Well, I got a wild hair and built a couple of simple circuits with some LED lights I had, and have tried to reverse engineer the switches’ wiring…and I’m still confused. These switches were scavenged from a Sea Fox (I think it was) and were already wired. In the pic, there are two poles tied together, and the other wire would run to the next switch and do the same thing, daisy chaining them all together…that’s what’s got me messed up. These are Carling toggle switches with LED’s in the tip of the toggle. I haven’t even figured out how to make those work…they won’t light up regardless of how I hook the switch up.
Anyone have a simple explanation for what goes where? The swithches are 1400 series and I can’t find diagrams online of course…
I am pretty sure the daisy chain wires would be your GND. I highly recommend using a meter to ohm test the switches before installing…ohm is the upside down horseshoe on the meter. Ohm testing will confirm the circuit is being closed inside the switch.
I got all of the switches reverse engineered and working with the illumination! Drew myself a schematic for each one, and should have no issue getting them all wired up this week. Wifey leaves for out of town trip and the kid is gone too so I should have plenty of “quiet” time to get the wiring wrapped up. Figured no better way to learn this stuff than to do it myself…thanks for all of the help!
Just an F.Y.I. – make sure to put a three way switch for the bilge
pump and float !!
(1st) bilge on ““constant”” !! (wired straight to pump)
(2nd) bilge and float !!
(3rd) bilge off !!
Because if float fails and you only have it wired through 2 way switch boat sinks !!!
Something to think about !!
This should be it. Chris’ comments with minor variation/option or two.
Do you want your gauges backlit when your nav/anc lights are on? If so scratch the extra gauge light switch and run a positive out of the nav/anc switch to the gauges.
Are your switches backlit? If so they need to be grounded also.
!!!
