Basic wiring

tom1979 · Oct 20, 2013

I have never needed to do any wiring before as I have always been lucky enough to reuse existing stuff however I need to wire up a 12v beacon to a two prong toggle switch. Can anyone advise how it show be wired up? The led light has a positive and negative wire.

I m sure it must be extremely simple as I could not find the answer on Google or on here !

cfnteabag · Oct 20, 2013

The way I have wired them up in the past is

Battery--fuse--switch--positive side of beacon--negative side of beacon--any handy metal bit of land rover

Hope that makes sense and helps

MR BFG · Oct 20, 2013

cfnteabag said:
The way I have wired them up in the past is

Battery--fuse--switch--positive side of beacon--negative side of beacon--any handy metal bit of land rover

Hope that makes sense and helps

I would probably do it the same way too, all of my own wiring I have done is more or less like this other than my spots which are through a relay.

If you are planning to add many more things it may be an idea to get an auxillary fuse box that's powered.

Jongould · Oct 20, 2013

Just make sure the wires are thick enough for the current draw (beacons use a lot of power due to the electric motors unless it's a modern led flashing one and not a rotating bulb one) and grommet when going through panels so as not to chafe wiring. Fuse as close as possible to the battery and make sure there's plenty of play in the cable, do t run the wires taught...

tom1979 · Oct 20, 2013

cfnteabag said:
The way I have wired them up in the past is

Battery--fuse--switch--positive side of beacon--negative side of beacon--any handy metal bit of land rover

Hope that makes sense and helps

Yes, thank you. So the negative(off) of the switch goes back to the negative battery terminal or other earth, the negative lead of the light is earthed and there will be two wires connected to the "On" of the switch?

Jongould · Oct 20, 2013

The switch goes inline, don't earth the negative as you are just creating a short circuit.

Wire from positive goes to a fuse, from there to +ve on switch, -neg of switch goes to +ve on light, -neg goes to earth on body.

Think of it like a hose, water has to flow continually around the circuit

SteNova · Oct 20, 2013

to make it easier i'd be switching the negative

battery-fuse-lamp-switch-body

tom1979 · Oct 20, 2013

Jongould said:
The switch goes inline, don't earth the negative as you are just creating a short circuit.

Wire from positive goes to a fuse, from there to +ve on switch, -neg of switch goes to +ve on light, -neg goes to earth on body.

Think of it like a hose, water has to flow continually around the circuit

Thank you all is clear now!

Basic wiring

tom1979

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cfnteabag

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MR BFG

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Jongould

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tom1979

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Jongould

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SteNova

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tom1979

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