help with wiring

[ebmx66 10+ year member]

Alright ive got a single din unit and a pocket underneath it so i cut a piece of plexi to fit and have a neon blue light that goes behind it i stenciled in rainbow to it but dont know where i can get power to it from....i could wire it to the cigarette lighter but thats constant power and the light would always be on.

could i go to my head unit power and wire it in to that? other options?

thanks ive got everything else done just need to get power!

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[kross 10+ year member]

Do you want the neon to be on whenever the radio is on? Or whenever the key in the ignition is on? i.e. you can have the ignition on but the radio off, do you want the neon on in this case?

If you want it on whenever the ignition is in, wire it to the acc power going into the head unit. If you want it on whenever the radio is on, wire it to the remote turn-on output from the head unit.

In either case, make sure you use a relay! Do NOT just wire it in directly to those wires. Use those wires just to turn on the relay. The actual power source for the neon should come from a heavier gauge wire going to the power source. How many amps does the neon draw? Knowing that will give us an idea where you can wire it.

 

[bigbang 10+ year member]

In such a small space use LED's. They use like 0.100 amps so compared to the 10 amp fuse on the radio, I don't think it will make a difference. I woulden't trust a neon that close to the radio. I had a pioneer radio with a built in tachometer once and everytime the neons where on, it screwed up the readings. I dont trust having a neons transformer, which converts to thousands of volts, in close proximity to any source or signal processing unit. Just my opinion.

 

[ebmx66 10+ year member]

ya i didn't mean neons i just call everything that they are actually led's