How to wire a rocker switch to a circuit is a common query many people have. There is the basic on/off rocker switch that we’re are all familiar with but not everybody knows how to wire, and then there’s also the lighted variety that even less people may know how to wire up!
Below you’ll find a basic on/off rocker switch wiring diagram as well as an easy to understand illuminated rocker switch wiring diagram so no matter what your needs, after reading this, you’ll want to put switches on all your LEDs by yourself. And you can because it’s so simple and you’ll find everything you need to know about it right here.
Rocker switch wiring diagram
This is the most basic type of switch – the On/Off rocker switch, (as shown using Oznium’s Black Anti Vandal Toggle Switch, mounts in 16mm or 19mm hole).
It has just 2 prongs:
Oznium’s rocker switches can be hooked up to any 12volt source, everything else is pretty self-explanatory, just follow the rocker switch wiring diagram and you can’t go wrong.
LED rocker switch wiring diagram
For the LED rocker switch, pay careful attention to the position of your ground, power and acc pins, follow the diagram below, (it uses Oznium’s LED Round Rocker Switch with recommended mounting hole diameter of 3/4″) and you should have no problems wiring a LED rocker switch:
Our rocker switches are available in:
- Plain/Regular (No LED. Does not light up)
- Blue (LED lights up when switch is on)
- Red (LED lights up when switch is on)
- Green (LED lights up when switch is on)
- White (LED lights up when switch is on)
- Amber (LED lights up when switch is on)
- On / Off / On (A 3 position switch. No LED)
Scion OEM style rocker switch wiring diagram
This switch also has a built-in LED that lights up when it’s in the on position, so if you’ve purchased one of these, below is a wiring diagram showing how you would go about wiring this particular rocker light switch, remember to pay careful attention to the markings on the pins:
3-way or 2-way switch wiring for RV
Do you want to control one light from two switches? Let’s say you have a large RV, and want to control your lights from a switch at the bedroom as well as a switch at the kitchen. You can use two of our on/off/on switches, and wire them like this:
I hope this helps you with your next LED lighting project, make sure to check out the great variety of switches, rocker switches, toggle switches we have to offer.
Hello, I am looking for a round rocker on/off switch with LED (like the one above) where the ground not the source is controlled (basically the LED is connected inverse internally). Do you carry something like this?
Thanks,
Andreas
Sorry, we don’t, but you could use a relay to do this with our existing switch.
how would that work exactly? im trying to do the same thing
Relay available here: 5 Pin 40 Amp Relay
I have a 2 pin Rocker switch, a 5 pin relay (85,86,30,87,87a), and right & left Driving lights on my motorcycle. Would you show me a diagram so I can control the power with the on/off switch ?
I need a couple of rocker switches, three-pin and two-pin.
On a three-pin switch, can I use the two of the pins (2 and 3) without the ground as if it were a two-pole? Simple on/off.
Thank you. Jacquot
Hi,
I wired up a led spst round rocker switch like the one above and it works just fine for turning on and off the accessory ( which has its own ground cable going to ground). However, as soon as I connect the ground wire from the rocker switch to ground, the led light comes on and stays on regardless if the switch is in the on or off position. Do you know why that might be? Is the switch bad or shorted somewhere?
Thanks
It sounds like you need to swap the Acc and Pwr wires:
Is it possible to disable the indicator light on a lighted toggle switch?
Yes. Just don’t ground the switch.
Is it possible to dim the indicator light,? or to have the light come on only when headlights are turned on ?
Cheers
Yes to both 🙂
To dim an LED, you can use a resistor, or a series of resistors. Or you could even use an LED dimmer.
To have the light only turn on when your headlights are turned on, you need to find a power source that is only on when the headlights are on. This could mean tapping into a certain fuse, or tapping into the headlight wire.
I bought a boat last year, in which the prior owner had installed LED tipped toggle switches in VERY BRIGHT blue. The boat was inoperable at night, because the blazing blue switches messed up night vision and obscured everything in front of the boat (along with a very poorly placed anchor light, incorrectly wired so it comes on with the running lights – a separate problem scheduled for my next fix..)
Anyway, I just replaced 9 blue LED switches with red LED switches.. these are better, but still a bit too bright.
I need to dim these LED’s.. the problem is, they’re powered from the 12v supply, which must remain 12v for the accessories they supply, so I need to dim the switches on the ground side. Ideally, I’d add a rotary pot on the dash, so I can brighten the LEDs for daytime use, and adjust thdir brightness for nighttime operation. I can run a common ground to all 9 switches, and pass that ground through a rotary pot.. but the extreme non-linearity of LED’s, and my lack of knowledge about the internal electronics within the switch, are making the resistance range hard to figure out. I would also want the brightness to stay relatively constant at the set level, regardless of how many switches are illuminated. Do you have any recommendations for dimming LED illuminated switches?
Hey Steve,
We’ve got the perfect product which should work great for this.
It’s a small waterproof dimmer knob, that dims by PWM (pulse width modulation).
The brightness of your switches will then be uniform no matter how many you have turned on/off.
https://www.oznium.com/switches/mini-led-dimmer-knob
How do you use 2 led rocket switches.
Switch one activates switch 2
Switch 2 functions the accessory.
Having trouble getting the first switch to light up. I can get it to all work but the activation switch won’t light up
Hi I get that but my kill switch won’t light up. The accessory that switch 2 puts on is a car line lock
Hi
How do I wire a 3 prong LED switch to turn a solar feed on or off with the LED on only when circuit is active ?
Thanks,
Wim
Hi,
I bought a some switches which have an led indicator light in them. I’m planning to just have them as part of a toy board for my son – so I only really need the led indicator on the switch to turn on and off when it’s actuated. Can I do that? i.e. I won’t have an ‘appliance’ – do I still need: a: 12 V battery and b: a fuse? How should I wire it so it just lights up when ‘on’?
Many thanks,
Sounds fun 🙂
Yes, it will work just fine. Leave the “Acc” pin disconnected. Hook up only power and ground to the switch.
Thanks! Appreciate the response. Can you suggest a suitable power supply? I don’t really want to put a car battery in the toy, does it have to be 12V? Also will I need fuses?
Many thanks
I want to control one light from two switches. Do I need to have the on/off/on switch or can I use a three prong Led rocker switch? If so, how would I wire it? Thanks in advance
Hi I just wired a 3 prong rocker switch that had leads already attached. When I turned on the power the switch was backwards when is the indicator should have been on it was off and vice versa plus the little LED light does not turn on do you have any suggestions. ItSeems like the switch is wired backwards internally
If that’s the case, you can always use a relay to fix this.
Just let me know if you need a diagram.
Hi, at the moment I use the switch for a car fuel pump.
I’m using a 85/86/87/30 relay, switched by ground.
At the moment the power is going to the 85 of the relay.
Then the switch is working. (pump is going on/off)
But the led light isn’t working.
I’m did switch some connections and then the pump is off and the led light is on.
When I turned on the pump the led light is off.
So what’s the correct connection diagram?
Thanks.
(I have a diagram available how it is connected at the moment with a kill switch etc.)
Hi Phil,
I have been looking online for ages but can’t seem to find the information or products that I need and I’m starting to go insane(!). Hopefully you or somebody else can help with information on the correct product and about the wiring.
Basically, I want a switch that’s like a combination of the 2 above. I want a round LED illuminated 12v switch with OFF and 2 ON positions to power some lights. I want the switch ON position 1 to turn on light A and ON position 2 to turn on light A and also light B.
Also, a wiring diagram would be helpful (the lights and switch will be grounded to vehicle chassis).
Thanks 😉
I’m going crazy, well sort of, I bought an electric fan relay kit that comes with a temperature switch but I want to manually wire a 3 prong LED toggle switch instead. The electric fan is for a transmission cooler and not for the cooling system, thus the temperature switch will not work for transmission fluid because of the different operating temperatures. I can’t figure out how to wire it, would you be kind enough to provide a wiring diagram showing the three prong LED toggle, battery, inline fuse, 30 amp circuit breaker, 30 amp relay and electric fan? I’m planning to wire directly to the battery and not an ignition switch source.
I have 2 on/off switches. Can I still use these instead of the on/off/on switches to create the 3way?
It depends. Can you please clarify: what do you mean by 3way? What exactly are you trying to achieve?
I have a Campervan. I have a switch that controls the water pump/faucet in the van. I have tapped in a shower on the same plumbing…would like to put a switch in the back of the van to control the same pump. I have some left over on/off led rocker switches, can I use these or do I need to get on/off/on switches.
I have 3 3 prong illuminated switches. Each is connected to different loads. Each switch is grounded so I get the lights on them. All 3 are connected the same way. Switch 1 and 3 are using acc1 as it’s +12, switch 3 is using ign2 for it’s 12v. Here’s the problem that’s driving me nuts. Switch 3 dims, considerably, the load if the switch is grounded. If I unground the switch, the load is full brightness. Switch 1, wired exactly the same, works great.
How do I tell which is the acc male connector off the switch and which is the constant power? Also, I hooked up the switch but only had one power wire coming off the battery, to a fuse, then to my switch and light. Grounded it and the power wire melted! Lol. Why
Thanks for a marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you may be a great author.
Hello. How do I wire this kind of toggle switch 3 prongs with an electric fan for a car? I’m using a fan relay harness from Spal with a relay and for control the fan I have to use the grounds instead of “power and lead”. I can make the fan run but without the led light on.
Thanks!
I’m not sure I’m following your diagram correctly. (For the led rocker switch) Does the ground from the led strip connect in some fashion to the two wires it is going over? Does it just connect to the ground? I have a fuse box that attaches to a converter because I’m working with a golf cart so where would the ground wire go? Still the battery even though they are on 6v or the converter box somewhere?
Looking for a rocker switch (on/off, killer switch) for a Whiz golf trolley.
What is the proper way to wire a two prong switch and a separate indicator light to a LED strip light? I had it wired, and the indicator light would turn on/off when flipping the toggle switch, but the LED strip light was constantly lit and wouldn’t turn off when flipping the toggle switch.
I’m working on a project for a friend’s kid (spaceship panel) and would like to include illuminated switches (if possible), not for switching power on and off to a circuit, but for switching different signals on and off within an already powered circuit.
That is, what I’m looking for is a DPST illuminated switch where I can connect V+ and GND to power the internal LED when switched on, but also, separate from that, connect two points together from a circuit.
I have been able to find illuminated DPST switches but on closer inspection they all appear to only be suited for use as power switches, i.e. the supply voltages will light the LED when the switch is ‘on’ but will also appear at the other pole of the switch for powering a load.
I’m wondering if anyone knows of an illuminated switch to use, or a way of wiring an illuminated switch to accomplish this.
I’m thinking maybe they’re not made that way though.
Thanks for any input!
Hi, I have an on off on switch. I want to have one on be to a white LED and then the other on to a red led on. This is for preserving night vision in my camper. Can I do this?
Hi
Hope you can help
I have 12v fridge in my vehicle, while I drive I power the fridge via the van’s 12v cig socket, when I turn the engine off and the van’s 12v cig socket is no longer live, I unplug the fridge from the vehicle and plug into the 12v AUX battery Box cig socket
How can I wire both power sources to a common 12v female power socket, and via an on/off/on switch, switch between both power sources
I bought a rocker switch to hook by Bluetooth speaker up in my rzr. It will turn my speaker off but I have to manually cut it on every time I turn my rzr off. Could you possibly tell me why?
I wired my ecoxgear speaker to a rocker switch but I have to turn it on manually everytime. Can someone tell me why please?
On the three pin led rocker switch what is the purpose of the ground/earth wire connection on the rocker switch ?