Wiring EL gauges
 

Okay so I've had my El gauges from CE for a couple of months now and they are working fine. I want to go to the next step and intergrate them into my dimmer and headlight switch so I wont have to use the supplied ones. I'm thinking it can be done, but don't have a clue as to where to begin.

The gauges are connected to a dimmer switch and the dimmer is connected to a toggle on/off switch. I have pretty good experience with wiring(alarms, sound systems, etc), but have pretty much been always told how the sequence goes(no experimenting). Any one with knowledge please step in. My ultimate hopes is to do a write up and co-author with someone. Thanks

no takers, i know there's someone out there that can help.

You might have better luck in the 4th gen forums, if you haven't already posted there.

I would assume just tap one of the sources that is affected by that dimmer switch.

bada bing bada boom

I originally tapped to my dimmer sw so it would dim together with everything else but it caused a high pitched hum from the car's dimmer sw, possibly interference with the PWM circuitry, so I separated them.

It's really simple. When I had indiglos, I tapped the guages into the parking light circuit bypassing the dimmer switch on the dash. The indiglos have their own dimmer, so tapping into the dimmer switch is pointless. They tell you to tap into the dimmer switch because it's the closest thing related to the lighting circuit. But, you can substitute this by tapping into the parking light wire in the light switch stalk. Now, you can also remove the dimmer switch from the EL guages if you choose to. The switch is only intergrated in line with the power circuit to give you the brightness or dimness. In other words, you can run them full power without the switch. I would just leave the dimmer switch connected because it keeps it simple (plus, you can adjust the brightness if they tend to be too bright at times). If you have any problems, or are confused by this, just PM me and I can help you more. Good luck!

Thanks MIX I'm going to try that this week.