Goofy LED question
 

Each year our club takes part in a Christmas parade or two. Carrie and I take part too. I have added an RGB set of four strips which wire into a central box. With this comes a small wireless remote. My question is as follows...... From the central control box come three wires, a red to battery pos. a black to bat neg and a yellow to who the hell knows where. Any ideas guys. Chinese instructions leave a little to be desired.:ack2:

Ken, post a picture of the instructions and I'll have a look.
Could be (just guessing) a control wire to turn on the leds
when it sees either positive or negative. Like wire it up to
your headlight switch so the LEDs come on when the lights do
or something similar..........
Andy :wavey:

Yeah, sounds like it would be the trigger wire for a relay of some sort.

I think both of you guys are correct that it's a trigger wire of some durn nature. I have found out that I can just not use it and have the remote buttons to change function/patterns/etc.

This is the best I can do on posting the instructions.

OK, first of all....... get rid of the crap I can't read, rotate the rest and enlarge

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps840edeed.jpg

Now, I thought I was pretty good at janglsh (Japanese-English), but it does NOT
translate very well to Chinese-English. Wonder what those dudes were smoking
when they wrote those instructions? Musta been some primo crap! :thumbsup:
I can't make heads or tails out of it, and still just have the feeling that it's a
trigger wire of some sort. If you out commas in between some of the words
like "door, braking, power, or switching power supply" it really makes it seem to be
a control wire of some kind. Have you Googled the manufacturer's name or anything?
Maybe somebody else has posed the same question on line. :shrug01:
Andy :wavey:

Instruction #1 SEEMS to say "position the lights around the car where you would
like them - front, back, left, right, and connect them to the main box using the connectors.
Instruction #2 SEEMS to say "connect the red and black wires to the car battery",
but the rest of it is just guesswork.
Instruction #3 SEEMS to say " use the remote control to make the lights work.
If they don't, make sure the antenna wire is stretched out, the control box
light is working, or re-open the power box-whatever THAT is supposed to mean.
Andy :wavey:

OK, the light bulb just went on!
That yellow wire must be the antenna that's mentioned in the instructions.
if it's about maybe 18 inches long there's a good chance that's what it is.
Double check to make sure it's stretched out, confirm that there are good
batteries in the remote and that they are installed correctly (+ on the battery
to the connection marked + in the remote), and if you have the "power box"
connected to + and - 12 volts via a cigarette lighter adapter, make sure that
the lighter is "live" sometimes they go off when the ign switch is shut off.

Worst case scenario, box it ALL up and ship it to me and I'll check it out for you.
No guarantees on getting it to work, but I'll give it my best shot!

Andy :wavey:

As I sit here and chuckle........
1) It does have a coiled black wire from the control box (although it is a stand alone wire )I believe it to be an antenna.
2) I can't Google it cause the mfg name is in the same damn language as the other half of the instructions.
3) I bet they laughed like crazy when they printed these instructions and then reprinted them 10,000 times.
4) As one little Chinese dude said to the other "these stupid round eye buy anything".
5) What I use as a power source for parades is a "jump start". Because of the very small power draw it'll run LEDS for hours and have no effect on the Z.
6) The yellow wire seems to have no effect if touched to either the positive or negative power supply.

oh and finally, you know I have no idea how to enlarge or turn a page so it can be read.

Thanks my friend, I guess this is why I have started in August to figure stuff out for December. Heck I may learn to speak a whole new language by the time this is done.

:dancer01:

Seriously Ken........If you don't have any luck, box everything up and ship
it up to me. :yesnod: Where did you get it anyway?
Andy :wavey:

With embarrassment I quietly say "fleabay"