Okay, I'm only 16 and don't know much about, really anything... Haha

Well i got this blue neon light and didn't know where to put it, so i plug it into my sub woofer.

(Positive and Negative into the left and right holes.)

Turns out it's pretty cool. Everything works fine and the cool part is that the neon light bangs with the sub.. haha.

The problem is when i really boom the blue light is pretty bright at night...

I was wondering how would i hook this up to a switch?
Do i just buy like... a 4 connector switch or something??

Hook 2 lines into the left and right part sub, then the neon light into the other side (+,-)?
This made the most sense, but i'm guessing so if this is totally off, sorry haha.

BTW, is this safe?

Thanks!

 

there's your problem!

 

Whuh? car neon works on DC, your amplifier is putting out AC, how in the hell....

ok, follow along:
- ground the (-) lead of the neon to something metal like the car's body.
- attach the positive to something that becomes (+) when the key is on (ignition, accessory, whatever).
- cut the (+) wire going to the neon, and splice in a SPST switch. You're just making/breaking that (+).

Now if you wanna be really baller, look into using a bosch-style 5 pin relay to trigger the neon when your headlights are turned on.

 

Ok........first of all cars are DC......speakers are AC.........yes the lights wil go for a while till they catch fire..........really......

first rule batteryh to switch......... + to positive and ground to ground or -

what i did was take my lights and hook one wire t + on bater and one to - and it lit.......now figure a switch in between to make on off...........easy as that........really.

 

So there's no way I can leave it in the sub woofer left and right plugs?

The things are powered differently?

Damn, I really liked the light bumpin with the subs haha.

Oh well, it was fun haha.

So now, does anyone have easy directions or something so i can plug the light in so when i open up the trunk the light turns on?

This will be great because i can barley see anything at night in the trunk.

Thanks!

(Gonna unplug the light for now haha.

 

Alrigh, i just want to make sure, is this safe or not?

You know the light that lights up in the trunk on the left side.

I popped that out and hooked up the neon light, i didn't feel like cutting or taping anything so I took out the bulb, put the wires on the end of each side then plugged the bulb back in, hid the wires and done.

Now it turns on and off with that switch, and when the trunk opens and closes.

Is this safe or not?

THANKS!!!

 

eh... at worst you'll blow the fuse on that circuit after awhile. Ideally you should use those wires to switch a relay, and pass power from the battery -> through the relay -> to the neon.

give it a shot i suppose.

 

yeah, but this way its only on when I open the trunk.

I don't want it on full time.

 

the point of the relay is to turn it on only when the trunk is open, switched by the interior light...



See?! :p

 

lol u so confused him

 

yeap, sorry im totally confused.

haha

 

you like to type h's and a's dont you

...haha

 

It'll be fine the way you have it now, wired to the light switch. Don't worry about using a relay, and you aren't likely to blow the circuit's fuse either, as the light doesn't draw much current, probably the same or less than the stock bulb.

 

I've had so many "facepalm" moments on these forums as an electrical engineer myself, hahaha...

The added load on the trunk light from your neon is ok. The problem might develop if it draws more current than the fuse for the tr unk light is designed for. To fix this, kileil suggest you use a relay.

Without going too in-depth, a relay takes the signal from the trunk light, but draws power from another source that can supply enough power to run the light without blowing the fuse of the trunk light.

I highly suggest you do a lot of reading and research before messing with your car's electrical system. Things like powering neon's on AC are serious safety concerns that can lead to damaged system components or fires. I don't think you'd like to set your first car on fire!

A good resource: http://www.the12volt.com/

 

i use the trunk light to power my led strip, a lot less current draw compared to a neon. plus its a lot easier to mount.

 

Actually cold cathode tubes don't draw much current either. A big misconception is that LEDs use drastically less power than a cathode. Well, they use a lot less than a filament light bulb, but much more than a cathode:

2 12" cold cathodes: 5 mA draw
2 9.5" flexible LED strips from Oznium: 320mA

The draw from LEDs depends on how many LEDs are placed on the strip obviously, but I think Oznium is agreed upon as a good source of parts.