Rotary Switch for Auxilary Lighting

ee4uandme

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Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Location
Oak Ridge
I only have 1 accessory space in my 2010 Jeep JK Rubicon, so I thought about implementing controls with an 8 posistion rotatry swich and decorative knob. Wanted to see if anyone else has done this, looking for a lessons learned. Here is the switch hardware that I am thinking about using:
http://www.apem.com/pdf/PLR_PLK.pdf
PLRT Series- PLRT833 (8 posistion switch)
Accessiory- U6106 (Black Anodized aluminium knob)
Here are my intial thoughts on posistion definition (3 sets of lights):
1. All off
2. Far distance lights on
3. Auxillary driving light on
4. Back-up (window mount) on
5. Auxillary and Back-up on
6. Auxillary and Distance on
7. Back-up and Distance on
8. All on
 
What did you have in mind for wiring? You are going to have to run 4 wires from your switch to one terminal on the aux lights relay and 3 wires to a single tiny switch terminal (position '8'). I guess you will be doing lots of splicing or using distribution blocks?
 
Glad you asked your question b/c it made me do a little more thinking. When I drew out the schematic I was assuming the other controls lines would be isolated.
The best way to implement would be to design a little circuit board with surface mount logic gates to implement the solution.
Wow, this is starting to snow ball- maybe I should just double-side-tape the switches to my dash : )
 
ee4uandme said:
Glad you asked your question b/c it made me do a little more thinking. When I drew out the schematic I was assuming the other controls lines would be isolated.
The best way to implement would be to design a little circuit board with surface mount logic gates to implement the solution.
Wow, this is starting to snow ball- maybe I should just double-side-tape the switches to my dash : )
Click to expand...

Will you ever want to have more than one on at a time?

With that type of switch it you will only have one at a time.

Edit: Just saw the all on, But still thats one or all or none
 
What if your switch is in Position 1 (all off) and you want to go to Position 4 for your backup lights. You just turned on and off (quickly) everything in positions 2 and 3. That will lead to shorter life for bulbs for sure, and be annoying.
Build or buy a nice box with multiple switches.
 
Yes, by using an 8 position switch I could have the option of a single light source, no light sources, all light sources and a few logical combination's- all in a single accessory slot.

I would use low current with the logic and and have a power fet device that could control the supply voltage to the relay/light (high current).
 
Have you looked at www.12voltguys.com panels, He builds some real nice ones. There more $$ than I can spend, and I do low voltage so it would be silly for me to buy one when I can build one. But I use it to get Ideas.

Your correct on the relays, Slipped my mind.

I agree on the bulbs also.

I am just speaking for what I have in my jeep and how i use my lights, I tend to use them all sorts of combinations.
 
VortecJeep said:
What if your switch is in Position 1 (all off) and you want to go to Position 4 for your backup lights. You just turned on and off (quickly) everything in positions 2 and 3. That will lead to shorter life for bulbs for sure, and be annoying.
Build or buy a nice box with multiple switches.
Click to expand...

What if he used a 'Master' switch for the knob? So he could turn the master off to switch to position 4 then back on. It would add steps for sure but would fix that problem.

Im not very electrically savvy but another option could be something similar to the switch DP Tuner uses for his diesel tunes. It allows you to cycle through the tunes without any of them turning on until you land on the one you want.
F5ChipColors.jpg
 
orange150 said:
What if he used a 'Master' switch for the knob? So he could turn the master off to switch to position 4 then back on. It would add steps for sure but would fix that problem.
Im not very electrically savvy but another option could be something similar to the switch DP Tuner uses for his diesel tunes. It allows you to cycle through the tunes without any of them turning on until you land on the one you want.
F5ChipColors.jpg
Click to expand...
Yes, the master switch idea would work and electrically would be a simple and cheap solution.
 
ee4uandme said:
Yes, by using an 8 position switch I could have the option of a single light source, no light sources, all light sources and a few logical combination's- all in a single accessory slot.
I would use low current with the logic and and have a power fet device that could control the supply voltage to the relay/light (high current).
Click to expand...

If you didn't need the accessories on immediately, you could use a simple 555 timer circuit to control a delay for an SSR or a Bosch-type relay to control the devices. I just saw a good circuit for this, controlling an NPN transistor, using an RC circuit to set up the delay. It was designed to eliminate turn-on spikes to a guy's ham rig, but it would work well in this situation. You could set the timing to about 1/2 second. That would be plenty of time to move past the unwanted positions on the switch while selecting the desired position, without flashing everything in between.
 
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