Offroad light oddity with a relay...

So I used the diagram from here:


The odd thing is, it doesn't work when I wire it up like that... I have to take the 85 from the relay and also put that into the battery to get the relay to work, and the lights come on. To make sure it was safe that way I left them on for 10 minutes or so.. no smoking or anything bad.

My question is... am I doing something wrong or is this unsafe? It really doesn't make sense to me... if it were wrong it should melt a wire or something.

Here is the relay:

$10 Absolute RLS125 12-VCD Automotive Relay SPDT 30/40A

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002KR9GG

 

There are a lot of different ways to wire a relay. I'll take a look at mine when I get home and see if I can help

 

Are you sure you grounded the relay to a good ground? And why would you need a relay if you have the relay switch connect directly to the battery?

 

Found your problem. 86 should be ground and 85 should be the power from switch, but not sure if this would make a difference

 

Because sometimes the switches can't handle as much power as the lights require so you put low lower to the switch and batter power to the relay to power the lights.

 

Ah, makes sense

 

Hmmm, every single wiring diagram agrees with the original I put up... not sure that would be the problem.

The original ground was right to the negative on the battery.

 

Check all your grounds. Your wiring diagram is correct from what I can tell and I checked a few sites I've used in the past for wiring diagrams and they also agree. You might not have a good ground at one of the points along the way.

 

Cool, thanks, I will double check all my grounds. Odd that it works fine with the grounds I have when both wires go to the battery though.

 

Do you mean both the ground and the power of the relay running to the battery or the power and ground from the lights to the batter?

 

Power and ground from the relay are going to the battery... I also didn't put the power from the fuse box to the switch either, since I assume that is only for the little LED on the switch.

I attached what mine looks like right now.

 

If it works that way then your relay wasn't grounded properly. That wiring set-up is just running the current backwards through the relay and grounding out through the switch. Recheck your relay ground and it should work out. Also, make sure your power source at the switch is good and that the switch itself is functioning properly. A test light would make this an easier task.

 

There's your problem. Need to attach the power from the fuse box to the switch to send the 12v through the switch to the relay. when the switch is flipped on the LED will then be in contact and the point of the ground on the switch is to ground the LED. In conclusion you NEED the power from the fuse box to the switch

 

Ground everything back to where it was previously and attach the 12v power from the fuse to the switch

 

Damn, I missed that part about the switch!! That's exactly why it's not working, good catch Drunknsloth. The power is powering the LED on the switch but also providing the power to 'trigger' the relay.

 

Yea, as soon as I went to bed to take a nap before work I was thinking about this and it hit me, duh I need power to the relay to switch it. Gonna just tap into my add a fuse for my radar detector.

Thanks guys.

 

Well, going off my RD didn't work, it is just a 4 A fuse, and that blew... only had a 5 so I replaced it with that.

Gonna stop by advanced tomorrow morning and grab an add a circuit for one of my unused rear power window fuses, since I don't have any rear power windows.

Then, it better F***ing work!

 

Where were you powering it from before? It doesn't make sense that it would blow the fuse even if it is a 4A because the relay shouldn't draw that much power from the switch sense it is just to switch the relay. Or did the fuse blow on the inline from the battery to slot 30 on the relay?

 

This just confused me. What was the reason for tying the 85 and the 30 together? If the switch is lighted, you need to ground a pin, have another pin connected to a fused power, then the last pin to the accessory. Usually the middle pin is to a fused power, the top pin to the ground, and the bottom pin to the accessory. So in this case the relay should have pin 30 connected to a fused power from the battery that is always hot, 85 to the switching means of the relay, 87 to the lights, and 86 to ground. I would have a 15A fuse from the power source to the relay, and maybe a 3A fuse from the power source to the switch.