Electrical Question regarding new gauges

[itzrappa]

I bought some of the "ricey" gauges off of ebay for my new 1g...not for the "ooooh look at my gauges" reason but because blue is a lot more aesthetically pleasing to me.

It's a simple setup and the lights are already on the gauges...wires to each gauge goes to an inverter cube then out of that comes a positive wire, negative wire, and a 2-wire "on/off" switch.

All the on/off switch does is 'blip' a current and that tells the gauges to come on...but I do not want to have to turn the headlights on AND THEN power on the gauges.

My question is, after the headlights turn on, how can I then make it 'blip' a current to the 2-wire so it turns them on?

TIA
Ronnie
Black 93 TSi

 

[Fattie92]

why dont you just wire it in with the dimmer switch?

 

[itzrappa]

The positive and negative wires will be, but the "on/off" switch's wires have to be pulsed once to turn on...that's what needs to be accomplished.
Ronnie

 

[Fattie92]

im not sure if im following you then.... you say the lights have the positive and negative.... and then an on/off 2 wire circuit... You said it goes to a cube? Is this cube also known as a relay?


edit: sorry i didnt see the Inverter part..... havent ever heard of one of these. Im just not understanding why it has to be "bliped" ...

They didnt come with a wiring diagram? If not then what about the web site?


see what im thinking is.. you got your on/off, wire that to your dimmer seeing how thats a switch that can "blip" a signal to tell it when to turn on (obviously when the lights are turned on)... then wire the other positive to a supplied voltage somewhere else. And then obviously a good ground for the negative. so now you will have voltage to it constantly, and then when you hit the lights it will be "bliped" by that and turned on...


atleast thats what im seeing in my head.....

 

[illwill]

i ran my gauges into my dimer switch .. easy and comes on when the rest of the lights do.. but since iv done that.. now and then they flash in and out like there isnt enough juice to light all that shit up.. so i hit it and it comes back on.. i checked the wires .. everything is connected fine so i dunno.. but yea.. go for the dimmer ;]

 

[itzrappa]

Maybe I didn't explain the problem better..

There is a positive and negative wire (which I plan on wiring into the stock dimmer wiring). But there is also an on/off switch that must be "blipped" (or pressed) to then turn the lights on AFTER it gets power (from the headlights being turned on)...

If I connect the two wires or connect them to anything it doesnt matter because once power is lost they go back to "off" state so the button has to be pressed each time the light is on.

Hope this helps clear my explanation up.

Ronnie

 

[Fattie92]

Originally posted by itzrappa
Maybe I didn't explain the problem better..

There is a positive and negative wire (which I plan on wiring into the stock dimmer wiring). But there is also an on/off switch that must be "blipped" (or pressed) to then turn the lights on AFTER it gets power (from the headlights being turned on)...

If I connect the two wires or connect them to anything it doesnt matter because once power is lost they go back to "off" state so the button has to be pressed each time the light is on.

Hope this helps clear my explanation up.

Ronnie

This is one big confussing mess... so your saying that your gonna wire the positive and negative to the dimmer.... then you have this switch that needs to have power to it to turn on the gauge lights... and you DONT want to mess with turning it ON/OFF all the time, correct? We on the same page so far??

Now if you wired the switch to the dimmer... why would you be losing power and make it turn off?When you flip the lights on, the dimmer will power up, switching your gauge lights on. And it will be a constant power source till you turn the headlights off....

Why put the positive and negative to the dimmer? Id give it another source at the fuse box. and use the dimmer to act as a switch....


I MUST be confussed on what your talking about

 

[itzrappa]

What I mean is the positive/negative will be wired to the headlights normally...the problem is this on/off switch.

 

[Defiant]

Sounds like the inverter gets power, but nothing goes to the instruments until the output side of the inverter is turned on. I don't know if these have some kind of "starter" like a fluorescent bulb, but that's my guess. If this is the case, I think you're going to have to live with it. Even if you devises a circuit to do it electronically, you'd have to burrow into the epoxy of the control brick to wire it up.

I'd not heard of this situation amongst the thousands of indiglo gauge sets out there.

 

[illwill]

man listen.. you leave the on/off switch for the gauges on " ON " cause the power will be running threw the dimmer switch the gaugues will not get power uptill you turn your headlights on.. so no need it flipping the guage switch off and back on.. just leave it set to on.. you'll be fine.. thats how mine are set up..

 

[itzrappa]

It isn't a switch or a button that stays down. It is one that you have to press each time you turn it back on.

 

[itzrappa]

Well I don't think anyone has seen something like this before and it's hard to visualize so I took some pictures so you guys can understand what I'm talking about.

The picture shows that the cube has the gauge wires going in, and then the positive (red) and negative (black) wires coming out as well as the on/off button switch.

Problem: I have to bring power to the gauges (turning headlights on) THEN press the power button for the gauges to turn on. If I press the on button then I turn the headlights off it will then require me to press the on button again once they get power.

The on/off button simply touches the two wires together (completing a circuit) when its pressed down.


What I want to happen is when I turn the headlights on the gauges come on, and stay on -- I want to get rid of the on/off switch in this equation.

 

[itzrappa]

Next image:

 

[PaulPDX]

VFAQ has a pages on wiring up gauge face kits.

Click on "Gauges" in "FAQlocator" and then click on "Indiglo Gauge Faces - 1G".

http://www.herpetology.com/dsm/gaugeface.html

Your kit is a bit different since it has it's own on/off switch. Pretty dumb design. If I were you, I'd get something different. You can always dump the one you have back on eBay. I've had two different kits in mine and neither had their own power, just dimmer and color control... wired to the switched power wire of the fog light swtich like the VFAQ instructions, they come on with the headlight switch.

Looking at your on/off switch... it looks like you might be able to cut the swtich off and just wire the two wires together... since all the switch does is complete the circle like a push button toggle swtich. This means there is probably a relay of some sort in the inverter box. You might want to try that... but do it in a way where you can still reconnect the switch if it doesn't work out.

My guess is that it won't work out because that circuit will be constantly sending power to the relay so the relay would just click on and off constantly. You might have to add a relay so that it sends power to the inverter box and then clicks off whenever it senses power to the entire system (your headlight switch or however you have the main power wired hooked up).

 

[pradamike]

did u get your gauges to work man and if so do u like them because i ordered some off ebay..

 

[itzrappa]

Define WORK?

There never was a problem getting these gauges to work. The problem is it has an ON/OFF button I wanted to bypass but there wasn't a solution found yet. I'm ordering ANOTHER pair thats somewhat different and I am hoping this one doesn't have the on/off button...WISH ME LUCK

 

[JiveMasterT]

why dont you just chop off that on/off switch and bridge the two wires going to it? that way it will be like always on, waiting for power.

 

[PaulPDX]

why dont you just chop off that on/off switch and bridge the two wires going to it? that way it will be like always on, waiting for power.

That won't work. The on/off switch is a temp toggle switch. When pressed it sends a jolt to activate or deactivate the circuit... like a relay. If he just connect the two wires he'd be sending a constant stream of power to the relay... making the dash kit cycle on and off rapidly and continueously until something fries.

 

[Attack Eagle]

That is the most ghetto way of lighting those things up.


I think you should jsut get another set.

 

[PaulPDX]

He did. Read 4 posts ago.

 

[Attack Eagle]

I did.

I am restating the obvious for those oblivious!
There anit now way uf gettin them thangs to werk uthah then gettin a new seyut frum anuthah cumpany.

All righty then?

 

[JiveMasterT]

I did.

I am restating the obvious for those oblivious!
There anit now way uf gettin them thangs to werk uthah then gettin a new seyut frum anuthah cumpany.

All righty then?

oh, ok, i was just trying to see if things could be done without spending more money... just trying to help.

 

[jepherz]

That is the most ghetto way of lighting those things up.


I think you should jsut get another set.

Whats wrong with an on/off switch? That's how my watch works

You gotta love the crap sold on ebay...