i purchased the cold cathode tubes from the site and when i wired it up, the invertor got really really hot and kept blowing my fuses? I'm trying to mount these in the trunk where the trunk courtesy light was. I cut both connectors and tried to solder the wires together????? Those who bought this and made it worked, what's the problem????? Thanks
did you follow the safety instructions.....? i've never had the inverters get hot....
you just need to put the red wire to a + and the black wire to the - . of course, the bulb needs to be connected before you add power....
you probably got the polarity reversed... i had to test the wires from my trunk light with an incandescent light to make sure of the correct wires before connecting it to the ccfl tube.
i tried it, and reversed but the fuse kept blowing whatever way i wired em! When i took out the stock lighting unit, is the positive side the one with the resistor in the unit???
I don't know which wire is which on your accord.... since i'm not familar with accord wiring....
ya, my thoughts exactly herman... which was why i went through the trouble of absolutely making sure the polarity of my trunk wires. although they're somewhat cheap to replace... why waste 'em. "measure twice, cut once..."
and having the fuse blow on you probably means you're wiring 'em wrong, maybe the wires are touching each other and shortening out.
This message has been edited by pliepl on Oct 14, 2003 2:22 PM
Try hooking yours straight to the battery (observing correct polarity), and if they don't work, then scrap them and buy a new set, verify correct power, and enjoy. And like Liep said, don't plug in the ballast if the cathode tubes aren't plugged in first. This will fry it. I had no problems with neither of my sets
what's the voltage? it's wierd how the car would be 12v but that light isn't... i've tried using a 9V battery to power the ccfl before and it has worked, though it's not "optimal brightness" ......
i know what you're saying josch but that would be kinda wierd to have in the trunk light....
that's how my overhead interior cabin lights are. they dim down. but with what i've noticed from ccfl's.. not having enough voltage should just make them come on more dim or not at all if it's way too low in voltage... which doesn't explain why he's having fuse blowouts.
Does anybody know the power consumption (or current draw) of these cold cathode tube inverters? Is the factory wiring for a typical trunk/cargo-area 168 bulb sufficient?
Yeah, just use your amp lead for your stereo system (or run a new, fused, constant-'on' wire from your fusebox or battery + lead if you don't have an amp in the trunk), then run that 12v source thru your existing trunk switch (after disconnecting and discarding the old leads going to it), so then when all said and done, your trunk light will still work only when the lid is open. That's about how I'd start to think about doing it (until any other crazy overlooked obstacles got in the way!)
This message has been edited by JustHitADeereWithHID on Oct 15, 2003 4:33 PM
luckily for me, car uses 12v trunk light, i'm tapped into that. used heavy duty velcro tape to hold it up.
broke one of the plastic tabs holding the OE light.
gonna check dealer to see how much it costs to replace.
the inverter only get's warm to the touch after 10 min of usage.
if you have a amp in the rear, you could tap into that and install a small switch to turn the light on/off.
or use a relay off your original trunk light. i found lot's of recessed areas in the top of my cargo area where u could mount stuff.
Like I said before, just disconnect the factory's wires from the trunk switch, and wire your own 12v source to go through the factory trunk switch, and it will break the connection for you when you close the trunk. Or EVEN EASIER, just figure out (from a wiring diagram) where that 5v signal comes from (up front?), and clip it at it's source (it may be under the dash), and then you can just run a little jumper wire from a constant 'on' wire coming out of the fusebox, hooking up directly to the wire that goes to the rear to the trunk switch. That would be another way of doing it
Looks very cool! That's what I want in my trunk as well. Are those the 6" tubes you have there? How is the company in terms of shipping and stuff like that? I tried calling them and left a message last week and they have yet to call me back
I just got some from there too. I LOVE them. And to answer Mike H.'s question. They were really good on cust. service with me. Shipped fast, and they replaced a bad inverter that I recieved. I'm very happy with them.
