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December 15, 2023 7:43 AM Subscribe
A Signal Master SML6-2SML1F has fallen into my lap. But only 1/2 of one.
It requires a controller which I'd rather not spend money on at least until I know that lights work.
I have a 12v (fka cigarette lighter) setup to (theoretically) power the lights.
Follwing the wiring diagram, I've tried connecting various combinations of the blue, pink, and white wires to the 12v leads but nothing lights up.
What can you suggest to try wiring-wise?
This is all for fun. I am not an electronics guy. But here we are.
pdf manual, photo of what I have, and wiring diagram here
It requires a controller which I'd rather not spend money on at least until I know that lights work.
I have a 12v (fka cigarette lighter) setup to (theoretically) power the lights.
Follwing the wiring diagram, I've tried connecting various combinations of the blue, pink, and white wires to the 12v leads but nothing lights up.
What can you suggest to try wiring-wise?
This is all for fun. I am not an electronics guy. But here we are.
pdf manual, photo of what I have, and wiring diagram here
Response by poster: Based on your reply I did the following:
- blue & white to black (ground), pink to red. Doesn't light up, but it doesn't make a clicking sound.
- all wires except pink to black (ground), pink to red. Same as previous.
- blue & white to black (ground), all other wires to red. The outer lights flash!
- so then trying various combinations of pink + other color to red, then various lighting combinations happen!
I just noticed that the red wire (from the lights, not the 12v) is heavier gauge than all the others. Not sure if that means anything.
Thanks!
I wonder, could one buy a generic controller to control the inputs?
posted by falsedmitri at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
- blue & white to black (ground), pink to red. Doesn't light up, but it doesn't make a clicking sound.
- all wires except pink to black (ground), pink to red. Same as previous.
- blue & white to black (ground), all other wires to red. The outer lights flash!
- so then trying various combinations of pink + other color to red, then various lighting combinations happen!
I just noticed that the red wire (from the lights, not the 12v) is heavier gauge than all the others. Not sure if that means anything.
Thanks!
I wonder, could one buy a generic controller to control the inputs?
posted by falsedmitri at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: You're welcome!
I'm betting the blue/white/pink combination is purely a "is this allowed to turn on" circuit -- it's only purpose is to enable or disable the system. Interestingly, in the bigger document only the blue is required to be ground; white and pink are interchangeable, which leads me to believe they are connected to a relay's actuator as a 'signal' wire.
Then, again theoretically, the heavy red is what actually carries power to all of the lights, so lots of power goes in on one wire, and again like the white and pink all the other lines are just 'signal' lines which turn the lights on and off, but don't directly power them.
So, if you want to turn this into something functional, you put a switch between the lighter socket and the pink line, which is your master on-and-off switch; blue and white get soldered to the ground, red gets soldered to red, and all the miscellaneous colors get their own switches to enable or disable the different functions. Again, in theory.
I don't know if there's a 'generic' controller, but if it works like I describe, an Arduino should be more than capable of programmatically controlling things.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:24 AM on December 15, 2023
I'm betting the blue/white/pink combination is purely a "is this allowed to turn on" circuit -- it's only purpose is to enable or disable the system. Interestingly, in the bigger document only the blue is required to be ground; white and pink are interchangeable, which leads me to believe they are connected to a relay's actuator as a 'signal' wire.
Then, again theoretically, the heavy red is what actually carries power to all of the lights, so lots of power goes in on one wire, and again like the white and pink all the other lines are just 'signal' lines which turn the lights on and off, but don't directly power them.
So, if you want to turn this into something functional, you put a switch between the lighter socket and the pink line, which is your master on-and-off switch; blue and white get soldered to the ground, red gets soldered to red, and all the miscellaneous colors get their own switches to enable or disable the different functions. Again, in theory.
I don't know if there's a 'generic' controller, but if it works like I describe, an Arduino should be more than capable of programmatically controlling things.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:24 AM on December 15, 2023
Response by poster: I've since obtained a SMC16 Controller
I've wired it up but something isn't right. When I connect power, I hear the click but nothing lights up.
I have photos of the new wiring setup in the original link, in the folder 12-21
Looking at SignalMaster-Connector1a.jpg, starting from the bottom of the connector
brown - brown
green (dark) - green (light)
orange - orange
blue - purple
white - grey
yellow - yellow
black - blue & black in which blue is blue+white
red - red
Power is applied by connecting the pink wire on the bottom right to the red wire on the left edge (end of wire is offscreen). This is where a switch is indicated in the wiring diagram though I'm not clear on why there would be both that switch and the "off" on the controller.
Looking at the back of the controller, on the right-side socket, you see red looped to red with the another red from the controller going to the right-side socket, and black looped to black, with another black from the going the controller to the black (-) GND on the socket. That's how it came.
Can you see what is wrong?
posted by falsedmitri at 11:34 AM on December 21, 2023
I've wired it up but something isn't right. When I connect power, I hear the click but nothing lights up.
I have photos of the new wiring setup in the original link, in the folder 12-21
Looking at SignalMaster-Connector1a.jpg, starting from the bottom of the connector
brown - brown
green (dark) - green (light)
orange - orange
blue - purple
white - grey
yellow - yellow
black - blue & black in which blue is blue+white
red - red
Power is applied by connecting the pink wire on the bottom right to the red wire on the left edge (end of wire is offscreen). This is where a switch is indicated in the wiring diagram though I'm not clear on why there would be both that switch and the "off" on the controller.
Looking at the back of the controller, on the right-side socket, you see red looped to red with the another red from the controller going to the right-side socket, and black looped to black, with another black from the going the controller to the black (-) GND on the socket. That's how it came.
Can you see what is wrong?
posted by falsedmitri at 11:34 AM on December 21, 2023
Best answer: Those loops on the right are fine; the red loop is sending voltage to the "is my car on" circuit, the black one is connecting both the circuit ground to the chassis ground. For your application, this is OK.
Is there any indication that the controller is getting voltage, like are there any lights on it to show it's working? As you've seen before, power to the pink will make a click in the lighting system even if there's no controller, but that's just a voltage-controlled switch, it's not the actual power.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Is there any indication that the controller is getting voltage, like are there any lights on it to show it's working? As you've seen before, power to the pink will make a click in the lighting system even if there's no controller, but that's just a voltage-controlled switch, it's not the actual power.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for your reply. It appears that the controller is not getting power. This is indicated by the led lights on it not going on and also I got a voltage measurer. Power is coming from the 12 source. Power does go from the source to the lights (red > pink) but I don't see how it is supposed to get to the controller. The red from the controller is connected to the red from the lights. No voltage there :/
posted by falsedmitri at 8:54 AM on December 22, 2023
posted by falsedmitri at 8:54 AM on December 22, 2023
The red wire on the right side of the controller - the one with the loop - is the power for the controller. That red and black need to be tired directly to your 12v power source.
So, you really have two parts, both need constant 12v power on the red wire. The black wire (with the loop) and the blue wire (controller for the light unit) both connect to the black wire from your 12v source.
In theory if you connect the red and black (with the loops) directly to the red and black on your 12v source, the controller should power up.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:33 PM on December 22, 2023
So, you really have two parts, both need constant 12v power on the red wire. The black wire (with the loop) and the blue wire (controller for the light unit) both connect to the black wire from your 12v source.
In theory if you connect the red and black (with the loops) directly to the red and black on your 12v source, the controller should power up.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:33 PM on December 22, 2023
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Edit: I can't guarantee the colors on your lighter socket; red should be the center connector, black should be the side connectors.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:54 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]