Marquee Light Wiring

[NY_in_TX]

Hi everybody, newbie coming on board.

I did a search on "Marquee" and "Marquee wiring", but couldn't find anything about wiring an existing light.

a little backgroud, I have a gutted Track and Field cabinet with the original light.  The original plug and transformer are still there, I'd like to salvage the light if possible.  There are a lot of wires coming out of the light and a switch that goes through to the top of the cabinet.  Judging by the number of wires I am assuming this switch probably turned everything on and off.

I am a little leary of plugging this thing in since from the transformer to the light is basically a mangling of wires and molex connectors.

I see most everyone is using a flourescent light from home depot..is it because of the difficulty in wiring?

I bought this cab to learn and have something I could practice on before taking on a custom cab...although looking at some of the nice designs that are on this forum I think I might need A LOT of practice.

NY

[BobA]

Flourescent lighting is fairly simple but there is usually alot of other wiring that confuses the issue in a gutted cab.  The following is a link to Bob Robert's info on lighting that will clarify the flourescent light wiring.  Also on his site are instructions on how to wire a cab from the ground up.    

Also a good source of parts.

Flourescent Fixture
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/fixture.html

Main Index

http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/siteindex.html


BobA

[Brad Lee]

Probably the biggest reason for using one of the 6$ flouro's from home depot is the ease. All it really takes is 2 screws in the marquee area to mount the sucker, plug it in and let there be light..

That's the big reason I did it, but I didn't have any existing wiring or electricals or bulbs or anything either. I have no knowledge of lighting like that, and limited electrical know-how in any case, so it was an easy choice for me.

One thing I did do however was to splice a toggle inline on the power cord, so I could relocate the on/off to a more convenient spot than having to remove my marquee each time

[_Iz-]

I have a gutted Track and Field cabinet with the original light.  The original plug and transformer are still there, I'd like to salvage the light if possible.  There are a lot of wires coming out of the light and a switch that goes through to the top of the cabinet.  Judging by the number of wires I am assuming this switch probably turned everything on and off.

I had the same situation with my cab. I removed all unnecessary wires, ran the 2 wires from the light to one side of the switch and an extension cord with one end cut off to the other side. Plugged the extension cord into the PC powerbar and used the switch at the top of the cabinet to turn the marquee light on and off.

[NY_in_TX]

Many Thanks!

I had been to the Bob Roberts site before, but didn't scroll down to see all the help files.  Great suggestion.

the home Depot job looks like it might be the winner, but I'll try and work on the original  since I'm trying to learn on this old cab.  Hopefully I'll live to post again

So far the T&F cab has shown me bunch of old leaf switches, a centuri coin door, 2 wico trackballs, and a marquee light.  I figure I'll mangle this thing into a mame cab one way or another and then turn it over to a friend for his learning.  The trackballs are trash....but I just saw a link on Bob's site...

what have I gotten myself into?!

Many thanks again,

NY