Ken the electrical guy Q n A

If you’re going to keep the switches as relay triggers only a 15 amp fuse is way over kill. I’d find a 1 amp fuse. The draw on a relay coil is very very small. I wouldn’t fuse each circuit if they are just relay triggers. If they would be carrying the load of the accessory then yes I would fuse It

if they are just triggers then
Battery-fuse——————dist block—-input to switches. You could also trigger them on the negative side of the relay coil. Power them up under the hood and just run the negative wire up to the switch panel. It’s personal preference but I normally triggered them off the negative

 

@Stopmithering and just for clarification you will need to fuse the load side of the relay. In standard relay wiring this will be the 30 position. The fuse protects everything past the fuse. Meaning away from the battery. So the closer you get to the battery the safer your system.

 

@Kens04Taco I have battery - blue sea fuse - relay positive 30 (red on my relays), fuse before relay. So it protects relay and lights, right.

still haven’t got my head around the negative trigger!

 

@Stopmithering I apologize for the chicken scratch but here’s a quick and dirty diagram that shows the difference between switching a relay off the positive or negative side of the coil

 

Notice the only difference in this configuration is where we position the switch

 

Home alone for Thanks Giving because of work. So I worked on plans. This is my first sketch trying to orient the relays as they are on my power board.



Then tried to tidy it up by rotating the relays.




The cat was not too impressed !



@Kens04Taco How does that look?

 

looks great. Very clean and would be very easy to diagnose any issues in the future. Your diagram looks way better than mine haha.


My cat does the same thing

 

Is it possible to activate a relay with more than 1 signal wire?

I want to activate two separate circuitsfrom both my dash and a switch in the bed. Each circuit will have 12V+, separate grounds...and one relay with two signal wires (1) from each switch.
I plan on using 4 SPST on/off switches from OTRATTW. Upper independent LEDs.

Also if the relay thing is okay to do. If I don't diode the signal wires then would the other switch in the circuit activate the lower led in the other switch showing that the circuit is "live"?

Edit: I tested a switch the lower led will illuminate regardless of switch position if the other switch completes the circuit.

 

Sounds like two three way switch’s (spdt) might be a better bet so you can set on/off from either end.

 

If I did that I'm guessing it would allow me to turn of the circuit from either switch if the other is still on? I would have to leave one of the throws blank...

 

absolutely. Just for clarification you would like to control something from two locations using one relay?

I would trigger the relays off the negative side of the relay to reduce the amount of live wires running all the way back to the bed. Simply connect each wire running to each switch together at the relay and bind them together. The relay will not trigger unless one of the switches is in the on position and grounded. How ever this would mean you would have to leave the cab if u wanted to turn off the circuit and you left the bed switch on.

you can run redundant switched circuit meaning they flow through one another on the way to the relay. This would mean however both circuits would have to be on to trigger the relay but you could effectively kill the circuit by flipping one switch. So if your in the cab and you left the switch on in the bed you could turn the switch off in the cab to kill it.

As mentioned before you can run two stdp switches which would give you a on off and passive on which would require the on position of the second switch to be in on or passive on to work. This would allow you to turn it off or on from either end.


If you don’t like these options lemme know and I’ll brain storm something

 

how would you wire the SPDT switches to one relay on the ground circuit?

Edit: found this but that would require me to run twice the number of wires to make this work.

 

Quick question,

The rear OEM tailgate camera is apparently 6v. I'd like to mount a remote

Car Backup Camera Rilitor Rear View Parking Reverse Camera with HD CMOS 170° Angle IP67 Waterproof Night Vision Reversing Cameras for Cars Truck SUV RVs

aftermarket 12v camera to my truck camper, but utilize an OEM plug like the one found here. Can I get away with installing a step up converter to power the aftermarket 12v camera? TIA!

 

that’s looks like an AC circuit.

I’ll draw you a diagram when I get home

 

will you be running this instead of your oem camera or would you like to use a video switch to utilize both via the same monitor ?

 

I'm installing the car solutions anytime camera kit as seen here. I simply would like to unplug my tailgate camera, remove the tailgate, slide in the truck camper, and plug in the truck camper camera, but have it work like the stock camera. No video switch per se. (but the camera I want to use is 12v and the OEM camera is 6V, so that's why I'm asking if a step up converter will power the 12v camera, I guess I could just try it out...)

 

So i used CircuitJS 1 to model the double SPDT switches into my circuit and got this. seems to work. do i have it right?


you can upload this txt file into CIRCUITJS 1 and flip all the switches.

 

That diagram is essentially correct...here is the same thing in a more linear form. I have not drawn the service load (whatever you are powering)...i drew this as a negative switch as then you can often replace one of the cross leads with the car body.
If you need a more detailed diagram let me know what you are trying to power, how much current it demands, and if you are comfortable with making the connections... that will help me to give you the proper detail.

 

yeah that works great but i have these OTRATTW switches that require power at the switch to light the LEDs...