12v led wiring

[rrev]

I'm trying to figure out how to wire a led strip inside my pass through compartment that has a push button to turn on the light when you open either door.Do I need to run wires from one side to the other between the switches like a 3 way in your house? Do I need a special switch? Anyone ever do this?

[DeadeyeLefty]

Yes of course that's right. Thx Bobbo.

[Bobbo]

DeadeyeLefty wrote:

rrev wrote:
I'm trying to figure out how to wire a led strip inside my pass through compartment that has a push button to turn on the light when you open either door.Do I need to run wires from one side to the other between the switches like a 3 way in your house? Do I need a special switch? Anyone ever do this?

Or you could just use NO (normally open) pin switches like the fridge light or the dome lights in your car ? Had your rig come with that as an option, that's how it would have been done.
Wired in parallel and then to the light, the light will go on when either of the doors is opened and off when they're both shut. No 3-way wiring, no worry about the lights being left on accidentally, and no need to switch the negative lead. Easy peasy.

Actually, those are NC (normally closed) switches. With the door open the button is released and the switch closes to turn on the light. When you close the door, it presses the button to open the switch to turn off the light.

[DeadeyeLefty]

rrev wrote:
I'm trying to figure out how to wire a led strip inside my pass through compartment that has a push button to turn on the light when you open either door.Do I need to run wires from one side to the other between the switches like a 3 way in your house? Do I need a special switch? Anyone ever do this?

Or you could just use NO (normally open) pin switches like the fridge light or the dome lights in your car ? Had your rig come with that as an option, that's how it would have been done.
Wired in parallel and then to the light, the light will go on when either of the doors is opened and off when they're both shut. No 3-way wiring, no worry about the lights being left on accidentally, and no need to switch the negative lead. Easy peasy.

[Chris_Bryant]

tenbear wrote:

GordonThree wrote:

tenbear wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Chris is saying to power it from both ends with simple on/off switchs. Put 12V to the red leads.

You probably should power each end from the same 12v circuit. If not, when you open the doors on both sides two 12v circuits will be shorted together.

that's not a problem, unless your RV has some really weird setup where there are two different 12v systems that don't share a ground somehow.

voltage is potential and nothing more, you could have 10 12v batteries connected to the LED strip, as long as their grounds were all connected, it's still just 12v.

If you use 2 different 12v circuits you are putting 2 fuses in parallel when both doors are open. Thus the circuits have too large a fuse for the wiring. Also if one of the circuits has a large current drain, the current will be divided between the two fuses and some of the current will be flowing in the small wiring on the light strip. IMHO, not a good idea.

Good point- a single hot and switched grounds is the way to go- how they used to go the auto dome lights.

[Ivylog]

You could just use a 9V battery and it's connector as the switch to power a 4' section on each side. Would be a good use of the smoke detector batteries we throw away each year. Use Velcro to mount the battery and just pivot the connector over the other terminal to connect it... no need to snap the second one in.

[tenbear]

GordonThree wrote:

tenbear wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Chris is saying to power it from both ends with simple on/off switchs. Put 12V to the red leads.

You probably should power each end from the same 12v circuit. If not, when you open the doors on both sides two 12v circuits will be shorted together.

that's not a problem, unless your RV has some really weird setup where there are two different 12v systems that don't share a ground somehow.

voltage is potential and nothing more, you could have 10 12v batteries connected to the LED strip, as long as their grounds were all connected, it's still just 12v.

If you use 2 different 12v circuits you are putting 2 fuses in parallel when both doors are open. Thus the circuits have too large a fuse for the wiring. Also if one of the circuits has a large current drain, the current will be divided between the two fuses and some of the current will be flowing in the small wiring on the light strip. IMHO, not a good idea.

[4x4van]

Run 12VDC (+) to the hot side of your LED strip. Then run two wires from the negative side of the LED strip; one to each push-button switch. The other side of each switch will be attached to ground (-).

Or you can reverse that; run 12VDC (+) through each switch to the hot side of your LED strip, and attach the negative side of the LED to ground. It's really not rocket science.

[YC_1]

I installed a 12 volt motion sensor available on ebay. Two wires in, two wires out. Now I don't have to fuss with switches or forget to turn them off. You could install two sensor off the same 12 volt supply source. I use led strips in the pass through so it lights up well.

[navegator]

There is another way to do it, dump trucks use a rotary switch with a lever that turns a red light in the cab that indicates that the bucket is not seated down all the way, NAPA sells them place one on each door one lead to ground the other lead to the negative of the LED and hook the positive to the + of the LED, when either door is opened the LED is turned on, even if both doors are open all you have is a ground on the same line and only one wire to run, that's how I would do it and I do not have to worry about forgetting to turn light off.

Or you can use micro switches they are harder to adjust and easy to fail, the rotary switch is easier to adjust and is built for hard work, I'm not able to show you a picture, I am still learning to use the tablet still want to trow it out the window some times.

navegator

[Bobbo]

tenbear wrote:

navegator wrote:
Wire it the same way as a stair in a house, with double pole double trow switches and yes you will need to run wires across the bay.

navegator

Single pole double throw switches are required for turning the lights off or on from either of two locations.

Whichever door you open turns on the light. It will turn off when you close that same door. There is no need to be able to turn it off from the other side.

Wire 2 switches in parallel on the same hot wire. Put one on each side.

[GordonThree]

tenbear wrote:

Ivylog wrote:
Chris is saying to power it from both ends with simple on/off switchs. Put 12V to the red leads.

You probably should power each end from the same 12v circuit. If not, when you open the doors on both sides two 12v circuits will be shorted together.

that's not a problem, unless your RV has some really weird setup where there are two different 12v systems that don't share a ground somehow.

voltage is potential and nothing more, you could have 10 12v batteries connected to the LED strip, as long as their grounds were all connected, it's still just 12v.

[tenbear]

Ivylog wrote:
Chris is saying to power it from both ends with simple on/off switchs. Put 12V to the red leads.

You probably should power each end from the same 12v circuit. If not, when you open the doors on both sides two 12v circuits will be shorted together.

[tenbear]

navegator wrote:
Wire it the same way as a stair in a house, with double pole double trow switches and yes you will need to run wires across the bay.

navegator

Single pole double throw switches are required for turning the lights off or on from either of two locations.

[rrev]

That makes sense. Hadn't thought about it like that. Thanks