Anyone know much about 12v relays? I want to make sure this will work.
I'm going to wire two relays to a set of lights. If I wire them both in, I should be able to put in a manual switch and an automatic switch. This is what I'm thinking.

12v+ to switch to relay1 86, 12v+ to relay1 30, relay1 85 to ground, relay1 87 to light +
switched light source (reverse light, etc) to relay2 86, 12v+ to relay2 30, relay2 85 to ground, relay2 87 to light +

Does that sound right to allow me to switch them on whenever I want and also have them come on whenever I'm in reverse or parking lights on or whatever I wire them to?

 

It should work but 1 relay is more than enough for 2 lights.
Make sure you put an in line fuse to protect the circuits.
I found a pretty good homemade diagram.
Not my work


This could be tweaked a bit if you wanted a different style switch or no indicator.

 

I was wondering how best to wire in my rear view camera so that it came on when I put it in reverse or when I switched it on and sends power to sitch the tv input to camera. The TV has a camera input and a wire that allows it to switch to rear view when you put it in reverse.

I am going to use that exact relay with a little tweaking. Thanks for posting that, I am new to relays.

Would fused 12+ to 87, 12+switched by reverse to 87a, device on 30, ground to 86 and 85 coming from battery and a switch work?

Is 87 and 87a the same input? So it seems it could work. I could just piddle around and see what I come up with.

How would I do what the original poster wanted? Or do I need two relays?

I want to have a camera come on whenever I put the vehicle in reverse, or when I flip a switch. I was going to power it from the rear lights, but I can't figure out a way to turn it on without turning the back-up lights on.

 

Nola, I don't know if that will work. The connections are a little reversed.

DelCity and PartsExpress have relay wiring diagrams. i just haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. I asked DelCity and they seem to agree with what I'm setting up.

This is to manually switch on lights and also to have them come on with the reverse lights. It takes two relays to trigger the two different functions.

#87 from both relays go to the light's +, #85 from both relays go to ground, #30 from both relays go to 12v+, #86 on relay1 goes to switch and then to 12v+, #86 on relay2 goes to reverse light wire, lights ground goes to ground.

 

thanks!!


I know what a relay is and have an understanding of how they work, just never used one before to fab anything. I see how you need two. I saw that iin your first post, the second is for a switch only.

Thanks.