I designed, cut, and put together this great little switch panel for my overhead console, with rocker switches that have LED's mounted under each of the switches to tell me if it's on or not at a quick glance. I was just considering the wiring though, and how the heck do I rig the LED's so they come on with the switch? I was thinking parallel, but then they'd be on all the time, and leaking some power to the load, I would think, and series is out of the question, because one of the switches is running straight power (no relay) to my fan, and I think 30 amps being pulled through a little LED wouldn't be good for it...

Any ideas? Thanks ahead.

-Reno

 

I would hook them to in parallel to the load (ie. from the switched side of the switch - not the power-in side) and ground the other lead; they will only use what current they need to operate.
Important...unless you are using dedicated 12V LED's, they are only designed to run on about 2~2.5 volts, so you will need to add a 1K ohm resistor in series with the LED - doesn't matter which side of the LED (power or ground); otherwise they will have a very short life.
Hope this helps

Pete

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Pete's Place
HiOutput Virtual Racing Team

 

PS...I'd seriously consider using a relay for the fan; it would cut down on the voltage drop through the length of wire you are using.

Pete

 

Thanks for the help. that was just the answer I came to as I was falling asleep last night. I am thinking about going to a relay system for the fan, but for now, I've got a pretty large wire running the power, so it should work fine. And yes, they are 12 volt LED's with the built in resistor, last 4 of them at Radio (read: Rip-off) Shack yesterday.

-Reno