multiple switch wiring

im planning to get a major LED/cathode setup in my car. heres my setups
switch1- 1 4 chip led in all my airvents (6
switch 2 - 1 4 chip led in all cupholders and 1 in the front spaces on rear cupholders0 6
switch 3- under dash kit( 2 maybe cathodes under dash)
switch 4- 4 9.5 flex strips under wheels ( maybe add more in engine bay when my wallet heals some)
all from oznium.com (green ftw)
my questions are should i use a different power source or iis the battery ok
what gauge power wire and what fuse should i use for this
and lastly how should i power the switches?
tap one switch to all the switches?
or seperate power wire to each switch [/img]

anyone have any ideas?

Of course use the battery, unless you have a team of mice running on wheels in the trunk. You can use small wire for everything. 18 gauge would be fine, even overkill for LEDs.

Find out what the total load of your circuit(s) will be and find a fuse that matches that as close as you can.

Power the switches using the fused battery line, or the fused mice slaves.

What do you mean tap one switch to all switches? Run the tapped fused wire to all switches yes.

im gonna probably use 16 gauge wire
with a 5 amp fuse
got this info from oz
and to get power to all the switched should i use a t tap or what else should i use for all these switches
thx for the info also
alot more than what i got from the scionlife boards

I have one wire running through a wire that I fused from my battery.....That one wire has about 9 different switches hooked up to it...nothing has gone wrong in 6 years....Just run one main power wire from your battery with a fuse on it, and then just tap into that wire to run the power for the switches...

16 gauge is overkill, but good if you are going to add on to these circuits.

The purpose of the fuse is so it will be destroyed as soon as you have too much current. Im not going to add up all of your components in your circuit, but if you are too far off from the total load, you defeat the purpose of protecting the components. They can potentially be ruined before the fuse melts. Just make sure you are close.

There are many ways to get power to each switch. Search for "barrier strip" you can find them at radioshack. Run fused power to the barrier, then run individual wire from the barrier to the switches.

im going 16 gauge because thats the lowest size i see on the oznium store

18 would be fine...the smaller, the easier to hide

i cant find an 18 gauge fuse holder
is a barrier strip easy to use as a beginner?

all your wire doesn't have to match (ie your fuse holder can have 1 gauge wire and connect to 22 gauge wire ...

and yes...

Numerically lower values don't mean the wire is smaller.

oh ok thx
you guys rock

78_towncar_460:

78_towncar_460 wrote:

Numerically lower values don't mean the wire is smaller.

is that a response to this?

Kevin_S wrote:

all your wire doesn't have to match (ie your fuse holder can have 1 gauge wire and connect to 22 gauge wire ... and yes...

No, I had the window sitting open and other people replied by the time I hit enter.

"im going 16 gauge because thats the lowest size i see on the oznium store" made me think that maybe he thinks that 16 is smaller than 18 or higher numbers.

i know that the lower the gauge the more power it can carry
lower number thicker wire