How to wire light up button question

[Erik]

Arcade/home improvement question follows:

When my wall mounted garage door opener switch died I replaced it with one of those big light up gambling style buttons which has a microswitch and also separate contacts for the light.   

It works great to control the door but I could never figure out how to wire up the light on it (which runs on 12v dc and is what the door opener provides).  If I touch the wires to the light contacts it triggers the door.

I know very little about circuits.  Is it possible to use the light without running additional wires to the box?

[Dafu]

The garage door opener likely has two sets of wires, one for the light that indicates the door is open, and the other for the switch. So yes, you'd need to run both sets of wires.

[MonMotha]

The way these often work is that the lamp operates off the "loop" current which the switch then directly shorts out to signal to the other end that the button has been pressed.  Usually, this "loop current" is pretty low: just enough to drive an LED or so.  An incandescent lamp draws too much current and basically looks like a closed switch to the other end.  You could try replacing that light bulb in there with an LED to see if that helps.  You'd then just wire the lamp up to the two wires and wire the switch up in parallel across it.

[Erik]

that's a good idea, I will give that one a shot if I can find a led bulb

What if I ran additional wires off the microswitch to the bulb, and put a diode on one side?  Isn't that how doorbells with lights work?

see attached super high tech circuit

[MonMotha]

That's the other approach some things take.  Try both