I hope someone here can help me with these ****ing nav lights

I have a Perko combo pole in bow and Perko all round in stern. Went to West Marine and bought a Cole Hersee On-Off-On toggle per 18-year old WM employee recommendation. I bought the lighted tip M-54111-02, shown here; Lighted Tip Toggle Switches | Cole Hersee - Littelfuse

Anyway, per WM dude, and trying to decipher the -poor directions on the package here is what I did;

Took positive wire from bow light to #1, and negative from bow light to - battery terminal.
Todd positive wire from stern light and split it with one going to #1 and the other going to #3.
Took negative from stern and went to - battery terminal.
Took wires from #2 and #4 and went to + battery terminal.
Took wire from #6 and went to - battery terminal.

Center position of switch, light on switch is white, all nav lights off.
Whether I go up or down with toggle, both bow and stern lights come on.

What am I doing?

If my boat wasnt' aluminum I'd burn it to the ground right about now.

MAN am I frustrated!

Thanks for letting me vent, at least, and any help anyone wants to offer would be greatly appreciated.

I am not sure I understand what you're trying to do. If it is to run both at the same time, then you just need a on/off switch with both hot feed wires landed on the same lug then going to it's respective light. If you're trying to run one light OR the other, take the hot wire you have ran from the stern to the 1 pos. back off. Whichever position you have the switch now, up or down, the wire you have from the 1 position to the stern is keeping power to both lights. If the sw is up you're feeding the stern through 1-stern wire. If the sw is down, you're feeding the bow light by the same wire, stern-1.

Also, unless you've got a battery cut-off switch to kill power from the batteries, you're lighted tip will burn until your batteries go dead.

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Originally Posted by talltimber

i am not sure i understand what you're trying to do. If it is to run both at the same time, then you just need a on/off switch with both hot feed wires landed on the same lug then going to it's respective light. If you're trying to run one light or the other, take the hot wire you have ran from the stern to the 1 pos. Back off. Whichever position you have the switch now, up or down, the wire you have from the 1 position to the stern is keeping power to both lights. If the sw is up you're feeding the stern through 1-stern wire. If the sw is down, you're feeding the bow light by the same wire, stern-1.

Also, unless you've got a battery cut-off switch to kill power from the batteries, you're lighted tip will burn until your batteries go dead.

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Thumbs Up

You have the wrong switch. You need a DPDT 3-way switch. A lot of those have a momentary setting, so make sure you don't get one of those. It will probably have 8 connections on the back.

Normally lights are set up as either both lights or just the anchor light. You typically wire the light fixture positive leads to the common terminals of each half of the switch, and then wire battery positive to both of the bottom terminals and only the anchor side of the top terminal. That keeps the two lights isolated except when both are supposed to be on. I'll see if I can find a drawing.

Here's a picture that should help:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...itchWiring.jpg

For a lighted switch, you'll want to connect either a line from the key or another source like a dash light switch.

The switch is called a double pole, double throw, center off switch. Take this info to your WM dude.

here it is.....

DPDT 10-Amp Toggle Switch with Center Off Position. - RadioShack.com

Wire it like CatFan's drawing and it will work, but be sure your power source is fused (somewhere) and make sure the wire you use can properly handle the amperage required..

Thanks a bunch gang, I'm getting a DPDT switch today!

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Originally Posted by VTangler

Thanks a bunch gang, I'm getting a DPDT switch today!

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Make sure it is center off.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

Make sure it is center off.

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Gotcha Thumbs Up

Lastly, should I put a fuse between battery and switch, between switch and each light, or all three?

Any suggestion on amperage for fuse(s)?

Thanks again, who knows I may just finish this in time to go fishing!

Never thought of needing an anchor light position. Thumbs Up My lights are normally removed, so if I ever needed that I would just leave my stern light installed. Too much for what I need. Leaving them in will just get them broke off around here.

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Originally Posted by VTangler

Gotcha Thumbs Up

Lastly, should I put a fuse between battery and switch, between switch and each light, or all three?

Any suggestion on amperage for fuse(s)?

Thanks again, who knows I may just finish this in time to go fishing!

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Put a fuse close to where you connect to the +12. Fuse size will depend on wire size, and wire size depends on what the lights draw.

I prefer to pick a fuse with slightly more capacity than the total of the lights, then check to make sure each wire in the circuit can handle that amount of current by itself.

Thanks, I'll go with a blade-style close to the battery.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VTangler

Gotcha Thumbs Up

Lastly, should I put a fuse between battery and switch, between switch and each light, or all three?

Any suggestion on amperage for fuse(s)?

Thanks again, who knows I may just finish this in time to go fishing!

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Close to the battery. This placement protects most of the wiring ofthe circuit.