Silly power wiring question to those that work with 110v

[iscariot]

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.

[Dr Zero]

Here is some info about switches that might help

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/h2installswitch

You could take a regular wall box with 2 spots and mount it on the cab have the power come in and run to the two switches the first would turn on the power strip and the second would turn off the light.

Or  what I would maybe do is get a remote control switch and use it to turn off the marquee so you dont have to do any wiring at all and also consider running the coin lights off of a ac/dc adapter plugged into same plug as the marquee. One push of the remote and all the lights go off.

http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Tool-Equipment-RS-211-Wireless/dp/B0000ERN8H/ref=pd_cp_hi_1


 

[garnerb350]

I sat reading this for 10 min before i decided to throw my two cents in on this one....

Why would you go through the trouble hacking the power strip? I dont want to see your place catch on fire either....

This is just an idea, but how bout this.....

Leave the power strip alone....plug the PC, monitor , speakers in that power strip....
For the marquee place a switch in the line running from the powerstrip to the marquee.
The 12v coin lights....also place a switch and have it run to the 12v in the pc. or use a wall wart if you want to run it from the powerstrip.

[iscariot]

Your drawing was pretty much what I came up with.  I was going to just open a power strip and alter the switch so it runs off to a toggle in the cabinet.  That leaves the marquee and the 12v.  I need to open up a strip to look at it.  Thanks.

What about the extra wires?  I thought that there were 4 wires in a strip.

[garnerb350]

Power strips scare me...Last week at work a lady desk caught on fire, because the strip wasnt up to specs...

My cab uses the smart strip...and I ve never had the need to look inside a power strip....

but i see what you are wanting to do....

I rather hack the wiring instead of the power supply... much safer...

I'm just a jack of all trades....master of none...

Somewhere on the site, (do a search) I think I saw where a guy did a simular setup of hacking the power strip...but i think it involved parts that were hard to find....werid relays or something...

DONT YOU DIE ON ME MAN!!!!

[RetroACTIVE]

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.

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.

[DrumAnBass]

Another option - some X10 controls...? Bet you could find em on ebay for cheap... http://www.x10.com/promotions/ur73_ed_special_limit25_cat.html

[iscariot]

I'd rather not hack a strip either.  My only concern is that I'll have to hack an existing homemade box I have which I am happy to do, but I will still have to hook up power toggles to it.

Actually, what is the voltage of a power transformer for one of those 12v florescent light?  THe light I have up there is one of those with a 12v transformer plugged into it.  I could probably just tap that off and run everything off that.

[iscariot]

Actually it dawned on me I can leech off the power transformer for the marquee light because I think it is one of those 12v fluorescent lights.  How do I determine which wire is positive and which is negative?  I thin one has some white marks on it and the other is straight black.

[Necro]

Well...for AC wiring in the US black is the hot wire...so maybe that's the positive one.   That would be my first guess

[evitagen]

Get a voltmeter and check to be sure.

With low voltage crap sometimes black is the neutral.

[bkenobi]

If they follow US codes, black is hot for AC, but it's ground for DC.  If you are taking the output from a transformer, then you are using DC.  Thus the black SHOULD be ground for the DC output.  If you are talking about the black wire that is an input to the transformer, then that SHOULD be hot AC.

Unless you have markings on the side of the transformer, you really need to trace the wires or else use a multimeter.  Be careful with your meter...if you put AC into it in DC mode, it could burn it up (I've heard that can happen, but I've never tried it  ).

[evitagen]

Indeed.  DC is oddly backwards with color coding.  Sometimes red is used to represent the hot(like on your car battery).

But really it probably won't matter if you swap the hot and neutral because I doubt it's polarized anyway.  If you notice any 2-prong appliance without a ground can be plugged into a socket either way.

[iscariot]

THe transformer I'm looking at using has 2 blacks.  One is black and one is black with a white stripe on it.

[evitagen]

^Seriously, doesn't matter how you hook it up because it isn't polarized.  You can swap them up and it won't make a difference.

[DaOld Man]

The output from a transformer is AC, not DC.
Most power supplies, such as wall warts, convert the AC from the transformer to DC by running it through a rectifier. (Usually diode arrays).
This rectifier is usually contained inside the box with the transformer. So if the wallwart outputs DC, it should be stamped on the box (or package).
IE: 120 VAC input 12 VDC output.
Just my 3.5 cents worth.