LED Lighting question general please help!!!!!!

I am a firemen and am installing a "christmas tree" of lights. Only problem is I have no clue what I am doing or where to start.

Here is what I am getting:
1) I am buying 4 different interior lights (Styles: 1 strip bar, 2 identical slim-miser, and 1 8- LED gen3, all interior). They all have cig plugs and can be used with 12DC voltage.
2) A pair of grill lights that needs to be hooked up (no cig plug) for responding to calls
3) A neon undercar kit that needs to be hooked up (no cig plug) for responding to calls
4) I also already have an 8-LED gen3 light, and a mini strip light. Both are hooked up seperate to my 2 cig plugs.

Here are my questions. PLEASE help me out!!!!
1) I need to hook all of these lights up together. Meaning I'm going to cut the cig plugs off and buy a 5-switch box. Should I do this/will that work? Is there a certain swicth box I must buy or is cutting the cig plugs off a bad idea?

2) Some lights will be set together to fit them all on the one 5-switch box (I have to connect the 2 gen3 lights together, and the 2 strip lights). The gen3 and strip lights are the same identical item. Is there an easy way to connect these, and then connect one big wire to the switch box?

3) MOST importantly, I'm guessing this is going to take a lot of power/amp/watts etc. to all be on at the same time, (which they will be). Do I need a certain kind of battery or a seperate power source? 5 of the 7 lights are all designed for cig plug/12volt usage.

Thanks for your help! I really need it!!!


Here are some of the links to the lights:

switchbox= http://storesense2.megawebservers.com/HS4886/Detail.bok?no=60&sfs=659d0e4e

grill light= http://storesense2.megawebservers.com/HS4886/Detail.bok?no=11&sfs=d2556628

LED back light= http://www.ledoutfitters.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=14

2 front dash lights= http://needlights.com/whsmll.html

back led strip= http://www.autodirectsave.com/89409F-1-46-LED-S...-Light-Bar-wcig-plug-P34C31.aspx

Pyr0-818TD wrote:

I am a firemen and am installing a "christmas tree" of lights. Only problem is I have no clue what I am doing or where to start. Here is what I am getting: 1) I am buying 4 different interior lights (Styles: 1 strip bar, 2 identical slim-miser, and 1 8- LED gen3, all interior). They all have cig plugs and can be used with 12DC voltage. 2) A pair of grill lights that needs to be hooked up (no cig plug) for responding to calls 3) A neon undercar kit that needs to be hooked up (no cig plug) for responding to calls 4) I also already have an 8-LED gen3 light, and a mini strip light. Both are hooked up seperate to my 2 cig plugs. Here are my questions. PLEASE help me out!!!! 1) I need to hook all of these lights up together. Meaning I'm going to cut the cig plugs off and buy a 5-switch box. Should I do this/will that work? Is there a certain swicth box I must buy or is cutting the cig plugs off a bad idea? Yes you can cut the cig outlet plugs off with no issue. Anyone who hard wires stuff (what you are doing, cuts them off) 2) Some lights will be set together to fit them all on the one 5-switch box (I have to connect the 2 gen3 lights together, and the 2 strip lights). The gen3 and strip lights are the same identical item. Is there an easy way to connect these, and then connect one big wire to the switch box? Yes you can combine power wires to run multiple items from one strip. You can also combine the grounds to minimize grounding points. 3) MOST importantly, I'm guessing this is going to take a lot of power/amp/watts etc. to all be on at the same time, (which they will be). Do I need a certain kind of battery or a seperate power source? 5 of the 7 lights are all designed for cig plug/12volt usage. You will likely want to use relays on the switches. This will not only clean up your switch wiring but also the rest of it. Thanks for your help! I really need it!!!

More details (aka links) of the products and someone here would probably make you a wiring diagram.

I wouldn't use neon underneath the vehicle unless it will be on constantly when you hit the sirens. I don't think it would be good for the transformers to flash the lights.

Don't do a neon under car kit. Get an LED under car kit.

LED's don't use very much power, so you won't need any extra battery or power source... nothing fancy.

Alls you need to do is get tapped into a positive wire under your dash (maybe the cig lighter wire; no need to cut that off, just tap into it)
Put an in line fuse.
Run a wire to a switch
Run all the positive wires of the led's and strips to the positive wire that goes back to a switch
Run a ground wire (which can be grounded to pretty much any metal screw or bolt that is attached to your cars body).

Flip the switch on and your lights come on.

Someone would probably make you a diagram.

If you can post some links of the products you're getting it would help.

or you can use one of these ^^^ instead of tapping into a wire, just find an open slot in your fuse box that has constant power and run it from there.[/img]

Pyr0-818TD wrote:

Here are my questions. PLEASE help me out!!!! 1) I need to hook all of these lights up together. Meaning I'm going to cut the cig plugs off and buy a 5-switch box. Should I do this/will that work? Is there a certain swicth box I must buy or is cutting the cig plugs off a bad idea?

1. Yes, you'll definitely want to cut all the cigarette lighter plugs off so that each of your lighting sources has a simple two-wire hook-up, no worries with that . There isn't any one switch box that's specifically what you need, I'd do a Google search for 'automotive switch panels' or something like that, you'll find a lot of options made for custom off-road vehicles and boats especially . Or of course you can make your own or wire switches directly into your dash/console somewhere that will be a bit more time & labor intensive . (Although cheaper; switch panels can get pretty expensive for some reason) .

Pyr0-818TD wrote:

2) Some lights will be set together to fit them all on the one 5-switch box (I have to connect the 2 gen3 lights together, and the 2 strip lights). The gen3 and strip lights are the same identical item. Is there an easy way to connect these, and then connect one big wire to the switch box?

Two ways you can wire two or more lighting items on the same switch . You can either run a length of wire from the switch contacts out of the switch box, and then connect multiple lighting sources directly to that wire, or you can just run multiple wires from different lighting sources directly into the switch box and connect them together on the same switch.. either one is totally acceptable and identical from an electrical point of view . Just make sure you install an in-line fuse for each separate lighting source .
Example: You run 2 feet of wire out of the back of your switch box for one switch, and then connect three different LED strips to the end of this one piece of wire . You would want to install 3 in-line fuses, one on the power wire of each LED strip -after- the point where they all connect to the wire coming from the switch box, NOT one fuse on the wire coming from the switch box before it splits into your three lighting sources . Make sense ?

Pyr0-818TD wrote:

3) MOST importantly, I'm guessing this is going to take a lot of power/amp/watts etc. to all be on at the same time, (which they will be). Do I need a certain kind of battery or a separate power source? 5 of the 7 lights are all designed for cig plug/12volt usage.

You shouldn't need to modify your alternator/battery/etc etc . All the stock equipment will work . (Unless you drive a moped or something ridiculously low-power, but I'm guessing this is at least a full-size sedan or a pick-up or something) . The only modification you may want to consider is running a dedicated power wire directly from the positive terminal of your battery back to the switch box . This wire should be beefier than any other wire in your lighting system as it will be carrying power for all of them at once (the exact size of the wire to be determined by the power demands of all your devices combined) and it should have its own fuse located close to the battery . Or you can examine the Add-A-Circuit option that D_M_A_N posted . More information about the exact devices you're using will help determine whether or not the Add-A-Circuit or the dedicated power wire is more appropriate . If you can use the Add-A-Circuit, go for it . Running a new power wire will likely involve routing it through your firewall (the barrier between your engine bay and passenger compartment) which can be a pain the ass .

Check out Oznium's in-line fuses if you don't already have fuses:


http://www.oznium.com/self-tap-in-fuse-holder


http://www.oznium.com/atc-fuse-holder

Here are some of the links to the lights:

switchbox= http://storesense2.megawebservers.com/HS4886/Detail.bok?no=60&sfs=659d0e4e

grill light= http://storesense2.megawebservers.com/HS4886/Detail.bok?no=11&sfs=d2556628

LED back light= http://www.ledoutfitters.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=14

2 front dash lights= http://needlights.com/whsmll.html

back led strip= http://www.autodirectsave.com/89409F-1-46-LED-S...-Light-Bar-wcig-plug-P34C31.aspx

What sort of vehicle are you putting these in ?

Do you have any specs for the installation for the switch box?



What does that eight holed plug go to?

The vehicle is a 2007 jeep laredo.

The switchbox I am getting is actually this one:
http://storesense2.megawebservers.com/HS4886/Detail.bok?no=106