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Hey all. Got a question for the wiring buffs. When I replaced my stereo the new one did not have a dimmer, so I just taped it up and tucked it back. Well a few months later I mounted some neon tubes under the dash and was looking for a power source (since I really don't know much about tapping into things under there ). Well, I came across the old dimmer wire and violla! Its only hot when the lights are on anyway. I ran the dimmer line to a rocker switch in the dash and thus supplied the lights. My question is: is there anything potentially wrong with this setup? I mean do I have to worry about a short or something? It seems to be working fine thus far, but like I said I dont know much about car electronics. Thanks guys.

Later, D

Oops, I should have said Eureka! Not violla, I'm not an orchestral muscian.

It should be fine.

good idea.. nothing wrong with that....

Thanks for the reassurance guys!!

hey any idea how many small neons or leds that wire could handle... i may try that.. right now i have a wire with inline fuse coming of the battery of my car going into a box with three power outlets each with a fuse also.. would be nice to keep all those wirs inside the car and out of the engine bay

I wouldn't use more than 15 amps maybe. you prolly have about 2 or 3 amps used on your dash dimmers.

I would personally recommend the setup I use on every interior lighting I use along with anything else that would need hooked up.
Get a 8 gauge wire.
Run from the engine to the center console.(or trunk)
Better idea if you use an inline fuse.
Simply build a small box like a few inches by a few inches.
Attack two screens with washers on the bottom.
Attack the 8 guage to the bottom of a screw inside the 3 sided or even 4 sided with a drilled hole.
Run a ground wire from the other screw to the chassis.
Now you have a homemade distro box.
Run any wires you want from the screws and setup accordingly.
This entire setup itself takes maybe an hour doing it as clean as possible.
And only costs about $25 for EVERYTHING needed.

Any other questions let me know.

Originally posted by mazda78:
hey any idea how many small neons or leds that wire could handle... i may try that.. right now i have a wire with inline fuse coming of the battery of my car going into a box with three power outlets each with a fuse also.. would be nice to keep all those wirs inside the car and out of the engine bay

I couldn't guess on the limit but I have two 15" tubes hooked to it (the tube itself is really 10").

Why dont you measure the current the wire is carrying then decide from the power of the neons?

what works good (if u want your neons to go to the beat of ur music) is if u connect the neons to the speaker out on an amp... be carefull to get it right tho, (+/-) other wise it could blow ur amp if it don't got a protect function... i had mine like that untill my amp stoped working... i don;t think it was from hooking neons up tho... meh w/e

thats a good idea, but just make sure to let everyone know this...your speakers will not be getting as much power as they normally would be so it will not pound as hard as before, I'm sure doin this with 1 maybe 2 neons won't be a listening difference but don't go overboard and add like 5 or more

i had 2 and a set of rope lights hooked up, it defenitly made a big. difference in sound, but that could have sumin to do w/ it was only a 250W amp lol... but i was thinkin (if i ever got a better system) that if i went to like walmart and bought a cheap amp, hooked that one up to my neons, then used a diff. amp for my system. that would work better... and not affect my sound. then i could hook like 20 neons up lol

ohh.. um by the way... dont hook just one neon up to a 1000W amp and expect it not to spark, and make a big cloud of smoke then just stop working (while blowing a fuse or two in the proccess)
just found out that was a bad idea today when hookin my friend up... good thing the light was my old one lol, but yah... might wanna stay under like 200W for only like one neon, im running 3 neons, and a sub off of a 400W amp, and it works perfect. yah... just a little thought lol