Gauges off until they have constant power

I had a set of electroluminescent gauges die on me after having them installed for less than a year. I think they may have died due to the constant on-and-off switching that they go through when the guages flash with the light flash output on my alarm. I bought a new set of gauges, and I want to keep them working for a longer period of time if it's possible. So, what I want to do is keep the gauges from turning on until they have a constant power supply for about 2-3 seconds. Is that as easy as putting a capacitor inline with the power to the gauges? Have any suggestions? Basically, I want to filter out the pulsed signal from the alarm, and only have the gauges turn on a couple seconds after I turn the headlights or parking lights on. ~Steve

Why don't you just use a relay to interrupt the parking light wire going to the gauges when the alarm is armed? You would wire it the same as you would a starter kill relay except you will use the wire that supplies power to the gauges instead of the starter wire.Certified Security Specialist

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A couple ideas.. First why don't you just wire the gauges to your headlights instead of your parking lights..Then the alarm will just flash your p. lights but gauges still come on with headlights..Unless you have your headlights hooked up to the alarm too.. Next you could put a diode inline on your parking light wire and make sure the gauges are tapped in on the switch side and the alarm is tapped on the opposite side..This way the gauges will only come on with the switch, yet your lights still flash normally with the alarm. Or you could wire a relay in so that your gauges only come on when the park lights are on AND the ignition is turned on. 85 to parking light wire (assuming you have + p. lights) 86 to ground 30 to ignition 87 to gauges 87a unused The method similar to a starter kill mentioned above would also work but the gauges would still flash when you arm and disarm. Anyway just throwing out some ideas plenty of quick and simple fixes to get around this! Good luck, Mike

Hmm, if I'm reading that right, that will work for killing the flash when I arm the alarm and if the alarm gets triggered, but they would still flash twice on disarm since the relay would be switched just before the lights flash. I think the way that I have it wired, that would also affect the parking light flash. Right now, the gauge overlays are hooked into the parking light signal wire. I'm not sure if the stock guage lighting is on a separate wire, but I don't mind if those flash on and off. I'll have to look at my Haynes manual, I might be able to isolate the gauge lighting somehow so that they only turn on with the switch. If I can add something between the parking light signal wire and the power inverter for the EL gauge overlays, that's what I'd rather do. Is that possible?

Oops, I had that window open for a while and didn't refresh before I posted. I like your idea for the relay that keeps the gauges off unless the ignition is on. I didn't think of that. I knew there would be a couple of different ways to do this, I just ran into a huge mental block or something. Thanks guys!