Hey guys. I recently bought red LED underglow (only the bars for the sides) for my camaro. Apparently, i wired something wrong and i burnt out the wires. Here's the breakdown: I have a control box thatll be mounted inside the car, it has red and black wire coming out of it. Then, it came with a switch that had 2 reds and a block coming out of that. I burnt out the switch, so I need a new one. The LEDs plug into an input console type thing (its just a plug) that plugs into the control box, so theres no wiring needed there. My question is, which wire goes to the battery, which wire goes to what, etc. I dont understand why there are 2 reds, and several grounds. I had it set up as a red on the switch to the battery, and a red going to the box. And both the black on the box and on the switch grounded to the same screw. I hit the switch, the lights dimmed, and then they burnt. If I could get instructons on which wire goes where, this could help ALOT. And im gonna need a new switch, so what kind should I get.

Whoever reads all this mess, I appreciate it.
I dont wanna pay for it at a shop!
THANKS A BUNCH

 

if you can get pics of everything you got, every wire, ect, i might be able to help ya...your commentary above confused me a little. If you can get 2 or 3 pics with all the wires in the shot and the boxes that are involved, that would prob help anyone trying to help you...
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i believe it should be red wire from battery goes to one of the reds of the switch, the other red of the switch goes to the control box, the 2 LED bars plug into that control box, and then you ground out the switch, and you ground out the control box, should only be 2 grounds, and that should work...

 

Yeah I figured itd be confusing. Im not at my house with the car right now, but I drew a picture in paint.





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Thats basically the situation, the LED tubes are already run through the firewall into the box where they plug in. I just dont know which wire goes to where, and if I need an in-line fuse somewhere. I had it wired the way you suggested, but I had two ground wires under the same bolt. Is that bad? When I hit the switch the lights dimmed and they started smoking, and the switch melted, lol. Im gonna need a new one. Also, my dad told me the control box converts the power from AC to DC, so it has to go through the box first.

Hope this helps, Thanks man

 

i believe for neons...the box converts it from AC to DC because it needs a lot more volts than 12...but for LEDs, if it's done right it shouldn't need more than the 12volts from the car, so i think that box is just a junction box to split it to more than one LED bar, the way to tell would be to get a volt meter, if it's a high amount of volts over 12, then it's converting to dc, and if it's 12, then it's probably like i said, just a junction block splitting 12volts evenly out to each plug. I personally have used the neon kit, and have yet to get another kit, so i never made it to LED kits.

Ok...middle red wire in switch goes to your battery, should probably put an inline 15 amp fuse (would have blown so you didn't melt anything already)...left red wire according to your picture should go to your box that the LEDs plug into, and then you should ground both the box, and your switch. Grounding the switch is optional at this point, it's just so the light in the switch works...so at this point, just ground out the box and go from there, if it magically fixes it (if there hasn't been too much damage already) then you can go ahead and ground the switch and be happy. If it doesn't work you may have burned up the system, and if you bought it new, just say that you hooked it up correctly and it didn't work. But with a melted switch it's going to be hard to say you did it right unless the fault was inside the switch. If you say that you hooked it up like i said...try a new switch being they are pretty cheap, if it works then good, if it doesn't take the system back immediately and try and get a refund.

As far as getting a new switch...it doesn't have to be anything fancy, you can go basic and get a 2 prong plug, easier to wire/less to worry about because there is no light inside of the switch (i can hook u up with instructions on how to get a seperate "on" light), or you can go out and find a 3 prong switch with a light inside that shows when it's "on". and then it hooks up just like i said before...

 

Alright.. That seems pretty straight-forward. I'm probably going to go out to the store soon cause i need more wire and a new switch.. Just so I know beforehand, if I get a two-pronged switch, (if i remember from last time I did this) the power wire goes into one prong, and the power wire from the box goes into the other, correct? Thanks man I appreciate it.

 

yup, and if you want a "on light", go to radio shack and check out thier selection, it should only be $2-3, give or take, and they have a couple, just get a LED one with two wires comeing out of it, probably called an "activation light" or sumthing like that...grab one of those and i can tell you how to do that if your interested in an "on" light. I gotta run for right now, i'll check in later to see how your doin. Later

 

Hahah, they work! Awesome! I went to radioshack and killed 2 birds with 1 stone, (poor birds) :P I'm really happy as you can see, they look great. I got more wires and the switch there. I got a dual panel switch so i can have the underglow and the interior neons on it at the same time. I did just what you said, and everything worked fine. I just dont get what was wrong the first time! Oh well, it looks better now and I got a better switch, so i'm happy. The system's really cool, its got different lighting modes and it pulses to music. Anyway man, I really appreciate your help. Thanks alot bro!

Oh yeah, its from a camera phone but, here ya go! Thanks again man!