Need switch help bad!

[Clip]

As the title says, I'm trying to hook up a few lighted switches. They are regular lighted toggle switches, with three contacts on the bottom. I'm assuming these are power, load, and ground (for the light, I guess).

Here are some pics, can you nice folks tell me how to wire it? All I need to know is where to plug the wires in, or how to tell. Any pointers on using an ohmmeter to help me do this would be appreciated!

thanks
-Clip

 

[Kai]

Okay clip - these switches usually have one ground, one power feed for the lamp, one ground for both the lamp and the switched item, and the incoming switch. usually with those switches, the ground is in the middle, but if you have a multimeter with a continuity checker on it, hook that up to the switch and you should be able to figure out which terminals do the switching.

 

[Clip]

thanks for the quick reply, can you point me in the direction i should start testing (and how, for the biggest part)

im pretty positive that its got one power tab (incoming for the switched item) one load tab (outgoing for switched item) and a ground for the lamp. i guess the lamp is coming in off of the power too

 

[Kai]

Hmm - well, i suggest, put one probe of the multimeter on one leg, the other probe on another, and flick the switch. if it goes beep - then generally, thats the switch, but you have a few combinations to try out!

 

[Clip]

and i suppose ill be testing continuity. is this ohms?

thanks. im able to most of it, but electronics arent my strong suit. it sucks, cause there's something like a mental block that i cant get past yet.

all this, and my uncle has two electrical patents. how the hell does he do it...

 

[CRE]

You can check continuity in Ohms on most meters. It'll give you a result with a VERY low resistence, but there will be a reading.

If your MM has a continuity function you can find it by holding both metal probes together an switching through the mosed until you hear a beep.

EDIT: Oh, and if you end up testing the Ohms (resistence) on the lamp side it'll give you a consistent reading regardless of the rocker's position.

 

[Clip]

now what if the lamp is designed to come on only when the switch is on?

by the way, thanks for the ongoing help. i probably shouldn't be messing with this as far as my knowledge goes, but im a stubborn bastard. i learn stuff along the way.

 

[CRE]

now what if the lamp is designed to come on only when the switch is on?

by the way, thanks for the ongoing help. i probably shouldn't be messing with this as far as my knowledge goes, but im a stubborn bastard. i learn stuff along the way.

Most aren't designed that way. But if that where the case the set of leads which provide the most resistence is more than likely the bulb... but I haven't seen one like that in years.

Another option would be to just place a 9 volt battery on the tabs. The center's your ground, so place the neg. contact of the 9v there and swing the positive around to each of the outer tabs.

 

[Clip]

sounds like a plan. how good a chance is it that eaton will use the same color contacts for the same leads every time? i just dug up another spst switch, but this one isnt lighted. other than that it looks to be the exact same.

 

[CRE]

Well, they do color code them for a reason, but I wouldn't depend on it.

 

[Clip]

alright. dug up a 9v and couldnt get it to light up no matter what i did. not enough power, you think? these are 125v lamps, it looks like

 

[Luv2slide]

I believe the reason that the other switch you have does not light up because there is no power. The switch with the 3 prongs will light up usually...hence it has 3 prongs. one for Load, Power, and Ground. A switch is basically a switch. It provides a mean for a short. In other words think about Point A, and point B. The Forwardslash will act as the switch (shown in off position) . The switch, when flipped only provides a connection between both points. Its real simple. Depending on what you are trying to toggle on/off it is also a good idea to put in an inline fuse...so you dont mess up your component in worse case. Hope this helps somewhat.


A----------/ ---------------B

 

[Clip]

i get how the basic principles of the switch works, just breaks the connection at a point in the line. what id like to know is how the hell do i figure out which prong is power, light, and ground; or power, load and ground. i think thats been explained earlier but im going to get my multimeter here in a little while and then ill try some of the tips. thanks for the helps.