12 volt basic

Now ive read that you shouldnt post in wrong forum but i am confused as to what is the correct forum so...

Im not sure i understand this or not since im new to electrical stuff. Direct current goes one way. I read in the basics that it flows from negative to positive. Does this mean that if i have 4 lamps in series off a battery that the lamps would recieve current from negative terminal to the positive terminal? For instance if i had the following    bat(neg)------(lamp1)-------(lamp2)-------(lamp3)-------bat(pos)     lamp 1 would recieve voltage/current first?  My next question is how do you get a positive or negative polarity in current? Like when i installed my remote starters lock unlock function i had to use a relay to change the polarity. What does that mean? isnt everything positive if its on? I guess im just not catching the basics as well as i should. If someone could help id appreciate it.

My next question involves both relays and car audio so maybe someone could read the question and tell me which to put it in. Or if its possible for one of the admins to move this next question to where they think it should be. My cuzin has a contraption (not sure what it is exactly) that is filtering the bass from the rear speakers and sending it to the subs. He told me his head unit did not have a remote out so what we did was hook a toggle switch to turn on and off the remote wire and ultimately the amp/subs. But since the subs have all the base now because of the filter thing when we turn off the amp/subs we lose all the base. Is there a way to use maybe a relay so when amp/sub is off then the base will return to the rear speakers rather than dissapearing completely?

Thanks in advance and i appologize for not knowing which forum to post in

Rocky 

He doesn't have a device that is 'stealing' the bass from the rear speakers and 'giving' that bass to the subs.

He most likely has a high pass filter on the rears, which blocks all the bass below the setpoint.  Depending on how they are installed (assuming they are passive, ie don't require 12vdc to run) they will block different frequencys.  Usually, in the rears, you can go with a lower blocked frequency because the bigger speakers can handle playing lower frequencys (around 150hz is a good generic frequency).

As far as polarity goes, you have your + and you have your -, which is exactly what they say, the + and - of the cars battery.  It is very common in cars to switch the (-) side of devices.  This basically means that you are constantly sending 12vdc to the positive side of the device, but only sending a (-) to it when you want it to be on.  This is convenient for a variety of reasons, and can help keep the total amount of wire need in a car down (since your entire chassis is mechanically electronically attached to the (-) battery terminal).  Different manufacturers do different things, and in some cases your alarm is outputing a (-) signal when the device you are interfacing needs to see 12vdc.  That is when you use a relay to convert.

As far as your lamp question goes, they will all recieve power at the same time.  Try it out!  :)

The time difference would be so small that it wouldn't be detectable.  There are two theories on they way that current travels, the conventional theory states current flows from + to - and the electron flow theory states current flows from - to +.  In college, our basic electronics course went by the conventional theory and the advanced courses when by the electron flow.

Thank you for the quick reply i understand most of it if not all. Im still a little blurry on how you would need to convert polarity and how that would keep the ammount of wiring down. Maybe if you could refer me to a good diagram that shows this ill be able to follow a lot better. since my alarm system is simple vats resistance. As far as my cuzins truck it does have a passive high pass filter. so my question is this how can i have it so when toggle is on bass is thru the subs when off it returns to rear speakers?

Btw the little box not labeled is high pass filter. would it be possible for me to put two relays before the high pass filter so if toggle is on then subs work and sound goes through the high pass if toggle is off then sound bypasses high pass and flows directly to rear speakers? is this correct thinking? also i would need two relays correct one for ground wires and one for power wires?