led lights issue

Refueler said:
Your sketch wiring shows that you have basically series'd the two lights .... the dimness of the original light is based on the low energy flow allowed by the LED light ...

View attachment 209777

to make anything like this work - you'd need at least Double Pole / Dounble Throw switches to isolate each light from the other ..
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No he hasn't! Where is the circuit with one or both switches OFF. Even with both ON they are still in Parallel.
 
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mrangry said:
Meant to add to the mix that when both switches on only the ceiling cabin light illuminates 🙈
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Thats the missing bit of information that could solve the Murder🤣 Methinks you have dodgy switches 😵‍💫 Where did you buy them? They are two way switches but you have used L1 on both switches to feed the lights so they should be OK. Even if you had used the other (L2) terminal the switch should operate in one direction or tother!
P.S. Ignore the series theory.
 
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mrangry said:
Drawing skills (and wiring it seems) not my forte, but if you look at where the ? Is, I had initially tried sharing the negative on L1 of cabin light switch. This resulted in red led illuminating but cabin light was also dimly lit when it was switched off.

I have attached a test wire from batt neg to black wire of red led and works with no issue so guess I cannot share the neg of the cabin light? This is a bummer as was hoping to replicate this in all three cabins.

No scorching on the light switch as it is brand new.
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No reason not to use a common negative, no matter where you connect it, it will still be common, it has to go back to the battery somewhere/somehow.

Run a negative wire to the negative terminals of all LED lights.

Run a positive to the common on both switches. Connect each L1 to either the cabin lights or the red light.

That's it.

You cannot/must not connect a negative to any terminal in either switch, it will just create a dead short.

Don't be fooled into thinking the black wire in the two core cable is negative, it may or may not be.
 
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Refueler said:
to make anything like this work - you'd need at least Double Pole / Dounble Throw switches to isolate each light from the other ..
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No, single pole, single throw switches are fine. He's using two way light switches, but if he sticks to using L1 on both switches it will work, when he wires them up properly ;)
 
mrangry said:
I have tried two other switches and getting the same result…..beginning to wonder do I need red night time leds 😤
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Where is the other end of the black wire connected ?

What is connected to the negative terminal of the red LED ?

I think the black wire is your issue. If the cabin lights work OK with the black wire disconnected, leave it disconnected for now, connect a new black wire between the negative of the cabin LEDs and the negative of the red LED.
 
PaulRainbow said:
Where is the other end of the black wire connected ?

What is connected to the negative terminal of the red LED ?

I think the black wire is your issue. If the cabin lights work OK with the black wire disconnected, leave it disconnected for now, connect a new black wire between the negative of the cabin LEDs and the negative of the red LED.
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The neg wire of the red led was connected to the L1 terminal sharing it with the neg of the cabin light.

When I remove this the cabin light work as it should, switching on and off normally. As soon as I reconnect the red led neg I am back to square one.
 
leds need very little current to fire up.
FWIW, I ihave two circuits selectable at the main control panel one for white, one for red. The red positive circuit is connected to the red leds. The white circuit positive is connected to the white leds. The returns from both go via a single local switch to negative.
Having experienced a traumatic delivery trip from Swanage to the Hook in night time, foggy conditions with the new owner on board who insisted on switching on the cabin lights every half hour or so, I like having a master control!
 
The neg wire of the red led was connected to the L1 terminal sharing it with the neg of the cabin light.

None of the neg wires should be attached to any terminal on the switches. You only switch the 12V.
Negative connections to each lamp or set of lamps are made outside the switch.
 
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mrangry said:
The neg wire of the red led was connected to the L1 terminal sharing it with the neg of the cabin light.
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That's wrong. The L1 terminal of the cabin light switch is not Negative, it is positive when the switch is on.
mrangry said:
When I remove this the cabin light work as it should, switching on and off normally. As soon as I reconnect the red led neg I am back to square one.
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Because you're connecting it wrong.

All you need to do is to connect the red LED positive to the L1 terminal of its switch and the red LED negative to the cabin lights negative.
 
S04 said:
The neg wire of the red led was connected to the L1 terminal sharing it with the neg of the cabin light.

None of the neg wires should be attached to any terminal on the switches. You only switch the 12V.
Negative connections to each lamp or set of lamps are made outside the switch.
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I said that in post #24
 
I acknowledge that Paul. I'd read you comments which are correct of course but subsequent to that, OP in Post #28 still made reference to connecting "neg" wires to the switch. I was just trying to reinforce the message by trying to summarise it in fewer words.
 
Right okay guys, thanks for all the input (and patience), my understanding was that the red cabin light wire in com position was a positive (live tested with meter) and the other cabin wire in the L1 position was a negative as it showed no voltage with meter and had continuity with dc negative battery terminal. I am having some real brain fog here with this.

I think the best way forward here with this is to just wire all cabin red leds from a single switch in series and run a cable to all cabins.
 
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