Printer Friendly Forum Posts - Computer case neon VS Automobile Neon

I am confused about neon tubes for computer cases vs neon tubes for automobile interiors. Here is a link to streetglow which sells them for like $25 https://www.streetglow.com/products/an.htm. Here is another link to a place online that sells computer parts, as well as neons for about $5. https://www.directron.com/neonlights.html. This is a big difference in prices. Is there really any difference? Are we just getting ripped off? And what about Cold Cathode? https://www.directron.com/coldcathode.html Can I put Cold Cathode in my car interior or will is suck up too much power. I am done wiring my car and now I am stuck on what neons to buy... I really dont feel like spending $25 each for neons. I need 4 of them. Please let me know your opinions.

dude get the computer ones, the only difference i know of is that the computer ones need an inverter, but yea they run off 12 volt power just like the car ones all neons are cold cathodes so dont worry about that that was a bad example though for the website you sent directron sells streetglow but anyway I would use www.xoxide.com 6 inches is too small for under a seat maybe, but under the dash you would want 10, 12 or maybe 15

I have a couple 12" cold cathodes for my PC that i'd love to use under my dash in my Jeep. yes they do have a power inverter, and the wires are kinda short going to the cathodes i have a '99 Jeep Cherokee, how would i hook those up and toggle them with a switch?

well if i had some i'd put them under the dash like you said you would want to extend the wire from the inverter to the power source, not the wires to the cathodes if it is a dual inverter all you have to do is run some power to the cathodes and on the power wire put a switch on either the + or - side it really doesn't matter as far as where you get the power from, you can go to the fuse box or straight from the battery i've never gone to the fuse box so i wouldn't know what to tell ya there i have a liberty and i'm gonna put some neons under the dash and seats tomorrow i already had a distribution block setup for my amps, so I will just use power from there make sure you fuse the wire this would probably be easy to do from the fuse box but i don't know i'm just going to use some female disconnects and insert a fuse in there for the wire haha i talked so much i don't know if i answered your question just write back if you need to know more

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Alpine CDA-9847---Alpine MRP-T220---Eclipse 36201---6.5" Type S Components---6.5" Type S Coaxials---2 10" Thunder6000's Isobaric

mini14 wrote:

haha i talked so much i don't know if i answered your question just write back if you need to know more

haha, you're pretty much talking to someone who's never dealt with car wiring/electronics before (besides speaker installation.) no biggie, what you're saying pretty much makes sense. so theoretically could i use the + and - wires that run to my cig lighter to power the cathodes? then i could attatch a switch to turn them on? i know there are several diagrams floating around here but i've never dealt with electrical diagrams before, so I'd love to learn more about it. some actual photos would help. would you mind taking some photos while you work on your Liberty if you can? what are you using to attatch the cathodes, just an adhesive? thanks a lot, and good luck with your project.

i have 2 cig lighter plugs in the front of my car.. i'm thinking of just cutting the wires from one of them and use them to power my cathode set, seeing as i'll probably only need to use one cig lighter if i really need it. whats the amperage of the fuse that goes to the cig lighter? and would it provide enough safety for 2 cathodes?

before you cut wires, you could just get a cigg lighter plug splitter they have ones that split one plug up to 4 times so you should be straight with sumthin like that idk the amperage of your socket look in your owners manual it should be in there i could be wrong but i think the neons are around 15 amps for 4

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Alpine CDA-9847---Alpine MRP-T220---Eclipse 36201---6.5" Type S Components---6.5" Type S Coaxials---2 10" Thunder6000's Isobaric

mini14 wrote:

before you cut wires, you could just get a cigg lighter plug splitter they have ones that split one plug up to 4 times so you should be straight with sumthin like that

no, i mean i'm gonna use the wires from behind one of the cig lighters, there's no need to split the plug. i'll still have a 2nd plug in case i ever need it to plug my cellphone in or something, but i rarely even use 1 cig lighter, so i'll be fine.

ok that'll work too just make sure the fuse rating can handle it or it will be a pain in the ass to keep changing it if the fuse rating is too low and there is 16/18 gauge wire just up the fuse value to 15

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Alpine CDA-9847---Alpine MRP-T220---Eclipse 36201---6.5" Type S Components---6.5" Type S Coaxials---2 10" Thunder6000's Isobaric

ok the cig ligher fuse is 25 amps, more than enough. now the only problem i have left is mounting the switch. i have a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, which has 3 switches on the bottom of the dash. my 3rd switch is blank (optional for fog lamps) so i'd like to use this space. the problem is the switch placeholder doesn't just pop out, it's permamently attatched to the rest of the switch panel and it would have to be cut out somehow. i'm a bit weary of doing that without destroying the whole switch panel. here's a pic to show you waht i'm talking about https://www.buffalo.edu/~skrueger/switches.JPG

ok heres what ya do lower the fuse rating to about 15 if it blows after a while raise it to 20 but u shouldn't have to if its at 25 thats cool it'll protect the car, but may not protect the neons for the switch do you have a dremel or drill? what type of switch are you mounting? if it is a regular toggle switch it should be a round hole so you can just drill a hole in that space and mount your switch it usually wont be a rectangle like that hole the switches normally mount by drilling a hole mounting the switch from behind and screwing on the nut from the front need ne more help let me know

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Alpine CDA-9847---Alpine MRP-T220---Eclipse 36201---6.5" Type S Components---6.5" Type S Coaxials---2 10" Thunder6000's Isobaric

got the switch mounted. just got one more wiring question. like i said I am using the wires from the back of my cig lighter which run from a fuse.. so the red Positive should go to the switch, which then runs to the red Positive wire on the cathode power inverter. so should i just wire the two black Negative wires together to complete the circuit, is that how it works? I just want to make sure of this before I finalize everything. Thanks again mini14 for your help

yeah you got it! just make sure you always wire cathodes in parallel. this only mean wire all the red wires together for all the cathodes u may have to extennd some wires u can do the same for the black wires if you wish or you can ground them at diff spots doesn't matter but all the red wires have to be getting power from the same source what i would do is run the red wire from the lighter socket to the switch then run another wire from the switch all under the carpet to where all my neons are so say you have 4 neons two under the dash and two under the seats, then you would run the wire and make a big "u" or "c" you know? just have th wire where your neon is so you can tie into it like one would when tying into a wire installing an alarm thats just a suggestion NO SERIES it wont ruin your cathodes it just wont work and it'll leave you confused good luck dude let me know the final outcome.

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Alpine CDA-9847---Alpine MRP-T220---Eclipse 36201---6.5" Type S Components---6.5" Type S Coaxials---2 10" Thunder6000's Isobaric

i'm just using the 2 cathodes up front for now, i doubt i'll put any in the back. if i do i'll eventually run a longer wire off the switch. but i am all finished and it works great! thanks a lot for your help. i will take pictures later when it's dark out. oh, i couldn't use zip ties because there was nothing under the dash to tie them on to, so for now im just using heavy duty adhesive pads to hold up the tubes (they're light weight enough) until something better comes along.

I have 4 cold cathodes in my honda accord. They are very voltage picky. I had to keep swapping out resistors till i got the right voltage. The amperge on the package was way off. I first hooked it up to my computer to see how bright they were so I would have something to compare it to. I used a relay and a switch to have them come on constant or come on everytime a door opens. The lights would work fine when the car was not running and just going off the battery, but when I started the car they would go out because it was too much voltage. I used a 47 ohm resister I think on one side of the relay that when the car was started. When the engine was running it would go through the resistor and when the car was off , the relay would de-energize and the lights would run off the battery.

I can post up a wiring diagram if needed. I paid 8 dollars for 4 cold cathodes. DO NOT change the length of the wire between the inverter and the light. There is a set capacitance here. The inverter is designed for that specific length of wire.

https://www.oznium.com/cathode-kit
posted_image

philbish wrote:

https://www.oznium.com/cathode-kit

Phiiiiiiiiiilllll! posted_image

FYI fellas...

Engine compartment has cathodes and neons...

posted_image

Cathodes bought from Oznium.com

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TCalYen

Truck is amazing Jon! Keep up the good work posted_image

mini14 wrote:

yeah you got it! just make sure you always wire cathodes in parallel. this only mean wire all the red wires together for all the cathodes u may have to extennd some wires u can do the same for the black wires if you wish or you can ground them at diff spots doesn't matter but all the red wires have to be getting power from the same source what i would do is run the red wire from the lighter socket to the switch then run another wire from the switch all under the carpet to where all my neons are so say you have 4 neons two under the dash and two under the seats, then you would run the wire and make a big "u" or "c" you know? just have th wire where your neon is so you can tie into it like one would when tying into a wire installing an alarm thats just a suggestion NO SERIES it wont ruin your cathodes it just wont work and it'll leave you confused good luck dude let me know the final outcome.

How can you wire them in parallel with those power inverters. The Power inverters can only hold two neons. I am confused about wiring 4 neons in parallel with two inverters thrown into the equation. A drawing would be nice if anyone has one. I keep frying one of my inverters over and over again. Here is a link to how I did my wiring.. but like I said, one of the transformers keeps getting fried. I cant figure it out.

Forgot the link to the diagram

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/uploads/D21_scan0001.jpg

Now that I look at my diagram carefully, I think I wired them in series and not parallel. But the reason I thought you cant wire them in parallel is because the transformer or inverter (if they are the same thing) can only hold a max of two neons. This is where the confusion occurs. Here is a link to how the Oznium website says to wire them. Take a look at the second diagram with the transformer located outside the neons.

https://www.oznium.com/forum/topic20

The only show one , with four neons. Someone please explain why I would not have to use two transformers or inverters. And one more thing, is the transformer the same thing as the inverter that comes with the neons???