Tower Light Help - Diagram

[Sinkoumn]

Could I get some feedback on this diagram? This is what I came up with after doing quite a bit of searching through the forums. I am going to get started on building a light setup and want to have the lights setup so I can switch between only having the fronts on when the rocker switch is pushed up; and then have BOTH front and back on when I flip the rocker switch down.

Does the way I have the diagram drawn up look as though it will work? Or are there issues that I don't see with the way I have it setup?

Also, I am a little confused as to how I would wire the CARLINGSWITCH so that the LED lights up either on top or on the bottom depending on which way I flip the rocker-switch.

I am no expert, so I would appreciate any help that you can give in regards to this setup.

I would like to have a choice between only having the fronts on, or Both front and back on. I am using mainly for docking at night, so most of the time I won't need the rear's on (the rears would be nice to have if interior light is needed).

[HHI Dave]

Dude, if you're no expert, then I'm a Bubb Rubbing retard. Nice diagram.

[jjaszkow]

Nice diagram, they make it really easy to figure out what you are trying to accomplish. On this diagram it would have been helpful to label which terminals on the relays were the coil and which ones were the contactor. I am making the assumption that left one and the top one are the coil terminals.

It looks most of this is wired properly with the possible exception of the switch. I am assuming that your switches and relays work in a certain way, so let me know if anything is confusing.

The switch poles should either have positive or negative on both sides, it looks like you are connecting both positive and ground in the diagram. From your diagram, it looks you are probably already clearon this, but a relay is just another switch controlled by current on the coil side rather than a throw.

The light positive wiring should go as follows: Batteries -> Relay contactor -> Lights.
The switch positive wiring should be: Battery positive -> Switch -> Relay coil and switch LED + terminal.
The ground wiring should be: Ground -> switch LED - termination, relay coil, and lights.
This will allow you to light either front or rear, but not both. In order to light both sets of lights at once, you can either diode isolate the relay coil side of the circuit so that you can energize both relay coils when it is switched to rear (you would wire the rear switch pole to both relay coils), or your could use a third relay to trigger the coil of the front light relay, which looks like the way that you have designed it according to the diagram.

Which Carlingswitch will you be using? They make quite a few different switches, but I can't find one with 7 terminals in my quick check of their catalog.

http://www.carlingtech.com/pdf/v_seriescontcircuitdiag.pdf and http://www.cmsquick.com/prod_17_S_Tec01.html might help you out with the wiring of the switch.

If you are unclear what the terminals on the switch do, an easy check would be to flip the switch while connected to an ohmmeter and see what each of the terminals do.

[Sinkoumn]

I think that might be were I am getting confused - I don't have the switch on hand (should be coming in a week), so I wanted to take a stab at getting all the details ironed out before I start the project.

I was looking off of a ballast pump thread (how to wire a 3-way switch) and there was a Carlingswitch on there with 7 prongs. I am pretty sure that the switch has 8 poles, and I will just have to monkey with it and figure out the LED setup.

Thanks much for the links though, they help a lot.

[jjaszkow]

Looks like you have made some good progress in getting the details ironed out. You'll have to take pictures of the install as you work through it.

I also thought of a few more (minor) things.

The switch could actually only have a ground terminal for the LED's, since it could probably get the positive side of the circuit from the switch pole. You might discover that this is the case when you receive the switch.

The Stinger SR200 has a ground side to the control circuit that isn't or your diagram. This will be pretty obvious when you get the part. I would suggest connecting all accessories that you run when your boat is not running to the top battery in your diagram. This way you should be able to always use a fully charged battery for starting.

If I did my math right, each of the light arrays (front and rear) draws 13.75A, so it is probably best to do the 3 relay setup rather than the 2 with the diode isolated coil inputs like I had mentioned earlier.

Have fun and good luck .

[wesgardner]

One other thing, the "odd-ball" seventh terminal (the one for the lighting WITHIN the switch) I believe is reserved for GROUND providing ground to the switch's light...???