it.

hell me and cherry have been wanting to do this for many many MANY months but we were always told that those are next to impossible to take off without breaking them!!! hell i was gonna head to a junk yard and trash a set just see if it was true!! but hell if all you have to do is pull it off, then hell YA im game!!!! i got me a new project.........FINALLY!! lol thanx buddy!

[cavaliers60]

lol no problem...

[Cyber Knight]

The passenger mirror comes off easily, but the driver's side mirror (on my 2000) did NOT come off at all. In the event that the mirror needed to be replaced, the entire housing would have had to have been purchased with the mirror included. It's fairly easy to tilt the mirror far enough to work inside the housing. I did this a few years ago, it looks awesome!

[sound_xtreme]

dont listen to him. you can order just the mirror from many glass/mirror shops. it wont be an exact fit(cant tell once it's on), and probably wont fit tight under the lip, but thats why they make adhesive. ive replaced mine before, costed me 15 bucks i think

[Satsuriku]

lol no problem...

your gonna have to let us know how the driver side mirror looks, cause if sound is right, i really dont want to deal with that crap. let us know if the driver side gives you any problems dude

[greenbastard]

im gonna do this tomorrow because i get paid. for anyone that has done this, please post pics so we can see what they look like

[cavaliers60]

I've taken my driver's side mirror off as well when I put my LED turn signals in them...

[meadus101]

Seems easy enough, as long as you know where to wire it all.


Only this is, where do you guys get those LED strips? there's no good shops around here and the closest i could get is probably one of those electropod LED's (Mind you, I work at Wal-mart and could pick em up for 10 bucks a pod.) The question is, Where is the best place to wire things like this in? I want somewhere easily accessed so i can do it myself.

The Electropods call for a 12v Hook-up.

[cherrington17]

ebay for large amounts of single leds...

or www.oznium.com they used to be a sponsor for the page. one of the best sites i've ever ordered from.

[cavaliers60]

Oznium.com is a great site! That's where I'm buying my LED strips from.

So, a little update... This mod is going rather slow because of my job. I'm working 9 in the morning till 8 at night every day this week and next week, so I really don't have a whole lot of time to do it.... But I got both strips in, but not wired yet. I'm waiting for a switch to come in and I'll be wireing a switch to them. After that suggestion, I'd rather go with a switch. also I hooked one of them up to a 9v battery and they are pretty bright, so that's another reason I'm getting a switch put in.

Here's the pics...

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cavaliers60/IMG_0134.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cavaliers60/IMG_0135.jpg

[adam337]

eh i dont like that look.. id rather back light it so you cant see the leds

[cavaliers60]

That was mainly a test to see what it looks like. I kinda like it actually.... I'm afraid if I do the back lit thing, that it will allow people to see the wires from the turn signal LEDs I have in there.... So I'll probably go with this look.

I just bought two more strips to put on the top of the mirrors to make it glow all the way around the mirror. :D I can't wait to get it all wired up. :D

[Satsuriku]

looks really good dude!!

me and cherry are in the planning process and im glad you were able to confirm how it looks, so now its a for sure thing!! thanx buddy, really like it!!!

though im going to have to opted and say i would rather do it without the LED's showing BUUUUT if you have strips go all around the mirror, that would actually look really decent!! :thumb:

[cherrington17]

yeaah... not a fan of the leds showing like that. to me, it looks horrid. but its not my car. :lol:

greatly appreciate the pics though. now i can finally do a setup similar for myself.

[Oldsnut]

eh i dont like that look.. id rather back light it so you cant see the leds
X...2

[cavaliers60]

ahh.... Well, I just ordered more LED strips so it will go all the way around. Not just on the bottoms. The only reason why I'm not putting them to where it just gives it a nice back glow is because I have wires behind there from my turn signal LEDs. I've already experimented with this and it basically highlights the wires.... this looks better to me. I probably won't really drive around town or anything with them on, cause they are pretty bright. This is mostly for show, like when I'm out hanging with friends outside. :D I can't wait to get it all done though! And pretty soon, I'll be getting a new CD player installed so I'll have a good spot for the switch.

[Gr1m]

you cant hide the wires for your turn signals?

[cavaliers60]

It's getting kinda hard too with all the crap that's going in them. lol I probably could if I re-ran the wires a little better. I still like the look I got. May as well be different since everyone else is going the backlit way. That and mine won't be set in stone (so to speak)... I'm installing them in a way to where if I really don't like it after a little while, I can change it to a backlit setting.

[adam337]

just tape the extra wire up along the top of the mirror :)

[teflone]

Back lit is sooooooooo much better

Im going to have to take pics arn't I.. ?

Ok I will..

It looks much better.. you dont see the cheesey led's and the whole rim gets lit with one blue led strip (if done correctly..

Im thinking of improving the look by painting the back of the mirror plate white, to increase reflectivity.. my mirrors are silver inside (GLS) so they insides are very reflective already, if they wernt silver, such as black, I would paint the insides white as well.. but I dont have to.

[greenbastard]

very nice but i think i will try it the backlit way. thats pretty bright and i don't want to bind myself. i also want to sometimes drive with them on, because theres not that many cops here and usually they won't care

[cavaliers60]

Once I actually get time to finish this, I'll probably end up doing the backlit thing instead.... I'll just use the other two LED strips for something else.


But yeah, pics would be nice. :D

[Cyber Knight]

A 4" cold cathode would be ideal for backlighting, but where to mount the transformer is the problem, I don't remember if the wires would reach, and extending them can be hit and miss for opeartion. Painting your wires black would help reduce their visability at night, but ideally you'd want to just run them out of sight or as discretely as possible.

Again, I don't know if I just had freak stock mirrors or what, but the glow I had behind actually glowed through parts of the mirror, so you might need to put a cover on the back (duct tape, paint, vinyl, etc) to prevent that from happening, cuz it doesn't look very good when it does.

[teflone]

I think they are all semi transparent..

And there are deffinatly "holes" in my mirror too.. its like the silver on the mirror is thin in places, and once backlit like this you can see blue through it.. Not really an issue with me, as I can hardly see through it, but its there, dosent bug me..

[cavaliers60]

I think it would be really cool if you can get the mirror to glow an oldsmobile symbol.... Like not really bright or anything, just enough to notice it's there. One of my crazy thoughts. :lol:

[Satsuriku]

I think it would be really cool if you can get the mirror to glow an oldsmobile symbol.... Like not really bright or anything, just enough to notice it's there. One of my crazy thoughts. :lol:

not crazy at all and it can be done. all you would have to do and remove the glass from the frame and cut the frame of that of the olds logo and have it backlighting with leds or cathods, and you would have to scrap off the reflector on the back of the mirror in the exact same location of your olds logo and not break it haha and silicone or glue the glass back on the frame.

could be done if you had a spare set of mirrors to play with........though now that i think about it, its alot more work than its worth

[teflone]

okokokok here they are..

The one mirror is broken and missing the mirror, but the black plate it on..

screw this.. I dont have the time to resize it..

TOO MANY RESTRICTIONS!!

650x650...jesus..

[Satsuriku]

lol imageshack is your friend dude, it resizes it for you :p

[cavaliers60]

Just send me the pics through my e-mail or something... lol

cavaliers60@yahoo.com

photobucket does the same thing. :D

[teflone]

alright... alright..


It looks better in person and backlights all they way around, it dosent look like it in the pics..

This is back lit.. the blue led strips are glued to the back of the mirror plate..

[cavaliers60]

ok.. That does look better. lol

[meadus101]

InSaaaaannnnne

[Satsuriku]

WOOT! i know what im doing this weekend!! hahaha thanx dude

[-Alero-]

looks awesome i might try that in white, how did you get the mirror off? im sure it was posted but i dont feel like looking for it heh

[Kilroy]

Wouldn't it be alot easier and alot cheaper to backlight the mirror with electro-luminescent wire? The following website

http://www.xoxide.com/elwire.html

has like 5 feet for 6 bucks!! Seems this wire would make alot of baclighting projects easier.

[meadus101]

that wire is designed for Computers. therefore, it probably wires into a Computer Power supply.

It also doesn't have the Intensity of LED. Therefore, it wouldn't be as bright, and I doubt you can separate it into peices, so 5 feet of wire wrapped around a mere compared to a few LED's is wasteful.

[cherrington17]

and if you put it around the mirror... i'd look lame. very tacky and obvious. Every led project i've done on my car, you can't see. (besides the dome light) just getting in my car, it looks stock, until night time.

THAT is the point of leds.

[teflone]

Wouldn't it be alot easier and alot cheaper to backlight the mirror with electro-luminescent wire? The following website

http://www.xoxide.com/elwire.html

has like 5 feet for 6 bucks!! Seems this wire would make alot of baclighting projects easier.


They could work, but I doubt they have the lumens that the led strip I used have..

They were 9.99 (can) from princess auto for all you Canucks..
These effers are bright.. I do mean bright, they are 12 volt and flexible
Oxnium sell the identical units for 15-20 bucks (amer)

comes with a nice long 4 foot wire lead.. the guage is very small and unnoticible behind the mirror

I stuck mine through the power mirror wire rubber plug thats behind the tweeters.. it took all of an hour to wire both up to my exisiting switches

You can get them in amber, red, and of course blue easily

White would be a cool effect as well, I was also concidering blending in white if I can find a white strip

I would put white around the other side and blend them together for a neat effect..

The inside of the mirror (closest to window) would be white and the outsides blue.. I think it would look smoking..

PS oh ya one more point..

Even back reflected, when they are on at night they are bright, bright enough to light my face and interior of my car slightly, its like Im one of the blue man group.. I shit you not.. I should shave my head.. lol


But if you have black insides of the mirror Im betting it wouldnt be an issue..

[cherrington17]

so when you take the mirror off... just give the inside of your mirror a quick shot of black paint?

and it looks like i'm gonna have to tweek mine some... i want it bright enough to be seen and noticeable... but not distracting and annoying. (putting yellow behind it and wiring it to my turning signals) probably double or triple up on the resistors should do the job.

[meadus101]

If i was going to do it, I'd wire it so they're always On, and Blink with my Turn Signals.

[teflone]

so when you take the mirror off... just give the inside of your mirror a quick shot of black paint?

and it looks like i'm gonna have to tweek mine some... i want it bright enough to be seen and noticeable... but not distracting and annoying. (putting yellow behind it and wiring it to my turning signals) probably double or triple up on the resistors should do the job.


my insides are silver.. very reflective..

alot of aleros (non gls) have black mirrors, and black insides..

To increase the effect, paint the inside white.. to reflect the light..
Black insides wont reflect much, black absorbs light..

BUT since my insides are silver.. its VERY reflective.. I dont need to paint it white..

[cherrington17]

ooh... i get what you were saying before... i thought you meant something else.

[cavaliers60]

Well, what I'm going to have the blue shining behind the mirror, and I also have 4 orange LEDs on the corners of the mirrors wired up to my rear turn signals (so they don't glow at night, only flash when turn signals flash).

[lonnie]

I plan on doing this soon in white and hooking it up to my turn signals. I'll put pics up soon as I'm done. I got a question though, and there hasn't been a straight answer on here as of yet, but is it hard to get the mirrors off of a 2000 olds, because if I have a problem I don't want to be stuck with out a mirror, espeacially here in maryland. They will give me a ticket with the quickness.

[teflone]

I plan on doing this soon in white and hooking it up to my turn signals. I'll put pics up soon as I'm done. I got a question though, and there hasn't been a straight answer on here as of yet, but is it hard to get the mirrors off of a 2000 olds, because if I have a problem I don't want to be stuck with out a mirror, espeacially here in maryland. They will give me a ticket with the quickness.


No one has answered because its terribly easy..

I have power mirrors, Im ASSUMING non powered ones are identical..

Mine come off with no problem.. there is 4 clips on the inside of the mirror that clip/clamp onto the mount (power mount for me)

You just pull, some have stated to pull from the bottom..

Just give it a firm pull, the first time you do it, its hard, every time after its easy..


I usually power my mirrors all the way out so that I can get my fingers behind the plate.. then I just pull it off.. pull it straight out and off.. basically towards you..


Ive taken mine off many times, no issues.. no breaking..

[cherrington17]

I did a little research at work, and found we do carry "load resistor kits" in stock. Its just a ceramic resistor, high wattage, low ohms. I tested them, myself, and they do in fact work.

Catalog 274.0120 They run about $3 each

any radioshack carries these, and if they don't have them in stock, they can order them, free of any shipping charge...

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w246/cherrington17/Photo0001Small.jpg

[teflone]

Great find.. excellent.. what ohm's where they exactly ?

Thats gotta be one of the cheapest equivalents I've saw yet

[SIUlero]

^^Package says 8.:nuts: :lol:

[teflone]

whoops.. I was trying to read the resistor... lmao..

its been a long day..

[Satsuriku]

good find there cherry!!

i love the fact i have a white car AND the inside on my mirrors are already painted white as my mirrors are as well :) makes things easier for me hahaha

[cavaliers60]

So another update. I got the switch wired up and it works. Wired up one LED strip, but it didn't work. After talking to my dad, I guess I gotta wire my ground TO the switch. but it didn't work... My switch works though. The blue light on it is bright! I'll post a pic of where I put it tomorrow. It's too dark to do it right now.

[jayson_waltz]

the led's dont light up? all you should need to do is ground the led's anywhere, run a power wire from them to the output on the switch, run an input pos. wire to the switch, and that shloud make them light up with the switch. The ground to the switch is just for the led on the switch.

[cavaliers60]

I'm not really sure what's wrong with it.... Let me get a pic of the switch... I found the other one I bought so I'll take a pic of that switch..

[cavaliers60]

So here's the switch I'm using. the black is ground, the middle red wire is power, and the last wire is suppose to be the source which I'm pretty sure it's the LEDs...


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cavaliers60/IMG_0149.jpg

[cherrington17]

^^Package says 8.:nuts: :lol:

With the load resistors, its not the ohms that matter. You just need a really low amount (something that won't interfere with your lights) and you bridge your + and - lines with that resistor. Hence the "LOAD" resistor. It makes the car think there is a lot higher wattage draw on your LEDS then there really is.

You just need a high wattage resistor (20W in this case)

and let me restate that... these do NOT go inline.. they go better your + and - lines! and will heat up much like the light bulb itself... so keep it away from anything that could be burned.

[cherrington17]

So here's the switch I'm using. the black is ground, the middle red wire is power, and the last wire is suppose to be the source which I'm pretty sure it's the LEDs...


a switch like that.. the center should be your 12V power, the bottom one goes out as power to your LEDs and the top black one shouldn't be there.

When the switch is pressed down (high end is the top end) your lights will be on, because the switch will bridge the center power, to the power line to the LEDs. When the bottom is high, and top is depressed, it will connect your 12V power, to nothing, thus leaving your LEDs off. If you put a ground there, it will simply short and just not work.

[cavaliers60]

The ground is for the LED light on it though.... So Should I just run that ground to the LEDs and thats all?

[cherrington17]

the leds need to be grounded, outside of the switch.

...............switch
POWER------[ ]------Led----ground

(ignore the ... it wouldn't let me use spaces to get the word switch over the box)
the ground isn't used in the switch... UNLESS your using the switch as ground. (could use ground instead of power, technically) but the setup you have you need to run the leds to constant ground, and leave the center as your switched power.

[jayson_waltz]

The way i do it, run a wire from the ground tab on the switch to any grounded bolt. Then from the LED's that are in your mirrors, run that ground to any grounded bolt. Look to see which tab on the switch is positive input, and run a positive wire from a fuse to that. Then see which tab is positive output on the switch and run a wire from that tab to the positive input on your led's in the mirrors. This is if your switch has a led built into it, which if i understand right is what you have. Once you do it you will realize, "oh, that was really easy".

I'm getting confused by overthinking, but this ^ will work. if you still can't get it to work, listen to cherry, he knows more than me.

[SIUlero]

Source wire goes to battery (battery is the "source" of power), the other red goes to led, get rid of the black, and ground the led to a metal part of the car.

[cavaliers60]

So just disconnect the ground from the switch, ground the LEDs and run the positive from the switch to the positive from the LEDs?

[cavaliers60]

This is what Oznium says to hook it all up....

How to hook up the LED switches: The black wire goes to ground, the red wire directly next to the black wire (this is the red wire in the middle) goes to your constant power source, and the other red wire on the end goes to the circuit you are powering.


And that's the place I got them.

[cavaliers60]

Source wire goes to battery (battery is the "source" of power), the other red goes to led, get rid of the black, and ground the led to a metal part of the car.

If I get rid of the black wire on the switch, will the LED on the switch still work?

[jayson_waltz]

^nope

[cavaliers60]

^^Then I really don't want to get rid of it. lol

[SIUlero]

sorry, I tried to over-simplify lol

leave the black wire on the switch to keep the switch light...the other 2 are still source to battery, positive to led's

[cherrington17]

no, it won't. the method i use doesn't have lights on the switches. listen to waltz. hes got it right for a lighted switch.

[cherrington17]

does this help? :lol:

[SIUlero]

^^those lights won't work...you have opens all over the place!!:rolleyes2: :p

j/k....follow that diagram

[cherrington17]

its just a shaky soldering hand.. i swear! :p

[Kilroy]

I am amazed at how many people on here are giving such false info about this switch, so here goes.

The perticular switch in the picture has one red wire as the source (goes to power) one red wire that goes to your load (in this case the LEDs) and the black wire goes to ground to allow THE SWITCH to light up when you turn it on. THAT IS THE ONLY FUNCTION OF THE BLACK WIRE!!!!!!! If you do not hook up the black wire, the ONLY thing that will happen is that the SWITCH will not light up when you turn it on.

[greenbastard]

it's not that hard to hook up a switch

[cherrington17]

kilroy.. thats what we've been saying for the past few posts. at first we didn't know the switch had a light on it, so we were telling him how to wire a spdt switch.... instead of an illuminated spst

[cavaliers60]

^^those lights won't work...you have opens all over the place!!:rolleyes2: :p

j/k....follow that diagram

That and he forgot the resister for the LED.... :rolleyes2:


But seriously, that's how I had it hooked up and it didn't work. So I don't know what to do. That whole semester of electronics class isn't helping. lol I did what I was taught to do.... I'll tinker around with it later today after work and see if I can figure it out.

[cherrington17]

is it possible that you accidentally hooked it up without (or before) the resistor and blew the strip?

i've accidentally done that my fair share of times...

[teflone]

POLARITY!!!!

Yes no ?

I wired mine to my switch, using the ground and + on the switch itself..

I would try that..


The led strip will be polarity sensitive..

and LED strips do not need resistors as they are electrically "right" for 12 volts..

and they also have small resistors built in..

[jayson_waltz]

What wire do you have the resistors on? The pos. lead or the neg. lead? To get mine to work i had to put the resistor on the Neg. lead from the LED's. And did you accidentally hook up the LED's w\o a resistor?

But if you got these (http://www.oznium.com/led-flex-strips), you don't need a resistor.

[cherrington17]

^resistors don't matter which side you put them on... you might have had a bad connection, or the wires on the wrong side when you tried it the first time...

[cavaliers60]

POLARITY!!!!

Yes no ?

I wired mine to my switch, using the ground and + on the switch itself..

I would try that..


The led strip will be polarity sensitive..

and LED strips do not need resistors as they are electrically "right" for 12 volts..

and they also have small resistors built in..

My dad suggested that, so when I have time and daylight again, I'll give that a shot... I will be running ground from the switch to the LED strip. I think that's what you are talking about. lol


As far as them shorting out, they still work cause after all this, I hooked them up to a 9v battery and they worked just fine.... Although, I don't think the illumination is very good... But I'll wait till it's all done...

[Satsuriku]

lol wow, i should have chimmed in a long time ago for this one hahaha

i have illumated switches in my car (4 of them actually) i have the top lead going directly to the 12v power source, the middle is where i put the positive leads from the LED's, and the bottom is the ground which of course your ground is going to have the negative leads from your LED's connected to.....this is what i have, this is what works for me to get my LED's to light up AND have the switches light up as well

doubt that will help any or i may have just repeated what has already been said so hope it helps somewhat

[cavaliers60]

^^ Yeah you repeated. lol But that's cool. Thanks for the help though! I'm going to get it done once I get the time.

[cavaliers60]

So another update.... I'm not too happy at all.... I wired it just like you all said, and still no results... And I ended up shorting out something.... My switch light doesn't work. I'm hoping I just shorted out the circuit for the 12v plug and not the switch. Where's the fuse for the 12v circuit?

[cherrington17]

depends on where your wiring it to...

what wires are you using as your "main" power?

Most of the time, i ended up blowing the fuse on the passanger side, in the top left of the fuse panel.. i had to have replaced that fuse at least 12 times by now.... :glare:

[cavaliers60]

I'm using that 12v plug in to wire up my switch. So the positive on that is my main power source.

[SIUlero]

if you're using the accessory plug, why do you need a switch? just unplug it when you don't need it on....if you're using a switch, you should hardwire it so you acc port is available for other things.

The fuse is under the hood, number 34, lower left

If you still need help, I'll be in Olney sometime within the next couple months...it's where I'm from and my family still lives. If you can make the short trip over there, I'll give you a hand.

Also, if you're using the plug in the center, it's designed to only work with the cig lighter, at least on mine it is...try plugging into the one in the passenger side of the console