Wiring an LED strip to a switch!

[KyoCivic98]

Ok last night i attempted to wire an LED strip to a switch
but it didnt turn out so well
smoked everywhere .. the plastic on the wires melted off
didnt hurt anything .. just freaked me out haha
but yeah .. this is the switch .. i just need to know how to wire it!!
without that happening again

 

[Genuine Rolla]

ok...how do you have the LED's wired in....how did you go about it. I've been making my own LED strips for over a year and i've never had that problem. Did you use a resistor or anything like that. More info on how you wired the LED's and the switch would be great...!

 

[KyoCivic98]

Well im not really sure how we did it .. i was just going off what my friend was telling me .. cause he wired up some neons to a switch just like that .. but he couldnt remember how he did it ..
but yeah .. i think the wires touched .. that may be why it did that .. we were just trying to get the switch to turn the LEDs off .. we wired them up so that the LEDs were always on either way we switched the switch .. so that didnt work .. then the wires touched we think .. but yeah .. we gave up after that ..
but yeah .. we used a #20 fuse from under the dash for the power .. and a ground wire bolted to under the dash and whatnot .. and the led thing has two wires .. gold and siver .. just like a neon or whatever else
does that help?

 

[DocShay]

My question is how you got that switch into that spot. I'm planning on hooking up some LED's and 2 cold cathode lights. I have a rocker switch like yours - and I was going to make a switch in the same spot. But when I popped that rectangle peice out. theres so much stuff in the back of it that I figured I wouldn't be able to get it to snap back in the same spot if I drilled a hole through it, can you explain how you went about doing that?

 

[ShinsenTuner]

Ok last night i attempted to wire an LED strip to a switch
but it didnt turn out so well
smoked everywhere .. the plastic on the wires melted off
didnt hurt anything .. just freaked me out haha
but yeah .. this is the switch .. i just need to know how to wire it!!
without that happening again

thats a cool switch... i want one for my amp...

 

[Genuine Rolla]

I think you should be able to find a switch like that at wal-mart, advance auto, pep boys, etc.

 

[ShinsenTuner]

sweet... i might do some DIY electronics crap if i ever find some time... maybe spring break or something.

 

[DocShay]

http://www.oznium.com/

Checl them for any lights, switches, whatever. I get all my glow related stuff from there.

They have those light up rocker switches as well, for about half the cost they will cost at radio shack. I'm ordering a glowkit from them soon, I can't say enough good things about these guys!

 

[ShinsenTuner]

after sending that site for some reason i want to go out and buy a shitload of switches and wire a bunch of s**t up. nothing is cooler than having a shitload of switches that no one knows what it does.

 

[DocShay]

Buy some safety cover switches (I dont think that site has them though), wire them up and when people ask what they do simply tell them you have a rocket launcher and a canon.

 

[Apice]

this is how we wired them: the switch had i believe 2 red wires and 1 black wire. we took the black wire and grounded it out. then we wired the silver wire from the led and wired it to one of the red wires from the switch and then we wired the gold wire to the other red wire from the switch. After that the led lights would just stay on so we took the gold wire and wired it to the black wire with the ground. the switch was able to turn off the leds then but just a split second after words the wires started frying. (maybe wires just touching?)

 

[1999stockaccord]

how did you wire them? The best way is to solder each connection, and cover them with electrical tape indvidually.... a quick way is to use crimp on connectors... either way the wires should be isolated from the others and covered in tape to insulate them, if this was done, there would be no way for the wires to accidentally touch.

Using the link someone gave above, http://www.oznium.com/rocker-switch follow the directions there and there should be no problems.

Its a simple 3 wire set up, constant 12v (from battery or even cig lighter would work), + out to the leds, and a - ground... and most likely a ground for the led as well...

What does the led bar DIRECTIONS say about the wire colors? one should be + and the other a ground...

 

[Apice]

the only reason the wires touched is because we were just testing it. and the button doesnt have directions or labels saying which is +, -

 

[1999stockaccord]

it doesnt matter if your just testing it, you still ALWAYS cover connections...

go out and but a switch with directions, or better yet, let someone else do it for you

 

[KyoCivic98]

nah .. i think we got it now .. no need for anybody else