Reverse gauge wiring - how to turn on with headlights?

[trioptimum]

Hey everyone. Got my reverse gauges installed today, but they came with an unexpected on/off button (thin membrane one, not a switch) that runs to the inverter box.

I wired it to the headlight power wire, but as it is I have to press the button every time I turn the car and headlights on to get them to light.

I'd like them to just go on/off with the car/headlights - do I short the switch? Ground it? Ugh... I have no idea :P.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance .

[Dark-LE]

well if the switch has only 2 leads, you can just cut it off. Since your real switch is basically your headlight switch. But thats strange that it has a membrane switch that will reset after power has been cut...

[coolchu001]

hmm i got mine wired up so it lights up only when the headlights are on, heres what i did.....


i grounded the wire from the glow switch and the power wire is put directly into the "taillight" fuse in the fuse box left of the steering column. just leave the power button on all the time, if ur headlights are off, the taillight fuse doesnt get power, so therefore the glow gauges would not light up. on the other hand, when ur headlights are on, the taillights fuse receive power, and the gauges would light up. Since i've putten in my glow gauges (i say 4+mth??) i had no problems with this setup, not even a popped fuse. Good Luck!

[trioptimum]

That's how I thought it would work, just wire it to the headlight wire, and when it gets power it turns on, if there was a switch, just leave it to the on position.

That's the problem though... the glow gauges don't have a switch, but a button - the little membrane thing just creates a contact between the two wires when pressed (shorts them) to turn it on.

So taking the button off, they never light up . Just leaving the 2 wires to the switch shorted (touching eachother) doesn't automatically turn them on either.

Ugh... maybe I'll end up with new gauges then... the seller I bought these form won't reply anymore, I'm dead out of ideas. Do you think I could try a different indiglo gauge's inverter with these?

Thanks guys.

[coolchu001]

i guess its best if you get another set with a switch type button instead of a button type....

[HoboJoe]

Trioptimum, from the sounds of it we have the same gauges (as far as the button goes). I haven't installed mine yet cause of time and all. But after reading this I'm going to try an experiment and clip off the end of the wire where the plug is that plugs into that sh!tty button and hook up a toggle to it. Don't know if it will work, but I'll stay optimistic about it. It should work, right? I mean, it makes sense. (to me)

[superp1noy]

Quick question... i didnt want to post a new thread about this so i guess ill "restore" this thread to prevent people from saying search! but anyways, i have been searching and i havent found anywhere where it says which wire to even "splice" it to. all i find is people saying "splice it to this wire but im too lazy to tell you where the wire is." The tutorial in the faq says to connect the wires to the green wire to the right of the brown connector for a continuous 12v power supply. but i want to be able to turn the guage on with the dashlights so that i dont have to switch it on all the time anddd i can dim it all using the controls already on the car. which wire do i "splice" the guages to so they are connected to the dash lights and where is it?

ok well maybe that wasnt a quick question.. but you get the point

1999 Gen 4 Camry I-4

[trioptimum]

Nope, that green wire only has power when the lights are on (or when the automatic light sensor sensor turns on the lights, regardless of the light switch setting, ie when it's dark out). See here:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748373/6

There is the complete tutorial. My only other advice is don't tighten the screws more than necessary (when they are touching the base) or it might slightly pull on the gauges and cause ripples.

Also, depending on what kind of gauges you got, if they don't turn on automatically with the lights, you can switch to an analog inverter. Mine came with a digital inverter that used a little membrane switch, and you had to turn it on manually every time when you turned the car on. I picked up an analog inverter (the analog inverter has on/off switch and knob for color, or in my case, since it was an inverted gauge set like in the lin above and only one color, the knob adjusted brightness) on eBay for $10 and it turns on/off with the lights fine now. The toggle as someone suggested before didn't work (shorting the contacts would not turn it on).

If you have any other questions post here or PM me . Good luck!

[RedPhoenix]

Ahhh where did you get that at? I had the same problem.. well sorta. See, i had my switches automatically come on with my lights, i removed that membrane. All of a sudden it decided it needed it and stopped working the way i had it and i had to use that damn button. so i bought an oem gauge cluster and siad the hell with it... i want it back... lol.

[trioptimum]

Originally Posted by RedPhoenix

Ahhh where did you get that at? I had the same problem.. well sorta. See, i had my switches automatically come on with my lights, i removed that membrane. All of a sudden it decided it needed it and stopped working the way i had it and i had to use that damn button. so i bought an oem gauge cluster and siad the hell with it... i want it back... lol.

Pick up one of the analong inverters on eBay like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/EL-GL...spagenameZWDVW

Justu se it instead of the one with the membrane. If you got rid of the gauges, I only paid ~$20 shipped on eBay for my inverted ones, so those aren't too expensive.