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Silly power wiring question to those that work with 110v
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RetroACTIVE:

--- Quote from: iscariot on July 08, 2009, 11:41:44 am ---I've decided to work a set of switches into my cabinet to turn things on and off a little easier.  As of now I have a power strip in the cabinet that I turn on to get things going but it powers everything, which I don't want to always do.  What I want to do is have a main power switch driving the pc, Monitor, and speakers and I also want a switch to drive the "optional" electrical hardware that I have in the system, like the marquee lights and coin door lights.

The way I'm looking at it now, I'm going to need 3 switches, 1 for the main power, 1 for the marquee and one for the coin door since the marquee is 110v and the coin doors are 12v.

How do I wire in a toggle switch here?  I already have a good amount of extension cord wire but it looks as though I have 4 wires in there.

Sorry for sounding like an idiot on this, but I've never touched high voltage stuff.  Everything else I work on is 2 wires, power and ground.  I don't want to wind up setting my place on fire doing this.

--- End quote ---

Out of curiosity what is your motivation for independent control of the Marquee and Coin Lamps?  Is it saving power?
iscariot:
Not exactly.  I don't want to go into it, but it involves multiple sets of lights.  I was just giving an example.  I've actually got multiple colored lights in one of my cabs that change based on the game, and I want to turn off that function, as well as some other ones by flicking switches.
evitagen:
I would not hack a powerstrip.  I'd get a couple 4" square metal boxes from Home Depot to do the job.

If you need help wiring it, I'll MSPaint an image so you know where the hot and neutral(and ground) wires will go.
Necro:
I actually have an issue that just arose along the same lines.  I AM wiring switches in line on my cab so I can independently control the marquee's (there's 2, upper and lower) and the black light that's inside the cabinet.  (It's an OmegaRace). 

What I'm wondering is if I need to somehow ground the 'box' I'm putting the switches into.  They're two 110V/10A microswitches (the two flourescent lights) and 1 110V/3A switch (using that for the 12V line running to the LED based marquee).

I was planning on having the wiring run behind a metal panel and have the microswitches mounted on that metal panel...and I just realized it wouldnt be grounded.  Screwed directly into the wood of the cab, yes, but not grounded to true ground in anyway...

Does that matter?  Do I need to do this or worry about it?  (I'm using wire nuts wrapped in electrical tape at the junction points of the 110V wiring, as I've done in switches, lighting, etc. in house related electrical work)



evitagen:
^Not really going to matter.  Most crap in your house isn't grounded like it should be anyway.

Some switches and receptacles don't even HAVE a ground screw(older crap).

Just ground whatever to the box itself and you'll be okay, imo.
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