DUB

Okay...I don't really understand the drawing, but I'll give my input and maybe you can fill in the blanks.



EE Lesson 1 for the day. In my attachment, the top symbol is a diode. It allows the flow of current in one direction and produces a voltage. LED is a Light Emitting Diode...the current flowing thru produces the light. I'm assuming the instructions have it powered from a 12V source and the resistor steps down the voltage to the proper voltage required for the light (I'm guess around 3.5V), did the 3A fuse come with the set-up? I can't imagine that one LED drawing 3A...



The first schematic is how I understand how you have the BC high setting wired?!? You are hitting a wire on the BC with a 12V power source?? That doesn't make too much sense to me. Usually in automotive applications you ground something to actuate something. I.E. Ground the "X color" wire for the high boost setting.



The switch you are using is a toggle, ON or OFF, you don't need to GND it. Only if you want the switch light to work.



The second schematic I have drawn, has the LED assembly wired in...you also don't need a separate GND...there is already a path to ground...the way you have it drawn...if my understanding is correct.



I'm going to post again in a minute with another assumption schematic...

DUB

HBS is the High Boost Wire...if indeed you have to GND it to select it.



I've only shown the PWR and GND for the BC, I'm sure there is more.



All the toggle does is interrupt the path to GND off the HBS wire, when broken the low setting is defaulted.



EXPLANATION: first off, a GND is a GND, anywhere on the car, that's why I've drawn it the way I did. Second, when the HBS wire is gounded there is current flowing to GND (what you can use to light the LED). I'm not sure what it will be, but I'm going to guess it's not much. You can use a multimeter and probe it. I'm going to say if the LED is faint or does light up...cut the resistor out.



Hope this helps...ask questions if what I posted doesn't make sense.[attachment=26467:attachment]

DUB

edit: If the LED is faint or DOES NOT light up...cut out the resistor.



Also, I just noticed I didn't include your GND on the switch in the first attachment. The switch has 4 wires, two for the switch light and two for the toggle function.



again, no power is needed for the switch if you are only using it for a ON/OFF application.

AgentSpeed

I was just showing how it is actually wired up. I didn't think drawing the actual schematic would be much help to the average shade tree mechanic. I guess I should of been a little more clear about the drawing. Never was much of an EE anyway. I took 3 years towards it and I make electricity for a living but I never really got it...lol I changed to IE... My step dad's the EE. He also told me that I needed to not label my e-mail drawing a "schematic."



My step dad looked at the pick and my thoughts and he confirmed most everything I was thinking and added a few comments.



I can ether meg (I'd have to borrow a meggar to check) everything to see where my fault is OR do trial and error.



I'm going to choose trial and error...

I'm going to take the boost controller out of the loop and just hook new wires up for the light to the switch and check it. If everything worked in the living room but not in the car then either I pulled to hard running the wires and scraped the insulation off causing a fault (on the light or the BC) or the BC isn't working. The BC was not checked in the living room. I already had it installed and the wires ran so I couldn't pull it out to check.



My dad also told me that the ground on the switch was for the switch light that I didn't use so that ground was a waste.

AgentSpeed

Oh yeah the switch is just ON/OFF.

DUB

so is the high boost setting a pull to GND?

AgentSpeed

Yeah, the high boost setting is a pull to ground. Low boost has nothing to do with the circuit, switch or anything. The high boost only takes over when energizd.



And the light is ran parallel to the High Boost setting. The reason I put the fuse in was because I took my 12v wire from the fuse box. I just happened to have a 3amp fuse laying around too. No other reasoning behind the it. I thought a 5amp or higher was overkill. It was either a 10amp or the 3amp. I'd already made 3 trips to Auto Zone that day...







The resistor wasn't my idea either. The resistor came included in the wire leads for the light (straight out of the package). You can see it in the first pic up top (right side of the pic).



The only way I can see the light bulb blowing is from a short somewhere, correct? A short causing the resistor to short out and the light to see full voltage. That's why it works for three cycles of the switch and then blows (I think).



Am I making this too complicated???



It's just too damn cold to go out and work on it the last couple of days so I can't test anything yet. I'm too much of a puss to freeze!

DUB

NO, and YES, respectively.



The LED is blowing because you are showing it too much current. There is no short. You are basically sending two currents to it (see sch_edit)...hope this didn't harm your BC.



The LED has to have current passing thru it to make it light up. You are making a circuit with the 12V source (and limiting it to 3A, which is too high for an LED), this is fine if you want a switch to turn the light on and off. (the intended use)



You want the HBS to turn the light on not the switch. Think of it this way...the switch turns the high boost setting on and the HBS turns the light on. You DO NOT have to power this LED to make it light up when the high boost setting is selected.



Selecting HBS, you create a path for electrons to flow to GND, which completes the circuit to run high boost. An open circuit runs low boost. Electrons flowing to GND creates current (described as "i" in the diagram). I don't know how much current will flow once the circuit is closed, that why I said, "If the LED is faint, or doesn't light up, remove the resistor from the circuit."



The resistor is to step down the voltage from a 12V source...if the HBS is using a 5V source (common to board electronics) and the resistor is in line, it could step down the voltage too low...or maybe it'll step it down to a reasonable level; not blinding at night, but bright enough to notice.



Current is hard to understand...the flow of electrons is actually in the opposite direction of the "i" arrow...but electrons are negative and AMPERAGE is described as a positive unit. Just think that current flows like water, it takes the least resistive path.



I hope this makes more sense...see sch_agent_3

turbovr6

Ok the first problem I see is the cheap *** AZ LED's you are using. Go to Radioshack. They have 12v led's. I don't see a problem with your original diagram. The boost controller and the LED will only use the amperage it needs because they are wired in parralel. if the BC sucks 5 amps, that does not mean the led will see 5 amps. The led will only "suck" as much amperage as it needs. I have tested 12v LED's by connecting direct to battery without them blowing. I say main problem is the led's themselves.



Are you sure a 3amp fuse is enough to properly power the BC?

AgentSpeed

I'll check radio shack, thanks. They are probably cheaper there than buying from the ricer section at Auto Zone. I need some more LED's anyway... I only have one left and I'm sure I'll blow it pretty soon from testing. I also checked these LED's across the battary (repeatedly) with no problem. That's why I still think something is shorting out.

If I don't find a wire with insulation scraped off then I'm going to pull everything back out including the BC. If it worked in the living room then it should work in the car. I cycled the switch about 20 times in the living room and it worked like a charm. It also seemed a lot brighter too but that could be either part of the problem or just the lighting difference...



I was a little shocked that the fuse didn't blow. I don't think the BC is hurt, I think the fuse would protect it. Good call on the fuse too, I just got off the phone with a buddy that does a lot of car stereo stuff and he said that he'd put in a 10amp fuse. From what I explained to him, he told me that I need to get my head out of my *** and trace my wires out...



It seems I've had bad luck with everything I've done this month.

First off I took a working alt apart for powder-coating, when I put it back together, it didn't work. I also dropped and scuffed a newly powder-coated part shortly after. Thankfully this BC switch is the last little project for a while. I don't want to **** anything else up...